Sal Gabrini: Burning Love

by Mallory Monroe

  “Mrs. Gabrini is on a conference call right now, sir,” Curtis said after he hung up the phone. “She should be finished in another fifteen minutes or so. But you’re welcome to wait.”

  “I will,” Ben said, thanked Curtis, gave Barbara another glance as he took a seat in the waiting area. As soon as he did, Curtis excused himself to the restroom and, once inside the room, pulled out his cell phone. He called Robby Yale.

  “You told me to tell you if he comes around,” he said into the phone.

  “He’s there now?” Robby asked on the other end.

  “He’s here,” Curtis said.

  Robby thanked him, and hung up.

  Curtis, feeling as if he was securing his relationship every time he gave Robby intel, smiled. Robby was the one. He didn’t care what Sal Gabrini or even Gemma were going to think about it whenever they found out. Nobody was going to break up what Curtis considered to be the best relationship, after a lifetime of stormy ones, that he’d ever had.

  Nearly half an hour later, Gemma was leaned back in her chair, in her office, listening intently to Ben. The least she could do, she felt, was hear him out. And his arguments were very persuasive.

  “I’m not coming to you as some perfect man who has no flaws,” he said. “I’ll never put myself out like that. But I am coming to you as a man who feels as passionately as you do about what’s happening in the D.A.’s office. I think, despite my flaws, I can be a valuable asset to you. I have people inside the office who can keep us posted, so to speak.”

  “You mean snitches?” Gemma asked.

  Ben smiled. “That’s not quite the word I would have chosen, but yes. If you like. Snitches. People who will be willing to keep us abreast of what Jasper is up to. And nobody knows civil rights violations the way I do. If your platform is going to be all about Jasper and his minions violating the rights of minorities and the poor, who better to turn to for guidance than myself?”

  Gemma studied him. “What do you propose?” she asked.

  “A background role,” he said. “A role as your private advisor, just between you and I, rather than upfront CEO.”

  Gemma didn’t respond.

  Ben continued to sell himself. “That would negate any talk of my past or anything like that.”

  What Gemma couldn’t figure out, however, was why he was selling himself so hard? He had an excellent career as a civil rights attorney. Why did he feel this dying need to assist her? It felt, for the first time, as if it wasn’t about the clients being ill served by the D.A.’s office, but all about him.

  “How will this work exactly?” Gemma asked. She had a suspicion how, but she needed him to confirm it.

  Her question, however, emboldened Ben. She was listening. She was asking for clarification. This was good. “It will work,” he said, moving toward the edge of his seat, “any way we, you and I, wish for it to work. The key, however, is secrecy. Nobody on your campaign staff, nobody in this office, nobody anywhere must know that I’m advising you. That way, my life, my past won’t be an issue. But we will be able to keep our excellent relationship on track.”

  He was still avoiding, Gemma thought. “Yes, but how exactly will this work? If you don’t want my staff to know anything, how are we going to meet here, at my office?”

  “We can’t meet here,” Ben said. “That’s the point. None of our traditional places. What I propose,” he said, getting to what Gemma considered the meat of the matter, “is that we meet at, say, a hotel outside of town. Or something of that nature.”

  Yeah, sure, Gemma thought. She heard all she needed to hear. “And what about my husband?” she asked. “Is he to be in on this, or not?”

  Ben frowned. “Of course, he can’t. He hates my guts. This will have to be our secret, Gem.”

  Gem shook her head. “No, thanks, Ben,” she said.

  She could see his countenance fall. “No?” He had the look of a man who thought his request was so reasonable that he couldn’t fathom why she would turn him down. Why not?”

  “Why I don’t want to meet with you in some far away hotel without telling my husband?”

  “If you put it that way,” he said.

  Gemma frowned. “What way am I supposed to put it?”

  “You make it sound dirty and wrong.”

  “It is dirty and wrong!” Gemma shot back. “I’m a married woman. You’re a married man. Yet we’re going to meet in hotels, without telling our spouses, to talk about my campaign? And if one thing leads to another thing, then that’s just the way it is. Right, Ben? Shit happens?”

