"I can guess the rest," Virginia said, a wry arch to her voice. "How did you end up in Sudan with him, though? That's extremely unusual for him."
I shrugged. "I'm an ER nurse, and we'd talked about that, and his company that he started with his brothers. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, and arranged for it with the hospital I worked at and got me a passport. It was crazy, as I'd just met him, but...I needed a drastic change. When I had that argument with John, I'd had this vision of my life with him. It was the same thing, day after day, for the rest of my life. It scared me. So when Shane suggested going to Africa with him, it was impulsive and crazy and...it honestly was the best thing I've ever done. The hardest and most frightening, too, but the best. I felt alive, really alive, for the first time. And Shane...he took care of me. Protected me."
Virginia nodded. "That's Shane for you."
This was a golden opportunity to learn about Shane, I realized. "So, tell me about him. I mean, why is he the one to take over your husband's company and not one of the others?"
Virginia regarded me carefully. "He's the best suited. The only one of them who's really capable of it, honestly. I love all my boys. They're all wonderful, capable men, and they've all done wonderful things with their lives. But Shane is the only one of them with the...business savvy." She smiled at me. "Would you like to hear a story about him, as a child?
"When Shane was a boy, he decided he wanted to do a lemonade stand. Every child has one, at some point. Well, at the time, we were living in a condo in downtown New York City. Shane set up his little stand in the hallway outside our door, and sat there for about an hour, waiting. Well, eventually he came inside, disappointed because he hadn't sold any lemonade. He went to Henry, who was on a business call, settling a multi-million dollar deal, and asked what he was doing wrong.
"Henry, without missing a beat, told him that he had to go where the business was, or he'd never sell anything. Shane took his advice to heart. He gathered his lemonade supplies and recruited Gerald to take him outside to set up. Gerald is a big old teddy bear with a heart of gold, and as much a nanny to all the kids as he is a bodyguard and driver. He helped Shane find a good spot out on Fifth Avenue, and stayed with him all day. I guess at one point, Shane ran out of supplies and sent Gerald to get more. About seven o'clock that night, Shane comes in, ecstatic but exhausted.
"He'd made over two hundred dollars, selling cups of lemonade at seventy-five cents a piece. He stuck with it for an entire week, setting up in the same spot, from morning to night, breaking for lunch and dinner, and he made over a thousand dollars.
"He was eight years old." Virginia smiled at the memory. "His brothers got wind of how much money he'd made and wanted in, so Henry told him how to expand. Henry hired a few extra temporary guards, friends of Gerald, I believe, and Shane set his three brothers up with their own stands a few blocks apart and showed them what to do. Shane gave them part of what they made and kept a portion for himself, as per Henry's instructions. Again, Shane was only eight years old.
"He has a natural mind for business, he's just reluctant to take on the responsibility, and lose his freedom in the process. I'm sure you're aware of this, but running a company like Henry's is a huge undertaking. There will be a lot of publicity, which is the biggest thing Shane's been wanting to avoid."
I absorbed this. I could see a little Shane, sitting outside in the middle of downtown Manhattan, selling lemonade. But I could also see Shane in a business suit, at a board meeting.
"So...wow." I held my coffee cup in both hands, processing what all this meant. "I guess I can see why Shane would have to be careful who he's seen in public with. If he's about to become, like, a big business mogul, his public image is important."
"Precisely. I'm glad you see it that way," Virginia said. "But there's more to it. Him having girlfriends is one thing. It's natural and expected. He's always been careful to make sure his private life is private. But he's only been working for himself, establishing his own career and his own business. Now, he's taking over Henry's company. It's an established business with a client list, an image, a reputation, investors and profit margins, and all that.
"For men like Shane and Henry, the woman in their life is vitally important. You've heard the adage, 'behind every great man is a great woman', I'm sure? Well, that's never been truer. I helped Henry start his business. I was his first secretary, and I helped design his first ad campaign. Every major decision he's ever made has gone through me.
"If our relationship suffers, or we get in a fight, and Henry has a hard time focusing on business, that can affect thousands of people. I'm not exaggerating. If we fight and Henry makes a poor decision because his mind is on us rather than business, he could lose millions of dollars.
"That's what you're getting into, Leona. It's not just write-ups in the fashion rags and society columns, or appearances at galas and grand openings and such. It's business, it's your everyday life, your every decision having a domino effect on everything Shane does and down the ladder to the bottom of the company." Virginia pinned me with a hard, level stare. "Your actions reflect on him, even when you're out on the town, shopping, or having brunch with your girlfriends. Your reputation becomes his. If you're caught up in a scandal, it affects him, and thus downward to all the other stockholders and employees. Shane has never had casual girlfriends. He's had girls in his life, but it's been quiet, kept—not secret, but—"
"On the down low," I put in.
"Yes, very good. On the down low." Virginia put her hand over mine. "I don't mean to scare you or intimidate you, but I need you to know exactly what you're coming in to. What we expect of someone who intends to share Shane's life. You have to be above scandal, above reproach. We are not a family that tolerates our children making poor choices. We are a wealthy family, and we could have allowed our children to live a life leisure, but we don't. We've expected them to make their own way, and to be people who adhere to a moral standard. I don't know you very well, but I know Shane, and I know he wouldn't bring you into his life to the extent that he has if he didn't think you could meet our expectations. For yourself, you need to decide if this is what you want. Your life is no longer merely your own."
