CHAPTER TWO

The ride back to the Beverly Hills Hotel was a quiet ride. They sat side by side in the limousine and although not a word was spoken by either one of them, it felt as if a lot was being said. By their body language. By the energy in the car. By the way their arms touched and neither one of them tried to move away. By the way he kept glancing at her legs beneath her short dress, and she kept glancing at the thick packaging at his midsection. By the fact that he knew she needed comfort after such an ordeal, and he needed a release. By the way his penis was throbbing and so was her vagina. The silence was screaming.

And as soon as they got in the hotel and onto the elevator, they instantly knew that their night wasn't done. Giorgio pressed one button, for example, that would take them to the presidential suite where he was staying. When the elevator lifted past the second floor where she was staying and kept going, she didn't object. She could have. But she didn't want to. Crazy as it seemed, she felt safe with him. The man she thought was so contemptable, was now the only human being she wanted to be with in that moment. To her own amazement, she didn't want to leave his side.

When they got off the elevator and made their way to the end of the hall, Vivian already knew she was dealing with a different kind of dude. But when she saw a butler waiting at the door of what was labeled the presidential suite, and she knew it was the suite he was staying in during his time in California, she realized just what kind of level he was on.

The butler opened the door for them, poured them drinks, even offered to prepare the bath. Then Giorgio dismissed him. Vivian sat on the sofa feeling kind of scared and overwhelmed, but also at peace too. And when he sat beside her and they sipped champagne quietly, she could feel her body relaxing.

"Are you in town for the wedding?" she asked him.

"I am," he said. He was slouched down beside her with his shoes off and his feet up on the coffee table. "But business too."

"It's a shame what happened. I wonder if the wedding will be called off."

"Given the bat he's marrying, I doubt that."

Vivian smiled. She didn't think she could that night, but she did.

Giorgio liked her smile. "How long are you in town for?" he asked her.

"Four nights. This is night number two. What about you?"

"I'll probably hang around for a week or two."

"Must be nice to have an open-ended life," Vivian said.

Giorgio found that a curious thing to say. "Are you enjoying your trip?"

"Before tonight I was, yes. And I suspect I'll continue to enjoy it tomorrow. I worked too hard and saved too long for me to just let this whole trip be a bust."

"Good." Giorgio was nodding his head. "Good for you." Then Giorgio stared at her. "What's your name?"

Vivian realized she was comfortable with a man whose name she didn't even know. "Vivian. Yours?"

"Giorgio."

"Gee what now?"

He laughed. "It's pronounced Gee-Or-Gee-O. Giorgio. Or you can just call me Gio. Pronounced Gee-O." Then he thought about the name only those closest to him were allowed to use. "Or Jonni, which is spelled J-O-N-N-I , but is pronounced Johnny ."

She smiled. "Now you're speaking my language! Jonni it is."

He laughed. She was just a delightful creature. "Are you married? Any children?"

"No to the no," she said and he laughed. "It's just me and my baby brother. He's like my kid."

"How old is he?"

"Five going on thirty," she said. "Our mother died, we have different fathers. His father wasn't trying to have a relationship with him, and since I didn't know who my father was, the court gave me guardianship. What about you? Wife? Kids?"

"No to the no," he said and she smiled. But the way he said it seemed to evoke bad memories for him. She left that alone. "So you're in town with your frat brothers?"

"Yup. They're mainly in town for the wedding. I'm mainly in town for business and, secondarily, the wedding. That's why they have their own suite and I have mine. I need my peace."

"I know what you mean. I'm sharing a room with five other women, and it's like a madhouse when we're all putting on makeup and doing our hair and getting dressed all at once. Not to mention taking baths with only one bathroom."

Giorgio laughed. He couldn't even imagine it! He looked at her flawless dark skin. She was talking his wheelhouse now. "You aren't wearing makeup."

"That's because I gave up and let them have at it. I went downstairs to the pool instead."