  Ben was surprised to see this side of Gemma. She was such a sweet, classy lady. His ideal woman, if truth be told. What had Sal Gabrini done to his sweet flower? “It would be strictly business, Gem,” he said. “You know I wouldn’t treat you that way.”

  The door to Gemma’s office opened, and Ben, already irritated, became even more perturbed. “Oh, for crying out loud,” he said. “Shouldn’t your staff know better than to walk in without knocking?”

  But it wasn’t a member of Gemma’s staff. It was Gemma’s husband.

  “Sal?” Gemma asked, surprised to see him.

  Ben, on hearing that name, stood and turned around. All he needed, he thought.

  “What’s this about?” Sal asked, walking toward the desk. When Robby phoned, and told him Ben Walker was paying a visit to Gemma’s office, he got in his Bugatti and flew over. He got there in what he knew was record time. Although the security detail he had on Gemma would not have known the significance of Ben’s visit, Sal reminded himself to tell them now. Did they have a stalker on their hands, he wondered. “You heard me,” he said again as he was now by Ben’s side. “What’s this about?”

  “I came here to speak with your wife,” Ben said. “I didn’t know that wasn’t allowed.”

  “We fired your ass,” Sal said. “What’s there to talk about?”

  Ben looked at Gemma, as if she would rescue him after the conversation they’d just had. When he didn’t find a lifeline there, he looked back at Sal. “I thought I was let go as her campaign CEO. I did not think that included our association as attorneys.”

  “It included it,” Sal said. He knew guys like Walker all his life. Slick with their shit. Polished in their manner. But he had him pegged the moment he laid eyes on him. This guy wanted to taste Gemma’s pussy so bad he’d humiliate himself just to try. And he was supposed to be the cream of the crop, let the media tell it. He was the wise and educated one. He was an educated fool, as far as Sal was concerned.

  “Anyway, Gemma,” Ben said, turning to Gemma again, “I would like for you to take my proposal under serious consideration.”

  “What proposal?” Sal asked.

  This irritated Ben no end. “Don’t you have somebody you can go off and shoot?” he asked.

  “Yeah, motherfucker,” Sal shot back. “You!”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Gemma said, rising to her feet. Ben had no idea the manner of man he was taunting. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she said to Ben.

  “You didn’t fall for his song and dance, I hope,” Sal said to Gemma.

  But Gemma kept her eyes on Ben. “You’re going to have to leave,” she said again.

  She could tell Ben was angrier than hurt. He was not accustomed to anybody disrespecting him. When Sal called him out on his stuff, such as his womanizing, that was probably the height of disrespect to him. Because, just like those hotel meetings he wanted to have with Gem, it was all supposed to be a secret.

  Ben left. He left with umbrage in his gait, but he left. And it was only then did Gemma look at Sal. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Robby told me he was here,” Sal said.

  Gemma frowned. “How would Robby know?”

  “How should I know?” Sal asked. “Who cares? Robby’s in charge of Security now. Maybe one of the guys on your detail ran it by him. That’s not the issue. The issue is you and Big Ben.”

  “There is
no me and Big Ben,” Gemma said. “I told him no dice before you got here.”

  “What was he proposing?”

  “Secret meetings in hotels so he could continue to advise my campaign outside of the public eye.”

  Sal was seething. “More like outside of my eye,” he said. “I hope you didn’t fall for it.”

  “Oh, come on, Sal. You know I didn’t fall for that! I told you I told him no dice. That’s over.”

  Sal felt better about that. “Yeah, well, I’ll get the word out that he’s on my shit list,” he said as he walked toward her. “I know how you feel, from experience, about these so-called mentor-styled lawyer friends of yours.”

  There was a former mentor in Gemma’s past who turned out to be crooked, but that was only one time. She smiled. “You make it sound as if I have all of these nutty mentors running around.”

