Tropical Storm (12 page)

For long moments neither of them spoke.

Cairo was the first to break the silence. He gently pulled her to his side and pointed down to the foot of the cliff to the waves of the sea crashing on the beach of
The Victory
Hotel of which he was so proud.

“Besides my grandfather and Tyrone, that
is everything I have let myself care about for the last six years.” He gestured to the land around him.
“
Jamaica rescued me, saved my life when I was sure I couldn’t go on. The summit was my place of peace, the place I came to forget.”

He turned around to her and pulled her
into his arms. “What happened in the past shouldn’t have happened. I swore to hate you forever and I did
hate you, for a very long time. But the minute I saw you again I knew that was not all I felt. I tried to fight my feelings but they were stronger than I. It took my foolish jealousy of my own cousin
for me to realize that I want you. I can’t live with the thought of you with another man. That’s why we’re here, to start again. If that’s what you want.” He finished softly.

Storm’s green eyes told him what he needed to know.

Lies and betrayal separated us; I don’t want that to happen again.” Cairo said his face hard. “From now on there must be trust and honesty between us in spite of the consequences. If we are to stay together, we must vow to always be honest. What do you say?”

Her throat choked with emotion, Storm could only nod.

Ignoring the food, Cairo urged her down onto the downy blankets. Holding her close, he looked deeply into her eyes.

“Having agreed to be honest, let me be the first to begin.”

Storm tensed, waiting.

“
The Victory
is not a place I manage. It’s my salvation, my savior; it is everything and all to me because I built it because of you. I built it just to see if I could.
The Victory
is
mine
, Jessica. I own it. All of it and all the land that it sits on.”

Storm’s mouth fell open.

Cairo laughed at her expression.

“At this moment there is a
Victory
in almost every major Caribbean island in the world. My grandfather was a very frugal man. He worked in your parents manufacturing plant for over twenty years. It takes a rare man to accumulate a small fortune earning a little over minimum wage but Papa Joseph managed it. By the time we moved to Jamaica, he had already saved over two hundred thousand dollars. It was everything he had
—
his
entire
life savings and he gave it all to me Jessica, every last cent and every last dime. When I told him I wanted to do this, he totally and completely
supported me. I started small with a little bed and breakfast in the worst part of downtown Kingston and we grew from there. From the proceeds of one hotel, I built another, and then another and through hard work, sweat and tears, I made them all succeed. Even without further expansion, this hotel, my first, has made me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams.”

“But that can’t be!” Storm finally
found her voice.

“Why?” He challenged.

“Why? Why?” Storm repeated in disbelief. “Because you act and behave as you always have. You live in a dilapidated house and you treat everyone around you as equals. This is not the behavior of a man who can buy and sell everyone, including me.”

Cairo gave Storm a half-smile.

Taking her chin in his hands, he watched her intently. “I live in that house because it’s the house Papa Joseph left me. I promised to build him a house on the hills but he didn’t live long enough to see it. That house sits empty, all six bedrooms
and five bathrooms. I will bring you there if you want me to. But tell me one thing. Does knowing that I’m rich make you feel differently about me? Does that make me worthy suddenly?”
Am I good
enough at last?

“Of course not!” Storm said wrenching her chin out of his grasp.

Cairo smiled reading the truth in her eyes. Lying back against the comfort of the makeshift bed, he gazed up at the stars. Storm glared at him for a second longer before she relented and
rested her head against his chest.

“If there is one thing I learned from your parents, Jessica, it’s that money means nothing. I’m the same with or without money because I have refused to change,
I know how it feels to have both. The man makes the money. Money does not make the man.”

“Amen to that.” Storm agreed.

Cairo grinned in the darkness and then moved around so that Storm’s body fit snugly against his.

“Now tell me; what are your secrets? The things you haven’t told me that I should know about?”
Why did you stop loving me?

He felt Storm tense next to him.

“Don’t be afraid, Jessica. Whatever has happened in your past, I won’t hold it against you. Tell me everything. There is no room for secrets or regrets.”

Storm took a deep breath, while she gathered her thoughts.
“Cairo, I never wanted to marry James. I promised my parents that I would marry him because that is what they so desperately wanted to hear. I would never have married you with the intention to marry him. I loved you, Cairo and it hurt me that you never gave me a chance to explain.”

