Tropical Storm

by Stefanie Graham

  “I would like to speak to James Montague.” He growled oblivious to the raised eyebrow of the older woman at the desk.

  “Do you have an appointment?” She asked sweetly, obviously used to handling difficult clients.

  “No, I do not.” He told her abruptly, sending her other brow to hide in her hairline. “But tell him Cairo Kane is here to see him.”

  Looking at him curiously, the woman picked up the phone and turned her back to him as she whispered something into the receiver. When she was finished, she turned back in his direction and looked up at him steadily.

  “I’m sorry sir, but Mr. Montague is unavailable to speak to you at the moment. If you make an appointment for another time when he is free, I’m sure he will be able to see you then.” The consummate professional, she graced him with a smile of apology. Cairo didn’t smile back. Instead he leaned down over the desk until his eyes squarely met the secretary’s.

  “You tell Mr. Montague that I’m here to talk to him about his wife and that if he values her safety, he will speak to me immediately.” It was not an idle threat.

  This got the woman’s attention; she scrambled for the phone and murmured something frantic into the receiver. James Montague came bursting out of his office a half a second later.

  Cairo studied his onetime adversary thoroughly. Here in front of him was the man who had destroyed his life almost seven years ago, who stole the love of his son and took his place in Storm’s bed. He was a tall, gym lean and square jawed young man with curly dark red hair and dark eyes. Dressed in an immaculate Armani suit and Gucci loafers, he exuded money, power and a sense of himself that most men would envy. Cairo hated him on sight. Smiling coldly at the receptionist, he ignored James until he walked into his office and closed the door.

  “What’s this all about? What have you done to her? What have you done to my wife?” The obvious private school accent was shrill with anxiety. “Are you trying to blackmail us?” He asked anxiously.

  “Relax and sit down, James. We have a lot to talk about.” Cairo said flatly.

  James sat down and Cairo studied his nemesis. He took note of his ashen pallor under his spray tan and the way his shaking hand destroyed the sleek perfection of his salon cut hair. Cairo looked at him without feeling and observed that James showed real concern. For a man who supposedly had nothing to do with his wife, he seemed genuinely concerned about her safety. No matter what she might have told him to the contrary, the marriage between the two of them was very much real, at least on her husband’s side.

  “Let me get straight to the point of my visit. Your wife led me to believe that your marriage was a sham and that she had every intention of marrying me and divorcing you. Right now, this isn’t going to happen. I’m only here to tell you that I want my son. I have no interest in the mother, she you can keep. I will fight both of you with all my considerable financial resources until Shane is in my custody. I’m here to give you fair warning that if you fight me on this, both of you will be very sorry. Also, for the sake of her well-being I suggest that you do your best to keep your wife out of my way. If she ever crosses my path again I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  James leaned limply back in his chair confusion gathering like thunderclouds on his brow. “My God, what are you talking about? My wife was going to divorce me?” He digested this with real distress before shaking his head to clear it. “And you want, Shane?” He repeated dumbly.

  Cairo nodded gravely ready to do physical harm to the man if he attempted to put up the slightest resistance.

  “Who are you?” James asked in agitated distress. “And who the hell is Shane?”

  “What!” Cairo jumped from his chair to his feet. “What do you mean who the hell is Shane? Shane is legally your son, but he’s mine and I want him.”

  “Are you mad?” James said, startling Cairo into silence. “I have no children, sir, legal or otherwise. My wife Maureen and I have neither the desire nor the time for children of any kind. I think there must be some kind of mistake.”

  Cairo went deathly still. “Jessica Storm is your wife. You’ve been married to her for close to seven years.”

  Maybe it was the impertinence behind his statement that made James burst out laughing. “Are you crazy?” He asked clearly confused. “I’m not married to Jessica Storm. I had an arrangement with her once but that ended when she married some lowlife and had a baby against her parents’ wishes.”