I blew out a long breath. "That's heavy."
Virginia laughed. "Yes, it is."
"And I have to decide, and soon?" I asked. Virginia nodded. "I care about Shane, and I really think there's something deeper to our relationship than sex. I'm sorry, I know he's your son, and that's awkward to think about, but I have no one else to talk to about this that will understand."
"No, it's fine. I do understand." Virginia stood, and gestured for me to follow. "Shane wouldn't have brought you here if he didn't believe in you, if he didn't think you could do it, and that there really is something deeper to your relationship than sex. He wouldn't have brought you to Sudan, if he didn't. That was a test, I think. He's always been a shrewd judge of character, and I trust his instincts."
She smiled at me and squeezed my arm. "Plus, I like you, and I'm his mother."
"I would be lying if I didn't admit to being a bit afraid," I said. "But I think I'm willing to try. I still need to talk to Shane about all this. He has some explaining to do, for one thing."
"You would be a fool if you weren't afraid," Virginia said. "And yes, he does have explaining to do. Don't let him get away without giving you straight answers."
Virginia led me through hallways and upstairs to a huge bedroom. "This will be your room, for now. Gerald has brought your things already. You will want a shower, I'd imagine. We're going to the hospital to visit Henry in one hour. You will be joining us, yes?"
"I suppose so, yes. Is Mr. Sorrenson okay?"
"He will be in the hospital for a few days longer, but he will be okay. He needs to take time away from business. He's been driving himself too hard for too long. It's long past time he stepped down."
Virginia gave me a light hug, and despite having just met her, I felt a kinship to her t
hat boded well for the future. She left, and I was alone in a bedroom larger than any I'd ever been in. It had a four-poster bed, a fireplace, an armoire, a flat-screen TV, and an en suite bathroom. Everything, from the sheets to the soap in the bathroom was the highest quality, as far as I could judge such things.
I stripped my clothes off, which I'd been wearing for nearly forty-eight hours, and got in the shower. The water came from a huge disc directly above my head, as well as from jets in the wall. It was a long, luxurious, incredible shower.
I felt him, rather than heard him. It was a prickling at my back, a sense of not being alone anymore. I turned and saw him standing in the doorway of the bathroom, watching me, hands in his pockets.
I smiled at him over my shoulder. "Coming in?"
"Is that an invitation?" He approached the shower door, a hopeful grin spreading on his features.
"Sure is," I said.
Shane stripped, locked the door, and slid the shower door aside. He stepped toward me with a hungry curl to his lips and a deadly grace to his movements. I turned and pressed my back to the wall, arms in front of my breasts and one leg crossed in front of the other in a pose of mock fear.
It had been several days since the picnic, and a lot had happened since then. I hadn't had time to feel much but the pressure of decisions and the constant change. Now that he was in the shower with me, his beautiful, naked body swaggering towards me, I felt desire flooding through me. I hadn't realized how tense I was until it all sloughed off my shoulders and out of my muscles, leaving only a heat in my belly and a need to feel Shane's arms around me, his body against mine.
By the time his hands were wrapping around my waist, he was hard, his cock standing against his belly, beckoning to me. I grabbed him in both hands as our lips met, stroked him to the rhythm of our tongues' exploration.
"I know it's only been a couple days," Shane said, "but I feel like it's been weeks."
He pulled our hips flush, his rigid manhood a solid rod between our bodies. His hands caressed my back, his fingers tracing each knob of my spine on the way down to my ass, where he lingered, kneading the muscle in his huge, powerful hands. I kissed his chest, my hands flat on his shoulders, content to simply bask for a moment in his presence, his strength and masculine bulk.
His fingers moved around my hips to trace the outer edge of my labia, just a teasing touch at first, and then, when I let a whimpering whisper escape my mouth, he slipped a finger in and swiped slowly into my heat-slick cleft. I moved my hands on his cock, fingers held loose and stroking delicately along his iron-and-silk shaft. He added a second finger, curled in to find my G-spot, and then added his other hand to circle my aching clit with a gentle, insistent finger. I felt the fires of orgasm rising in me, heat in my belly and a trembling in my muscles.
"I want you," I said. "I need you inside me."
Shane's gray-green eyes met mine, fiery with lust and need, but also glinting with amusement.
"Come for me first," he said, his fingers moving relentlessly within me, driving me to orgasm.
"No," I said. "I want to come around you."
Shane quirked an eyebrow at me, as if I'd challenged him.
"Oh, you'll come," he breathed into my ear, "you'll come hard...right now."
He was so right. I fought it, clenched every muscle in my body down on the waves of pleasure rushing through me, tried to think of something else, anything else, but all that came to mind was Shane, his body, his hands, his cock in my pussy, or my mouth, or my hands, and his muscles clenching as he came, and I couldn't fight it.
