All That He Loves (Volume 2 The Billionaires Seduction) (31 page)

He smiled and handed me a business card through the partition. “Just call that number whenever you’re ready to leave. Doesn’t matter how late, just enjoy yourself.”

“Thanks.”

I put the card in my black clutch, along with my cell phone, driver’s license, keys, $40, and some lipstick and touch-up supplies Abby had given me.

“You sure you don’t want to wait until I drive up? There’s champagne back there if you want some.”

“No, the walk will do me good. Thank you – what’s your name?”

“Todd, ma– um, Todd.”

I smiled at his last-second catch on ‘ma’am.’

“Thanks, Todd. I’m Lily. See you later… I think.”

He smiled back. “Good luck, Lily.”

And with that, I got out of the limo in the middle of Sunset, closed the door, and started my walk towards the Dubai.

I walked past the waiting lines of limos and wondered if this was what Academy Awards night looked like. It was
crazy.

I made my way past the valets, whose heads kept swiveling so hard I thought they might get whiplash. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of my makeover or because they might have recognized me from the news. Either way they were all polite, and I entered the lobby undisturbed.

The Dubai’s lobby was just as luxurious as the first night I’d seen it. Even more so, since the opulent surroundings were filled with men in tuxes and women in evening gowns – most of them gorgeous, others daring, a few ill-advised, but all of them worth more than I used to make in a year as a secretary. There were famous faces everywhere, too: movie stars, television stars, rock stars, all of them mixed in amongst dozens of older men and women I’d never seen before, whom I figured were instantly recognizable to anybody who read Forbes Magazine.

Except for one quartet in the middle of the lobby, who were recognizable even to me.

My stomach plummeted when I saw them: Augustus and Lenora Templeton, Vincent, and Miranda Lockwood.

What the fuck are THEY doing here?!

They were surrounded by dozens of other people – some of them bodyguards, some of them businessmen, some of them reporters holding out microphones. A small film crew was recording the whole thing.

Mr. Templeton was holding court, saying something that everyone else was paying careful attention to. Mrs. Templeton hung on his arm with a smug, self-satisfied smile. Vincent and Miranda greeted people who walked up to them – mostly a lot of old, rich white men, none of whom I recognized.

The Templetons were dressed to the nines, but Miranda was resplendent in a coldly sparkling dress that looked like someone had melted down a million diamonds and somehow poured them into a flowing cascade of cloth.

I ducked behind a boisterous group and let them be my camouflage as they made their way through the crowded lobby. I might have escaped entirely unseen, but at the last minute I got a stupid urge – probably the same urge Lot’s wife felt right before she turned into a pillar of salt. I turned back to look…

…and saw Miranda staring right at me.

Remember the Greek myth about the hero who cuts off Medusa’s head so he can kill the Kraken? (The movie will do if you haven’t read the story.) If Perseus had ever gazed directly at Medusa, I think I’ve seen the look that would have turned him to stone.

Cold, dark hatred blazed out of Miranda’s eyes. I felt like she was invading my brain, turning everything inside my skull to icy slush. It was a look straight out of a horror movie, the moment where the serial killer and his prey see each other across an empty field.

I turned away and fled.

Safe once again amongst the crowd, I let them sweep me along like a river. After a few minutes we came to a massive set of doors manned by a dozen hulking men in suits with gun holsters peeping out from under their jackets.

The guns immediately made me twice as nervous.

People were checking in with a guy holding an iPad. Most of the guests were getting their hands scanned on a piece of equipment set up on a table by the door.

I waited my turn in line until I reached Mr. iPad. He was a massive dude, shaved head, very intimidating, never mind the thousand dollar suit.

“Name?” he asked politely.

“Lily Ross, but I don’t think I’m on the list.”

All the conversation within earshot immediately shut down. At first I thought I had committed some major
faux pas
by admitting I wasn’t on the list, but when the whispers started, I immediately figured out why:

They recognized my name.

After all, it had been all over the national news just a couple of months ago.

