by Simply BWWM
She wondered if perhaps something had happened to Julian and he was there to tell her about it. It didn’t make any sense, though; if anything had happened to Julian, everyone would have known. There was only one other reason that he would be there, and that would be to see her.
She glanced up at him briefly, and saw that he had pulled his sunglasses off. He was watching her intently, and as he did, he smiled, and a sweet and happy warmth began to spread through her, erasing all of the concern and filling her with delight. The grin returned to her face and her play in the fountain became genuine. James was thrilled. He laughed and yelled to her to keep it up.
Careful not to be too obvious about it, she looked around at all of the people who were there watching the shoot, making sure to include glances to Antonio as much as she could without drawing attention to them. She loved that he was there, and more than that, she loved that he was watching her. His gaze felt to her as if it was burning right into her skin, heating her up, and as the raindrops and fountain splashes cascaded over her dark skin, glinting in the sunlight and running over her body, she began to feel warmer and warmer, knowing he could see all of it.
Memories of their night in front of the fireplace flashed in her mind, and she remembered every touch, every kiss, and every pleasure as if it was all happening right then, and the thoughts of it caught her on fire, filling her with an aching need that seemed to be growing each time she looked over at Antonio.
From the look on his face every time she caught his eye, he was feeling the same, and knowing that he was, seeing it on his face, turned her on even more. By the time James called for the wrap, saying that the shoot was done, her heart was pounding in her and all she wanted to do was feel Antonio’s hands on her.
The crew came and began to dismantle everything around her that had been set up for the shoot, including taking her props, and all the while, he stood off to the side, watching her. She saw Kathy go up to him and he looked completely distracted when she started speaking to him, as if he had forgotten where he was entirely and her voice had brought him back to reality.
He said a few things to her and she nodded and left, and he walked toward Gabriella as he crew began to dissipate, and she was finally left alone. When he reached her he shook his head slightly.
“You looked incredible doing your photo shoot today. I was amazed,” he said softly, standing before her. He didn’t reach out for her, though he desperately wanted to. He was so hungry for her; yearning to touch her, to smell her, to feel his lips on her skin, but he knew that they had to keep a professional appearance around all of the staff, at least for the time being. Nothing about them having been together could be supposed or guessed at by anyone else, especially Julian’s people.
Gabriella grinned and looked up at him as if he was the sunshine in her day. She wanted to hug him, to kiss him, and show him how much she wanted to feel him against her just then, but she knew she couldn’t let anyone see.
“Thank you, it was a lot of fun shooting today.” She looked around them subtly and then raised her eyes to him. “I’m so surprised to see you here! What are you here for?” she asked, wondering aloud what had been saturating her thoughts.
He smiled. “I came to see you. I can’t seem to get you off of my mind… I can’t stop thinking about you at all, and I had to come and see how you are doing and tell you… that I was thinking of you.” He spoke with a low voice, but she heard all of it, and she knew just what he meant. She may have said no men when she was on the phone with Lila, but that didn’t stop him from slipping into so many of her thoughts and her dreams.
“It’s the same for me,” she said quietly as she began to walk with him back into the studios. He followed her. “I try not to, you know… to focus on other things, but you just keep coming into my mind and I can’t stop thinking about you, or wishing I could see you.” She hesitated and opted for honesty. “I’m so glad that you came, and that you’re here. It’s so good to see you. I missed you. I never thought that you would actually come here.”
“I couldn’t stay away,” he said, his voice a little hoarse as his eyes took hers in and he felt like everything in the world was fading away from them except the two of them.
She grinned. “Good,” she told him. She went to her dressing room and let him follow her in, closing the door silently behind her. The moment the door was closed, she turned to face him and he was suddenly directly in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, gazing down into her face and looking like a lost man found.
“Gabriella… I can’t stay away from you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I need you. I need to see you, I need to feel you near me… I need to taste you…” he trailed off as he closed the distance between them and kissed her full on the lips, moving his mouth over hers with voracious need.
Flames leaped up in her and she reached for him, closing her hands around the solid muscles of his shoulders, drawing him to her. Her lips parted and his tongue invaded her mouth, sweeping over hers and making her moan softly as she grew heated and dizzy in his arms.
Her hands slid from his shoulders to his chest and her fingers began to move over the buttons on his shirt, pulling them open one by one, as his mouth left hers and trailed down her neck to her breasts, leaving a line of fire and need behind them.
Antonio pulled at her dress, taking it off of her hurriedly, leaving her in his arms in nothing more than her bra and panties, and at the sight of them, he gasped so hungrily that she knew it wouldn’t be long before they were on the floor with the dress she had been wearing. She pulled his shirt off and kissed his chest and his neck, as her hands moved to the buckle on his pants.
Fiery need was spreading through them both, and they grew more breathless and passionate with each moment. Antonio’s hands slid down her back and held her hips firm and tight, pressing her against his rock hard arousal and she ached to feel him inside of her.
