Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor

by Mallory Monroe

  Grace was upstairs, and was just looking out of her window to see if he had arrived, when she saw Tommy getting out of his car. And her heart couldn’t help but flutter. Most men in a pullover sweater and silk dress pants would appear dressed down, but Tommy looked as elegant as he could have looked in a three-piece suit. His hair was still that rich thickness, but this time his barber framed his face in a way that made him look downright boyish. She knew Tommy had some concerns about the fact that he was getting older, and the fact that he was much older than Grace wasn’t helping that concern. But he had nothing to worry about in her eyes. She still had yet to see any guy, younger or older, who could beat Tommy. Not only in looks, but in decency too.

  But she didn’t delay. She was dressed, she was ready, she made her way downstairs and to the front door just as he was ringing her bell.

  Tommy expected Grace to look nice. She always dressed beautifully to him. But when she opened that door and stood before him, he felt a warmness in his heart, and an emotional tug deep down within his soul that caused him to shiver. Isn’t she lovely, he thought, as he looked down her body at her light red one-shoulder sleeveless dress that highlighted her toned brown arms and full breasts, and with ruching at the waist that highlighted her perfectly proportioned figure. But it was her face that captured Tommy’s imagination. It was that wide-eyed look, not of innocence per se, but of a pureness so unique to her that it made his heart sing. She was unlike any woman he’d ever known. And it was that differentness that was drawing him right back to her again. She was the woman he wanted to be his wife forevermore. In every way she was the one. He had her once and lost her. He wasn’t losing her ever again.

  He didn’t realize, however, that his look, and especially the way he roamed over her body as if he was comparing notes with his other ladies, wasn’t giving her any indication of this great need of his. Until he looked into her eyes. She knew she had him then. “Hey,” she said with a grand smile. “Don’t you look dandy tonight!”

  “Just as long as you don’t say dapper,” Tommy said with a smile, “I’m good.”

  Grace laughed. She knew how he hated his nicknames. She stepped out, he locked and closed her door, and they were off. He kept his hand in the small of her back as they walked down the steps toward his Ferrari. And just walking beside her, and seeing her again, and inhaling her fresh scent, made him want to fuck her again so badly his dick was throbbing. But he held it together. That was the icing on the cake. But spending time with Grace, and proving to her that he was worthy of a second chance, was the cake. And from the way she had no problem turning him down last night, it wasn’t even baked yet. He had to work for this Rolex.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  To Grace’s surprise, he didn’t take her to some nice and fancy restaurant for dinner as she had fully expected he would. Tommy, instead, took her to the marina, where they boarded a private yacht complete with captain and crew.

  Tommy held Grace’s waist and assisted her onto the beautiful vessel, and then got on behind her.

  “Welcome aboard, Mrs. Gabrini,” the captain said with a smile, and Grace almost stopped in her tracks. It had been years since anyone had called her by that name. She looked back at Tommy. It had to be all his doing.

  Tommy felt slightly embarrassed by just how much his little maneuver revealed. One reason he used the Gabrini name when the captain requested the names of all who would be onboard, was to avoid the crew treating Grace as if she was one of his booty calls, or something even worse. The main reason was because it felt right. “Less explaining,” he told her when she looked back at him.

  Grace smiled. And they stepped onboard.

  “It’s most attractive,” Grace said as the crew escorted them to the cabin. “Who owns it?”

  When Tommy said he owned it, Grace as surprised. She stared at him. “Really?”

  “I rarely use it personally,” he admitted, “but whenever investors come to town they enjoy relaxing on the water.”

  Grace smiled. “A business expense,” she said. “I should have known.”

  Tommy grinned as they entered the cabin. Old school music, the kind of music Grace knew they both were particularly fond of, played over the speakers, and the cabin had wall to wall windows that looked out on the gorgeous sea. It was so beautiful to Grace that it felt surreal. She and Tommy dated before they were married, and he treated her well, but he never went all-out like this for her before. She was impressed.

