Chapter 23: The Night Storm

An hour later, Luna walked out of her room and into the living room as she heard banging. Her brows furrowed as she stared at the front door, someone was pounding loudly at it from outside.

Where was Rahim? she wondered. Rahim was her head of security for her house, and anyone who ever wanted to gain access to her would always have to go through him. And anyone who wanted access this late rarely got through, except it was an emergency.

An emergency. Oh God, Luna thought instantly, an emergency, alarm filling her as her mind immediately went to her mother and sister. The thought propelled her to move towards the door, as she neared it, she heard voices. They were arguing, she realized as she got even closer, their voice was muted through the door but she could tell they were arguing.

Luna opened the door, and the alarm and fear that had been in her head did a rude three-sixty into shock as she saw who was standing there.

Justin.

Rahim stood next to him, obviously trying to make Justin understand how sudden and unorthodox his visit was, but all Luna could see was Justin.

Justin was standing on her front doorstep. Justin was here, in her house. Justin was standing in front of her right now.

“Justin,” she said, still unable to believe her eyes.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she registered that Rahim stopped talking as she said Justin’s name. Justin’s eyes are locked on hers, his dark eyes entrapping her in his gaze.

“Miss Jones, I am so sorry for the interruption,” Rahim started to explain, obviously taking his job seriously and miffed that Justin was hindering it. “I realize you know this man. I tried to explain to Mr. Lake here that these are unorthodox hours and you had retired for the night and were not receiving any more visitors today, but he was persistent. He drove in even while I was still retaining him at the gate.”

Of course he did, Luna thought to herself. Justin did whatever he wanted to do, and nobody could stop him when he determined to do something.

“Just give me a minute, Miss Jones, and I’ll get him out of your hair,” Rahim said. He turned to Justin. “Sir, I would-”

“Rahim,” Luna interrupted, she looked away from Justin’s eyes long enough to turn to her head of security, “it’s fine.”

Rahim looked from her to Justin. “Are you sure, Miss Lake? I can-”

No, you can’t, Luna thought to herself, but only smiled at Rahim.

“I’m sure, Rahim,” she said, she gave him another reassuring smile to calm his fears, “I’ll be fine. Thanks for your help, you can go. Good night.”

Rahim looked between her and Justin again for a second, before he finally nodded and turned to leave.

“All right, good night, Miss Jones,” he said as he walked away.

Luna looked back at Justin, he just stared right back at her. Without a word, she stepped back to let him in. He entered, she followed, and closed the door behind her.

She had seen the look in Justin’s eyes, and she knew him so well that she recognized it as his determined look. Nothing Rahim could have done would have changed his mind, he could raise hell and fire and it still wouldn’t have moved Justin from her doorstep.

So she would take care of it. She turned and whirled on him the moment she closed the door behind her.

“What the hell, Justin?” she demanded.

Justin stood in the middle of her living room, he shrugged carelessly.

“What?” he asked.

Luna’s eyebrows went up at the audacious question, they went so up they almost disappeared under her hairline.

“What do you mean ‘what?’ Why would you come to my house in the middle of the night?!”

“It’s not the middle of the night, it’s 11:45,” Justin repelled, glancing at the expensive-looking watch on his wrist.

Luna gritted her teeth, frustrated at his nonchalance. “Still, it’s late. Couldn’t you have waited till tomorrow? Whatever you had to say could surely have waited till tomorrow, in my office,” she added, stressing the last point.

“I wanted to see you tonight, here,” Justin said, shrugging again.

“And you just do whatever you want, don’t you? The hell with everybody else,” Luna threw her hand down her sides.

“Basically,” Justin replied absently.

His eyes trailed down her body, Luna frowned, and then she looked down at herself. Her eyes widened when she realized she was wearing her nightgown. The silk one.

The shock of seeing Justin standing on her doorstep had not allowed her to register what she had been wearing. And she had let him into her house, dressed in black silk. Luna crossed her arms over her chest, but that only made her breasts rise up, resting on her folded hands.

“What do you want Justin?” she asked, exasperated. “This is my house, and I don’t want you in my house at this time of the night. I don’t want you in my house, period. All the business that’s between us belongs in the office, the boardroom. You are not allowed to visit me in my home. So I ask again,” Luna glared at Justin, “What do you want?”

Something flashed in Justin’s eyes at the question, something dark, and dangerous. Very dangerous.

Frisson skittered up Luna’s spine as Justin took a step toward her. His eyes were back to her face, Luna’s heart started pounding loudly in her chest. She wanted to take a step back, and because she wanted to, she didn’t. She stood her ground and didn’t move an inch as Justin stopped in front of her.

“You want to know what I want?” Justin asked, his dark intense gaze locked on hers.

Luna saw it coming, she saw it coming so she held her breath as Justin leaned down and covered her mouth with his.