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.

Blake looks at his watch, ‘Come on,’ he says and takes me closer to the water’s edge. Suddenly music fills the air. I look around surprised. It is Pink and Nat Ruess.

‘They’re playing our song, Lana.’

I gaze up at him. ‘You remembered.’

‘How could I forget? The night is branded in my mind forever. You were so, so innocent and so very beautiful.’ He puts his hands on either side of my cheeks and turns my face towards the fountains. ‘Watch the fountains dance,’ he says, and stands so close behind me.

I lean back and stare with amazement. All around me people are taking their phones out to record the stupendous spectacle. Indeed, they are dancing fountains. Soaring, leaning, bending, running like fire upon the surface of the water, all in tempo with the music. It is very beautiful and I am so overcome with joy that tears gather in my eyes and streak down my face.

When the last fountain dies down, he turns me around to face him.

‘Why are you crying?’

I sniff loudly. ‘These are happy tears. Just ignore me.’

‘Until I met you I never wanted a woman’s tears, but I want yours. I want your sighs, I want your laughter, I want your joy, your smell, your smile. I want it all.’

Behind me I hear fireworks. I turn my face up to the skies and watch the beautiful display. They are still exploding around us when Blake takes a ring out of his jacket and slips it on my finger.

I gaze down at it. It is the biggest pink diamond I have ever seen. It would have been gaudy if not for the plain setting and the astonishing intensity of its color. The light from the fireworks makes it glitter like a pink fire. It is also a perfect fit. It is too big and beautiful to not be… Is it? Could it really be? I look up at him with shocked eyes. The flare from the fireworks streak across his face.

‘Are you asking me to marry you?’

‘Nope.’

‘Oh.’ The wind changes. A fine mist of water from the fountain reaches us, lands on my skin. It is deliciously cool on my flushed skin.

‘If you ask you might get a no and I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m telling you: we’re getting married.’

For a moment I take in the beautiful, beautiful eyes, that tough, unyielding jaw, the straight mouth, the aristocratic nose, then I fling my arms around his neck and our lips meet in the most beautiful kiss. It is deep and lusty and romantic and just perfect. I forget the fireworks, the people, the fountain.

All I know is when he first kissed me a lifetime ago, he didn’t kiss my lips, he kissed my soul.

Hey Beautiful,

Thank you! You’ve kept me this company this far into Blake and Lana’s journey, and it will be my greatest pleasure to have you around until the series is complete.

The next part, Seduce Me, is told through the point of view of Lana’s bridesmaid, Julie Sugar. It will be the conclusion of the Lana and Blake saga, but it is also the story of Julie’s search for true love.

See you between the sheets of Seduce Me…

xx Georgia

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Bonus Material

POV

Forty 2 Days

When Blake Met Lana At the Bank

Chapter 1

For a whole fucking year I hear nothing.

She flies out of Heathrow with her mother, lands in Tehran and then…  The trail goes stone cold. That still shocks me. The ease with which a woman can enter Iran, don a drab, loose-fitting garment, and simply disappear, become totally invisible. Without the powerful tentacles of a central bank in that country I have no way of tracking her financially either. The only connection left was the Swiss bank account, but that registered no activity, until recently, when the account was emptied and closed on the same day.