Beautiful Prey: The Storm Series (5 page)

CHAPTER 9

STORM

Jack
Storm strolled through the ballroom well aware of the attention he was
receiving from the ladies. He could care less. His eyes searched the ballroom
for only one woman. It was eight-twenty and the event was scheduled to start at
eight o’clock. He arrived eagerly at seven forty-five. He didn’t believe in
being late for anything, ever. He was getting impatient, so he walked over to
the bar and ordered a scotch. He needed to calm his nerves. It was a nice
turnout and inside he was proud of Victoria. The ballroom was elegant and the
attendees were dressed to the nines. He knew that she didn’t make a lot of
money, but she still managed to give back. Jack had contributed financially
to
many charities, but never had he been as hands-on as Victoria.
She single-handedly had created the perfect event. He didn’t know much about
Sickle Cell Disease, but he’d be sure to leave a substantial donation before
the night ended.

He looked up from his glass of scotch and was shocked by the
sight of Caroline’s over exposed boobs heading towards him. He dropped his head
and wondered why she would attend a charity event for people of color.

“Hi, baby,” she whined with a fake smile plastered on her
injected lips.

“Caroline,” he muttered.

Still whining, she said, “I’ve missed you, baby.”

The dress that she was wearing was so tight that he didn’t
believe she would be able to sit down all night. Her boobs were hoisted so high
that they were damn near touching her chin.

“Not tonight,” he said with conviction and walked away.

He headed for his table and didn’t even bother to look back
at Caroline. He wondered what had ever attracted him to her in the first place.
Then he remembered she gave a decent blowjob. He was about to take his seat
when he saw
her
; his caramel beauty.
She was absolutely breathtaking. He literally stumbled back. Thank God his
chair was behind him. It was as if she traveled with her own spotlight. She was
glowing. Victoria was nothing less than a bronze goddess. She turned to greet
one of her guests and Jack caught a glimpse of the back of her dress. His cock
immediately sprang to life. It almost broke his zipper. He had never wanted
anything so much in his life;
anything
!
He couldn’t wait to have her writhing beneath him. He had to calm down and get
it together.

To Jack’s surprise, he ran into a few employees of Storm
Enterprises. He was wondering why he wasn’t more aware of this obviously worthy
charity that they were supporting. Well, that was all going to change. He
managed to turn away from Victoria long enough to have a few brief business
conversations. They were very brief because his eyes instantly lifted to find
her and, unfortunately, he did. A tall African American man who appeared to be
in his early thirties was hauling her into a corner.

Jack instantly
wondered,
who in the fuck is this asshole
?

He watched closely to see if he needed to go over and kick
the over-aggressive man’s ass. He definitely would. But before he could even
think about it, Victoria said something that appeared to be aggressive enough
to make the man walk away in conceit. Again, Jack was proud.

He silently muttered, “What is this woman doing to me?”

After a decent prime rib meal, Jack was really anticipating
the bachelorette auction. Since the auction didn’t seem to be starting anytime
soon, Jackson had to find something to occupy his time. He resumed office talk
with his employees. He continued to keep an eye on an absolutely gorgeous
Victoria. Caroline kept her eye on him. Jack avoided her like the plague.

After an hour, Jack got the courage to walk over to
Victoria. She was engulfed in a conversation with a very curvaceous and
attractive woman. His eavesdropping led him to believe that her name was Tracy.
Victoria turned from Tracy, and they locked eyes. All conversation ceased when
she looked up at him. Victoria’s eyes widened, and Jack could see the lust and
need in her eyes.

Mine
, he
thought.

He smiled at his beauty and walked away. He was confident
that she would belong to him before the night was over.

Finally, the auction began. There were seven beautiful
biddable women, but only one was of interest to Jack. Even Victoria’s beautiful
friend couldn’t shake his thoughts of his caramel beauty. Tracy had generated
fifty thousand dollars alone. It didn’t even matter that she had a huge
angry-looking guy bidding for her, who looked even more furious when he had to
stop at twenty thousand. It was clear that he was out of his financial league.

However, since Jack was in a financial league of his own, he
knew that he would end up with his prize.

CHAPTER 10

 VICTORIA

 
“And
now the lovely hostess of tonight’s event,” the auctioneer announced.

Victoria was extremely nervous. She anxiously wondered how
it would feel if no one bid on her. She’d die of embarrassment.

“Shall we start the bid at ten thousand?”

As soon as the auctioneer began, someone shouted, “Ten
thousand!”

A bid came from someone in the back of the room, “Fifteen
thousand!”

Victoria was secretly wishing that the absolutely gorgeous
man that smiled at her earlier would bid. Victoria had never dated a white guy
before, but he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen of any race. He was
impeccably dressed and stood well over six feet. The evidence of his muscular
body escaped the custom tuxedo that he wore. Victoria couldn’t help the gasp
that escaped her when he smiled. He had dark shiny hair, almost black, and the
bluest eyes that she had ever seen. Looking into his eyes was like drowning in
a deep blue sea. Her whole body reacted. Her breathing was shallow. She could
feel instant heat in her core.

She was almost picturing the mystery man naked when she
heard, “Fifty thousand dollars!”

This snatched her out of her lustful daydream. Victoria looked
around but she couldn’t see who made the bid. She looked over at Tracy and gave
her a wink. That’s when she heard the voice of her cheating ex-fiancé shout,
“One hundred thousand dollars!”

She whipped her head away from Tracy and shot Dante a hateful
glare. The arrogant bastard shot her a smug grin. She was still furious from
their heated exchange earlier. His audacity of showing up at her event had her
livid.

Victoria was sure that no one would outbid Dante and so was
he. He knew how much this charity meant to her, and he knew that she would go
through with the date in order to receive the donation.