  Tommy was working hard to be impressive. Because he felt he had failed Grace. He felt he had taken her for granted and should have been more attentive to her needs. He knew that they ultimately broke up because of his lifestyle, but he also knew a part of that lifestyle involved his inattention.

  They sat at the table in the cabin and relaxed as the chef staff brought in the meals. Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed blared out over the speakers, and Grace felt as if she was the luckiest girl in the world. She felt overjoyed!

  When the food had been served by a James Beard award-winning chef, and the drinks poured, the entire staff left them alone to enjoy their meal and their evening. Tommy looked at Grace. They were eating and smiling as if they were kids again. But he could see her trepidation too. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  Grace decided to be honest with him and tell him exactly how she felt. If they were ever going to make this work, they had to communicate far better than they had in the past. “There were two weeks of nothing from you,” she said, “where I began to wonder if you were having serious doubts about our relationship going forward. And then you go all-out like this? It’s a little confusing, Tommy.”

  Tommy leaned forward. His shoulders were broad and strong, but it was his eyes that caught Grace’s attention. They were sincere and sad. “I decided that I was going to take it slow with you,” he said. “I thought I was giving you the space I felt you needed. I didn’t want to rush you. But I realized yesterday, when I asked you out and you turned me down, that I had fallen into that same way of thinking that created friction in our marriage to begin with. I was making decisions for both of us without communicating with you at all.” He stared at Grace. His eyes were filled with regret. “I apologize for that,” he said.

  Grace felt a lump in her throat when he apologized. Tommy was a person who rarely placed his feelings on display. Unlike his cousin Reno and his brother Sal, he was never one to shout it out. Grace knew how hard a conversation like this was for a man like him.

  “I’m older than you,” he continued, “and I know I have a bad habit of behaving as if I know what’s best for you. Even after we divorced I still behaved that way. I probably always will. But I don’t want you to misunderstand my intent. Because I respect you, Grace,” he said, “and I respect your opinion. But I didn’t communicate that to you. I didn’t ask you what you thought. I didn’t ask your opinion. I know I have that problem, and I promise you I’m working on it.”

  Grace could feel his sincerity. And was about to respond herself, but then Tommy said something that put all of her concerns to rest. “I want this to work,” he said to her. A frown suddenly appeared on his face as if he, too, understood the gravity. “I want you, and me, and Destiny to be a family again. An intact family,” he added. “And I know it’s going to require a lot of effort. It’s going to require a lot of work. I’ll give it my all, I promise you that. But I need to know that you’re all-in too.” Tommy said this and looked at Grace. He studied her face. “What do you want, Grace?”

  Grace took a moment to take it all in, the way she usually did, and then she looked at him too. The serenity of their surroundings, as the peaceful sounds of the sea floated around them, only added to a sense of rightness for her. But she needed to know something from him. “When did it click for you?” she asked. “When did you decide that you wanted us back together? Was it just because you and Liz were having problems?”

  “No,” Tommy said. “It had been building for a long time. There was always a part of me that felt
I blew the best chance I was ever going to have when I lost you. But I didn’t address it. I drowned myself in my work, and Liz and I tried to do our thing, but I think we both knew I could have tried harder. It wasn’t her fault. Liz is Liz, and she always will be. She’s not the problem.”

  Grace nodded. She was glad to know that he wasn’t attempting to shift blame, or act as if he didn’t know who he was getting when he got Liz. She and Liz were hardly close, but even she could tell he had another ShoShawna Shanks on his hand: a woman whose career meant the world to her. Which was great for her. There was something masterful about a woman who treated her career with the same gusto that a man treated his. But Grace knew that wasn’t the kind of woman Tommy wanted.