  Sal smiled too, and pulled her into his arms. Her scent was always so fresh and sensual that it was like an aphrodisiac in and of itself. “You might,” he said. “But just in case that nutty mentor has designs on you, I’m going to notify my people to be on the lookout for the guy. Robby may have already done so, but I’m going to do so too. Just in case his ass doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.”

  Gemma wrapped her arms around Sal too. They had so much going on that sometimes they only felt relaxed when they were together. This was one of those times. “I wouldn’t object to that,” she said. “We can never be too careful. Nowadays you don’t know where the threat is coming from.”

  “Amen to that,” Sal said, and he moved closer against her. She could feel the swell of his penis which, she knew, was the reason he moved closer. He wanted her to feel it.

  “What do you think you’re doing, buddy?” she asked with a smile on her face.

  “What do you think I’m doing?” He began kissing her on that neck of hers he loved.

  “You have on that fancy suit and tie,” she said playfully. “You can’t do a thing in all of those clothes.”

  “Try me,” Sal said, and she heard him unzip his pants. And then he began kissing her, passionately, as he reached beneath her skirt, into her panties, and massaged her clit. He rubbed and rubbed as he kissed her. He lifted her skirt and pulled down her panties as he rubbed and kissed her. He rubbed her so wondrously that she nearly had an orgasm as a result of his masterful strokes.

  But he stopped in time and went behind her desk, sat down in her chair, and sat her now naked ass, with her back to his stomach, on his lap. “Still think I’m useless in these clothes?” he asked as he pulled out his fully aroused cock and moved it between her legs.

  “Do it,” he said to her with hooded eyes.

  She knew what he meant and gladly did it. She placed her small hand around his big cock and used it to rub her pussy.

  “Still think I’m useless?” he asked in a hoarse, super-sensual voice.

  “I never said you were useless,” Gemma said with a smile and with a sensual voice of her own. She was moving her body up and down against Sal’s rock hard body as she relished in the feeling his cock was giving to her.

  Sal squeezed her breasts and bit the back of her neck as he relished in those same feelings too. Until he couldn’t take it any longer. He wanted in. He needed to get in!

  He took his cock into his own hand and guided it inside of Gemma. As soon as he felt her sweet tightness, he sighed and leaned against her. “Oh, babe,” he said. “I may cum right now!”

  It was amazing to him that he was on the verge of cum this soon. His cock was only just beginning to stroke her. It had just entered her. And already he was near his climax.

  “Me too,” Gemma said, as she was nearing an orgasm too. “I’m almost there too, baby,” she said.

  And that made it all the more sweet for Sal. He made sure his cock got the most of her pussy, and he stroked that pussy with long, sweeping strokes. His body was screaming for a pounding. His body wanted to fuck her senseless. But his heart wanted to take its time. It felt so wonderful just to be inside of the woman he loved, that he wasn’t about to rush this.

  And to both of their shock, that urge to cum remained throughout their long lovemaking session. It was the best feeling in the world. Sal and Gemma, leaned back in her office chair, with her clerical staff downstairs and her staff attorneys in their offices upstairs, were in their own world. And they fucked as if they knew it, and loved it, and was determined to make the best of it.

  It would be another half hour before they finally, electrifyingly, came.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It was so electric that afterwards they still didn’t want to part. Gemma had no court that afternoon and Sal was his own boss as head of the Gabrini Corporation’s Vegas office. He could take as much time as he wanted. So they decided, collectively, to go have lunch together and then, if no new emergencies arose, go spend the rest of their day at home with their baby.

  “My car or yours?” Gemma asked jokingly when they made it to the downstairs exit door, with Curtis smiling at them as if he knew what they’d been up to. Barbara was smiling too, as if she had some idea herself.

  Sal and Gemma said their goodbyes but ignored the twosome as they headed out.

  “Well?” Gemma asked. “My car or yours?”

  “I think we’ll go with mine this time,” Sal said, as he steered them toward his car.

  Gemma laughed. “This time? When do we ever go with mine, Sal? When do you ever let me drive, while you sit on the passenger seat?”

