Beautiful Prey 2: The Storm Series (BWWM Romance) (12 page)

Gianni walked into the ballroom just as everyone yelled
surprise. He immediately scanned the room for Natasha, knowing that she would
be there for Victoria. They were lethally loyal to each other. He searched
through a sea of his and Victoria’s family, but no Natasha.

Because of his sizable contribution
to the charity, he was extended an invitation.

Since Natasha had avoided all of his
calls when he left Chicago, the weekend would give him a perfect opportunity to
corner her. Gianni had tried everything, short of returning to Chicago, to get
her attention. He sent flowers that she refused, and gifts that she sent back.
He didn’t understand why Natasha would just push him aside, since he was sure
that she’d had a good time the last time that they were together.

Assuming she was just late, Gianni
temporarily suspended his search for Natasha and walked over to greet his
family. He spotted his father and his uncle Joseph.

They were laughing, no doubt ribbing
each other as usual. He walked over to the twins, amazed at how much they still
resembled each other.

“Dad. Uncle,” Gianni acknowledged, stretching
his arm to shake their hands.

“Boy, I’ll just bet you’re beating
the ladies off with a stick,” Joseph commented. “You just thank your lucky
stars that he took after me and not that ugly father of yours.”

Joseph winked, causing Gianni to
chuckle, and Jonathan to shake his head.

“I am thankful, Uncle Joe. How’ve you
been?”

“He’s been a pain in the ass,”
Jonathan interjected.

Since Gianni had been in Europe for
so long, he almost forgot how good it was to be around both men at the same
time. He hadn’t seen his uncle in years.

“Ciao amore mio!” At that, Gianni
turned to the sound of his mother’s voice.

Catarina Storm was a former beauty
queen, and she was still every bit as beautiful as she was back then. Gianni
bent to hug her. She gently grabbed his face and kissed him on both cheeks.

“Ciao, Mama. I’ve missed you,” Gianni
admitted.

“Nonsense. You miss your mother, you
call. You, Gianni, hardly ever call your poor mother,” she scolded sweetly.

“Mama, I call you four times a week,”
he replied, laughing.

“Hush! Don’t talk back to your
mother,” she fussed, swatting his arm, causing all three men to laugh.

Gianni noticed the way that his dad
looked at his mother as if they’d just fell in love the day before. They never
seemed to tire of one another, and somehow their passion only grew with time.
Hell, because of their very loud displays of passion, whenever he’d visit them,
instead of staying with his parents, he opted to purchase the villa across the
road from them. He just could not listen to his parents fucking, and
practically every night at that.

Gianni excused himself and made his
way around the room to greet the rest of his family. With no sign of Natasha,
Gianni made the mistake of asking Victoria if she’d seen her. She gave him a
curt “no” and politely thanked him for his contribution, before giving him the
cold shoulder. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what he’d done that
was so wrong. They’d shared a beautiful night of unbelievable sex, and although
he had to return to Paris to put out a few fires, he fully intended to return.
Gianni had even left his assistant to make sure that Natasha was provided with
anything that she needed.  

An announcer spoke into a microphone,
asking everyone to take a seat. Gianni decided to sit with Emily and Amy. Since
he was their self-proclaimed favorite, he assumed he’d be safe with them.
Sitting next to Amy, was a gorgeous black woman with copper skin, long jet
black hair, and eyes the color of diamonds. Even sitting, Gianni could tell
that she had an amazing body, with breast that threatened to free themselves
from the strapless gown that she wore.

Clearing her throat, Amy must have
noticed Gianni admiring her friend’s beauty.

“Gianni this is Mia. Mia, this is my
cousin Gianni,” she announced.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mia.”

“Likewise,” she responded with a warm
smile.

He nodded and did another visual
sweep of the room, in search of Natasha. Gianni was hugely disappointed. He was
clearly infatuated, because the woman sitting across from him was beautiful,
and all he could think about was Natasha and the orgasmic sounds that she made
when she was cumming.

Suddenly, the lights were dimmed, and
spotlights were aimed at the stage. The announcer returned to the microphone.
He introduced himself as Dr. Noah Stark, the camps in–house physician.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for
attending the launch of The Delilah Rose Summer Camp for children with Sickle
Cell Anemia.”

Applause erupted throughout the room.
After brief description of the camp and the medical facility, he lowered the
microphone stand and exited the stage.

