“Hey ladies,” a voice said and they all looked. Teron and his brother Ray stood at their table. The same Ray that had been Grace’s blind date. Grace immediately felt uncomfortable. Jamie was elated.
“Hey, Tee-Tee,” he said to Teron. “What’s going on, my friend?”
“Just hanging out with my bro.”
“Remember me?” Ray asked Grace.
“Sure. How are you, Ray?”
“You remember my name. That’s something.”
“Can we join y’all?” Teron asked.
“Sure you can,” Jamie said, making room. “We never turn down good looking men.”
“I know that’s right,” Nayla said, looking at Ray. “I’m Nayla, by the way.” She extended her hand.
“This Teron,” Jamie said as Ray and Teron shook her hand, “and his brother RayRay.”
“Nice to meet you,” Nayla said.
Teron grabbed a chair and sat beside Jamie. Ray grabbed a chair and sat beside Grace.
While the others engaged in small-talk, Ray looked at Grace.
“So how’s life been treating you, Miss McKinsey?” he asked.
“Life’s been good,” replied Grace. “How about you?”
“I miss you,” Ray said.
Grace really didn’t want to deal with this. She had just wanted to chill and have fun tonight. She had a man now, a great man, and she really didn’t want Ray or anybody else to have any illusions otherwise.
But Ray obviously had other plans. He looked down at her breasts. “You’re still looking good, that’s for sure.”
“You’re still at Barnes and Tate?” Grace asked him.
Ray showed his irritation when she changed the subject, but he continued to smile, too. “Yeah, I’m still working there. Still easing my way to the top. You’re still at Trammel?”
“I am actually.” Then she grabbed her purse. “But will you excuse me?” She stood up.
Nayla, seeing her stand, interrupted her own conversation with Teron and Jamie. “Where are you going?”
“Ladies room,” Grace said and left.
Ray watched her and shook his head. “She don’t know what she’s missing,” he said.
“Yes, she does,” Jamie said. “She loves the one she’s with.”
Ray frowned. “She’s still with that old white guy?”
Jamie smiled. “You know good n’ well that man ain’t old. But yeah, she’s still with him.”
“Then I’ll say it again: she don’t know what she’s missing.”
Grace, however, took her time in the restroom. She was missing Tommy already. She knew it was going to be torturous not being able to see him for three whole days. And the idea that Ray thought he still had a chance with her concerned her, too. She made it her business to never lead anyone on, because she would hate being treated that way herself. But it would seem presumptuous if she just busted out of the restroom and told him to back off. Especially if he had no real intention of getting back on with her, anyway.
But as soon as she stepped out of the restroom and began heading down the narrow corridor to the main room of the club, she had no choice. Ray was coming down the hall toward her. And he was smiling.
“I wanted to make sure nobody had kidnapped you,” he said.
Grace could see their table from the corridor, and she could see that Nayla was too much into Teron’s conversation to even look her way. Because if Nayla would have looked, Grace would have given her the see ya’ wave and gotten out of Moors right then and there.
“It hadn’t been that long,” she said to Ray as they approached each other. But as she moved to go around him, Ray grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her movement. She turned toward him. Now she was facing the restrooms and he was facing the club’s main room.
“I wanted to ask you something,” he said.
When she gave him her undivided attention and he saw the beauty in her bright brown eyes, he felt regretful. The idea that he could have had this woman still gnawed at him.
“I was wondering if we could hook up sometime,” he said, and continued even as Grace was shaking her head. “Maybe hit up another club or take in a movie, something like that.”
“I can’t,” Grace said.
“You could if you wanted to.”
“I’m not available, Ray. I thought I made that clear the night we had that blind date.”
You didn’t make nothing clear, bitch, Ray wanted to say. But he contained his anger. “I know,” he said. And then smiled. “But you can’t fault a dude for trying.”
Grace smiled, too.
Just as she did, Tommy entered Moors. He didn’t immediately see Grace, however, as his eyes were scanning the main hall. But Ray saw him. And he remembered him well. It was beginning to become an epidemic as far as he was concerned. All of these white guys having their way with the sistas. And, as if by reflex, as soon as Tommy looked as if he was about to turn toward the hall, Ray decided to make a move.
“Whoa, what’s that?” he asked Grace and put his hand on the side of her face, as if he was removing some food particle from her cheek.
When Tommy’s big blues finally looked toward the back hall, he saw Grace, her back to him, standing in that hall with a man, and he saw the man place his hand on the side of her face. His heart raced at just the sight of another man touching her. He hadn’t even left for Australia and already she was allowing this? But he knew it couldn’t be what it seemed. Grace wouldn’t do that to him.
And as soon as he thought it, Grace’s hand reached up and swatted the man’s hand away.
That’s my girl, Tommy thought with relief and made his way toward her.
“Is it food?” she was asking Ray after she had swatted his hand away. She began rubbing her cheek for any particle herself.
“It’s off now,” Ray said, although there had been nothing there to begin with. “I knocked it off before you knocked my hand away.”
Grace was about to apologize for her almost reflex action, but Ray looked past her.
“What’s up?” he asked.
Grace turned around. When she saw who was now upon them, her heart soared.