  Sal couldn’t think of a time lately. “I like to drive,” he decided as he opened his passenger-side door for her. “You don’t.”

  Of late, that had been true. “You’ve got a point there,” she said, and they both laughed.

  Sal helped her in, got in behind the wheel himself, and they were off.

  He glanced at her. Then back at the road. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  Gemma looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Usually, after one of our lovemaking sessions, especially one like that, you look refreshed. Now you just look tired.”

  Gemma couldn’t argue with that. “I guess I am tired. The media doesn’t hang around my office anymore, or anything like that, but they love to call and ask me all kinds of ridiculous questions, or ask if I’d do interviews, about my decision to run. The campaign hasn’t even started yet. I don’t even have a staff yet. But they still keep calling. And, on top of that, I have my clients to serve. Which is always a challenge. And, on top of that top, there’s Champagne’s.” Champagne’s is the high-end clothing store Gemma co-owned with Reno’s wife. “I’ve been neglecting Champagne’s lately.”

  “You ran it when Trina was recuperating from her accident,” Sal said. “I’m sure she doesn’t mind helping out more while you go through your own transition.” Then Sal looked at her again. “But it does beg the question,” he said.

  “What question?” she asked.

  “How in the world are you going to juggle running the D.A.’s office and running Champagne’s?”

  “Trina will have full control while I’m in office,” Gemma said. “We already discussed it.”

  Sal nodded. “Just as long as you think you can do it, I will support you. But if it gets to be too much for you, I’ll step in, Gemma. And my word will have to be final.”

  Gemma would not ordinarily give up control over what she did or didn’t do to anyone. But she knew Sal had her best interests at heart. He looked out for her that way. It wasn’t always that way in their marriage. Sal used to be, with all of his traveling and underworld activity, on the neglectful side. But it was definitely the case now. “I agree,” she said.

  Sal’s heart swelled with love for her. He’d never met a woman like her. She was strong as steel, but willing to let him be the man he needed to be. He took her hand, and squeezed it.

  “Let’s go see your folks this weekend,” he said hopefully. “We keep putting it off and off and off. Last weekend we were supposed to go. An
d the weekend before that. Let’s go this time.”

  Gemma smiled. “I’d like that very much,” she said. “I know they would love to see Lucky again. And I really do need a break from this city.”

  “Then let’s do it. I talked to your Dad about getting into the restaurant business, and I told him I would advise against it, but I want to eyeball him. To make sure he’s taking my very sound advice.”

  “You know my father,” Gemma said with a smile. “He’s going to do what he wants to do. And if opening a sushi bar, or whatever kind of restaurant he’s talking about, is what he wants to do? Then that’s what he’s going to do. But I’m glad you advised him against it. He won’t be able to blame us if does it anyway, and it fails.”

  Then Sal thought about something else. “You didn’t tell them about that shooting incident at the lodge. Did you?”

  Gemma frowned. “Now you know I didn’t tell my parents anything about that. But you know my mom. She’s an attorney herself, and she loves to snoop. She probably heard something and they checked it out themselves. But they haven’t told me anything, and I for sure haven’t discussed it with them.”

  Sal nodded. “Good. I don’t want them to be any more wearier of me than they already have to be.”

  Gemma laughed. “They love you to death. Don’t worry.”

  “Yeah, I know they do. It’s been a long road, but I’m grateful they now realize I wasn’t trying to do you any harm. I’m sure they still would have preferred if you married a regular guy, but I think they know how I feel about you.”

  “They do,” Gemma said with a smile, and leaned her head back. “Speaking of irregular guys,” she said, “any word on our mystery man?”

  “Nothing,” Sal said. “But I’ve got my crew working overtime. There’s just so little to work with.”

  “And you’ve gone over every angle?”

  “Every angle,” Sal said. “Mouse knows nothing. Tito wouldn’t talk. Tito’s cousin, that manager at the lodge, was in it only to the extent that Tito had him in it. We even searched, not just the Nigerian’s background, but all of the cops who worked with me when the guy’s parents were shot and killed.”