Immediately following Dr. Stark, a
little girl with chocolate skin and fat cheeks took the stage. She had a round
puffy ponytail on the top of her head, but it was her big round beautiful brown
eyes that stood out. She walked to the microphone stand in a long red princess
dress.

The little princess reached for the
microphone and introduced herself as Delilah Rose. She thanked her Uncle Jack
and Aunt Victoria for the camp, and thanked everyone else for their donations.
Gianni looked over at Jack, who along with Victoria’s dad, was stuck at a table
occupied by emotional women, wiping away tears.

Gianni turned back to the stage just
as the little angel finished her speech.

She smiled happily at the standing
ovation that she received. Delilah walked to the end of the stage and was
assisted down by a smiling couple that Gianni assumed were her parents. The
three of them took a seat at Victoria’s table. Again, Gianni scanned the room
for Natasha. He’d made a decision that when this event was over, he’d call her
phone, repeatedly, until she answered his call.

Music started playing and the stage
curtain was slowly opened. Gianni froze and nearly stopped breathing when Natasha
walked up to the microphone. Literally taking his breath away, she stood on
stage wearing a red halter dress that showed enough cleavage to swell Gianni’s
cock. The dress fit Natasha like a glove, and the split that started at the
very top of her thigh was doing him in. Natasha had a new hairstyle. It was cut
shorter on the sides and back, and longer on the top. In the front, her black
silky hair swept across one side of her face. Her new look was edgy and sexy.

Gianni openly gawked at
Natasha, until he heard her voice. Natasha started to sing, and her voice was
that of a wood nymph, luring him to her. She expertly sang her rendition of
Prince’s, Beautiful Ones, and there were no traces of the bashful woman that
he’d met a little over a month ago. She sang with confidence and moved
seductively around the stage. Natasha was enticing Gianni with every perfectly
executed note.

♫
The beautiful ones, they hurt you
every time...
♫

By the end of the song, Gianni was totally impressed. Had Natasha
walked into any one of his clubs for an audition, she would’ve been hired on
the spot. He looked over at Jack to find him smirking as if to say, “Yea, you
fucked up.” Gianni turned away, training his gaze on Natasha. She sang another
song. One that Gianni had never heard. Never the less, he listened, mesmerized
by her soulful voice.

♫
...And I don’t wanna be without you.

Because I can hardly breathe without
you.

This is what it feels to be the one

who’s standin’ left behind... How did
I become the wrong side of the love song?
♫

Gianni was sure that he’d never heard
the song, but he was concerned about the sad lyrics. Why were all of Natasha’s
selections about heartbreak? What had she been through? By the end of her set,
Gianni was sure that he needed more info. After dinner, he decided to grill
Victoria on all things Natasha.

Jack couldn’t have given Victoria a better gift. Between the
wonderful dinner, with friends and their entire family and Natasha’s surprise
performance, the entire night was magical. Victoria had no idea that Natasha
could sing. After her flawless performance, she found out that Jack had
enlisted Natasha to help him pull off his surprise, tasking her with finding a
band. The band that she provided informed Jack that, in the past, Natasha had
performed with them. They raved about her vocal skills and stage presence,
calling her a natural talent. Jack said it took quite a bit of convincing on
his part to get Natasha to agree, not surprisingly because Jack Storm doesn’t
take no for an answer.

           
Victoria stood by the patio doors and looked out at the camp that was built
because of her passion for the charity, and Jack’s love for her. Old fashion
street lamps illuminated the grounds and the lake mirrored the moon. It was all
so beautiful. Victoria diverted her attention from outside to the ballroom. She
scanned the room for Jack. He was standing near the bar with Gianni. Jack was
still running interference for Victoria, since Gianni had been, without
subtlety, fishing for information about Natasha. After the way that he’d
treated her friend, Victoria had no intention of telling him anything, family
or not.

           
Natasha was engulfed in a conversation with Deon and Steve, no doubt, avoiding

Gianni; but that certainly didn’t stop him from stalking her
every movement. From her vantage point, Gianni seemed to be sincerely
interested in Natasha, so she wondered why he would have sex with her and then
flee the country. In any case, Gianni and Natasha would have to deal with their
own problems since Victoria could see her own issue walking across the room. An
issue in the form of a blonde heat-seeking missile with over-inflated breasts,
aimed directly at her husband. Victoria watched as Caroline threw her shoulders
back and sauntered over to Jack. Clenching her fists, Victoria took a deep
cleansing breath. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer for God to give
her the strength to refrain from beating the fuck out of the slut that was
licking her lips and approaching her husband.

