And when they stepped off of the elevator and waited for Reno and Tommy, she felt downright dowdy. There was Tommy in his Armani suit and Reno in his Versace, both men standing near the counter talking with another equally well dressed man. And of course Trina, who epitomized style.
Grace used to pride herself in her simple tastes. She never wanted to spend big bucks on anything, and made it a lifestyle choice. But she wasn’t alone anymore. She was with Tommy Gabrini. And Tommy didn’t fly below the radar. He flew high, wide, and in style. He had asked to take her clothes shopping once, and she had turned him down cold. She even found his suggestion offensive. You either take me as I am, or don’t take me at all, she had warned him. Now she understood why he had wanted to do it. He liked her style, he just didn’t feel that it was up to par with his.
Now, as she watched him and Reno and Trina, she couldn’t agree with him more. With all of this elegance around her, she suddenly realized she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Cameron Birch wasn’t either. He was seated at a booth in the lounge adjacent to the lobby. He could see the elevators from where he was sitting, and he could see the whirl of activity in and out of the crowded bar.
And then he saw Grace.
She was standing near the elevators with another black beauty. In fact, it was the woman who was standing next to Grace that had attracted his attention first. Mainly because of that form-fitting pantsuit she wore. Then he saw Grace, in her sleek white dress, a dress that contrasted beautifully, he thought, against her dark skin. And although he was seated in his booth with a female he had brought to Vegas with him, he didn’t hesitate.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he tossed his napkin and got up, and then hurried toward Grace.
Trina was showing Grace the gorgeous chandelier in the middle of the lobby, and they both were looking up at it, when Cam walked up. He had his palms up and seemed perplexed.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he came.
Grace turned to the sound of his voice, and Trina looked, too.
Grace wasn’t amused. “Hello, Cam,” she said, not interested in even pretending she was pleased to see him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her again.
“Same reason you’re here I suppose.” Grace smiled. “It’s Vegas!”
Cam hesitated. “Oh, you’re trying to be funny?” he asked her. “I haven’t seen you in Idontknow how long and you stand up here like you don’t know me? Like I’m some nobody to you?”
“Oh, Cam, please, you sound like a broken record.”
“You should know. Since you’re the one who broke my record.”
Grace smiled. “You mean your record of breaking up with females? You mean the fact that I was the first female to break up with you?”
Cam smiled, but Trina wasn’t buying his act. She could see the anger in his small eyes. She looked across the lobby at Reno.
Reno didn’t even know Trina and Grace were downstairs until he felt Trina’s presence. When he looked near the elevators and saw her looking at him, he knew that look. Something was wrong. Then he saw the young man talking with Grace.
He nudged Tommy, who had placed on his reading glasses and was checking out a tiny replica of the PaLargio that Reno planned to offer in the gift shops. Tommy felt Reno’s nudge and looked at him.
“Who’s the surfer dude?” Reno asked him.
Tommy looked where Reno was looking and as soon as he saw Cameron, he sat the replica down. And as soon as he sat the replica down, Cameron hauled off and slapped Grace.
Although people continued their goings and comings inside the lobby, there was a sense of earth-shifting that Tommy and Reno both felt.
“Oh. No. He. Didn’t,” Reno said as soon as Cam’s hand connected with Grace’s cheek.
And without a moment’s hesitation, he and Tommy were off, running across the lobby as if their lives depended on it. And for the first time in as long as Reno could remember, Tommy was outrunning him.
“Are you all right?” Tommy first asked Grace as soon as they made their way to her side.
“I’m fine,” Grace said, holding her cheek, still stunned by the slap, but ready to slap back.
But Tommy grabbed Cam by the arm.
“Tommy?” Cam asked. “What are you doing here?”
Reno immediately ran to the private elevator and turned his key.
“Excuse us, ladies,” Tommy said as he took Cam and all but dragged him to the private elevator.
Grace moved quickly to follow them, but Trina pulled her back.
