by Lacey Thorn
Sharing Gianna
Lacey Thorn
Book 4 in the Marquetti Amore series.
Gianna hasn’t been home since she left ten years ago. One frantic call sends her racing back and dealing with emotions she’s kept buried too long. When she meets Gabe and Tony, she is instantly attracted. Maybe sex is just the stress relief and distraction she needs.
Gabe and Tony have both just left the Marines behind. Their first stop to see former teammate and close friend Dante Marquetti might just be their last when they meet his sister Gianna. But one taste of her only makes them hungry for more. Now all they can think of is sharing Gianna.
A Romantica® contemporary erotic ménage romance from Ellora’s Cave
Sharing Gianna
Lacey Thorn
Chapter One
Gianna stood in front of the patio doors and let her gaze pass over the lights of the city sprawled below her. She hated heights, always had. Her agent had booked the condo for her when she first began modeling and this was where she’d stayed, on the fifteenth floor. Tonight she just took in the view while her mind continued debating what she’d really already decided. She was done modeling.
She’d spent the last few years working more on her designs and she loved it, loved the creativity to make what she felt was sexy. She sent most of her creations to a local store in her hometown run by her friend Phoebe, who had recently rekindled a relationship with Gianna’s brother Dante. With the connections she’d amassed through modeling, Gianna could have sent her designs to a bigger house but honestly this was her ticket out of the life she had, not a way to keep her there even longer. Besides, Phoebe had a head for business and with her help, Gianna’s creations were flying off the racks, both virtually at their online store and figuratively in the boutique Phoebe ran.
Phoebe had received offers from bigger stores to carry their merchandise but the two of them had decided against sharing so far. With the power of the internet, they really didn’t need to. Gianna knew that part of the pull toward her lingerie was the originality of the pieces. Take that away and she was just another brand. That wasn’t what she wanted and Phoebe agreed with her. In fact Phoebe had been encouraging her to come home and see for herself the buzz her designs generated. But Gianna couldn’t go home.
She closed her eyes and let the memories wash over her. More as if she didn’t have a home to go to. Other than her business partner, the only other person from home she spoke with was her brother Cristiano. She and Cris had always been close, but even he didn’t know everything. He knew what everyone else in the family knew, that something had occurred to make their mother disown her oldest daughter. In fact, as far as Gianna knew, Belinda Marquetti pretended that Gianna didn’t exist at all.
Gianna’s shoulders hunched as if to protect her but it was too late for that. The damage was already done. She’d made a stupid mistake, fallen for the wrong pretty face, believed the wrong silvered tongue and now there was no going back. She’d been young and naive and would pay for that the rest of her life. The saddest thing was that her mother had disowned her without once giving Gianna a chance to tell her side, to tell the truth.
The phone rang and Gianna ignored it, letting the machine pick it up. But when it rang again almost immediately, she turned and moved across the room to see the number on the readout. Cris. The machine picked up but once more he didn’t leave a message. Then the phone began ringing again. Cris.
Aggravated, she picked the receiver up. “You know I have a machine for a reason—” she began.
“Steph’s been shot,” he said and her heart just stopped. Her brother Stephano was Cris’ twin and a member of the state police.
“How bad?” she asked. This was the call she’d always feared, what the members of any police family feared and with a father and four of her five brothers police officers, one she’d been lucky enough to never receive.
“Bad,” Cris said. “You need to come home. He’s going to need everyone around.”
“Where? When? How?” The questions just tumbled off her lips.
“He was working the late shift. One of the guys needed time off for his son’s graduation and Stephano took it,” Cris said. “He pulled a car over, routine stop, and the guy already had a gun in his hand when he rolled the window down. Camera caught it all. He was shot.” Cris’ voice hitched and she could hear the tears in her brother’s voice too. “He was shot point-blank. Bullet entered on his left side, bounced off his ribcage and traveled up, hitting the heart. He coded twice but they brought him back. He’s in surgery now. They’re not sure if he’ll make it or not.”
“Oh God.” She put her hand over her mouth, hardly daring to breath. Stephano, sweet Stephano with his engaging grin and quirky humor. “I-I…” She couldn’t get a coherent thought out, much less a sentence.
“I don’t care about the feud you and Mamma have going on,” Cris said, his voice hard. “It’s time you came home. We need you. Stephano needs you.”
“I’ll take the first flight I can get,” she promised. “I’ll keep my phone on me at all times. Call me with any news. Any.”
“I will. And Gianna,” he paused and she spoke just as he intended.
“Yes?”
“I love you, sis.”
“I love you too.”
She dropped the phone into the cradle and wanted nothing more than to sink to her knees on the carpet and cry her eyes out. A part of her wanted to pray to God for Stephano but God had failed the young girl in her long ago and there were no prayers left in her grown woman’s heart. She took a deep breath instead, and putting one foot in front of the other, she moved toward her bedroom to pack a bag. When she was ready she’d make a call and had little doubt that a plane would be available to fly her back.