  “I think I was in denial about who I was,” Tommy continued. “I was attracted to hard-hitting, go-getter women. But the attraction, I came to realize, never lasted. It was wafer thin. Because that wasn’t what I truly wanted. I want a wife, Grace, not a go-getter. I want a woman who can balance being a mother and having a career, but I want motherhood to rule the day. I want to be a father and a husband more than I want to be a corporate raider. I’ve only had a stable, functional family once in my entire life, and my lack of attention, my lack of communication, made it dysfunctional.”

  But Grace was shaking her head. “I’m not letting you carry that burden alone. No, sir. Because I did my part too, believe me. I knew who I was marrying. I knew what terrible things you had to do in this life. I saw it with my own two eyes. And I married you. It was a dramatic change, I’ll admit it was. And that night, when I nearly died in those hail of bullets, yes, that changed me. That scared the shit out of me,” she added.

  Tommy wanted to smile, but he understood the importance of what she was saying. He understood what a turning point that night was for both of them.

  “I was a mother. I had a baby that depended on me. The idea that she would have to lead that kind of life was terrifying. And I just wanted out. For her sake. When I should have known even then that there was no way out.”

  Tommy’s heart dropped. “Don’t say that, honey.”

  “I don’t mean it like that,” Grace quickly responded. “I mean we’re Gabrinis. Destiny and I. Because we will always be linked to you. I’m the only wife you’ve ever had. She’s the only child you have. We belong to you. And you’ll protect us. And when you can’t, I’ll have to be there.”

  Tommy smiled greatly. Because he knew she would. She’d lay down and die for Destiny, just as he would lay down and die for both of them. He could hardly believe how blessed he felt.

  “It’s so clear to me now,” Grace continued. “I’m glad I have a man like you on my side. Ed would have harmed me and our child if I didn’t have a man like you on my side. I only wish I had been strong enough to understand that then. But believe me, Tommy, I understand it now. You said you were in denial about who you were? Well so was I. I was in denial too. But not about who I was. But about whose I was. But no more.” Then she hesitated. “I don’t deserve you, Tommy.”

  But Tommy was shaking his head. “It’s the other way around, Grace. I don’t deserve you. I’ve said some horrible things that I deeply regret.”

  Grace didn’t know what he was talking about. He was a complete gentleman during their breakup. “Horrible things? Like what?”

  “Like when I threatened to make Destiny a motherless child if you and Ed tried to keep her away from me.”

  “Oh, Tommy, you were right to say that! Yes, you were. It was the heat of the moment. Ed was wrong for threatening to keep you and Destiny apart, and I was completely wrong for going along with it. That knife cuts both ways.”

  Tommy smiled. “But can we both at least agree that I should have the deeper cut?”

  Grace smiled. “No,” she said. “I’m not conceding even that point.”

  Tommy laughed.

  But then she returned to her original point. “I don’t deserve you,” she said. “Despite everything, I don’t. But if you’re willing to give this another try, then so am I. I want you back too, Tommy.”

  As soon as she said those words, Tommy’s heart leaped with joy. He was out of his seat and Grace was standing at hers, and they hurried into each other’s arms with an emotional release that left them both reeling.

  “Oh, Grace,” Tommy said with full affection as he held her, and then began kissing her.

  Grace stood toe-to-toe with him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and returned his kisses with equal affection. And when he lifted her, and carried her into the big bedroom inside their cabin, she knew she wanted to do something special for Tommy. She didn’t deserve him, just as she said, but she was going to make certain he never regret for a moment his decision to give her another chance.

  Tommy laid Grace on the bed and began undressing her. It turned him on whenever he did so, and he was turned on mightily tonight. He removed his shoes and lifted his sweater over his head. After tossing it, he got down, opened her legs, and licked her. He couldn’t lick her just once, so he kept going. He loved the taste of her.

  And then he began fingering her as his mouth moved up to her breasts. He began sucking her with long, slow suctions that made Grace want to scream with joy.

  It felt so good to him, too, that he could hardly wait to get inside of her. And he was about to. He was about to stand up and unbutton his pants and put it on her. But Grace grabbed him back down, turned him onto his back, and straddled him.