  When Cairo fell back into his chair, understanding shaped James’ mouth into an appalled O. “Oh my God!” he said shocked. “You’re the man she married. This all makes sense now. You’re not here to confront me about my wife. You’re here to confront me about yours.” The hilarity of the situation caught James in a fit of laughter, brought on partly by mirth and partly by malice. “She has obviously woven a mighty tale with me at its center. No, I’m not married to Jessica and no matter how beautiful and desirable she was then, I’m happy that she married you instead of me. She was always too much to handle.”

  Cairo wasn’t sure how he got out of James Montague’s office. He wandered around midtown Manhattan in a fog of disbelief. A vicious movie played in his head and the memories tortured him with every scene. He relived everything he and Storm had gone through from the first time they had met until now. He played back in his mind every touch and every word they had exchanged in the last few weeks since she had re-entered his life and couldn’t comprehend how stupid he’d been. The fog of disbelief and pain only started to clear when he was startled out of his stupor by the flight attendant announcing their descent to Jamaica’s Norman Manley Airport. The trance he had been in since leaving New York was replaced with a seething anger. Jessica Storm had hurt and humiliated him for the very last time.

  Storm threw all of her belongings into a suitcase in a frenzy of movement. Desperation made her hands shake as she sought to clear any trace of her and her son’s existence from the room. Getting back and claiming Shane hadn’t been as easy as she’d expected. Tyrone had proven to be a bit more diligent in his role as guardian. Before he would allow her to escape with Shane she had to answer an array of questions and give endless explanations. From her calculations, she had spent an hour with Tyrone; an hour and a half patiently explaining to her distraught son why they had to leave without his father, and another hour packing. All this had left her with precious little time to make her escape. Her flight left in three hours and she had to be long gone before Cairo returned. If she didn’t get Shane off the island before he returned, she knew with a bone chilling certainty that she never would. With clothes hanging out of her carry-on, a host of employees bustling behind her with the remainder of her luggage, and Shane pressed firmly to her side, Storm spared a brief second to hurriedly hug a worried Tyrone before she started at almost a dead run towards the door.

  “Going somewhere?” Cairo placed himself directly in her path his face a mask of fury as his gaze traveled from her face to that of his beaming son.

  “Daddy!” Shane exclaimed. He tore himself from her grasp, evading the hand that she reached out to hold him back, and launched himself into his father’s arms. “I’m so glad that you’re here. Mommy said that we couldn’t wait for you but I just knew that you wouldn’t let me go anywhere without saying goodbye.”

  The hand that stroked Shane’s hair shook with a combination of anger and relief. He had made it back in time. “Don’t worry little one, you’re not going anywhere without me.”

  “Good!” Shane declared bouncing with excitement. “I didn’t want to leave Jamaica so soon.”

  “Trust me, you’re not going anywhere.” Cairo said catching and holding her gaze above Shane’s head. When Storm visibly trembled Cairo turned his attention back to his son.

  “Shane, do me a favor will you?” He pasted a fake smile on his face.

  “Anything, daddy, anything at all.” Sh
ane was hopping from one leg to the other with happiness.

  “Go back upstairs with one of the employees and unpack all of the suitcases that have your things in them. Can you do that for me?”

  “Of course I can, but what about mommy’s things?” Shane asked staring up at his silent mother.

  “She’ll need her things.” Cairo answered solemnly his face revealing nothing.

  Strangely, Shane didn’t question this. He dashed off to do his father’s bidding simply happy with the knowledge that he wouldn’t be leaving Jamaica after all.

  The minute Shane had cleared earshot, Cairo dropped all pretense of friendliness. His expression gave way to a look so dangerous that it was almost sinister.

  “Come with me!” He demanded grabbing her arm with fierce pressure.

  The suddenness of his movements and the violence of his actions caused Storm to cry out as he hauled her through the main lobby.

  “Cairo, wait! Take some time to calm down before you do something you may regret.” Seeing the look on his cousin’s face, Tyrone ran to catch up to them.