Cris said it was time for her to come home and maybe he was right. She’d spent the last ten years running from her demons, maybe it was time to face them as well. She’d left as a seventeen-year-old child, broken in more ways than anyone could have known. But she was a woman now and she had a feeling she would need to remind herself of that many times over the coming days.
She let her mind wander as she packed. After all, packing was something she was good at. It wasn’t hard to remember growing up with her wild brothers and baby sister. Cris and Stephano were a month shy of being two years older than she and the three of them had always been close. Stephano had played baseball, even gone to college on a scholarship. Cris and Gianna had been runners. Maybe that was why they were so close. It seemed only the two of them would take to pounding the pavement when they had to think. Gianna wondered if her brother still did that. She did.
Nico was a year younger than she was and Isabella was the baby at twenty-four. Those two had always been close. Then there were her two older brothers, Dante followed by Angelo less than a year later. Those two were almost like twins as well back then. Now everyone was grown. Angelo was recently married. Isabella would be by the end of the year and Dante was living in blissful sin with Phoebe.
She may not have been around but she knew what was going on in their world. She just stood on the outside looking in now. She grabbed her briefcase, making sure everything she needed was in there. Finally she sat down and picked up her bedroom receiver.
The phone was answered on the first ring. Rocky, her agent, her friend and at times the mother she no longer had.
“What’s up, doll? Ready for next week’s shoot?” Rocky’s voice was quick and firm and still held a hint of the Bronx where she’d grown up.
“Change in plans, Rocky,” Gianna said. “I won’t be doing next week’s shoot.”
“Come on, Gia,” Rocky said, using her no-nonsense tone. “You have to put this idea of leaving me aside and focus. This shoot will have you i
n every magazine in the world.”
“And this is new?” Gianna asked.
“Well, it’s a new ad,” Rocky replied, tongue-in-cheek.
“I can’t, Rocky,” Gianna continued before she was interrupted again. “Stephano’s been shot.” She’d talked plenty about her siblings, so she knew Rocky would know who she was talking about.
“Oh, baby.” Rocky was all motherly now. “What do you need?”
“I need a flight back home,” Gianna said. “And a promise that you won’t book anything else for me while I’m gone.”
“Without question, baby girl,” Rocky agreed. “I’ll be ready and come for you within a half hour. We’ll leave as soon as I can have them get the flight plan filed and be there as soon as possible.”
“You don’t have to come with me, Rocky,” Gianna said, but there was a smile on her face. “I’m just going home.”
“Into the lion’s den more like,” Rocky muttered and Gianna could already hear her friend moving about. “I’ll not be sending my girl back there alone. Two shakes of a leg and I’ll be there.” And with that promise Rocky disconnected.
Rocky would see her return home as going into the lion’s den. Rocky had taken one look at Gianna and soaked her in that first day they met. Rocky had been a woman with an eye to make a name for herself and Gianna had been just who she was looking for. She’d been waitressing the night Rocky had decided to interview potential models at the restaurant. Rocky hadn’t liked any of them. Instead she’d taken one glance at Gianna and dared her to give it a try.
Gianna had been barely making ends meet, living in a hovel and working three different jobs to pay the rent. She had jumped at the opportunity. She’d gone a little wild with her first success and Rocky had let her for a bit. But Rocky had seen the shadows and dug deep until she found the cause. She’d given Gianna a job, but more importantly she’d helped her find some self-respect. Rocky had given her love, acceptance and understanding at a time when she craved it. In fact Rocky had taken the broken girl and slowly, piece by piece, helped put her back together. Rocky was the one Gianna confided in. Everything except the one secret that Gianna had never told anyone. Cris suspected, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth.
She took her bags and walked them to the front door. She’d call down to the lobby and one of the doormen would come up for them. She took her phone off the charger and stowed it in her purse, putting the charger in her briefcase. She’d call downstairs on her house phone. She turned into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Opening a cabinet drawer, she pulled a box of peppermint sticks from the shelf and stuck them in her purse.
It was a habit she’d picked up as a child and never lost. When she was nervous or upset her stomach would get queasy. Her mother had always given her peppermints to suck on, not the round candies but the soft peppermint sticks that Belinda would put in their hot chocolate. Gianna still used them. Hell, she had a feeling that the next few weeks or however long she was back, she’d be going through a lot of boxes of peppermint sticks.
* * * * *
Cris hung up the phone and slowly returned to the waiting room at the hospital. No one had been in while he was gone so there was no news on Stephano. The family was all there by now, everyone except Gianna.
Dante moved over to him along with Angelo and Sampson, Isabella’s fiancé . “Did you make the call?”
“Yeah, she’s leaving as soon as she gets a flight and will be here,” Cris said and he couldn’t stop his gaze from moving over to where their mother paced in front of the window. Belinda’s face was ravaged with tears that still seemed to fall. She held her rosary in one hand and worried the beads with the other, her lips were moving in constant prayer. Why did he feel as if he were betraying her by calling Gianna?
“Don’t say anything to Mamma just yet,” Angelo said. “We’ll deal with the fallout when she gets here.”
