When he first saw her again, he understood the impulse. He understood that need to have her in his life that he woke up with. But now, as he licked her so long and hard that she was wrinkling and swelling before his very eyes, getting that pussy ripe for his penetration, he understood it even better. He lifted her thighs and squeezed her ass and pulled her closer to his mouth. With other women he got maybe half of this at most. Some good sex, usually not great, but that was it. With Gemma he got this great sex, the best he’d ever had, and so much more. He got her.
That was why he came to Vegas. That was why her sex was so great, he believed, because she was putting it out. He enjoyed her sex because he enjoyed her. That was the difference for the elevation. That was the difference, right now, why he couldn’t even wait to remove his shirt, as he licked her one last time, slid his muscular tanned body back up along her beautifully toned, black body, and then put it in her.
Gemma drew in a harsh inhale when she felt his dick’s penetration. She already knew how wonderfully Sal could put it on her, but the separation caused her to forget just how wonderful. He, too, had an intake of breath when he first felt the warmth inside of her. It was like settling in to a soft pillow. Only it was a small, narrow pillow that created that fantastic friction that made his penis expand to almost epic proportions. He sounded like a Lamaze-trained breather as he inhale and then exhaled, small breaths the deeper he penetrated her. Until he was in so deep that he had to begin his strokes.
He laid down and kissed Gemma lovingly as he fucked her. She felt as if a piece of steel was stuck deep inside of her and it was hitting all of her sensitive spots, and then his mouth was kissing her and taking it all on home. She wrapped her arms around him, kept her legs fully expanded and lifted high, as he pounded her. And when his mouth left her mouth and moved to her breasts, capturing them in an imprisonment of passion, she knew she was through. She couldn’t handle it. She arched her back and screamed out. She begged him to stop, to give her a chance to regroup, the feelings were too intense.
But he didn’t stop. Her reaction created even more pussy friction and he was near his breaking point. He wrapped her tightly in his arms and fucked her harder and harder. He could barely contain himself as he fucked her. She was screaming his name too, as her body slid up and down from his pounding, because it felt more exhilarating than even her dreams could have conjured.
He used to dream about her. He’d never admit it to her, but he used to dream about fucking her so hard, so expertly, that she passed out.
She didn’t pass out this time, but he passed over. This one more time with Gemma Jones caused Sal’s feelings for her to pass over that place all feelings had to pass before they could land on love. And he’d be the first to admit that he didn’t fully know what love truly felt like. But if this wasn’t love, if the feelings he felt for this one woman wasn’t love, then he didn’t want love. He wouldn’t be able to handle it.
He lifted his head and looked at her as he fucked her. Her eyes were closed, and her hair, thanks to him, was all over her head, causing his heart to swell with emotion. He used to hear how you never was supposed to mess with a black woman’s hair, not even in lovemaking. But he always managed to ruffle up Gemma’s hair and it never even fazed her. That was why he loved her so. She broke the mold. She was perfectly imperfect, the kind of woman who would get in the trenches with him if she had to. The kind of woman who wouldn’t leave him even if he deserved to be left. Tears came to his eyes as he fucked her. He was going to do right by her. He’d never done right by any woman in his life before, even his mother said he was a grave disappointment, but he was going to do right by her.
He leaned back down, clutching her even tighter as he fucked her, nearly killing himself outright with his output. He dick whipped her so long and so hard that soon the fire ignited within her and she came. Just as he was cumming himself. Just as he screamed her name one last time, plowed his dick in with one last thrust, and broke through.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Gemma woke up to the sound of Sal in the shower and a cell phone ringing. It wasn’t hers, because the ringtone was too different, but she quickly identified the source. Earlier, after they made love on the sofa, Sal had carried her to bed. She fully expected him to take a break and get back at it, but he fell asleep almost right away. She understood it. It was emotional drain. But she was too amped-up to sleep and, instead, went and showered and put on a bathrobe and then cleared her living room of their discarded clothing. Only she tossed her clothes in the dry cleaning bag, and she hung his suit up over the bedroom door. Then she eventually returned to bed. And now it was in the pocket of that very suit where that ringing phone was originating from.