  “Stay out this, Tyrone!” Cairo snarled. “You have no idea what she’s done this time. If you know what’s good for you, don’t get involved.”

  Tyrone backed away from the elevator shaking his head sadly. “I’m sorry that it’s come to this.” He said sadly.

  Cairo swallowed hard, his first visible sign of emotion. “So am I.” He declared softly. “So am I.”

  The second the door to the honeymoon suite closed, Cairo picked Storm up and carelessly flung her across the bed. In the next instant, she watched in fascinated horror as he began to methodically strip off his clothes. He ripped his shirt from his waistband revealing a dark gold stretch of heavily muscled skin. His pants were unbuttoned and removed before Storm even thought of moving. When she finally did try to make a run for the door, Cairo’s voice froze her in place.

  “Move one muscle from that bed and you will never see your son again.” He threatened in a voice so flat and cold that it sounded foreign to her.

  Storm slowly lay back down. “Please Cairo, I can explain—”

  “Shut up!” He yelled cutting her off. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say. You’re a liar and a cheat and you’ve fooled me for the last time. I’ve finally recognized your black heart for what it is. Now, take off your clothes right now!”

  “Cairo, don’t do this.” Storm begged frightened of him for the first time.

  “Don’t do what, Jessica?” He stretched her first name out bitterly. “You said that this is what you wanted. You’ve been trying to get me into your bed for weeks. Now I’m not resisting. Either you take off your clothes or I’ll do it for you.”

  Storm slipped her arms out of her shirt, slowly unclasped her bra and slipped off her shorts and panties. In defiance, she threw the bundled clothing at Cairo then she lay down on the bed with her eyes half closed.

  “Make this quick, will you.” She said scathingly. “I have a plane to catch.”

  Cairo’s mouth curved into a smile of admiration. Placing a knee on the bed, he crawled over her until their bodies melded and met intimately before he spoke again. “I will see what I can do.” He promised.

  Storm tried to keep her mind blank; she tried to block out the sensations that the movement of his body was causing but Cairo meant to punish her in the only way that he knew would be effective. There were no preliminaries as he roughly entered her. Storm gasped, but in spite of her efforts to be cold and unaffected, her body accepted and welcomed him. A betraying moan escaped her and Storm sank her teeth into her bottom lip to stifle all other telltale signs of her surrender. She failed. Even as thoughts of resistance entered her mind, they just as quickly left as her body strained towards the pleasure she knew he could give her. Soon she was reaching out to him, endeavoring to pull his mouth to hers for a kiss that always had the power to weaken her knees. Before her lips found his, her head was yanked back by a tug on her hair.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” He chastised coldly. “This is a business transaction only. Let’s not confuse things.”

  Storm’s eyes gleamed and with deliberate action, she thrust her hips up to meet his thrusts and locked her legs around his hips arching her back seductively. It wasn’t long before the man who had vowed to make her pay was moaning and shuddering. Storm did her best to show him with her body and her surrender just how much she loved him and how truly sorry she was. In the end, they were both panting and spent, their bodies shaking and satisfied.

  “Damn you!” Cairo swore disentangling himself from her arms and getting up to look down at her sprawled naked body with a combination of desire and disdain. “Get up and get out?” He ordered. “I got what I wanted from you. You’re now free to leave.”

  Tears threatened to spill at the harsh words but Storm refused to succumb to them. There, ensconced in the luxury of the honeymoon suite, she was fighting for her life; a fight she had every intention of winning. Stretching luxuriously on the satin sheets, Storm used the one weapon she knew she had at her disposal.

  “I’m not ready to leave yet, Cairo. Come back to bed, I have something for you.” A delicate hand ran leisurely over the places that Cairo had just touched, still moist and wet from their lovemaking.