“Why are you stopping me?” she asked Trina. “I can fight my own battles.”
“Not with a Gabrini man you can’t,” Trina said, and Grace looked at her. The Gabrini men, with an angry Cam, stepped onto the private elevator and allowed the doors to close.
Trina could see how anguished and flustered Grace was. She knew that look. When she first met Reno she was the same way. “Come with me,” she said to Grace and escorted her into the same adjacent lounge Cam had come out of. They sat at the bar.
As soon as the bartender saw who had just sat on the stool, he hurried to take her order. “Mrs. Gabrini, welcome,” he said with a smile.
“Hello, Mark. What would you like Grace?”
“Water would be nice.”
“A couple of Perrier’s please,” Trina said, and the bartender immediately opened two bottles of water and poured them in glasses.
“Thanks,” Trina said when he sat them in front of them and then left.
“What are they doing to Cam?” Grace wanted to know.
“Do you care?” Trina asked.
“I just don’t like to be handled like this. He slapped me, not them. I should be the one slapping back.”
“Then I would suggest you finish your water, grab your purse, and head back to Seattle now,” Trina said.
Grace looked at her. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Because it’s true, Grace. If you want to be with Tommy Gabrini, you’ve got to understand a few things.”
“Such as?”
“He will be wearing the pants twenty-four-seven. There’s no two ways about it. And I know how you feel about that, too. I was where you are now myself once. When I first met Reno I couldn’t stand how he always had to handle everything for me. From what I wore to what I drove to any enemies I might have had, he always had to take care of it for me. Used to drive me insane.” She smiled. “Now I love it.”
This surprised Grace. “You do?”
“Oh, yes. Absolutely adore it.”
“But you didn’t feel as if you lost a part of yourself?”
Trina thought about that. “I lost that need to always have to prove myself. I lost that complete sense of self-reliance that was born more out of necessity than want. When I decided to give my heart to Reno, I had to let him take care of it, too.”
“And he never broke it?”
Trina hesitated. “I can’t say that. We’ve had some tough times in our marriage. Some awful times. We once even separated for nearly a year. But everything we went through, I had to learn that Reno was looking out for my best interest. And I’m telling you, Reno and Tommy are cut from the same cloth. It’s no accident that they’re not only first cousins, but best friends. They are closer than brothers.”
“There are some differences,” Grace said.
“Yeah, like what?”
Grace knew she had to tread carefully. “Tommy’s not a mob boss, for one thing,” she said and then looked at Trina.
Trina sipped her water. “I don’t know what Tommy told you about it, or what you read about it, but Reno isn’t any mob boss, either. Does he stand his ground and don’t take shit from anybody? Yes. But so does Tommy. Tommy might not be all out there like Reno, but make no mistake about it, Grace. He’s just as ruthless.”
Grace’s heart pounded. Then she thought about Cam. She couldn’t stand him, but Jillian loved him. “They aren’t going to kill
him or anything like that, right?” she asked Trina.
“Probably not.”
“Probably? But that means they could?”
“They’ll do what’s the right thing to do. That asshole slapped you. What do you think Tommy’s going to do to him? Tell him, good job, keep up the good work? He’s going to kick his ass, that’s what he’s going to do. And Slapper is going to deserve every kick.”
Grace smiled. “Yes, he will deserve it,” she agreed. Then she exhaled. “I guess I’m just not used to a man taking care of things for me.”
“Get used to it. The Gabrini men put alpha in alpha male. Get used to it, honey.”
Grace glanced as Trina twirled her diamond ring. “You mentioned clothes,” she said.
Trina looked at her. “Clothes?”
“You said Reno even began picking out the clothes you wore. You didn’t find that a little offensive?”
“I did at first, I’m not gonna front. But then I started hanging around in Reno’s world and I realized I wasn’t just representing myself anymore. I represented him now. And I had to dress and act accordingly. If I didn’t want flash, then I should have married a farmer. But I didn’t. I married Reno.”
“Is Tommy flashy in your opinion?”