  Tommy felt unbridled happiness as her big breasts bobbed in his face like juicy juggling melons, and her vagina, with her legs straddled open, pressed against his rock hard stomach and rubbed it. And when she began kissing him, when he felt those wonderful lips against his mouth again, he wrapped her into his arms and returned the favor. They kissed for a long time. They moaned and groaned, with their heads going around and around, and made love with their lips.

  When they had practically kissed each other dry, Grace moved down further, kissing him as she moved, and began unbuckling and unzipping him.

  Tommy felt like a teenager in heat when she began unzipping him. He would never be able to count the women who made this move on him in his lifetime, but it was only when Grace was making the move did he feel this kind of excitement before. She never tried to be what she wasn’t. She didn’t want to be any empress of sex. What Tommy loved most about Grace, and what most women never had the humility to understand, was that she knew he was too experienced to be impressed by anybody’s sexual mastery. He’d seen it all hundreds of times over. But what Grace gave to him that no one else seemed capable of giving to him was her total self. She never wanted to be the best he’d ever had, she just wanted to be the best she could be. She just wanted to do her best by him. And she always did.

  Tommy lifted his hips and ass and Grace slid his pants and briefs down, revealing that fully erected joy machine between his legs. She meant to pull his pants and briefs off of his body, but as soon as she saw his dick again, her vagina began throbbing so badly that she couldn’t wait a second longer. She wanted to taste him. She used to feel drunk on his pre-cum. She wanted that taste again!

  And she did it. Tommy began moaning and closing his eyes in sensual delight when she put her small mouth around the big head of his penis and began to lick and suck it. He was squeezing his ass and moving his hips as her tongue circled around his thick shaft and rolled across his veins as his rod continued to grow. He kept getting larger and larger. He was in pre-cum, and she was licking that too.

  Tommy felt emotional as she mouth-fucked him. This was the mother of his child. This was the woman who was forced to do unthinkable things because of her connection to him. She couldn’t take it, early on. It was just too much for her to take! And he still knew a part of her was going to struggle with his lifestyle.

  But he wanted that struggle. He never wanted his lifestyle to be normal to her. He didn’t want her to just accept death and dying as if they were an art form. Grace was as precious to him as Destiny. She was as
fragile to him too. Sal used to joke that he treated Grace like a baby. Sal used to joke that he pampered her and that was not good for her. Sal was right. But Tommy wanted a woman he could pamper. He wanted a woman who could enjoy the simpler things in life. He hated what he had to do to Ed, but he’d do it again to fifty other men just like him if any of them ever tried to harm Grace or Destiny. They were the family he chose. They belonged to him.

  And when Tommy pulled Grace further up on his body, and guided his dick into her pussy, and began moving deeper and deeper inside of her, he felt so protective of her he nearly suffocated her with his love. He bear-hugged her as he fucked her. Grace could barely breathe. But she loved that feeling of capture.

  Tommy was moving so deep inside of her, and moving with such deliberate speed, that his swollen balls began slapping her tight ass and heightening her sensual pleasure. He was in control now. Tommy was in total control.

  They began kissing as he fucked her. And it was for them so much more than sex. It was a new beginning. It was hope when this day seemed impossible not all that many days ago. Their love was their bridge over troubled water, and it was encapsulating them.

  The music still played softly over the speakers as they made love. But it was the Jackson Five this time. Singing I’ll Be There.

  “You and I must make a pact

  We must bring salvation back

  Where there is love, I’ll be there!”

  And they both felt that song. They felt it as they made passionate love. They felt it when they came. And they came together. Not one and then the other one. But together. It was fitting. It fit exactly right.

  “I’ll be there to comfort you

  Build my world of dreams around you

  I’m so glad that I found you!”

  They felt it after he poured his last into her, and her vagina gripped his rod as tightly as she could clench it, causing his veins to nearly pop as he continued to cum.