Just as she was about to have a panic attack, she heard,
“One million dollars for an evening with our beautiful hostess.”

The smooth deep baritone voice pulled her gaze from Dante.
She followed the direction of the voice and there he was: Victoria’s walking
wet dream. His stance was the personification of pure power. He smiled, and his
smile made her swoon. She couldn’t believe what was happening. This beautiful
man had just offered one million dollars for an evening with her.

“Going once.
Going
twice...”

Victoria looked over at Dante. He looked small and defeated.

The auctioneer then shouted, “Sold to the lucky and
obviously loaded man to my right!”

This brought laughter from the crowd, with the exception of
the angry-looking blonde standing behind “Mr. Wet Dream”. Victoria was
wondering what that was all about, but the band started to play and “Mr. Wet
Dream” approached the stage and stretched out his hand to Victoria. When she
placed her hand in his, she felt a bolt of electricity pass between them. He
helped her off the stage and escorted her to the dance floor. He enclosed
Victoria in his arms. When his hand touched her bare back, she all but melted.
She took in his scent. He smelled absolutely delicious. She wanted to take a
bite out of his neck. This man was attacking her every sense. She never wanted
to leave his arms.

When all movement suddenly stopped, she forced her head from
his chest and looked up at him. His expression was predatory, so she followed
his gaze to find Dante approaching.

“May I cut in?”

Before Victoria could respond, “Mr. Wet Dream” pulled her
back into his chest and turned her away from Dante. He responded simply with,
“No.”

Oh yeah
, Victoria
thought to herself.
He can get it
.

Victoria was too wrapped up in this man to care about
Dante’s response. However, she did see him slowly walking away from the corner
of her eye.

They danced without words until the end of the song. Then
“Mr. Wet Dream” tucked her arm into his and led her through the huge double
doors that exited to the patio. It was a beautifully warm night with a light
breeze. She turned to face him. He gave her a devastatingly beautiful smile
that reached his eyes. She almost stopped breathing; he was just that gorgeous.

He pulled her hand to his lips and finally introduced
himself. “Jack Storm”.

Then he planted his warm lips to her hand.

“Victoria Price,” she responded almost breathlessly.

He released her hand and whispered, “Everyone knows our
beautiful hostess by name.”

“Thank you for such a generous donation,” she told him while
wearing a gorgeous smile. “It really is a worthy cause.”

Jack looked intensely at Victoria and said, “Money well
spent.”

He grabbed two glasses of champagne from a passing server
and handed one to Victoria. She was grateful, because she needed something to
take the edge off. This man was doing things to her body that she couldn’t
explain. She gulped down her glass of champagne and looked around for another
server. Jack laughed and went in search of more champagne.

In his absence, Victoria took a deep breath and looked up to
see Steve and Tracy approaching. They looked good together. She was happy for
her friends.

 ”Well, there’s our million dollar hostess!” Tracy
shouted. “Damn, girl, I get the eighty-year-old man sporting the stylish cane,
and you get a GOD!”

Steve narrowed his eyes at Tracy, so she quickly fixed the
focus of her flirtation. “Well, shit he is, but so are you, baby.”

This seemed to satisfy Steve. He planted a sweet kiss on the
top of her head. He looked up at Victoria and asked, “Who is the guy, Vic?”

Before she could answer, Jack handed Victoria a glass of
champagne and stretched his hand out to Steve. “Jack Storm,” he announced to
them both. They shook hands as Steve introduced himself and Tracy. After a few
minutes of light conversation and laughter, Steve and Tracy headed to the dance
floor. Victoria gave Jack her phone number, excused herself, and headed to the
ladies room. She needed to compose herself and get her raging hormones under
control. She entered the ladies room and walked over to the mirror to touch up
her lip-gloss. The door opened and in walked “angry blonde”. She smiled at
Victoria, so Victoria returned her smile and headed for the door.

As Victoria reached for the door, she heard “angry blonde”
say, “Don’t get too excited, sweetie. You’re just charity.”

Victoria chuckled and walked out of the ladies room. She refused
to respond to the jealous bottle blonde. The last thing she wanted was for her
event to end with her beating the shit out of some skinny white chick in the
ladies room. Victoria entered the ballroom and looked around. She was proud.
Guests appeared to be enjoying themselves. They were dancing, talking, and
laughing. But most of all, they were donating. The huge bid for Victoria had
loosened everyone’s purse strings.

As the
evening wore on, Victoria’s feet were done. She walked around and bid farewell

to
some of the remaining guests. As she was about to exit, she
felt a hand in the small of her back. She could tell by his scent and the
electricity in his touch that it was Jack.

She looked up and smiled, prepared to say goodnight.

Before she could speak, he told her with sweet aggression,
“I’ll escort you home.”

She refused, attempting to be as ladylike as possible. “That
won’t be necessary. I have a driver.”

Despite her reluctance, Jack guided Victoria to an awaiting
limousine. Someone who Victoria assumed was his driver held the door open.

When she hesitated, Jack leaned in closely and whispered in
her ear, “I took care of your driver.” He smiled beautifully and added, “Don’t
be afraid. I won’t bite.”

With no further reluctance, Victoria climbed into the limo.
For some reason, she wasn’t afraid; at least not for her safety. As he climbed
in and sat next to her, she caught a whiff of his scent. She wondered how she
could be so turned on by a man that had never touched her. She could feel her
nipples hardening. As the driver closed the door, Jack reached over and
caressed her face. Without warning, he slammed his lips against hers. His kiss
was demanding. He lightly sucked on her bottom lip, and Victoria’s gasp gave
him the opening that he was waiting for. He then eased his tongue into her
mouth.