The guy raised his eyebrows but said nothing as he checked his iPad. Then he shook his head. “No, you’re not on here.”

“I’m supposed to have you contact Johnny… um…”

Crap, I’d forgotten his last name.

“Connor’s bodyguard. You’re supposed to tell him that a woman in a red dress is here to see him.”

The man’s eyes dropped briefly to my gown, then whipped back up as he spoke into a walkie-talkie. “Mr. Inaba, there’s a woman here in a red dress to see you.”

There was a brief moment of silence, during which my heart threatened to pound out of my chest.

Then Johnny’s voice came over the radio.
“Roger, I’ll be right there.”

Clearly surprised, Mr. iPad smiled at me and gestured off to the side. “He’ll be right here. If you wouldn’t mind, could you step off to the side to wait for him?”

“Sure,” I said, eternally grateful I wasn’t being kicked out. I walked over to the corner and watched as famous people I’d seen in
US
Magazine stared at me openly, like I was an exotic animal on display.

One of them, some blonde lady on some
Real Housewives
program, looked like she was on the verge of breaking out of line and coming over to talk to me.

Please don’t, please don’t
I silently begged her as I averted my eyes.

No good, here she came –

And then the door behind me opened and Johnny burst through in a killer suit and tie.

As soon as he saw me, his eyes bugged out.

“Whoa – Lily?!”

“Hey, Johnny,” I laughed.

“You look
amazing!”
he said as he took me by the arm and guided me through the door, nodding briefly to Mr. iPad.

“Thanks,” I blushed. “It’s good to see you.”

“Awesome to see you, too!”

“I, uh…”

The cat got my tongue, though, as we entered another world.

A magnificent ballroom with thirty-foot ceilings stretched all around us. It had the basic color design of the rest of the Dubai – black and white marble, with modest gold trimming – but it was done up in some sort of 1400’s Venice meets the richest of the Middle East kind of motif. It was jaw-dropping.

Even more spectacular were all the famous faces standing around, holding glasses of champagne, chatting and laughing. The limo line and the lobby had just been a freaking warm-up. I swear I saw every star of every major blockbuster from the last three years, all within shouting distance of one another.

And Johnny was leading me through them, winding our way through a lineup of men I’d had crushes on since I was a teenager. I tried to keep my cool – but it was a little hard when most of them were obviously checking me out.

Half of the women were checking me out, too, I noticed. The other half were glaring at me like they hope I died a painful death.

I just kept my head down and followed Johnny through the crush of bodies.

This was
so WEIRD.

And not just because of the Who’s Who checking out my ass. Being back with Johnny like this was freaking me out.

How much did he know? Was he privy to Sebastian’s whole plan? He
had
to have been in on
some
of it, at least – after all, he’d been expecting me. Or at least known to show up when security called about a woman in a red dress.

But I didn’t know exactly how to broach the whole
Yeah, I’m here to try to seduce your boss
thing.

So I tried to make small talk instead.

“Do you know the Templetons and Miranda are here?” I asked.

He grimaced. “Yeah. I wanted to have them thrown out, but that’s what Connor says they want: a scene. So we’re not letting them in – they can hang out in the lobby all night – but we’re not booting them out, either.”

There were a couple of seconds of uncomfortable silence, so I tried again.

“This is kind of an embarrassing question, but… what’s your last name?” I asked as he led me through a dense thicket of businessmen I didn’t recognize.

“Inaba.”

That’s what the bald guard with the iPad had said, and that’s what Connor’s father had called him back in Las Vegas – but being here in the Dubai triggered another, older memory…

“When we first met, didn’t you say your last name was something like ‘Shoot’?”

“Shuto. Good memory. It’s a joke – it’s Japanese for ‘knife.’ Connor calls me that… like ‘Mac the Knife.’ Johnny Shuto.”

“Oh,” I nodded. “That’s cool…”

He grinned at me. “You’re pretty nervous, aren’t you?”

I breathed out heavily. “Y-yeah.”

