Tropical Storm (18 page)

She was gay and lively and she moved through the crowd with an assortment of men vying for her attention. Through it all, Storm kept a sidelong gaze on Cairo whom she spotted lounging in a chair at the end of the bar. Seemingly oblivious to her, he greeted and smiled at his guests, his face animated and his smile warm. He was the perfect host; nothing in his manner suggested that he was anything but totally at ease in the company of rich businessmen, wealthy divorcees, the nouveau rich and many whom had saved for almost a lifetime for a few wonderful days and nights at
The Victory
. He treated them with equal consideration and regard. Even as she swayed in the arms of yet another dance partner, Storm marveled at the differences between the poor boy she had known and the genteel, sophisticated
man that Cairo had become. She loved them both equally. But the boy had loved her with far more fervor and passion than the man now did. Having swept by him on more than one occasion, all she had elicited from him was the briefest of glances. There was no anger, no joy, no lust, but worst of all, no love when he looked at her. Because of this, she pretended a gaiety she didn’t feel, all in a desperate bid for his attention. But she was failing, miserably. Even she knew that.

She didn’t understand just how desperate she was or just how much an acknowledgment from him would have meant to her until she saw Ambrosia slink across the room. She was a vision in a white silk halter dress with golden bangles stacked on her bronzed arms. After she whispered seductively in his ear, Cairo stood and gathered her in his arms. The sight of them stopped Storm cold; her dance partner looked at her expectantly as she stared at them. Watching the way they moved together, the way they danced in an effortless synchronization showed Storm that they had danced that same way many times before. Ambrosia was at ease in his arms, her touch sure and carefree, and the slightest bit proprietary.

A seizing gripping jealousy ripped through Storm. She started to shake with the effort it took to stay in another man’s arms and not rush across the room and yank Ambrosia from Cairo’s embrace. She didn’t know how to pretend indifference where he was concerned, and everyone around her knew it. She was vaguely conscious of people giving her pitying looks as she stood in the middle of the room staring at them. Realizing she was making a fool of herself, she quietly thanked her confused dance partner and turned to leave. She cast Cairo one last look before she exited the room, and for the first time that night, his gaze caught and held hers, and he gave her a look that she could only describe as triumphant. Storm sucked in a harsh breath as she realized what he was doing and why. With that look, he drove home to her that she would never be as skilled in the game of payback and retribution as he. He was teaching her a bitter lesson of what their life would be like if she refused to bend to his will. And horribly, it was working. She knew now that she would
rather sacrifice her soul than lose him. She turned on her heel and fled the room her mind churning. The truth had to come out and the lies had to end. Cairo was hers and she refused to lose him,
especially not to another woman, not if she had anything to say about it.

For the second time that day, Storm burst through the door of her hotel room and threw herself across the bed. She was thankful that Shane was having a sleepover at Tyrone’s. She lay on her bed and
waited for the tears to come. They refused to fall; instead they held themselves like hostages behind the closed lids of her eyes. She didn’t even have the luxury of tears to wash away the pain. It seemed she had cried a river full of tears already. So instead, she lay on her bed and thought about all Cairo had been to her and all they had been to each other. She reminisced about the short but brief happiness they had shared. She thought about the night that was both the happiest and worst day of her life: the night they had made their son. The memories played themselves like movies in her mind. She could still hear the imperious sound of her mother’s voice.

“
Stop that crying this instant you ungrateful child! Look at what you’ve done. You’ve ruined all our plans.”
Pamela Storm yelled as she dragged Storm back from the door after Cairo had left. “It will be all that we can do to get James to marry you now. After you’re safely wed to him, I will wash my hands of you. You’ve always been far more trouble than you’re worth.” Her cold hazel eyes roamed over her daughter still clad in her rumpled white wedding dress. “Look at you; even now you struggle to return to that piece of trash. He doesn’t want you. You were just a novelty to him. It didn’t take much to turn him against you. It seems he doesn’t have half as much faith in this disgraceful union as you have.”

Storm stopped struggling, her mother’s words echoed through her brain.
“He thinks that you’ve betrayed him.” The words kept washing over her. “Come along, Jessica, all this resisting is unnecessary. You saw his face; he’ll never take you back now.”

Was her mother right? Storm couldn’t fight her parents and fight for her marriage without Cairo’s help; she’d never been able to do it in the past and she certainly couldn’t do it now. How could Cairo have ever loved her if he could so easily hate her? She’d lost faith in him and her doubts haunted her dreams for months. She had foolishly
believed her mother. She had been so incredibly hurt by Cairo’s lack of faith in her that she had let her parents poison her mind, blackmail her and hold her practically hostage in her own home. She had existed for weeks in a silent world of her own making until the first stirrings of her body had awakened her to the fact that she wasn’t alone. The joy that came with the knowledge that a permanent part of Cairo grew inside of her had kept her sane. The knowledge kept her happy and joyful through the long weeks her parents kept her a prisoner. She sustained herself with the knowledge that Cairo would come back for her and that they’d be a family. She had no idea at the time that she would not see him for almost seven years.