Cairo sighed; saddened by all the time they had wasted.
Kissing her gently, he brushed his hand down the side of her cheek. “I believe you, Jessica. I believe you when you say you love me. I believe you when you say that you never wanted James. I’m sorry for all the pain we’ve had to endure these last six years. We were so young, you and I. Neither of us knew how treacherous your parents could be. Forgive me.”

Forgive me!
Storm wanted to cry because she hadn’t told him the worst of her secrets. She hadn’t told him the one thing that could turn him away from her forever. Maybe she would have bared her soul and risked everything with the truth if he’d told her that he loved her. But he had spoken of want, not once had he mentioned love!

Tears sparkled in her eyes. Seeing it, he gifted her with a kiss that was so achingly tender that it melted her resolve. Desperate suddenly, Storm pressed herself against him. No longer an inexperienced teenager, she threw herself passionately into their
lovemaking.

Cairo groaned deep in his throat as she became soft and yielding against him. There was so much left for them to talk about, so many things left unsaid; they would have to wait. They were finally
together and neither of them planned to ever let go.

Cairo slipped out of his clothes then he undressed Storm.
Her hair tangled around his naked limbs as he gathered her up in his arms. He looked down at her and his jaw tightened with the need to control his desire as he ran his shaking hands over her body. Around them the bottle torches blazed brightly illuminating the stark harshness of Cairo’s features.

Slipping out of his embrace
Storm knelt in front of him unconcerned about her nakedness. The look in his eyes told her without words that she was beautiful. She gently touched his arms, his belly and his shoulders, first with her hands and then with her lips. By the time she was finished, there wasn’t a part of him that was untouched. He was hers and she stamped her possession on him so that he would always know it.

Cairo’s dark eyes blazed almost a fierce onyx. Pushing her back against the warmth of the bedding, he hovered above her, his face intent on his mission.

“Should I be gentle?” He asked through clenched teeth his voice harsh with need.

Storm opened her arms to him in complete surrender and writhed impatiently against the sheets. Brazenly, she found and caressed the most intimate part of him.

“Gentle, Cairo? Between us there is no room for gentleness?”

Despite her bravado, when Cairo entered her, gently at first, then more roughly and urgently as his passion grew, Storm cried out, first in pain and then in pleasure.

It had been six years.

Cairo slowed his urgent rhythm almost to a stop, but Storm thrust her hips up toward him in invitation and then she wrapped her long
legs around his back.

Cairo took the sensual hint. He pleasured her and himself until the night sky was awash with the glorious splendor of an orange and yellow dawn. They made love to each other until their bodies were spent from exhaustion. Then they lay in each other’s arms until a rooster crowed loudly signaling a new
day.

Running at full speed, Shane launched himself into his mother’s waiting arms. Accustomed to her son’s exuberance, Storm braced herself as she accepted the fierce bear hug he gave her.

“I heard all about it, mommy. Tyrone told me but I want you tell me. Is it true? Well is it?” He asked excitedly. “Have you and Cairo made up?”

Before Storm could respond, Cairo stepped forward and gently removed Shane from her arms. It was only when he held the child in his own strong embrace that he answered his question.

“If you’ve heard that your mother and I have decided to try again, then yes, you’ve heard right.”

Shane bounced happily in his arms at the declaration, but Cairo’s next words stilled him. “There’s only one problem.”

Cairo took the time to study the boy’s face in an attempt to gauge his true emotions.

Shane in turn studied Cairo’s expression just as solemnly.

He set the child down on his feet before squatting down until they were at eye level.

“You’re the man of this family,” he said gravely. “As such, I would like to ask you for permission to see your mother. I wouldn’t dream of pursuing any kind of relationship with her without your consent, Shane. So tell me little one, do I have your blessing?”

Aware of the great responsibility he’d just been given, Shane’s chest puffed out in pride. His response was to look at Cairo thoroughly before taking his hand and placing it in his mother’s.

“I want you to be my daddy, Cairo. Mommy and I will be very happy if we get to keep you. We’ve waited for you for a long time to be a part of our family.”

Her son’s words brought tears to Storm’s eyes. It was with great effort that she kept her emotions in check.

Secrets. They weighed heavily on her soul.