“It’s going to go great.”

“Soooo… you
do
know all about this, then?”

He shot me a
Come ON
look. “Lily,
I
was the one who suggested the dress. Good choice on my part,” he said with a wink and a friendly smile.

I blushed.

“It’s going to be fine,” he said soothingly.

“He hasn’t called me in two months, Johnny.”

“And he’s been fucking miserable the entire time.”

Everybody kept
saying
that. But –

“Then why didn’t he
call?”

“Connor doesn’t get dumped by a woman and then go chase her.”

I came abruptly to a stop. Johnny’s hand slipped off my arm, and he looked back in surprise.

“I didn’t dump him!” I protested.

Johnny shrugged. “Well, he’s sure acting like you did.”

“I didn’t! I left because he said ‘I love you’ and then he got all freaked out and weird about it!”

Johnny looked uncomfortable. “That’s probably a little bit more than I should know.”

“Too bad. Does he
say
I dumped him?”

“He doesn’t talk about it at all. He just drinks… and stares at his phone… and basically is insufferable to be around, that’s all.”

My heart was hammering even harder. It had never occurred to me that Connor thought
I
dumped
him.
After all,
he’d
been the one who wanted space… the one who had been avoiding me… the one who couldn’t tell me ‘I love you’ after he’d already said it…

“Lily, I’ve got to get back to him,” Johnny urged me. “I left him with the other security guys, but…”

“Yeah, okay…” I said, my face blank.

Johnny pointed in the direction we’d been heading. “He’s just past that group. There’s sort of a receiving line. Just… walk up to him.”

“Is he… does he know I’m here?”

Johnny shook his head. “No.”

God, I wanted to pace and flap my hands.

Johnny touched my arm and gave me a warm smile. “It’s going to be okay.”

I nodded. “…thanks.”

“Knock ‘im dead,” Johnny said, and took off – then turned as he walked away and pointed at me in mock seriousness. “Not
literally
dead, mind you.”

I gave him a smile, and watched him disappear into the crowd.

And then I was utterly and completely alone in a sea of a thousand famous faces.

I stood there trying to psyche myself up.

This was the reason I was here. This was the reason I’d gotten all dolled up. This was what I had told Sebastian I wanted more than anything else in the world.

And I was
terrified.

A thousand terrible ‘what-ifs’ floated through my mind. What if he got angry? What if he cold-shouldered me? What if he was mean? What if he laughed at me?

What if he didn’t even care?

I told myself that was bullshit. Sebastian and Johnny had both told me he had been miserable for the last month; only an idiot would think it had nothing to do with me. He had cared enough to make Sebastian call Scott Shaw and get him to give me a shot.

He just didn’t care enough to call YOU,
the evil little voice in my head reminded me.

But then the good angel whispered,
So what?

So what if he hadn’t called? Maybe he thought
I
should have called
him.
Seeing as I’d never bothered to call to thank him for the job advice and referral, maybe he thought
I
was the one being cold and aloof. Maybe he was waiting for me to accept him for everything he was, without preconditions, even if he couldn’t tell me he loved me… yet.

I struggled to remember everything Sebastian had told me earlier.

Go and claim your man.

You’re mine, I’m yours, let’s cut the crap.

Radiate it. Exude it.

Be flirtatious! Be playful! Be whatever you were when you seduced him in the first place!

You go in, you take your man, you MAKE yourself irresistible.

Do NOT hold back. Forget all the bad things that have happened in the last two months, and use all the good feelings you have for him to power you through.

My feet were lead. My legs were stone. And I felt like I might throw up at any second.

And yet… the thrill of being able to see him again… the knowledge that I could reach out and touch him for the first time in months… and the possibility that maybe, just maybe, something amazing could come out of this…

…those were the things that made me take that first step.

Fake it till you make it,
I thought, and broke through the crowd to the rear of the ballroom.

My first sight of him took my breath away.

He had haunted my dreams and most of my waking moments over the last two months, so to see him in the flesh again kind of threw me for a loop.