  His eyes narrowed to slits as he watched her suspiciously. When he made no attempt to move, she decided to take things into her own hands. Rising slowly and seductively from the bed, she stood in front of him and raised herself up on her toes until their lips touched. Undaunted by Cairo’s lack of response, Storm kissed him hungrily while allowing her hands to roam in all the places that she knew he liked. She felt his body tense and tighten with his need to resist, but she wasn’t about to lose this fight. She slipped her tongue in his ear and then bit his neck.

  Cairo gripped her shoulders and shook her hard. “Stop it.” He ordered. “Whatever you are trying to do, it won’t work this time. I want you off my island. Do what you have to when you get home but Shane is mine. He stays here with me.”

  “I love you, Cairo” Storm whispered. His grip tightened on her shoulders. She knew by tomorrow she’d have faint bruises there. She was undeterred. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. I couldn’t tell you that I wasn’t married to James because I needed to know if you wanted me or just Shane.”

  “Stop it!” He warned shaking her again.

  “I can’t.” Storm sobbed, tears streaming down her face. “I never told you I was married to James, you assumed I was and I was afraid to tell you differently. Try to understand Cairo, I had to know; I just had to know if you loved me for me.”

  “Why damn it!” Cairo yelled his composure cracking. “What difference could it have possibly made? I would have treated you well; you would have had everything you wanted. Wasn’t that enough?”

  “No, it could never be enough. Never. I’ve loved you, yearned for you, searched for you for almost seven years because I wanted to let you know that the day you married me in that little chapel was the best day of my life. The day you made love to me and made me a woman in every way was the best night of my life. I love you more than anything in this world. Please believe that I never meant to hurt you. I just couldn’t tell you the truth without knowing how you felt about me.”

  Cairo’s chest rose and fell heavily as he fought a battle with himself. Finally, as if he tore the words from the depths of his soul, he asked her the question that must have been torturing him for years.

  “If you loved me so much, how could you do it, Storm? How could you plan to marry someone else? I loved you and you said you loved me. Despite the obstacles, we could have made it work. But you didn’t even try. You gave up on us before we’d even started.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Cairo.” She disagreed. “You gave up on us. Never in almost seven years have I loved anyone else. No one h
as even come close to touching my heart. You were and are my husband and I love you.”

  “How can you love me when you refused to rectify the mistake we made and start again? Ever since you got here all that you have done is tell a series of lies. All I wanted to do was marry you and make us a family.”

  “I never lied to you, Cairo.” Storm argued. “I couldn’t marry you. I told you before, I’m already married.”

  “Oh my God!” Cairo said standing still as if awaiting a blow. “If it isn’t James you’re married to, then who?”

  Without answering, Storm turned away from him and kneeled on the floor where she carefully picked up her purse that he’d flung across the room. Heart beating, she opened her wallet and carefully unfolded a piece of paper that was wrinkled with age. Turning to Cairo, she handed the paper to him. “I couldn’t marry you, Cairo. This is why.”

  With a shaking hand, Cairo reached out to take the paper that Storm held out to him. Tears stung his eyes and threatened to choke him when he looked at it. The paper he’d ripped into pieces and scattered across the room on their wedding night had been painstakingly and lovingly taped together. She’d found and gathered every torn piece back into the original marriage certificate.

  “You did this?” He asked Storm, his voice shaking with the magnitude of what she had done.

  “I love you, Cairo and when you left that night I had my doubts about us but they didn’t last. I never believed for a second that we wouldn’t be together again. Forgive me for deceiving you, but you’re my husband. There was never any annulment or divorce. I would like to make this marriage work, if you will just give me another chance.”

  Cairo crossed the room and swept her up in his arms kissing her hair, her face and her hands. “Forgive me, Storm. Forgive me for everything I’ve done and for all my hurtful words. I’m to blame for not fighting hard enough against my feelings of inadequacy. I just couldn’t believe it then, can barely believe it now, that someone like you could love me. It’s important that you know that I love you. Even if Shane didn’t exist, if there were just you, I would still love you. I don’t care if we’re already married. Marry me again, marry me this week or tomorrow and give me, give us, another chance.”