Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (14 page)

“I
told you Sal.
 
Call me Sal.”

“It’s
a question of association,” Rodney went on.
 
“It’s a question of affiliation.
 
It’s a question of DNA.”

Sal
paused.
 
There it was.
 
Heritage.
 
And his, in this banker’s mind, wasn’t up to par.
 
“So the fact that my uncle decided to break
the law, that makes me a law breaker?
 
I
used to be a cop, Mr. Jones, if you wannna go there.
 
So does that association and affiliation mean
something too?”

“Yes,”
Rodney said, nodding.
 
“I was very
pleased to see that you were once a police officer.
 
But your reputation wasn’t that of a good
cop, but a brutal one.
 
At least that was
the way you were perceived in Seattle’s black community.”

Sal
didn’t know how to respond to that.
 
He
wasn’t proud of the way he behaved as a cop, if truth be told.
 
And he was a ruthless hard ass to many
communities, including the black one.
 
But he wasn’t that same person anymore.
 
That person was filled with rage from his childhood craziness, and he
lashed out.
 
This new man was filled with
Gemma’s love and devotion.
 
Things had
changed for Sal.

But
Rodney moved on. He had so many questions and so little time.
 
“You co-own the Gabrini Corporation with your
brother Thomas, is that right?”

Sal
was still stunned by the previous line of questioning, but he moved on
too.
 
“That’s right,” he said.

“And two
restaurants also, at least from what my research tells me.”

Sal
smiled.
 
“You really did your homework,
didn’t you?”

Rodney
didn’t crack a smile.
 
“Of course.
 
No man is going to lay up with my daughter
and I don’t at least check him out.”

Sal
cleared his throat.
 
This guy was the
king of the comeback, just like his daughter.
 
“Yes,” he said, “my brother and I own two restaurants also.”

“Two
very different restaurants.”

“Oh,
yeah,” Sal said.
 
“Diamante’s is very
upscale, five-star, while Taste of Southern is good, down-home cooking.
 
We aren’t interested in stars there, just
good food.”

“And
you own the Winston,” Rodney continued.

“That’s
right.”

“The
newspapers refer to it as a towering luxury apartment building for those who enjoy
flaunting their wealth.”

“Those
aren’t the words I would have chosen, but it is a luxurious place, that’s
right.”

“Which
is also where you live.”

Damn,
Sal thought, this man didn’t just check him out, he launched a full throated
investigation!
 
“That’s correct.”

“I
ask all of this because, given your far-reaching involvements, I can’t possibly
see how you could have any time left for Gemmanette.”

Again,
Sal felt unprepared.
 
Again, he didn’t
see that coming either.
 
This was not
going well on any level to him.
 
“It’s
not a problem,” Sal said, refusing to let him take him down that road.

“But
the time factor.”

“I
make time for her,” Sal said.

“Do
you plan to relocate to Las Vegas?”

Sal
frowned.
 
“Why the fu . . . Why would I
relocate to Vegas?
 
All of my businesses
are based in Seattle.”

“I
see.
 
So my daughter would have to give
up her businesses in Vegas and go live where you live?”

“I
never told Gemma she would have to leave Vegas---”

“Why
have you never been married?” Rodney asked him.

Sal
didn’t know if he was going or coming.
 
This guy was firing on all cylinders.
 
“I never met the right woman.”

This
raised Rodney’s eyebrows.
 
“Never?”

Sal
quickly realized his error.
 
“I mean, not
Gemma.
 
Before her.
 
I never met the right woman before I met
Gemma.”

“So
you’re considering marrying my daughter?”

Sal
hadn’t planned to go down this road at all, but he wasn’t going to lie,
either.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“Eventually.
 
By and by.”

But
that only made Rodney frown.
 
“Eventually
by and by?
 
What kind of answer is that?”

Sal’s
temper flared and he almost said something harsh. He certainly gave Rodney a
harsh look.
 
But for Gemma’s sake, and
his own, he maintained his cool.
 
“It’s
the kind of answer I can give right now.”

“And
you’re going to move to Vegas?”

“No.”

“She’s
moving to Seattle?”

“No.”

“Then
you haven’t thought about marrying my daughter.
 
Not really.”

“I’ve
thought about it.
 
What are you in my
head?
 
How can you say I haven’t thought
about it?”

“You’ve
had many women in your life.”

Sal
stared at him.
 
What was with this
guy?
 
“I’ve had a couple, yeah,” he said.

Rodney
smiled.
 
“A couple?
 