“Tommy!” she said, and ran into his arms.
The jealousy that jumped into Ray caused his jaw to tighten. He hated to lose. And to a dude like that, too?
But Grace wasn’t concerned with Ray’s jealousy, or even Ray himself. She was too thrilled to see Tommy again.
“Tell me they canceled your trip and you don’t have to go away, after all,” she said hopefully.
Tommy grinned. “Who are they?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Grace said, forgetting that Tommy answered to no-one. “Tell me that you canceled your trip.”
Tommy chuckled. “No, I can’t tell you that,” he said as he removed his hands from around her waist to make room in the hall for two ladies who were coming from the restrooms.
Tommy then turned his attention to Ray. “Hello,” he said.
“’Sup,” Ray said. He showed no emotion whatsoever.
“You look familiar,” Tommy said.
“You interrupted our date once before,” Ray said. “And look like you’re doing it again.”
Tommy didn’t like the sound of that. “I’m the only man Grace dates,” he said. “So I’m sure I wasn’t interrupting any date.”
“He means that blind date I was on, the night you came to Moors---”
“Oh, right,” Tommy said, remembering now.
“Anyway,” Ray said as he gave Tommy the stare-down. “I’ll check with you later, Grace.”
“Okay,” Grace said and she and Tommy watched as Ray headed back to the main room. He wasn’t Tommy’s cup of tea, but he wasn’t going to order Grace to stay away from him or anything like that. He saw how she swatted his hand away. She could handle herself.
“So what are you doing here?” Grace asked him, her hands resting on his chest. “I thought you’d be in the air by now.”
“I’
m on my way to my plane now. I just wanted to see you again before I left.”
“Oh, how sweet,” Grace said with a smile.
“Let’s talk outside,” Tommy said as he took her by the hand and escorted her down the corridor, into the main room, and then out of the entrance door.
“That limo,” Grace said as soon as she saw his waiting limousine, “has you written all over it.”
Tommy laughed. “Just come on.” He placed his hand on the small of her back as he walked her toward the limo. Others hanging on the outside of the club looked at the couple, not because of their interracial status, Grace was willing to bet. But because of Tommy. She was becoming accustomed to the stares.
Albert, Tommy’s long time driver, immediately stepped out of the limo, hurried around the back side, and opened the passenger door.
“Get in,” Tommy said to Grace and Grace, excited but also confused, got in.
Tommy then got inside of the limo. Albert closed the door and headed back toward the driver’s side. He got in behind the steering wheel, closed his own door, and awaited his orders. The windows of the limo were completely tinted.
Grace smiled. “Don’t tell me you’re going to kidnap me and take me to Australia with you?”
Tommy nodded. “That’s the plan. And I’d probably get away with it, too, because you seem awfully happy for a kidnap victim.”
Grace laughed.
Tommy turned toward her. “No,” he said, as he ran his hand across her soft hair, his face now very serious, “I just wanted to see you again, and kiss you goodbye.”
Grace’s heart hammered as he leaned toward her. She was more familiar with his kiss now, but her reaction to his nearness always surprised her. Like last night, when his thick, hard penis entered her repeatedly, and she was arching and feeling as if she’d never been loved like that before. Mainly because she hadn’t, but also because it was Tommy who was doing the loving. Whenever he was near her, she felt the same way. Like she was experiencing something new and different every time. She loved being against him and next to him, and as soon as his lips touched hers, she felt her lips quiver with sensuality.
He French-kissed her for a good long time, pulling her closer against him. And when he stopped and opened his eyes, he could see where hers were heavy-lidded, just the way he liked them.
She smiled. “That was nice,” she said.
“Nice?” Tommy asked, as if to say I’ll show you nice, and then pressed the intercom button. “Around the corner, Albert,” he ordered his driver.
As the limo began to move, Tommy laid her onto her back. Grace started to say that they couldn’t do that here, but she held her peace. Because if she knew Tommy, she knew that mere location wasn’t going to get in his way.
And it didn’t.
He unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and pulled them down, along with her panties, to her ankles. He then opened her legs and moved his mouth between them. And he kissed her goodbye with the most passionate mouth-fuck she’d ever had. He was already her gold standard, but he was surpassing even himself. He licked her and he ate her and she arched her body closer to his mouth as her vaginal juices poured. And when his tongue slipped inside of her folds, she grabbed his head and began moving it back and forward, back and forward, as if it was his very penis that was penetrating her.
And although Tommy hadn’t intended for his cock to play a part in this goodbye kiss, her reaction made it an impossibility.
He zipped down and flung it out, and then entered her wet pussy with a penetration that made his tongue seem obsolete. He began gyrating her in steady strokes that caused her to groan in pleasure. It felt like a dream, it felt so good. She never would have imagined her night would include this wonderful package here.
Tommy, too, hadn’t expected this, either. He was in his limo, on the way to the airstrip, when he couldn’t stop thinking about Grace. And particularly how much he was going to miss her. The main reason he stopped at that club was to say goodbye to her, as he had said. But when he saw that handsome young man attempt to muscle his way onto Tommy’s territory, he knew he had to do more. He had to remind her that she was his and no-one else’s. He had to brand her before he left.
