I evaluated his words. And to be honest, I was having a good time with him and didn’t want the night to end.
He went on. “Now, I would like to take you to my home, but this time you will be there under completely different circumstances. And most of all, you will be safe with me.”
I didn’t know this man, but something about the look in his eyes made me believe him. Also, he was rich. Why would he jeopardize his freedom by trying to harm me for six grand?
So I smiled and told him, “I would like to go.”
He stared at me, smiled, and said, “All right.”
He pulled back into the traffic of the freeway, and we were on our way.
Chapter 7
Next thing I knew, I was in his beautiful house, taking it all in as he gave me a tour, starting with the grounds. Although it was late, the estate was lit enough for me to see the swimming pool I had missed before, a sauna room, and the tennis and basketball courts. There was an outside deck, and it was immaculately set up like at a beach resort. When we went inside, he ushered me past the foyer, past a sitting room with velvet-looking furniture, to his living room. My eyes were busy staring at the marble floors, the expensive-looking art, the crystal lighting, and the high vaulted ceilings. The living room was the size of my house in its entirety. And our house was by no means small. It was all so beautiful. Like something out of a movie. He even had his own library. He took me down to the basement, which had a game room with a pool table, dart boards, card tables, and several huge flat-screen TVs. There was an entertainment room that was set up like a movie theater. If this wasn’t enough, there was also a wine cellar.
“How many staff do you have here?” I asked.
“I have two maids, a chef, a groundsman, a gardener, and three security guards. I also have additional staff that work for the studio, but they don’t set foot in my home. Except for Percy. He is the only one I would ever trust in my home. I keep my business separate from my personal life. It’s almost like another world. I know that you were alarmed about what goes on in the studio. But I live a pretty normal and private life. ”
Upstairs was a whole ’notha story. I mean, he had room after room, and each one had a luxurious bathroom in it. The bathrooms were the size of my bedroom at home!
“Do you have any kids?” I asked him as we visited the children’s wing.
“No. but one I day I hope to. Soon, real soon.”
I blushed again as he showed me another wing upstairs, which had his bedroom in it. He simply stood in front of the bedroom door, and the door automatically slid open.
The bedroom was gigantic. The flat-screen TV covered one wall completely, and the bed was so high, it was like something out of a king’s or queen’s palace. He obviously was living well. I secretly wished my family could live like this. Maybe if my mother and father had invested in some type of business, they could have left the oil refinery before all those chemicals they were inhaling made my father so sick that he ended up with cancer. Then my dad would still be here, and thus my mother, too. I tried to stay strong and not let myself cry. But I missed them every day.
“Don’t look down,” Giovanni said.
I almost screamed when I did. Pretty colored fish and a big-ass shark were swimming underneath my feet. A long strip of glass separated us.
“Don’t worry. It won’t break.”
I smiled.
“Come here,” he told me.
I walked closer to him, and he guided me out to the upper deck, which had a Jacuzzi. It also overlooked his estate, providing an incredible view of the mountains and the high-rises that stood in Westwood.
“You have a really nice home,” I told him. I was staring at the view while he was standing next to me.
“Thank you.”
“Now, why do you want me here?”
“I needed to see you, and now that I have, I need to feel you and I want to taste you. Will you let me do all those things to you?”
I turned around to face him. “I have never been with a man before.” I had out of curiosity snuck porn films into my room and watched them. I had even played with myself, licked my fingers and got my nipples hard, and I had finger banged myself. But that was it. And the kiss Giovanni had given me earlier had me still turned on.
The mention of me being a virgin made his smile bigger. “Let me be the first. I won’t hurt you. Just let me show you how good I can make your body feel.”
Dear God, I wanted all of that. There was something about this man that made me want to go there with him. He made me feel like he had me and I would be safe and I would feel good. Because I already felt good. Better than I had felt in a long time.
He held his hand out to me. I took it. Before I could stop him, he picked me up like I weighed the same as Lexi’s little niece Trinity.
He carried me back into his bedroom. He put me back down so I was standing, facing him. While I stood there, he took his time slowly stripping me of my clothes. I was now completely nude in front of him.
“Percy told me you were beautiful, but I didn’t know you would look like this,” he said, marveling. He started kissing me. I let him, and I liked it.
I moaned as his lips traveled down to my nipples. The sensations felt so good. I rubbed his curly hair as he did it.
While he suckled my breasts, one of his hands dipped lower, and he was rubbing on my pussy. I arched my back to get closer to his hand, because it felt super good.
He guided me to the bed and laid me down so I was on my back.
He went lower so his mouth was on my pussy.
“You taste good, baby.”
Fire was the best word to describe what was going on between my legs with his head down there.
He licked my clit continuously, then glided his tongue up and down the opening of my pussy while fingering my clit. I moaned loudly and thrashed my head from side to side. He alternated between his fingers and his tongue. I pulled on his curls as I felt shock waves go through my body, and I felt myself go limp.
That was when he stripped down to nothing. I admired him naked. He was slim, but his body was toned. His dick was rock hard, staring back at me.