She waited for the ringing to stop, and eventually, after numerous rings, it did. It undoubtedly went to his Voice Mail. And she relaxed again, and thought about how wonderful it felt to have Sal back in her life.
But then the ringing started up again, as if the person didn’t leave a message and was determined to get through. Or, Gemma thought, Sal was a very busy man, which he was, and it was simply another caller.
Only it rang a third time almost immediately after the last ringing stopped. Gemma knew then she had to do something, if only to tell whomever it was that Sal would have to phone them back. She got up, went over to the suit, and pulled the ringing phone from the pants pocket. It felt like an intrusion, but then it didn’t either. He just told her that he was her man now, her one and only man now, and therefore she had better get used to taking liberties like this with him, and him taking them with her.
But as soon as Gemma pressed the phone’s button, it was just going to Voice Mail. No intro from Sal, just a beep. And before Gemma could press the off button, a woman’s voice, one with a strong New York/New Jersey accent, could be heard after that beep. And it was immediately clear that she was no business caller, as Gemma had assumed. This was personal.
“Why can’t you answer your phone, asshole?” Those were her first words out of the box. Gemma heard them, and was amazed by the nerve of the woman.
But the woman kept on firing. “You know what’s going on here, yet you act like it doesn’t concern you. Well it had better concern your ass! I tried to raise that boy right. You know how hard I tried, and you wasn’t anywhere to be found. And now his foolishness is just getting worse. He needs you now more than he ever has, and you won’t answer your phone? To hell with you, Sal Luca! I’m tired of having to deal with that boy all by myself! You call me back or you’re be sorry! I’m tired of this shit, I’m tired of it!” Then she hung up the phone.
Gemma, stunned, clicked off too. A boy, she asked. Does Sal have a son? She was so astonished that she could hardly move. Trina never mentioned anything about Sal having a child. Not once did she mention that. And Sal never mentioned it either. It didn’t seem like it was even on their radar screen, this idea of Sal having a child.
But the woman didn’t exactly say that he had a child, either. It certainly sounded that way, but she wasn’t going to jump to conclusions. But before she could even think about the implications, or even move to return the phone to Sal’s pocket, his voice rang out.
“You’re up,” he said from behind her.
She turned around. He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom drying off.
“Your phone rang three times in a row,” she said. “It sounded important.”
Sal stared at her as he made his way toward her. He could see that something was bothering her, and wondered if one of his past lovers had phoned. She handed him the phone. He tossed the towel over his shoulder and took the phone from her.
“They left a message,” she said as he began to search for that message.
For some strange reason, Gemma began to feel self-conscious about being so naked in front of Sal. She knew it had to do with the revelation, and the fact that she hadn’t yet digested it, so it made her feel exposed. That was why, as he pressed the button and listened to the message the woman lef
t, she decided to walk over to the bed to retrieve her bathrobe. But Sal caught her by the arm and held her there, while he listened, without expression, to the voice mail message.
When he finished listening to it, he tossed his phone up on her chest of drawers and pulled her into his arms. They were naked flesh to naked flesh and even despite her misgivings, it felt wonderful.
But it was disturbing too, because Sal didn’t so much as mention what that message was about to her. He, instead, started talking about them.
“When I get back,” he said, “I want to take you and Reno and Tree out to dinner.”
Gemma looked at him. “When you get back? You’re leaving?”
“Unfortunately, I have to. I’ve got business to take care of.”
“In Seattle?” she asked. Or is it New Jersey, she wanted to add.
“I came here on an impulse, remember? I left a lot of work behind. Now that I have you back, I’m thrilled that I took that chance. But my businesses don’t wait for me to take a break. I took a break. Now I’ve got to get back to work.”
This actually worried Gemma. She had forgotten about the fact that she and Sal would have a bi-state relationship. That she wouldn’t see him nearly as often as she had hoped. “So when will you be back?” she asked him.