Is that what you call hundreds nowadays?
 
A couple?”

What
the fuck!
 
“A couple hundred,” Sal said,
extremely defensively.
 
“How should I
know how many women I’ve had?
 
I don’t
keep count.”

“Do
you use protection?”

Sal
couldn’t believe this line of questioning.
 
This was beginning to get out of hand already.
 
“Yes.
 
With all of those previous women, I definitely used protection.”
 
Then he tried to smile, to ease his growing
anger.
 
“Why do you think there are no
Sal Juniors running around everywhere?”

“Aren’t
there?” Rodney asked.

“No
there
aren’t,
” Sal said, purposely
marking the father’s question, but he wasn’t about to accept that kind of
innuendo.

“What
about my daughter?” Rodney then asked.

“What
about your daughter?” Gemma asked.
 

Sal
looked and saw her and her mother heading back into the living room.
 
But even with her return, Sal still felt
antsy.
 
He wasn’t accustomed to allowing
some man to handle him this way, he didn’t care who the man was, and he knew he
wasn’t going to be able to allow it much longer.

“I
was talking to Mr. Gabrini,” Rodney replied to Gemma.

“But
you were talking to him about me.”
 
Gemma
sat beside Sal.
 
Cassie sat beside Rodney
and placed her arm across his.
 
And the
battle lines, it seemed to Sal, were drawn.

“He
said he used protection with the couple hundred women he’d previously had
sexual interaction with.
 
I was asking
him if the same is true when he’s with you.”

Gemma
was surprised that he would go there.
 
“That’s none of your business,” she said to her father.

“Don’t
you use that tone with me!” Rodney blared.

“Don’t
you use that tone with her!” Sal blared back.
 

“Let’s
calm down everybody,” Cassie said.
 
“We
all have had a long day, we’re all tired I’m sure.
 
No more questions.
 
Let’s just relax and enjoy the rest of the
evening?
 
Shall we?”

They
all placidly agreed to that very suggestion.
 
But Rodney continued to stare at Sal.
 
And Sal, growing wearier of the man who would be his father-in-law,
continued to stare right back.

While
Cassie was preparing the cookout, and Rodney was handling business in his home
office, Sal decided to take Gemma on a ride and let her show him the town.
 
It was a small town, so there wasn’t much to
see.
 
A mall, a movie theater, eateries
and a couple bars.
 
While stopped at one
of only three red lights in town, Sal admitted the real reason for the drive.

He
glanced down, at her legs.
 
“Since your
parents aren’t about to let us share a bedroom, and I don’t blame them.
 
I need to take the edge off, Gemma,” he said,
then looked at her.
 
“Is there a place
around here we can. . .”

He
didn’t have to go into any more detail.
 
Since they hadn’t touched each other in a couple days, Gemma was feeling
a little edgy too.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“It’s just on the outskirts of town, but
we’re still only talking a couple minutes away.”

“Let’s
get there then,” Sal said, as he started driving again.
 
“A couple minutes is about all I can hold
out.”

Gemma
laughed, and began directing him to the Marigold Motel where, years ago on prom
night, she and a group of her friends had a blast.

TEN

The
bed in the motel room was rocking, with the springs squeaking so loud that it
sounded like music was in the air.
 
Sal was
on top, his dick deep inside Gemma, and he was pumping hard.
 
She had her legs wrapped around him and was
holding on for dear life.
 
He was already
breathing heavily as he fucked her.
 
He
was already beginning to sweat as he fucked her.

“Oh,
Gemma,” he said, his mouth rubbing against her face.
 
“Oh, Gemma.”
 
He was doing her so hard, and it felt so good, that he could barely
speak.
 
He wanted to say more, so much
more, but he couldn’t get the words out.
 
He loved her, but somehow it felt like a different love when they were
in bed together.
 
She was giving him what
he wanted, and in the way he most wanted it, that it made him feel a sense of
pride, of gratitude, of more than just love for her.
 
Her father mentioned all of the other women
he’d had, as if he thought Sal would leave Gemma and go back to his old ways,
but no way, no way was Sal leaving this.
 

He
wouldn’t leave Gemma, for a multitude of reasons, and her sex, he thought as he
continued to fuck her, was one of those reasons.
 
Not the main reason, but it was certainly up
there.
 
Because of the way she gave it to
him.
 
Every time he slid his dick further
into her, he felt that Gemma heat.
 
He
was hitting it, and her body was responding, and it made him feel on the verge
of losing control the entire time he was inside of her.
 