That was when he climbed up, parted my legs, and slipped between them.
“This is going to hurt for a split second.”
Once he positioned his hard dick, I closed my eyes and waited for the hurt he spoke of. It was more like a pinch, and immediately after, I screamed out of pleasure. He brought his lips down on mine to silence my moans. I opened my legs wider and let him ride me. They were long and quick strokes that had me going crazy. My hands went up and down his back as he reduced the tempo, sliding all the way in and slowly pulling out.
He broke the kiss and stared down at me. “I’m going to make you mine,” he told me. He gripped my thighs with his hands, and his stroking sped up to a tempo that was even faster than before, and I felt the same fire I’d felt when he went down on me. It caused me to scream yet again and my body to tighten up. Giovanni let out a loud scream as well.
The sensation hit me, and I could feel it even in my toes, and I couldn’t do anything but lie there, limp.
I woke up in unfamiliar territory. I expected to be in my bed, but I was in someone else’s instead.
“Hey.”
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stared at Giovanni. Then my brain was instantly flooded with memories of last night. Going to dinner with Giovanni, coming to his home, making love to him. Damn. How much Riesling did I drink?
Still, I knew I couldn’t blame it entirely on the Riesling. I liked Giovanni, and everything he did to my body the night before had felt good. And truthfully, I wanted some more. I could feel his body resting against mine and a hand wrapped possessively around one of my breasts.
He kissed me. “Good morning,” he said in a husky voice.
“Hi.”
He turned my body around fully to face him.
He looked super handsome lying in bed, buck naked. Sexy.
“Thank you for last night,” he told me.
I blushed and looked away. His hands were now rubbing up and down my booty.
“It never felt so good to have a woman in my bed. They are usually kicked out by now.”
“What!” I exclaimed, laughing.
“I’m not by any means the type of gentleman you may think I am, Giselle. But something about you makes me want to be on my best behavior at all times.”
I blushed again at that. To me, he was the epitome of a gentleman. In the past, I had been on a couple dates with guys, but Giovanni seemed completely different from them. Although they were a couple years older than me, they seemed like teens compared to Giovanni and his swag. He was a real man. I felt lucky to be in his bed. But since this was my first time having sex with a dude, I didn’t know what the right protocol was. I remembered that Lexi told me that when she lost her virginity to a guy, she was fourteen and he was twenty-four. When they finished, she relaxed in the bed, reliving how it felt. The dude stood up and started getting dressed. When she didn’t take a hint that that was his way of telling her to bounce, he opened his bedroom door and yelled, “What you waiting for? Get the fuck out!”
I didn’t want to ever go through that, so just to play it safe, after a few uncomfortable seconds, I said, “Well, I have to—”
“No, you don’t.”
I screwed up my face. He didn’t even know what I was going to say.
“You don’t have to leave. In fact, this may sound crazy to you, but I don’t ever want you to leave.”
I was flattered, and yes, I believed in love at first sight. But still I told him, “You don’t even know me, Giovanni.”
“I know enough to know that I don’t want you to ever leave my sight again, Giselle.”
“My God, what are you saying?”
He had a serious expression in his eyes. “I’m saying I want you to be the one in my life. The only one. I want to take care of you, love you, spoil you. Put some pretty pieces on your fingers, wrist, and around your neck. I’m saying that I want you to be my wife.”
I thought I was hearing things when he said that part. I mean, who did that? This man didn’t know me from any other woman out there. What would make him want to spend the rest of his life with me? I was young, poor, inexperienced. What could I offer a man like Giovanni, who pretty much had everything and could get damn near whatever woman he wanted. And he was fine! I’m saying he had Beyoncé, Halle Berry, Serena Williams potential.
“Baby, I will treat you so good. Give you the life you deserve. Share all that I have with you. Just don’t leave my side again. Not now, not ever.”
His eyes looked so serious when he said that last part, “Not now. Not ever.”
“But I can’t promise you that. Listen, you don’t understand the things my family is going through. I can’t just commit to you.” I licked my dry lips. “Look, in a few hours my brother’s whole life could be ruined, and I might not see him for a long time. He could be facing time in prison—”
He cut me off. “The brother you bailed out?”
“Yes and—”
Before I could finish, he snatched up his cell phone off his nightstand and started calling someone. “Richard. Yeah, this is Giovanni. I’m good. Listen, I need you to go to work for me.”
He put his hand to the phone and said to me, “I need your brother’s name and birth date.” Once I told him, he repeated it to the person he was on the phone with. “Yes, he has court today.”
“Where? And what time?” Giovanni quizzed.
“Superior Court, in Los Angeles. Three o’clock,” I told him.
He repeated it before saying, “Take care of that, all right?”
Then the call ended abruptly.
I stared at him, waiting for him to speak.
“My lawyer is going to represent your brother in court. He is very skilled in what he does.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully. It was so nice of Giovanni to do that.
“Whatever else you need, let me know, Giselle, and I will take care of it for you.”