Trina laughed. “Tommy is the epitome of flash, you hear me, girl? He is flash!”
Grace laughed, too.
“They don’t call him Dapper Tom for nothing,” Trina continued. Then she looked at Grace’s dress. “And your style is nice, I’ll give you that.”
“But it’s not up to Tommy’s standards?” Grace suggested.
“Not even,” Trina admitted. “But don’t worry. By the time he’s ready to put a ring on that finger, he’ll have you rocking it. Just like Reno did me. They know what they’re doing.”
Grace laughed again. She wanted desperately to follow up, and felt comfortable enough to do so.
“I wonder if he’ll ever put a ring on my finger, to be honest with you,” she said to Trina.
To her relief, Trina nodded. “I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been in that place, too. And with Tommy, even more so than Reno, it would be revolutionary for him to ask a girl to marry him. Especially after the last time he gave it a whirl, I’m not gonna lie to you. But it’s not impossible.”
That wasn’t particularly encouraging, but Grace didn’t pursue it.
It would take another few minutes before Cam, with Tommy and Reno following, appeared in the lounge.
Grace and Trina watched closely as Cam left Tommy and Reno and walked up to Grace. Grace’s body clenched. To her amazement, he didn’t appear to have been roughed up at all.
But she could tell he was approaching her under duress.
“I want to apologize to you, Grace,” he said to her. “Slapping you was wrong and it won’t happen again. I, in fact, won’t ever come within a thousand yards of you again. Do you accept my apology?”
Grace found it rich that Cam would allow himself to be forced like this. But she loved the fact that he agreed to stay away from her. “Yes,” she said. “I accept your agreement to leave me alone.”
Trina smiled. Cam looked as if he wanted to slap Grace again, but he glanced back at Tommy and Reno. He left her side and headed back to his booth.
Grace and Trina watched as he sat down and then quickly stood back up, wincing in pain. And then he grabbed his girl by the hand, told her to come on they were leaving Vegas, and then, without so much as a glance their way, headed out of the lounge, and then the lobby, altogether.
Grace and Trina looked at each other. “Now you see why you should let Tommy handle it?” she asked. “He gets it done.”
Grace smiled. “Yes, he does,” she said affectionately, and Trina laughed.
And then they made their way to the waiting Gabrinis.
CHAPTER TWENTY
After a wonderful night of dancing, drinking, and partying with Reno and Tree, Grace woke up the next morning, in their big, comfy hotel bed, feeling perfectly contented. She didn’t want to be anywhere else in this world. She didn’t want to be in love with any other man on the face of this earth. And she was beginning to feel as if she wasn’t going to find a better future in-law than she just might have found in Tree. She woke up feeling as if this Vegas trip, with Tommy at the helm, could possibly become the best trip she’d ever had. She was loving it.
She also woke up loving the feel of Tommy’s mouth feasting hungrily on her pussy.
She didn’t realize it at first. She thought those rippling feelings were a wonderful hangover from a wonderful night. But when she began to feel repeated swipes of his tongue making long, slow licks on her cunt, the kind of licks that made her insides tingle, she knew it was more at work here than yesterday’s joy.
Tommy was at work here. And he was working expertly.
She moaned to the feel of his mouth all over her. And he wasn’t just licking. He was eating and biting, and opening her folds wider and sucking deep inside of her. She laid there, on her back, as his mouth kept roaming her pussy as if he was roaming for food, and he was eating her dry.
She was already naked. Which, at first, surprised her. She remembered when they returned to their hotel room, both of them buzzed, and showered together. After fucking her up her ass, which, given Tommy’s size, was just as much pain as joy for her, he then bathe her again. He remained in the shower afterwards, bathing himself, while she got out, dried off, put on her gown and went to bed.
She had no idea when he had finished bathing and came to bed himself, because she had fallen asleep. Now her gown was off of her body and bunched up beside her pillow, and Tommy was mouth-fucking her senseless.