“I need you… now…” he moaned as he kissed her voraciously again. She was about to slide his pants from him when a loud sound shocked them both and they turned suddenly to look up and see Julian standing in the doorway, his eyes burning with fury at what he was witnessing.
Panic and fear shot through Gabriella and she let go of Antonio, bending swiftly to grab her dress from the floor and cover herself with it. Antonio gasped and turned toward his brother. Julian walked into the room and slammed the door behind him.
“What in the hell is going on in here? What is this?” he fumed at them and then glared furiously at his brother. “Antonio! I can’t believe you would do this to me! To your own brother! You know she’s mine! You know that and you go after her like you can take her from me! Is that what you’re trying to do? Take the girl I want?”
Antonio felt a hard tangle of emotions in him. Regret, sorrow, disappointment, anger, jealousy, defensiveness, and possessiveness over Gabriella. He had made love to her. He had gotten her. She wasn’t Julian’s, she was his, and she wanted him back.
She didn’t want Julian, but he knew about the change with the business and he knew that his brother still had no idea that he had lost all control of the company. He knew that Julian was losing everything, and his anger and desire to fight Julian for Gabriella was stemmed by his loyalty to his brother, and the guilt over all that he knew.
“It’s not like that!” he said quickly, trying to defend the two of them somehow.
Julian was having none of it. “Get out!” he roared at his brother. “Don’t you ever come here again! This is my magazine, my building, my girl, and you are never to be here again! Out!”
Antonio pulled his shirt on and turned to look at Gabriella, who had tears forming in her eyes. She couldn’t believe the situation she had found herself in. Her thoughts were going in a myriad of directions; she knew she should have listened to Lila and stayed away from both brothers. She knew she should have been more careful at work, not knowing when Julian would be coming back in. She should have never slept with Antonio, no matter how much sh
e wanted him.
She watched him as he shared a look of angst with her before turning and pushing roughly past his brother, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. Gabriella couldn’t believe he had left. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t to be left alone with Julian while he was so angry with her.
His raging eyes turned back to her, and she felt like she might not be able to handle his anger for her, or the repercussions of him catching her with his brother.
“How dare you do this! How dare you sleep with him when it’s me that wants you! You’d risk not only the cover of the April issue, but your job here as well, by being with him when you know that’s exactly what I want from you? I thought you were so worried about your all-important career? I thought that getting the cover was the most important thing in the world to you? I didn’t realize that it meant so little to you that you’d throw it all away to be with my brother instead of me!” His face was turning red, he was so angry.
He couldn’t believe what he had walked in on. He’d told no one that he was back, and he was still quite injured and healing, but he was anxious to see Gabriella, and he’d made a special trip to the studio just to see her. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about their fight in the library or the way he had been with her at the hospital, and he wanted to force his hand a little more to see if he could get her to sleep with him. He felt like he had been close.
Julian had decided that he liked having her modeling at the magazine, and deep down he thought it would be good to keep her there, but he was unaccustomed to not getting his way, and when he expected her to satisfy his urges and desire for her and she said no, it was frustrating beyond measure to him.
Women never said no him. They all wanted him, and he was used to two or three women a week laying down for him and he never had to even really try to get them, but since he had met Gabriella, his attention and focus had become centered on her because she was the one woman he seemed to not be able to get, and the more she told him no, the more he wanted her.
He felt no emotion for her other than anger and irritation, and a good deal of lust, but there was nothing in his heart for her, it was all because he wanted her beneath him in his bed, and she kept holding back.
He looked at her standing there in her bra and panties, holding her dress up to the front of her body to cover herself somewhat, and he felt nothing but disgust and rage. He had been so focused on her that he hadn’t even bothered to be with any other women since he’d been trying to bed her, and he hadn’t gone without sex altogether since he’d started having sex at fifteen. It was a completely new phenomenon to him, and he hated it. He had waited for her. He had held out for her, and then he had walked in on her and his brother, and he knew if he had walked in ten minutes later he’d have caught them having sex. The knowledge of that was infuriating to him.
He had been betrayed by his brother, and he had been tossed aside by the woman who was driving him crazy so that she could sleep with Antonio. The whole thing was completely baffling to him, and he felt like they had both stabbed him in the back.
Julian took a few steps and stood directly in front of Gabriella; so close that she could feel his breath on her and see the anger in him making him tremble. Fear began to swell in her and she steeled herself for the onslaught of rage that she was sure was coming. She felt chained to the spot by uncertainty and the paralyzing fear that he created in her.
“If you ever see Antonio again, I guarantee you that your career will be over. I’ll destroy it, and I will destroy you. It’s because of me that you are in this business, because of me that you are working, because of me that you are a success, and I will take all of that away from you before you can blink if you even think about seeing him again.
Ever! You owe me everything you are, everything you have, and if you want to work another minute in this industry, you are going to forget you ever met him and you are going to give me what I want with you, and you will not give it to anyone else, especially my brother! Do you understand me?” he growled at her in a deep angry voice.