Chapter 8
Sure enough he did.
Giovanni’s lawyer was so smooth; he was able to have my brother tried as a juvenile since he just recently turned eighteen. Which meant his crime would not be on his record as an adult. He was also able to get my brother probation, so he never had to go back to jail. I was so grateful.
Giovanni paid for my brother’s probation services and my mother’s burial, and he stood by our side as we buried my mother. And all the debt my brother and I had, he paid it off so our parents’ house didn’t get foreclosed on. He said it was all on one condition: that I never leave his side. Brandon was staying there, and he was relieved that all that my parents had worked hard for was going to remain in the family. Giovanni was a godsend.
And now, just a week later—making it a month since Giovanni had come into my life—Giovanni had a surprise that rocked my entire world.
I was knocked out, asleep, in his massive, beautiful bed. It felt so good to be able to sleep with no worries.
This morning I woke up to kisses on my lips. “Wake up, baby.”
My eyes fluttered open to see Giovanni staring back at me. I gasped when he suddenly, out of nowhere, sat a tiny box on the pillow my face was resting on. I sat up in the bed and grabbed it. I opened the box with shaking fingers. I was damn near out of breath when I opened the velvet box and saw a gigantic, shiny rock staring back at me.
“What is this!” I exclaimed.
“What do you think it is, baby? I told you, I don’t ever want to be apart from you again. I want to make you mine.” He pulled the ring out of the box and placed it on my left hand. “And if you say yes, I will make you my wife today.”
“But—”
“Aye, no buts. I have never done this before, and I never thought I would want to. But you are far too special for me to let go of. And if you think the shopping sprees you have been on were a lot this past month, you are going to be in for a surprise. I’m going to make the rest of your days so good, bitches are going to hate the sight of you.”
I laughed at him, but he seemed serious.
“Well?”
Sometimes I looked back. I thought about that day and what made me say yes to a man I barely knew. Was it because he had money? Because of how fine he was and the way he made love to me? Or how he catered to my every whim? All those things had a little to do with it. But the main reason I said yes was that he made me feel protected, safe. The foundation my parents had talked about and had died trying to achieve, he had it and he offered it to me. It meant my brother and I would be cared for. So I took it. I mean, who wouldn’t in that moment? And in addition to this ... I also felt like I was in love.
I looked him in his eyes and told him, “Yes, Giovanni. I will marry you.”
Next thing I knew, Giovanni was making calls, and within minutes, he had people rushing into the mansion.
Then I was filled with dread. What if his family didn’t like me? Who was going to give me away? What would I wear? All these questions were on the tip of my tongue.
He saw my worry. But there was something about the way he kissed my lips and said, “Don’t worry. Everything will work out. Baby, I’m about to give you the wedding of twenty bitches’ dreams.”
That made me worry no more. So I nodded.
He gave me an air kiss and walked out of the room, still on the phone.
About ten minutes later, one of Giovanni’s maids, who I now knew as Pillar, an older Filipino woman, came into the room with breakfast for me on a cart. The other one was named Nisa. She was Guatemalan. They both took care of my needs.
She smiled and said, “Morning.”
“Hi.”
She started placing platters and bowls on the table in the room, all the while talking. “Congratulations. I hear you are marrying Mr. Pride today.”
“Yes.” I went to sit at the table in the room.
She unco
vered all the dishes. It was a feast. Cold crab and lobster, along with croissants and sliced fruit, scrambled eggs and bacon. There was also champagne with strawberries floating in it. After the food was all laid out, the maid turned on some soft music, and I could hear Alicia Keys’s voice waft into the room.
“Go ahead and enjoy, ma’am. In about twenty minutes, someone will be here to give you a massage, a manicure, and a pedicure. Enjoy.” She gave me a deep hug. Then she went and pulled the curtains back, made up the bed, and left the room.
I almost didn’t want her to go. I wanted someone there with me.
I ate nervously. I sampled everything, getting an extra helping of the crab. I even sipped on some of the champagne. That was when I heard a ruckus coming from outside: the beeping sound of truck horns being honked, and people shouting.
I rushed out onto the upper deck and saw trucks driving inside the estate. Tables and chairs and a gazebo were being set up, and dozens of flowers were being placed all around the lower deck. That was when I realized that we weren’t going to a justice of the peace. Giovanni was setting up a dream wedding here at his home.
I didn’t have time to watch them set up. I heard a knock-knock just before two white women rushed into Giovanni’s room. One of them was holding several wedding gowns. The other woman had shoes and veils.
“Good morning!” the woman with the gowns said cheerfully. “My name is Maggie, and this is my assistant, Tara. We have nine dresses for you to try on for your special day. Now, if you don’t like any of these, I can have some more brought over. No worries.” She displayed one dress at a time to me. “Which one do you like?”
I was speechless at all the gowns and did not have the slightest idea which one to choose. It was times like this that I really wished my mother was here with me to help me decide, but she wasn’t.
Maggie saw this, my hesitation, and said, “Let’s try some on.”
Sweet Giselle Page 6