Besotted (The Billionaire Banker 3)

I take Sorab from Jerry and we start exploring the three floors. It is truly amazing. All the spaces have no hard edges, everything curves and swirls around to meet the next environment. There is a dining table that seats twenty, three guest bedroom suites, lifts, a kitchen, an office, a boardroom, two sumptuous lounges with cream couches, a concert hall, a TV room, a gym and a sauna.

We end up in the master bedroom, which is on two levels. I playfully throw Sorab on the massive white bed and he bounces and squeals with startled laughter. He lifts his hands up to me. I pick him up and throw him back down on the bed. He laughs happily and lifts his hands again.

‘One last time,’ I say, and fling him on the bed again. He bounces, sits up and crawls towards me. I lay on the bed.

He arrives beside me and climbs on my body. I hold him up in the air, his body horizontal to mine.

‘Mummy and Daddy will be christening this bed soon,’ I tell him.

He cackles loudly.

‘I know. Wouldn’t that be nice, huh?’

My mobile rings.

‘Where are you?’

‘In the master bedroom.’

‘Don’t move.’

We spend an hour together, playing, just as an ordinary family would. When Sorab nods off, we lay for a while with him between us, just looking into each other’s eyes.

‘We are so lucky, aren’t we?’ I whisper.

‘I can hardly believe I have both of you.’

I grin. ‘Wanna have sex?’

His answering grin is wolfish. ‘Obviously.’

‘What about His Highness?’ I jerk my head in the direction of the sleeping child.

‘He can have the bed,’ he says, and grabbing my hand he slides me off the round bed. And there on the soft white carpet we have quiet sex. It is unfamiliar and in a funny way taboo, and so incredibly exciting.

When we finish I am giggling breathlessly. ‘My knees,’ I complain.

‘We’ll use the bed on the return trip,’ Blake promises.

I stare at him in wonder. His hair is falling down his forehead, his eyes are sparkling and he looks so young and carefree.

We are flown by helicopter to the roof of the iconic and awesomely beautiful Burj Al Arab, considered the best of the three seven star hotels in the world. As soon as we step out on to the green felt landing pad, waiters in tails and white gloves stand in a line to greet us with champagne and flowers.

There is no check-in and we are immediately charmed into the royal suite. Inside the opulence is shocking. Its luxury and excess are such that it is almost intimidating. There is a butler outside the door who knows us all by name which I frankly find unnerving! I feel as if I am an impostor. Surely only kings and emperors live with gold and gilt on every surface and leopard skin-covered empire chairs.

The royal suite has red silk walls. The entrance hall leads to a grand staircase that has elaborately patterned and carved gold and black banisters. It has a faux leopard skin runner carpet. Even Jerry raises her eyebrows and goes silent on me. When she disappears into her bedroom with Sorab I turn to Blake.

‘Well, what do you think?’ he asks.

‘It’s all rather…heroic.’

He grins. ‘I’m glad it was you who said it and not me.’

We laugh. At that moment I am the happiest person on earth.

‘Shall we check out the bedroom?’

‘Shall we wait until it’s dark?’

‘Chicken,’ he teases and taking my hand pulls me towards the bedroom.

We stand at the doorway.

The room is huge with a brightly patterned carpet, gilded furniture, patterned wallpaper and gilded mirrors. The four-poster bed is massive and set on a purple pedestal, with curtains around it. Over it is a domed canopy with a pleated silk interior. There is the impression of a tent, but also the wild excess of Versace.

We turn to look at each other.

‘Heroic,’ we blurt out at precisely the same time and laugh.

‘How much does it cost?’

‘More than a hero’s ransom.’

I chuckle. ‘Come on, let’s check out the bathroom.

There: gold marble walls, cream marble columns, and blue-veined chocolate marble floors, gilded mirrors, polished bronze tiles, gold taps and fittings, and Hermes toiletries.

‘Looks like fun times ahead for you and me,’ Blake says looking meaningfully at the round Jacuzzi bath.

I grin. ‘A midnight bath?’

‘Who am I to turn down such a beautiful woman?’

‘I’ve never been in a Jacuzzi.’

‘Eyes tell a story. Yours tell me to open your legs and devour you.’ His voice is low and throbbing with passion.

I watch the heat come into his eyes, the dark hunger, and my stomach twists with excitement. ‘I like the word excess. It has sex inside it,’ I whisper.

We use the hotel’s Ferrari. It is scarlet and roars like some great beast when Blake guns it. Dubai, it turns out, is littered with speed cameras and Blake makes everyone of them flash.

We eat at At.mosphere, the highest restaurant in the world, one hundred and twenty-three floors away from the ground. The views are breathtaking.

‘I fancy getting legless,’ I announce.

Blake raises his eyebrows, but does not say anything while I knock the cocktails back.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ I ask, already tipsy.

‘No, not at all. I’m actually rather curious. I’ve never seen you drunk.’

I giggle like a schoolgirl and look at him from beneath my eyelashes.

‘What?’ he asks.

‘It feels as if I’ve always known you, perhaps even in other lifetimes.’

‘You know what you’re like?’ His voice is but a whisper.

I lean forward. ‘Tell me.’

‘You’re like a force that swept into my life, cast me into the winds, and set me ablaze. Afterwards you made me rise from the ashes, like a phoenix reborn.’

‘Wow! That’s deep.’ I wave a finger towards the glass walls at the sky. ‘And there you are flying in the skies.’

‘I like drunk Lana.’

‘Ooo… Is it already time for dessert?’

What looks like a chocolate ball arrives. I lift my eyes towards Blake.

‘Want to taste?’

He shakes his head. ‘Enjoy yourself.’

I tuck in. Delicious.

At the ‘floating’ staircase, going down, I become suddenly nervous. Blake kneels at my feet and takes my shoes off for me. Holding me tight we go down it. In the high-speed lift I start to feel a bit sick, but outside with cool breezes blowing on the fountain terrace, I recover very quickly and start to look forward to the Jacuzzi.