Storm opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling. It had taken her almost seven years of exhaustive searching to find out where Cairo had disappeared.
In that time, she had removed herself from her parents’ destructive influence and done her best to raise her child on her own. It hadn’t always been easy, but it had been worthwhile. She had come too far and sacrificed too much to lose now.

“Excuse me, may I cut in?” Ambrosia’s head snapped up from where it rested comfortably on Cairo’s shoulder. She seemed to hesitate for a brief second before she smiled graciously and stepped out of his arms.

She smiled at Cairo warmly and affectionately dragged a long fingernail across his cheek. “It seems you’re in high demand tonight, Cairo. Your fiancée is here so I must relinquish my hold on you. You two have a good night.” She encompassed them both within a warm and generous smile and strolled off.

Cairo and Storm stood facing each other like adversaries. Storm took the liberty of walking into his arms. She was disconcerted when he didn’t immediately enfold her in his arms. Storm wrapped her arms around Cairo and held him firmly. “C’mon darling,” she whispered in his ear. “I know you can do better than that. I just saw how well you could hold a woman.”

He grunted at her statement just before Storm started to sway her hips to the reggae beat. She sighed as Cairo pulled her close and tightened his arms around her
allowing her to feel his arousal as it strained against his pants.

“Mmm. I hope that’s for me.” She murmured. “I’d hate to think that Ambrosia has received the same.” She meant the words to come out lightly but they sounded harsh even to her own ears.

“Until you are legally my wife what I give other women is none of your concern. But if it’s any consolation, everything that I have is for you alone.”

His words were like caressing fingers that touched her in secret places. Storm could feel Cairo harden and lengthen against the thin material of her dress. Breathless with excitement, Storm pressed herself more firmly against him and completely forgot Ambrosia in that moment. She swayed in his arms convinced that there was nowhere else in the world she would rather be. And in spite of everything, when Cairo held her, she was convinced that he felt the same way. She luxuriated in the way he forgot everyone around them as he played with her long curls. It was as if no one else mattered but them. He wrapped a long curl around his finger and tugged gently on it, pulling her gaze up to meet his.

“I love your hair. I always have.” The words seemed to be dragged from him as he rested his head in her hair and inhaled the fresh scent. “I like the way it feels when I am tangled in your arms and your hair wraps itself around me. It’s the feeling I missed most when we were apart.”

Storm felt like she couldn’t breathe. The other people in the room faded into nothingness as she stared at the face of the man that she had loved for almost a decade.

“What are you trying to do to me?” Storm groaned in the grips of a fierce almost violent longing. “Why are you fighting against something that we both want? You don’t need any other woman, Cairo; I’ll fulfill all your needs.” She promised.

“God, you’re direct.” He whispered, his voice rough with the desperate longing he was trying to restrain. “Just the memories of how you felt the last time we touched makes me want to drag you out of here and away from the lustful gazes of the men your shameless dancing enticed. I’m the envy of every man here.”

“And I’m the envy of every woman.” Storm parried. “Every woman from sixteen to seventy is imagining how it must feel to have the tall well-muscled length of you pressed up against them. Every woman except Ambrosia of course, she already knows how it feels.” She snapped as jealously and fury once again
welled up inside her. Well aware that the beautiful island girl was in the crowd watching them, Storm deliberately slipped her hands from around Cairo’s waist and under his exquisitely tailored jacket to grip with firm possession his hard taut buttocks. She then pressed her body hard against his.

Cairo’s body jerked in shocked surprise.

“You’re mine.” Storm whispered her voice harsh with conviction and possessiveness. “Don’t you ever forget that.” It was a warning.

Without a word, he pried her hands from his body, caught her wrist and stormed out of the room. Storm had to run to keep up with him as his long strides ate up the floor. He didn’t stop until he crossed the lawn separating the lounge and his office. He slammed his office door shut and spun her around to face him, his eyes flashing with vicious anger . . . and something else.

“What the hell did you think you were doing in there?” He demanded his jaw clenching. “That little display was completely inappropriate!” He yelled. “I have a hotel to run and those people in there are my guests. I’ve worked hard to gain their respect and I will not have that undermined by your childish tactics. I will not have you treat me like a horny hired field hand while you act like the lady of the manor. Those sexual theatrics are meant for the bedroom and not for a crowd.”

Subjected to too many turbulent emotions for one day, Storm angrily closed the distance between them. “When, if ever, will I get the privacy of this bedroom you’re talking about?” she demanded. “You spend all your time denying me, denying both of us of what we want.” Oblivious to his grim look, she moved closer to him until she was sure he could hear her heartbeat. “C’mon Cairo, give in. You want me as much as I want you.”

She touched him intimately to prove her point and felt nothing. Dejected she spun away just to be grabbed from behind and spun back around
as Cairo roughly pulled her up against him.

“Not so fast.” He said his eyes gleaming. “Try again.”

Hesitantly, fearing rejection, Storm’s hand crept down the front of his body to grasp him fully. His erection grew taut and the size of him enlarged to the point where it filled her hand. Heat and moisture gathered between Storm’s legs and tightened her stomach as she imagined the feel of him inside her body and the taste of him on the tip of her tongue. She smiled wide and unbelievably she felt him grow longer in her hand.