No other woman, and he had more experience
than most men could only dream about having, ever made him feel this way.
  
His dick was in a warm, protected place,
deep inside of her.

“Oh,
Gemma,” he said again as the feelings intensified to yet another higher level,
and he began kissing her, hard, on the lips.
 
He placed his hands on either side of her head and kissed her so hard it
felt desperate.
 
But it wasn’t desperate,
it was love.
 
He felt as if he was
falling in love all over again, with her kiss.
 
He couldn’t get enough of that freshness, that sweetness, that tongue,
those teeth, everything about her, as he fucked her.

Gemma
felt the heat too.
 
Sal was on the verge
of losing it, and his excitement always commanded hers.
 
That was why she held him tighter as he did
her.
 
That was why she began to run her
feet down his back, onto his squeezing ass, as he put it on her so hard, and so
passionately, that her pussy felt on fire.
 
She didn’t think she was going to last another second.

But
she lasted.
 
She held on, kissed him back
just as passionately as he was kissing her, and enjoyed every second of this
man’s sex.
 
The other guests in that
motel had to hear them.
 
Sal wasn’t
exactly trying to hold back.
 
The
bed-shaking alone was enough for the entire motel to hear them.
 
But she didn’t care.
 
She was with Sal.
 
She was with the only man who made her feel
as if his dick was more potent than any drug.
 
His love was as priceless as a house of gold.
 
It didn’t come without issues, major issues,
but it came.
 
And Gemma was determined,
as she began to feel the heat too intensely and began to cum, that she was
going to hold onto this kind of love.

Sal
was holding on too when he came.
 
By now
he had fucked Gemma halfway out of the bed.
 
And then he exploded.
 
He pushed
into her and poured out so hard that he couldn’t pull back out.
 
His entire body was racked with the
sensations of his explosive release and that wonderful feeling he felt every
time she had the wonderful temerity to clamp down on his penis.
 

Gemma
was having spasms, because she was cumming just as intensely as Sal, and their
sweaty bodies melded into one as they enjoyed the heights.
 

When
it was over, they just lay there.
 
And Sal,
a strong man by every barometer, didn’t have the strength to so much as stroke
his woman again.
 
It would be several
more minutes, and plenty of hyperventilating, before he even thought about
making any kind of move.

Nearly
an hour later and the cookout was in full swing on Destin Drive.
 
By the time Sal and Gemma arrived back at the
house, after showering together at the motel and putting on fresh clothes, with
Sal finally getting out of that suit and putting on shorts and a jersey
himself, the place was rocking.
 
They
walked into a backyard filled with Gemma’s cousins and old friends, and every
one of them, the guys as well as the girls, treated Sal as if he was a welcome
addition to the family.

Sal,
who had been depressed by the reception so far, felt like new money as they all
settled in the backyard, on the massive deck, and laughed and talked.
 
Gemma’s father was barbecuing ribs and steaks
on one grill, and Gemma’s mother and some of her lady friends were grilling
vegetables of all kinds on the other one.
 
But Sal was having too much fun to even worry about Rodney and
Cass.
 
Gemma’s cousins and friends were
giving him a good time.
 
These were Sal’s
kind of people.
 
They laughed and drank
and partied the way he enjoyed.
 
It was a
festive time.
 

It
was all good for Sal, until one man in particular arrived in the backyard and
Gemma jumped from her perch beside Sal, and ran to him.

“Marvin!”
she yelled as she ran.
 

“Gemma!”
the man yelled back and ran for her too.
 
When they met, he lifted her into his arms and kissed her on the lips,
long and hard.

As
soon as Sal saw them kissing that way, he immediately jumped up and made his
way toward them, causing some of the females to elbow each other and
snicker.
 
But Sal didn’t care how it
looked.
 
Gemma’s father had emasculated
his masculinity enough.
 
Not this punk
too.

“You
look wonderful, Gem,” Marvin was saying by the time Sal arrived.

He
saw him and sat Gemma down.
 
“You must be
the man of the hour,” he said as he extended his hand.
 

“And
you are?” Sal asked, without shaking that hand.
 
Marvin was tall, slender, good looking, like all of Gemma’s friends and
relatives.

“Sal,
this is Marvin.
 
He’s one of my closest
and dearest friends.”
 

“Funny
you never mentioned him.”

“Ooops,”
Marvin said with a smile.
 
“I’d call that
a read.
 
Anyway, girl, let me go and say
hey to your folks.
 
I don’t want to be
rude, after all.”
 
He added this and
looked at Sal.