“This is the first time Gianna has agreed to come home in ten years,” Cris said to the group as Nico, Isabella, Phoebe and Cara—Angelo’s wife—joined them. “I will not let her be bullied and made to feel unwelcome. This isn’t about whatever axe Mamma has to grind. This is about Stephano.”
Phoebe stepped forward and took Cris’ hand, giving it a squeeze. She might be Dante’s woman, but she was Cris’ best friend and had been for several years. She was also in Gianna’s corner as well. “I agree,” she said.
“I think we all agree with that,” Dante said. “It’s time to put whatever happened in the past and move forward. If this doesn’t open Mamma’s eyes to that then we’ll have to think of something else. But family is family. We’ve always been told that since the day we were born. We’ve let this go on for long enough. I stuck my head in the sand, thinking that eventually it would work itself out. I was wrong.”
“At least you have the excuse that you were off in the military and not here to see that nothing was changing,” Angelo said, one arm wrapped around his wife, holding her close. “I just pretended otherwise.”
“We all did,” Nico agreed.
“What were we supposed to do?” Isabella asked from where she stood in front of her fiancé Sampson, his arms pulling her to the front of his body. “Mamma absolutely forbids us to speak of her.”
“Well Gianna is coming home,” Cris stated. “And I have a feeling she’s going to need to feel the love and support of all of us while she’s here.”
“This time we get to the bottom of the issue and find out what the hell happened,” Dante said.
“I have a feeling this isn’t going to be easy, or cut and dry,” Angelo said.
“You use all your detective skills to discover that?” Isabella asked her brother dryly and Angelo grunted at her.
“Can’t you keep her under control, Sampson?” Angelo asked his best friend since high school. Sampson just chuckled as Cara smacked her husband on the shoulder.
“About as well as you control yours,” Sampson replied.
“Very funny, guys,” Phoebe said.
“Belinda, come sit down before you give me an ulcer from all that pacing.” Their father’s voice brought all their heads turning to where Salvatore sat watching their mother.
“I’m praying,” Belinda muttered and went back to what she was doing.
Isabella moved to her dad. “Pops, you need anything? Coffee or anything?”
“Nah, Bella.” Salvatore shook his head before leaning it back and closing his eyes. “Maybe I’ll just pray like your mamma.”
“We’re all praying, Pops,” Dante said.
The door to the waiting room opened and they were all on their feet as a man in scrubs entered.
“Mr. Marquetti made it through surgery. It was touch and go for a bit but he has an amazing will to live. The bullet nicked his heart but we were able to fix the tear it created. There’s some swelling and the possibility of infection. But if he can hold his own over the next seventy-two hours, then his chances of recovery increase drastically.”
“Can we see him?” Salvatore asked, holding his wife close to him.
“Only the two of you and only for a few minutes,” the doctor said. “The rest of you need to wait until morning and then it will be short, quick visits two at a time. His body needs to rest.”
“Yes, yes,” Salvatore said. “Thank you. Thank you so much for saving my son’s life.”
“It’s not over yet,” the doctor warned him. “The rest is up to him.”
“He’s a Marquetti,” Belinda said. “And the Marquettis are survivors.”
Chapter Two
Rocky had the car take them straight to the main hotel in town, saying that Gianna needed a few minutes to freshen up before she raced to the hospital. But she wouldn’t be racing anywhere right now. Cris had called to let her know that Stephano pulled through surgery. No visitors until morning. He was going to call her first thing in the morning and let her know everything. She planned on getting up early and hopefully beating them all there. If she slept at al
l.
As it was she was pacing her room. And it was driving her crazy. Giving in to impulse, she changed into some workout gear and laced up her favorite pair of running shoes. Throwing in her earbuds, she attached her armband to hold her iPod and slipped her keycard into the hidden pocket at her hip. Her mind was in chaos and she needed to be as clear as possible when she met her family. Amazing how just stepping back into the town of her past made her feel as she had the day she left, as if ten years hadn’t passed.
No one moved in the halls but who else would be crazy enough to go for a run at one-thirty in the morning? She slipped out the front door with a wave to the guy on duty at the desk. Stopping on the sidewalk, she glanced around and took it all in. Not much had changed and yet it all somehow seemed different. Maybe it was just that she was seeing it all through different eyes now. Either way memories flooded her.
She remembered running with Cris. Remembered going to the park and playing football with her brothers and friends. That was how she had met Michael. He’d been friends with Cris and Stephano back then. She had no idea if they still were and had no intention of asking. As far as she was concerned he was a mistake better left in the past. He’d already proven himself unworthy.
She tapped her iPhone to access her music tab and hit shuffle on her favorite mix. Rock poured through her ears, and her feet took off. The streets were well lit and she took in the new businesses as well as the ghosts of the past as she stuck to the main streets of downtown. She hit the turn that would take her by the shop Phoebe ran and felt the grin on her face when she saw one of her creations in the front-window display. It was so good to see her design in the window that she came to a complete stop. And in that moment she knew that her decision to stop modeling and design full-time was right. She’d never felt this type of euphoria when seeing one of the many ads or catalogue shoots she’d done over the years.