Sal thought about this, shaking his head. “I’m hoping, if I can move a lot of things around, and I mean a lot, in a couple weeks.”
Gemma’s heart sank.
“Couldn’t you come to Seattle in a few days maybe?” he asked her. “I’ll send the plane.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got another trial coming up, and it begins in a couple days. There’s no way I can get away.”
“Damn,” Sal said, pulling her closer. “How long will this trial last?”
“It’s always hard to say. It’s another civil case.”
“You mean where you get nothing if you lose the case?”
“It’s on contingency, yes. Almost all of my cases are lately. So I’ll be tied up with that, and that trial could take a little more than a few days, maybe a week on the outside.”
“What about after the trial? How does you schedule look then?”
Gemma thought about it. “I guess I would have some free time. Well, no I wouldn’t either. There’s the boutique I have to consider. I’m expected to put some time in at the boutique.”
“Yeah, but you can still come and spend a few days in Seattle with me before you put that time in.”
But Gemma was uncomfortable with that solution. She didn’t want him to get accustomed to running her across the country to see him, while he took his ease and didn’t do shit to see her. Her company was just getting off the ground, and it needed her attention. His businesses were multi-million dollar enterprises and all undoubtedly well established. If anybody had flexibility, it was him.
Sal saw her hesitation, and he realized he was asking her to take on the burden of this long distance relationship, something he had sworn he would never do. “Okay, I tell you what. We’ll hang tight. I’ll give it my darndest to get back here in a week or so.”
Gemma smiled. “That sounds great, Sal.”
“That sounds better?”
“It does.”
“So we’ll get through this. We’re not going to turn our long distance relationship into any problem. It’s not a problem. You hear me? And we’re not going to make it one.”
Gemma felt better actually. “Okay,” she said. “That’s good enough for me.”
Sal smiled. Pulled her closer still. “When I get back,” he said, his big arms enclosing her small body, “we’ll have dinner with Ree and Tree so that I can be the one to tell them the good news.”
“And what news is that?” she asked teasingly.
He slapped her on her bare butt. It actually stung. “You know what news,” he said. “About us. You and me. You’re my woman now,” he said and rubbed his ever-expanding dick against her. “And I’m your man.”
“And you feel that’s worth the expense of an entire dinner?”
He leaned back and looked at her. “Are you kidding me? I want to shout it from the rooftop, that’s how I feel about you, babe.” He began to rub her hair in place. “I want the world to know that you’re mine. And you are, Gemma,” he said as he began to kiss her. “Your eyes and your mouth are mine. And your breasts. And especially---”
“Especially what?” she asked smilingly, enjoying his kisses. “My brains? My wonderful personality?”
“Your sweetness,” Sal said to laughter from her. “I mean it.”
Gemma smiled. But Sal was no longer smiling as he kissed her. His seriousness, she realized, was in direct proportion to his arousal.
“And not one solitary man,” he continued, “had better even look at you hard. Because if they do, they’ll have to answer to me.”
“All right tough guy,” Gemma said, getting serious herself, and putting on her lawyer hat. “If you go to jail here in Vegas, Tommy’s not here to bail you out. And Reno won’t.”
“Ah, don’t let that cousin of mine fool you. We fight like cats and dogs, Reno and me. But if I ever get in trouble, Reno Gabrini will be the first one there. And don’t you forget that. Family is everything to us Gabrinis. We’re shitheads when it comes to maintaining relationships with people outside of the family, but our cousin has me and Tommy’s back, and we have his back.” Then he pulled Gemma tighter into his arms. “You’re going to be my family, Gemma. In time, you’re going to be my---”
Before he could finish what he was saying, his mouth was devouring hers. Then he lifted her just enough to put his dick inside of her again. He carried her to bed with his dick slowly stroking safely inside. And then he laid her down and started fucking her slowly and steadily.