Until he finally stopped, slid her naked body closer to his, opened her legs even wider, and then put his dick in her.
She felt the sensation of his entry immediately, as her already sensual body began to squirm with passion. And she knew it was going to be to a long, arduous fuck because he kept teasing her. He kept pulling it in and then taking it all the way out, and then he’d rub his dick against her clit, over and over, as if he had to slow it down or he would spill on out. Which never happened when she had sex with Tommy. Tommy never came prematurely.
But he continued to take it slow. And she loved it. She relaxed against those silk sheets and let him pleasure her in his own time. She began to fondle her breasts as he fucked her, because the heat had penetrated all the way up her entire body. And then Tommy leaned down and took care of that, too. He sucked and kissed and fondled her top, as his masterful dick kept pounding her bottom. She felt the feeling all over, and kept squirming and arching as the sensation rolled all over her.
As always, she was the first to cum. Tommy always managed to make sure of that. And this morning was no exception. Her vaginal muscles clamped down hard as soon as the rippling began, and she climaxed with screams that even a hotel wall couldn’t lessen.
Her climaxed always did it for Tommy. Every time she clenched and clamped, he came. His dick couldn’t take the tightness. His dick couldn’t fight the new friction. He spilled out with a release that caused him to strain with elation.
“Oh, yes,” he said softly. “Yes,” softer still. Until he was merely mouthing unspoken words as he couldn’t stroke or gyrate or even move another muscle. He had saturated her pussy. He had satiated her desire. And all he was able to now do was stop, look, and fall off of her and onto his back. His chest was pounding. His heart was beating out loud.
Grace smiled. “That’s what I call good sex,” she said.
“Good?” Tommy mumbled between his bouts of hyperventilation, as if she had grossly underestimated what they’d just experienced. But because Grace had expected him to object to her characterization, she laughed. She knew it was great, too. She just felt giddily happy. She loved needling Tommy.
But it would be less than an hour later, after they had changed and dressed and was about to go downstairs to a late breakfast, did everything change. A call came in from Jimmy Mack,
asking Tommy to come upstairs, to the penthouse. And his voice said it all: something was wrong.
“Thanks for coming,” Jimmy Mack said as soon as Tommy and Grace walked in. Tommy’s heart dropped when he saw tears in Jimmy’s eyes.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as he stepped across the threshold of the home, ushering Grace in with him, and closed the door. “What’s happened?”
“They took Trina away,” Jimmy Mack said.
Tommy frowned. “Who took Trina away?”
“They said they had to question her. I told them they had to wait until Dad got back, but they said they didn’t have to wait until anybody got anywhere.”
“Who’s they?” Tommy was about to panic. Was this a mob snatch? What was he talking about?
Then Reno came out of his home office, talking on his cell phone. And although he was livid, at least, Tommy felt, he was there.
“You find out now, you understand me?” Reno was yelling on the phone. “Now, Artie! I don’t wanna hear nobody’s shit about knowing nothing. You find something out! You get the gotdamn mayor on the phone if you have to! Those fuckers waltz into my house and take my wife and nobody knows where they took her? You’d better tell me something good real fast, Artie, I mean it!”
When Reno looked up and saw Tommy, he became visibly relieved, too. “Tommy,” he said, acknowledging him. Then he turned his attention back to the phone. “Just get the fuck off of this gotdamn phone and handle your gotdamn business!” Then he calmed back down, a weariness in his voice. “Just do it, Artie,” he said and killed the call.
And Tommy pounced. “What’s happened to Tree?” he asked Reno.
“Law enforcement came and got her. The motherfuckers!”
“Police or Fed?”
Reno hesitated, anguish in his eyes. “Feds,” he said.
“Ah, geez, Ree,” Tommy said, displeased. “Anything going down?”
“Nothing,” Reno insisted. “That’s the crazy part. I was just being a husband and a father and running my business. I haven’t been involved in any shit since Georgia. Now, of all times, they decide to take my wife?”
ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI Page 20