I tried to get away, to win the challenge even if it meant cheating, but he had me pinned, trapped, his fingers on my sex and in me, holding me in place and driving me to limp-limbed ecstasy so that all I could do was hold tight to him and ride it out.
"Goddamn you, Shane," I gasped, and bit his shoulder hard enough to make him hiss in shock.
"I win," he whispered, and withdrew his fingers, moving away so I had to either hold on to him for balance or stand on my own.
I held on. He turned off the shower, toweled me dry, paying attention to my sensitive areas, keeping the thrills of pleasure shooting through me until he was dry as well. He lifted me in his arms and set me on the bed.
"Now you can have me. Any way you want it. How do you want it?"
I was sitting on the bed, with Shane standing in front of me. I looked up at him, and saw a strange light in his eyes, a hardness at odds with his tender attention to me. I remembered then why we'd come back, and where we were going in a short time. I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him we didn't need to do this now, but he cut me off.
"I need you, Leo. I want you, right now."
He wanted distraction, one last moment to be just Shane before he assumed the mantle of responsibility. That, at least, I could give him.
I scooted backward on the bed and moved to my hands and knees, presenting my ass to him. "Like this. Take me from behind."
"Oh god, I'll last about thirty seconds," Shane said, climbing onto the bed and positioning himself behind me.
"Good thing I've already come once," I said, spreading my knees apart and curving my spine inward to lift my hips up. "Come on, Shane, take me hard. I want you deep inside me."
"You want me deep?" Shane said, his hands on my hips. He dipped two fingers into my pussy, then replaced them with his cock, driving in slowly. "Like this?"
"Oh god, yes," I said, shifting my weight backwards to impale him deeper. "Yes, like that. Deeper, harder."
He was moving now, long, slow thrusts into me and back out. For all that he'd said he'd only last thirty seconds, he was still moving as if he wanted to last forever, and could. I wanted him to forget, to lose control, to be distracted. I rocked my ass back into him, driving him hard into me, and then again.
"Oh, you want it like that, huh?" He adjusted his weight so he was closer behind me, and then reached forward to pinch one of my nipples in his fingers.
"Yes, Shane. Just like that."
He let go of my nipple, then, and grabbed my hips in both hands to pull me onto him, and I gasped as he drove to the hilt, pulled back and plunged again. He grunted and thrust, fingers digging into my hips and pulling me, setting a furious rhythm now, hard and fast. He groaned and growled at every thrust, and I let my whimpers turn to an ongoing moan as he neared his climax.
"Oh, god, yes, Shane, harder," I said.
I felt another orgasm rising within me, even though I didn't think I would be able to in this position. But here it came anyway, my flesh prickling and my muscles quivering, my ass shaking as he slapped into me, plunging and retreating with primal ferocity. I buried my face in the blanket and clutched it with shaking fists, rocked forward onto my forearms with every powerful thrust of his throbbing cock. I abandoned all efforts to move with him and simply held on as he drove into me, working my building climax into a frenzy. He thrust deep, once, tensed, and came. When he released, he pulsed into me, a single savage thrust that toppled me over the edge into orgasm, coming with a blanket-muffled shriek, redoubled when he plunged again, still coming, still flooding me with heat.
He collapsed forward after one final thrust, his weight on my ass and lower back, his cock still pulsing inside me. He ran his hands along my sides to cup my breasts, then down along my back. I fell forward onto the bed, breathing hard and sweating. Shane lay next to me on his back, one hand flung out to rest on my ass.
"God...damn, Leo," he breathed. "That was intense."
"So intense," I said. "Now I need another shower."
"Yeah, we both do, now. We'd better get moving, though."
"Yeah, we should."
Shane laughed. "We're not moving."
"Yes we are. We're in the shower, right now. I'm washing my legs," I said, my voice distorted by the blanket in my face.
Shane forced himself to a sitting position and patted my backside. "Come on, Leo. We gotta go."
This time, the shower was all business, and
we were at the front door waiting for Gerald to bring the limo around in less than twenty minutes.
* * *
Virginia entered the hospital room first, followed by Luke, Jon, and then Rob. Shane and I were last, and Shane pulled me to the side before we went in.
"Listen, the very fact that you're here will tell Dad everything he needs to know, at this point," Shane said. "I know there's a lot I haven't been exactly forthright about, and I'm sorry—"
I put a finger to his lips. "Not now, Shane. We're here to see your dad. Do you want me here?"
"Yes, of course, but—"
"Then that's all that matters. We can figure out the rest later, okay?" I pushed him through the door.
I took his hand as we crossed the private recovery room to stand next to Henry James Sorrenson. I'd seen his pictures in the news and in magazines, of course, but it didn't prepare me for the man himself.
His sons were all absurdly attractive men, rugged and masculine and dominant. They all had the same eyes, gray-green and intense, and as Mr. Sorrenson's eyes fixed on me, I saw where they got them. His eyes were like lasers, piercing and hypnotic, so bright and hard that it felt like he was looking through you and able to see your most private thoughts. Even lying down in a hospital bed after a heart attack, he was vibrant and dominated the room.
Biker Billionaire Boxed Set Page 11