And he was branding her with a searing brand. Every stroke of his dick felt like fire to her pussy. And he was groaning even louder than Grace.
“Oh, babe, it’s so good,” he kept saying as he fucked her. “It’s so good. So good. You feel so good!”
She held onto him for dear life as he fucked her. Although his strokes were steady as he thrashed, they were hard, fierce strokes, the kind that caused his balls to continually slap against her ass. And she felt his rawness, and his fullness, and his thickness with every hit and stroke and thrash. He laid down on top of her, pulling her tightly into his arms, as he fucked her even harder. She felt as if she wasn’t going to be able to take it if she did come, it was just that intense.
And he wouldn’t let up. He kept pushing deeper into her with every stroke. They both could hear the sloshing sounds of their saturated sex even as the outside sounds of traffic echoed around them. Tommy always had a thing for car sex, but he never had sex like this.
He continued to thrash her. He couldn’t stop thrashing her. And then she clamped down onto his penis. And she began to cum. He looked at her as her head tilted backwards and her eyes fluttered and her entire body pressed up toward his. And seeing her like that, completely in his control, completely in love with his sex, caused him to cum, too.
He pounded her as he poured out. It became a combination of pain and elation for Grace as he pounded. And then his penis swelled to a point that movement was practically impossible. And she could see veins appear on his neck and arms. He had given her his all. He had held nothing back.
And then, when the rumblings began to ebb, they just lay there, satisfied, as Albert continued his slow drive around block after block. But Tommy could not have been more gratified. He would crave her sex, he knew, while he was in Sydney. But she was going to crave his, too. And that was what he needed. He needed her to remember him. He needed her to understand that he had completely changed his ways and she was no casual affair for him. She was everything to him. And Ray or Jay or any other man would be warned to leave this one alone. This one, this beautiful black woman he had in his arms, was his girl.
Grace McKinsey, he thought with great pride, was Tommy’s girl now.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Grace, come here!” Jillian ordered as soon as Grace stepped off of the elevator and was making her way to her own office. Problem was, she had to pass Jillian’s first.
“Good morning,” she said as she entered.
“Close the door,” Jillian said.
Grace did and then walked up to her boss’s desk.
Jillian leaned back. Grace wore a simple pair of mauve dress slacks and a silk blouse, but she wore it with such style. Jillian always had to work at being stylish. But it always seemed to come natural to women like Grace.
“Sit down,” she said to Grace. Grace complied.
Jillian sipped her cup of coffee, leaned back again. “I understand Tommy’s out of town,” she said.
Grace assumed it would be about Tommy and that conversation he apparently had had with Jillian about them. Grace had expected Jillian to approach her about it yesterday, but Jillian didn’t come to the office at all yesterday.
“That’s right,” Grace said. “He left for Australia last night.”
“Oh, my. That’s an eighteen hour trip. He’s still in the air then?”
“Yes.”
“You heard from him?”
Why was that her business, Grace wanted to say. “Yes,” she said instead. “He phoned this morning. He was just getting ready for a round of videoconferences from the plane.”
“Oh, the technology nowadays,” Jillian said. “I will never be able to keep up.”
“Me either, really. Every time you think you figured it out, they create something even more
innovative.”
“Why would you break Cam’s heart?” Jillian suddenly asked.
Grace looked at her. “Excuse me?”
“You know how much he loves you. How could you do that to him?”
Grace was baffled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. How could I do what to him?”
“Sleeping around with Tommy Gabrini, that’s what! Let’s not get ignorant all of a sudden, okay? I know Tommy. He has his pick of the litter, honey, trust me. And meaning no disrespect, I’ve never known him to waste a hot minute on a woman who was quite like you.”
Grace knew she should have ignored Jillian’s nonsense, but Jillian had known Tommy for years. Grace was just getting to know him. “What do you mean?” she asked her.
Jillian stared at her. “You’re pretty enough,” she said. “With your large, golden eyes and your well put together body, you’re even attractive. But Tommy loves glam, my darling. He loves flash. He loves girlfriends like that supermodel Tracy Gettis. Or that wine heiress Lakita something-or-other. Or ShoShawna Shanks. He never dated a woman who was merely pretty or even, as I would say you are, a woman who’s smart in the boardroom. He dates women who are also, let’s face it, freaks in the bedroom. And I mean super-freaks.”
Jillian smiled. Grace just stared at her.
“But by that prescription, you are automatically disqualified, my pet, from any long term consideration Tommy would ever think of committing to. You’re simply his change of pace female of the moment. You’re against type and sometimes that’s nice too. But as soon as he starts itching for that freaky shit he likes in his bed, he will give you that long goodbye. And you know what a long goodbye is, don’t you darling? It’s the kind where he never has to say goodbye, but will ultimately just move on to the next one, and you’ll get the picture.”
Jillian stared at her, as if she had just made some major pronouncement.
“Your point?” Grace asked, refusing to let her see her sweat.
“Go back to Cameron. He loves you, Grace. He’s more your speed that Tommy Gabrini, come on! Tommy eats young girls like you for breakfast! Cam loves you.”
ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI Page 15