"You like to swim?"

"Love it."

"But you wouldn't go skinny-dipping."

"That's not swimming to me. That's showing your behind. No thanks," she said with a smile.

Giorgio smiled too. She was amazed that he looked even better when he smiled.

"You know why I brought you up to my suite, don't you?"

There was a pause, but she wasn't going to play coy or try to deny it. "I have a good idea, yes."

"No objections?"

Vivian hesitated. She liked his directness. "No. I'm still just trying to forget what happened to that poor girl."

"That's why you're here. I'm going to make you forget it."

Vivian stared at him. "And what am I going to do for you?"

"I've needed a release since the moment I saw your face. You're going to release me."

Vivian could feel her temperature rising. "That's why you were staring so hard at me at the party?"

He didn't mince words. "Yes."

And that silence began screaming again. You could cut the sensuality with a knife. Until Giorgio's phone dinged. He had a text. He pulled it out and looked at the message.

As he pulled it out, Vivian noticed that odd tattoo on his right hand again. It looked, at first glance, like a tiny pink rose. But as she kept looking, it looked more like a rosebud, as if it was a rose that had not yet bloomed. Which was so cute to her. But strange too. There was nothing about that man that seemed to suggest he was the kind of guy that would even approve of tattoos. He seemed too bougie to her for that.

"It's from one of my frat brothers," he said when he pulled up the text. "According to him, there was only the one fatality."

"The girl in my arms?"

"He said it was a girl, so apparently so. He says the shooting involved a disagreement over some gaming app." Giorgio shook his head. "A damn gaming app. The nonsense of it! The guy got angry, pulled a pistol, and started firing indiscriminately. Four other people were shot, but none with life-threatening injuries."

"At least that's good to hear," said Vivian. "But it's still sad it had to happen to that poor girl. She was so young. And so scared."

Giorgio put his phone away. "It's the age of ridiculousness. Unfortunately."

Vivian agreed with that and for several more minutes they sipped champagne and spoke very little.

But Giorgio was amazed at how relaxed she made him feel. He was fascinated with her. "How old are you? Or is that taboo for a man to ask?"

"Not at all. I'm twenty-eight. How old are you?"

"Now that's taboo," he said, and they both laughed.

But for some reason she needed to know. She'd already pegged him as much older than she was, and being up close to him didn't change that view. But what if he was even older than she thought? "But for real though, how old are you?"

"I'm certainly not twenty-eight."

"Jonni!" She was smiling. "How old are you? Stop being so vain."

Giorgio gave her a look so harsh that it felt like a slap. "I am not vain," he said. "I am proud. Perhaps arrogant. I'll take that. But I am not vain."

Vivian's smile left and she said nothing. Every time she thought she could cut loose and be herself around a man, they ended up lashing out at her and hurting her. So she went back into her shell and said nothing.

Giorgio was so accustomed to being rude to everybody that he didn't realize her hurt. He removed his feet off the table, leaned forward, and lifted the bottle of champagne on the cocktail table beside the sofa. He offered to pour more into her glass.

"No thank you," she said and began standing up. "I think I'm going to get back to my hotel room."

Giorgio, surprised, stood up too. "Why are you leaving? You just got here."

"I know but I'm going to go," she said firmly as she sat her glass on the coffee table and began to leave.

And it was only in that instance that he realized what he'd done. He had treated her like everybody else seemed to enjoy treating her. "I didn't mean to hurt you," he quickly said, surprising himself.

Vivian stopped in her tracks when he said those words. Not because of the words, but because she really didn't want to go back to that hotel room and be alone the rest of the night.

And when Giorgio came up behind her, and placed his big hands on her small shoulders, a tear escaped from her eyes. " That poor girl, " she cried out as if she was still stuck at that horrible scene, and Giorgio quickly turned her around and pulled her into his arms. And allowed her to sob freely.

And lifted her, and held her, and eventually carried her to his bed.