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Sure thing, Marv.
 
We’ll talk.”

“Uh-huh,”
he said, still staring at Sal, and then he walked away.

Gemma
hit Sal on his arm.
 
“What’s wrong with
you?” she asked him.

But
Sal would have none of it.
 
“What’s wrong
with me?” he asked with incredulity in his voice.
 
“What’s wrong with him kissing on you like
that?
 
Disrespecting me like that.”

“Disrespecting
you?”
 
Then Gemma smiled.
 
“You didn’t see it?”

“See
what?”

Gemma
shook her head.
 
“You are really a trip,
you know that?
 
Sal, when Marvin was
little, you know what we used to call him?”

“How
should I know that?”

“We
used to call him Marvin Gay.
 
Without the
E.”

Sal
frowned.

“He’s
gay, Sal. Marvin is gay, Sal.”

But
instead of Sal smiling it off, he looked even more alarmed.
 
“And you let him kiss you like that?
 
Do you realize where that mouth of his has
been?”

It
was Gemma’s time to frown. “What are you talking about?
 
Where has it been?”

“On a
man’s dick, that’s where!”

Then
Gemma smiled.
 
“Does he know where my
mouth has been?”

At
first Sal looked at her, wondering if she was confessing some
indiscretion.
 
Then he realized she meant
him.
 
His
dick.
 
He had to smile at that one.

She
took him by the arm.
 
“Just relax, will
you?” she implored him, and they started heading back for the party.

Sal
eventually did relax and felt completely at home.
 
It was turning out to be the best time he’d
had in a long time.
 
He enjoyed
compliments, some harmless criticisms about his Jersey accent and Italian
roots, and some great ribbing. Especially from Gemma’s female cousins and
Marvin too, whom Sal quickly warmed to and realized why Gemma loved him so
much.
 
They sat around that deck ribbing
so much that Sal, enjoying the attention immensely, started ribbing back.

“Be
careful, Gem,” he said to his lady, who was seated beside him.
 
“You have so many beautiful women in your
family, I might be tempted now.
 
Might want
to kick your ass to the curb and pick up one of them.”
 

They
all laughed, including Gemma, but not before she hit him so hard on his
muscular bicep that he fell out of his deck chair, which brought on even more
laughter.
 
It was a festive time.

But Sal
also knew he had unfinished business.
 
With the patriarch.
 
And this
time, Sal wasn’t
 
holding back.
 
He was going to talk man-to-man with Rodney
Jones, not man-to-boy, and he was going to talk to him in his own words, being
his own self.

While
the rest of them continued to joke and enjoy themselves, Sal broke away and
walked over to the grill, where Rodney was standing.
 
Gemma saw it, and could only hope they didn’t
come to blows, but she didn’t try to interfere.

Rodney,
who seemed to want to make amends too, saw him coming.
 
“I see you’re enjoying yourself,” he said.

“Yeah,
that’s my crowd over there.
 
My kind of
people.”

Rodney
wondered what kind of people he meant, since all of them back there were
black.
 
“Young people?” he asked.

“Happy
people,” Sal said.
 
“Good people.
 
People who don’t have judgment and hate and
superior airs and attitude all up their asses.”

Rodney
couldn’t help but smile at Sal’s phraseology.
 
“Unlike me, I suppose?” he asked.

“Yeah,
unlike you,” Sal said honestly.
 
“I don’t
know what’s with you.”

“I
love my daughter, that’s what’s with me.”

“And
I understand that.
 
But loving your
daughter don’t give you a license to disrespect me.”

Rodney
looked at him.
 
“I wasn’t disrespecting
you.”

“You
were fucking around with me so bad a stranger would have thought we were in
love.”

The
language threw Rodney, but the meaning didn’t.
 
And he had to laugh.
 
“Okay,” he
said.
 
“Point taken.”

“You
don’t have to like me,” Sal said, “but you sure as hell have to respect
me.
 
I’m not about to hurt your
daughter.
 
If anything, she’ll . . .”

Rodney
studied him.
 
And he finished Sal’s
thought for him.
 
“If anything she’ll be
the one hurting you?”

Sal
looked back at Gemma, who was joking around with Marvin.
 
“If there’s any hurt to be had, yeah,” he
said.

Rodney
took
 
sip of beer, staring at Sal as he
did.
 
“So that’s your hesitancy?” he
eventually asked.

“Hesitancy?
 
What hesitancy?”

“The
reason why you’ve been dating my daughter this long and kept turning down our
invitations to have a meet and greet?”