Gabriella’s heart was pounding outrageously and everything in her was saturated in adrenaline. Her breath came short and fast, and she tried to stop herself from quivering. She watched him carefully, worried about what might happen between them just then. She could not answer him right away, she was so gripped with fear, and she wasn’t entirely sure if he was looking for an answer, or if he was hell bent on making a mandate that she would be expected to follow.
“Answer me!” he screamed at her suddenly, his face reddening further, and she jumped at the sudden shout.
“I won’t see him again,” she said quietly. She knew she should never have seen him in the first place. She felt so strongly for him, she wanted him, and she wished that they could be together, but she knew that Lila was right; she couldn’t have both of them.
She couldn’t have Antonio and expect to have her career as well. She was going to have to give one of them up. She had worked far too hard all of her life to get where she was with her career to give it up for a man, even a man she cared about so much and wanted more than any other man.
Julian reached his hand to the back of her neck and grabbed it, pulling her within a few inches of his face, and her heart nearly beat right out of her chest. She was so afraid of what would happen.
“Never again,” he demanded in a low warning voice.
She shook her head as hot tears pricked at her eyes and flooded them, threatening to fall. She stayed completely still as his eyes bored into hers.
“You better start thinking about what you’re going to do for me to make up for what you wanted to do with him. You owe me, Gabriella, you owe me everything, and you’re going to pay it back to me; all of it. Soon.” He stared at her a minute longer and then he let her go, releasing her from his fierce grip, and turning to walk to the door.
He didn’t look back at her at all, he just walked out and slammed the door behind him. The moment it closed, she sank to the floor and sobbed, gasping for air as her tears rolled down her cheeks. She was ripped in half by what she wanted; both her career and Antonio, and it was crystal clear to her that she was only going to have one of them, and she knew which one it was. She was going to have to let Antonio go completely, and the idea of doing that hurt her heart deeply.
Julian left the studio and drove home, his anger boiling in him to a point that it never had. He zipped the car along the roads of Los Angeles; tires squealing, engine roaring, all the way back to the mansion. He slammed on the brakes in front of the house, threw the car into park and didn’t even bother to turn it off. He left the driver’s side door open and flew up the stairs to the front door, throwing it open and looking around in a rage.
“Antonio!” he yelled out, his eyes darting all around for his brother.
There was no response. He walked into the foyer and through some of the adjacent rooms, and was coming back into the foyer when he saw his brother walking down the stairs from the upper level. Antonio was rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows.
“Julian,” He said in a level voice as he met his brother’s wild eyes.
“You!” Julian shouted, stabbing his finger through the air toward his brother. “You betrayed me! You went behind my back! How could you do this to me?! I told you to leave her alone! I told you! You went after her anyway! How could you do that to me? I’m your brother, Antonio! Your own brother! Your flesh and blood!”
Antonio reached the bottom of the stairs and looked down slightly at his younger brother. They were as different as they could be. Antonio stood there in his dress pants, button up shirt, and a tie which had been loosened slightly. His hair was combed back neatly, his face clean-shaven. His shoulders were squared back, his jaw lifted, his eyes hard on his brother. He seemed to be an impenetrable wall. Julian was in jeans and a pullover shirt, his dark hair tousled in array, his cheeks flushed with anger, looking like he could explode in every direction at any mo
ment.
Julian’s outburst in Gabriella’s dressing room had changed everything between them, and it was the first time as adults that a fight between them had been so powerful that it was causing a rift. Antonio had realized it on the way home from the studios; he had spent every moment in the car on the way home carefully thinking about everything that had happened, and what would happen, and he had come to some hard and bleak realizations.
“What did you say to Gabriella when I left?” he asked sternly as he stood before Julian.
Julian felt his ire flash hotter in him and he ground his teeth. “It isn’t your business what I said to her!” he shot at his brother like a swift blow.
Antonio clenched his jaw. “It is my business, Julian, because she is my business! What did you say to her?” he repeated, his voice remaining level, but with an undertone of strength.
Julian considered not telling Antonio briefly, but then he thought that it might hurt his brother to know what was said, and he wanted to hurt him more than anything right then; to lash back at him and put him in his place.
“I told her that if she ever sees you again, I’ll destroy her career. She wants her modeling career more than she wants you, so you can just forget ever seeing her again. I forbade her from seeing you, just like I am forbidding you from seeing her, again, but you better listen to me this time.” He jammed his finger in the air toward Antonio, but didn’t get too close to him.
“I promise you, Antonio, if I find out that you tried to see her at all, even once, I will fire her from the magazine, and I will make it my own personal mission to destroy her reputation in the industry, and she won’t ever get a modeling job again. She’ll be blackballed all over the world. I promise you that. You want to destroy everything she says she’s worked so hard for? Do it. See her again and watch what I do. You’re going to bring the axe down on her, just out of greed. Never see her again! Ever!” Julian demanded, glaring at Antonio.
Injustice and anger began to burn deep and hot in Antonio and he felt the rift between them growing. He shook his head slowly and looked his brother directly in the eye.