“Don’t tell me you’re crying?” Cairo admonished playfully. “I’ve just been granted permission to have my wicked way with you and you respond with tears? This won’t do! To insure such a disgraceful show of emotion never happens again, I’m whisking the both of you away from here. How does a weekend in Panama sound?”

Dried tears and big smiles were his answers.

Storm threw everything she had in a suitcase. She was unconcerned about order; haste was what she wanted. Once she made the decision to go away there was nothing stopping her. The chance to go away with Cairo, the chance to repeat their delicious lovemaking had Storm in an excited frenzy. Together, she, Cairo and Shane would be a family. Storm wanted this trip; she wanted it so much that it frightened her. The next available flight to Panama left in four hours. If they hurried, they just might make it. So it was with haste that Storm retrieved her travel documents from the safe and dumped them absently into her purse. The passports and travelers checks mingled with lipstick, money and credit cards. Ready with not a moment to spare, Storm hurried from the room and down to the hotel foyer where her men would be waiting.

She took the steps three at a time. Her suitcase was hardly an encumbrance, and she barely felt the bag slung over her shoulder. She was so light-hearted that she ran down the corridor at full speed. The impact of her body colliding with a hotel bellboy was the only thing that stopped her. The bellboy, Storm, the purse and baggage went flying in all directions. Storm watched helplessly as the contents of her bag scattered across the hotel floor.

Cairo came upon the scene laughing.

“You’re a real threat, lady.” He said smiling broadly. “It seems wherever you go men fall at your feet.”

Laughing jovially, his dark eyes twinkling, he helped her to her feet and then bent to retrieve the contents of her purse. His hand closed over her passport. He flicked the book open and laughed softly at the less than flattering picture. Negligently, he opened Shane’s passport his eyes roaming over his full name and his date of birth. What he saw drained the blood from his face and robbed his eyes of their brilliance.

Just recovering from her fall, Storm gained her wits too slowly to divert the tragedy. By the time she understood what was happening, it was too late.

“Here, Cairo.” Shane said handing him a tube of lipstick. It was the child’s voice that drew his gaze from the document in front of him to Storm.

Storm knew the exact moment Cairo’s heart shifted away from her. She saw his heartbreak in the way he let the book fall
from his hands. She saw it in the way he held Shane and gripped his shoulders as if for dear life. She saw it in the way he searched her son’s face for telltale signs. The search would be futile. The details of his features were illusive. He was her son in every way. Yet that did not alter a thing. Shane Cairo Kane born January 23, 2007.

Cairo was his father.

Her world crumbled in a matter of seconds, Storm watched it happen but was helpless to stop it. Observing Cairo warily, she expected him to be furious but the gaze he turned on her was not enraged, but full of
grief. Her heart broke as she witnessed his agony. She would have done anything to spare him the pain of discovery. It was too late now. Her six-year old secret was out.

“Why?” The question came out as if it was torn from his heart.

Storm cringed at the words.
It was not Cairo’s voice but the voice of
a stranger. The hotel and the people around her faded as Storm struggled to form the words that would ease the pain. There weren’t any. There was only the truth and that hurt most of all.

Storm shifted on her feet searching for the right words as Cairo watched her dispassionately, as if he had never seen her before. Even when she sent a confused Shane to Tyrone at the desk, he didn’t respond. It was as if a strange paralysis held his body in place.

Storm touched him in commiseration and felt that touch reverberate through his body. He didn’t move, didn’t respond, he simply looked at her coldly. If he had slapped her, Cairo’s aloofness
could not have hurt her more. Her bright eyes darkened and clouded over as she pulled her hand away to place them behind her back. Storm tried her best to mentally prepare herself for the interrogation that would come. She was smart enough to know that all he would demand from her now were answers. She would give him the truth, as she knew it. She was not guilty of hiding her son from his father. Yet watching a muscle pulse in Cairo’s jaw and watching his eyes narrow on her, Storm knew that he wouldn’t believe a thing she said. Right or wrong, Cairo had to blame someone for his ignorance,
for the loss of six years with his son, for her deception. Trotting after him as he roughly pulled her into the private enclave in the hotel lobby, Storm knew that in Cairo’s eyes she was guilty. At the very least, he would find a way to punish her for what he would consider the worst crime of all: lying by
omission.