           
Since Jack had put so much work into the perfection of the event, and the
foundation meant so much to Victoria and her family, she was winning the battle
within. She unclenched her fist and decided to let Jack handle Caroline.
Judging by the way that Jack cringed when he noticed her, he didn’t want to
deal with her either. Caroline closed the distance between them, too damn close
for Victoria. She placed her hand on Jack’s chest, and Victoria instantly
tensed. Jack immediately removed her hand from his chest but held on to it,
longer than Victoria was comfortable with. Suddenly, the smile dropped from
Caroline’s face and was replaced  with a pained expression. Realizing that
Jack was squeezing her hand, Victoria smiled when Caroline almost dropped to
her knees. Jack said something to her that Victoria was sure wasn’t pleasant,
before releasing her hand and walking away. Victoria almost laughed out loud
when Caroline quickly recovered and noticed Gianni for the first time. Victoria
could see the scheming behind her eyes from across the room. Apparently, Gianni
was well aware of Caroline’s predatory intentions, because he raised his hands
and crossed one finger over the other, warding off the vampire with the sign of
the cross. Gianni walked away, leaving Caroline to stand alone at the bar with
egg on her face. Victoria wasn’t at all surprised that Caroline would weasel
her way into the charitable event in order to get close to Jack, using daddy’s
money of course.

           
“That bitch right there is a piece of work,” Victoria heard from behind.

           
She turned to find Natasha standing behind her with her arms crossed, glaring
over at Caroline.

           
“Tasha, you have no idea,” Victoria responded.

           
“Girl, that chick has it bad for your man.”

           
“Yes. And now yours is on her bucket list.” Victoria giggled, causing Natasha
to narrow her eyes at Victoria.

           
“Gianni Storm is not my man. He made that clear when he fucked me and left the
country without so much as an
au revoir
.”

           
“Well, if it means anything, he’s been grilling me about your life. Not to
mention the fact that he’s been eye fucking you all night. Girl, I swear, he
was damn near panting when you were singing. I was just waiting for him to hop
the stage and fuck you right there.” Victoria chuckled, but Natasha didn’t
crack a smile.

           
“But seriously Tash, maybe you should talk to him.”

           
“Not interested.”

           
“Well, you better make a run for it, because he’s coming up behind you,”
Victoria warned.

           
Natasha quickly walked away, wasting no time to look back for verification.

           
Gianni walked up to Victoria and stared at Natasha’s back as she hurried away.

           
Gianni didn’t even bother to masculinely hide his hurt. “What did I do that was
so bad that the woman won’t even acknowledge me?”  

           
Shaking her head, Victoria couldn’t believe that he could be as dense as he
appeared to be at that moment.

           
“Seriously, Gianni? You can’t possibly be telling me that you have no clue why

Natasha wants nothing to do with you.”

           
The puzzled look on his face confirmed that he was clueless, so Victoria
decided to give him a clue.

           
“Gianni...” She paused, searching for patience. “How do you think it made
Natasha feel when you had sex with her and then left the country before she
woke up, without so much as a ‘see you around’?”

           
“Victoria, I didn’t just leave her. I gave my assistant strict instructions to
make sure that Natasha had everything that she needed. Not only that... I’ve
called her almost every day when I was in Paris. I’ve sent her flowers, even
expensive gifts. She still won’t respond. She, instead, returned everything
that I bought her. I just don’t get it. What does the woman want from me?”

           
As misguided as Gianni was, Victoria could see that he was smitten with
Natasha.

She decided to give him something to work with.

           
“I’ll tell you what she wants, Gianni. She wants the type of man that will be
there when she wakes up after a night of passion; not a man that’ll ditch her
in the middle of the night and dump her off on his assistant. And if that
wasn’t bad enough, you tried to buy her off with gifts. Just so you know,
throwing your money around won’t work on Natasha. She has her own money,
Gianni; maybe even more than you. So, treating her like them gold digging
tricks that you’re accustomed to is nothing short of an insult.”

           
Gianni’s expression went from astonishment to understanding, so Victoria
decided to leave him be so that he could calculate a better plan to get back
into Natasha’s good graces. She walked away, hoping that she didn’t just set
her friend up to be hurt again.