She laid there and thought about family too. Her entire body was moving to the rhythm of Sal’s gyrations, as the bed bounced and shook with the power of his strokes, but she couldn’t stop wondering about that phone call. And if that woman was speaking of Sal’s child, as it seemed like she was. But why wouldn’t he tell her? Was he waiting for the right time? Was he afraid that admitting he had a son could torpedo their relationship? It wouldn’t, Gemma wasn’t that unsophisticated, but did he think it would?
Gemma knew women who wouldn’t hesitate to bring it up themselves, and would think she was crazy for waiting for him to do so. She knew women who would fly off the handle and demand every detail and, in essence, ruin a perfectly good relationship on something that wasn’t going to make or break it anyway.
But Gemma Jones wasn’t that girl. At some point, if she really was going to become a part of his family, she was going to have to trust this man. Their relationship was just getting traction. She wasn’t going to ground it again before it could barely take flight just because some woman phoned about some child. Sal Gabrini was a grown-ass man with a grown-ass life. There was a lot about him, she was certain, that she didn’t know. But time, she knew, would tell it all.
But time was also a mighty aphrodisiac. Because by the time she began to feel the fullness of Sal’s sex, she forgot all about postulating over some phone call. His perfect gyrations got her undivided attention. His strokes became so powerful, in fact, and so intense, that she was forced to hold onto the bedpost lest her entire body gave way to the power of his, and she fell.
A week later and Sal did return to Vegas. Gemma was so happy he was coming she couldn’t sleep the night before. She beautified her home and beautified herself, and when Sal stepped off of his private plane and ran to her, and she ran to him, they must have kissed, right on that airstrip, for minutes on end. They had planned to also have dinner with Reno and Tree, but Reno had a major flood in the north tower of his hotel, a flood that threatened to delay the grand reopening of that hotel, and couldn’t get away.
But when Sal came to town that next weekend, they were able to set something up.
Sal and his first cousin, Dominic “Reno” Gabrini, walked into MoDeen’s, an upscale s
oul food restaurant on the Strip, and were escorted to a booth midway to the back.
Both men caught the eyes of most of the women in the restaurant, with some doing double takes as the well-dressed Italians made their way to their table. Both men were brown-haired, blue-eyed hunks in expensive suits and jewelry, but there was a difference. Whereas Reno wasn’t giving the ladies a second look, Sal wasn’t long enough in his relationship with Gemma to have completely broken the habit. A fact, Reno noticed, as they made their way.
“My wife arrived yet, Fonso?” Reno asked Alfonso, the African-American maître d, as he escorted them along the narrow isles to Reno’s usual table.
“No, sir, Mr. Gabrini,” Alfonso said. “We haven’t had the pleasure of seeing her yet.”
“That’s women for you,” Reno said with his usual flair and Sal and Alfonso laughed. “Tree tells me all day long that I’d better not be late,” Reno continued as he and Sal sat down opposite each other, “and then her ass shows up late.” He looked at Sal. “Gem coming with her?”
“Yeah, they’re coming together,” Sal said as the maître d handed him a menu.
“Would you like to place your drink orders now, sir?” Alfonso asked Reno. “Or would you gentlemen prefer to wait for Mrs. Gabrini?”
“We’ll wait, Fonse, thanks.”
The Maître d nodded and left the table.
“So,” Reno said, never a man to mix words, “I hear you’re going to be visiting Vegas a lot more regularly now.”
“Oh, yeah?” Sal asked, looking out of the window. “Who told you that?”
“Ah, come on Sal Luca. Don’t act like it’s some secret. You’re messing around with Gemma Jones and everybody knows it. But the thing is, the kid is happy for a change. That’s what I like about it.”
Sal had to smile on that. And nod his head. “Yeah, me too.”
“She’s a good kid, Sal,” Reno added, staring his cousin dead in the eyes. “She’s not like those car wrecks you’re used to dating. This kid’s got class, you hear me? She’s not the kind you leave the scene on. You stick around, get her information, promise to call her and you do so.”
ROMANCING SAL GABRINI Page 15
