Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (16 page)

William,
the building manager, hurried to him as he entered.
 
“Good evening, Mr. Gabrini,” he said
jovially.
  
“Welcome back, sir.”

“Any
problems while I was gone?” Sal kept walking, with William following him stride
for stride.

“Two
evictions, sir.
 
But nothing we couldn’t
handle.”

“Good.”
 
Although Sal lived in the penthouse apartment
inside the building, he also owned the entire building.

“Is
there anything you will need for tonight, sir?” William asked.
 
“Anything or anybody I need to get for you,
sir?”

“Keep
doing what you’re doing,” Sal said.
 
“I’ll be fine.”

The
manager smiled.
 
“Very good, sir,” he
said, and then he stopped even attempting to keep up with the fast walking
Italian.
 
He stopped walking altogether.
 
Sal kept on going.

Sal
made it upstairs eventually and entered his penthouse alone.
 
He was met with pure quietness.
 
But that never bothered him.
 
At the end of his often hectic days, he loved
to come home to silence.
 
He welcomed
it.
 

But
by the time he poured himself a drink and made it upstairs to his bedroom, the
welcome was already worn out.
 
Because he
couldn’t stop thinking about Gemma. He had many other matters on his mind, too,
but Gemma dominated them all.
 

He
sat his glass on the nightstand and laid back on his bed, his feet on the
ground.
 
He missed her.
 
He missed her serious face, and her flawless
dark skin, and that booming, heartfelt laugh of hers.
 
And that body of hers?
 
Forget about it.
 
That body of hers was one for the record
books as far as he was concerned.
 

But
even with that slamming body, that wasn’t her real draw.
 
She was.
 
Her personality, the good, decent, woman of integrity that he knew her
to be.
 
He wondered about her, and why
she, above any woman he’d ever met, so dominated his every thought.
 
Was this how true love went?
 
Was marriage next in the cards for them?
 

He
wasn’t sure about that.
 
Marriage?
 
That would be the ultimate step for him.
 
He wasn’t one of those guys who could commit
himself to somebody so completely as to marry them, and then be willing to walk
away from them.
 
Especially if that woman
was Gemma.
 
Marriage would be the biggest
step he ever took.
 
The biggest move of
his entire life.
 
And he had to consider
his life, mainly his lifestyle, and if bringing Gemma into that world was a
great idea.
 
So marriage? Not yet.
 
He wasn’t at all sure if he was ready to make
that kind of move.
 

But
he missed Gemma.

He
couldn’t deny how much he already missed her.

He
missed her so much that he pulled out his cell phone and called her.
 
It took a while, but she finally answered.

“What
took you so long?” he asked her.

“I
was sleep,” she said.

That
was all right then.

“You
made it home?” Gemma asked him.

“Yep,
and I’m good for nothing.”

“Tired?”

“To
the bone.”

“Ah,
you’ll be okay.”

Sal
smiled.

“You
know what you did.”

“What
did I do?”

“You left
all of this money here.”

“Oh,
that!
 
It’s nothing.”

“Question
is why did you leave so much, Sal?
 
What’s it for?”

“Spending
change. Whatever.”

“Sal,
there’s two thousand dollars here.”

“Or
whatever.
 
Use it for whatever.”

“You
didn’t have to do that.”

“I
want you to have it, all right?
 
You
won’t let me pay off your bills, and I understand why.
 
I get that it’s too soon for that.
 
But you’re my lady, Gem.”

“Most
men give flowers, you know.
 
Or candy.”

“Neither
of which you care about,” Sal replied.
 
“I know your house inside and out.
 
Not a flower in sight.
 
And that
body?
 
Excuse me but I know that body of
yours inside and out too.
 
You ain’t
putting no candy in that.”
 
Gemma
laughed.
 
“I’m not trying to take
over.
 
I’m just helping out.
 
Showing my appreciation for you putting up
with the likes of me.”

“Yeah,
you are a handful,” Gemma said, and Sal smiled.

“Speak
for yourself, sister.
 
You’re no bed of
roses yourself.”

Gemma
laughed.
 
“Whatever!
 
But, for real, though, what can I say?
 
Thank-you, Sal.”

“You
said it all right there.
 
You’re welcome,
sweetheart.”
 
Then he sighed.
 
“I miss you so much.”

“Yeah.
 
Same here.
 
And you get some rest, Sal.
 
I’ll
see you when I see you.”

Although
Sal said amen to that, and said his goodbyes, he still felt empty when he hung
up from her.
 
This long distance affair
sucked, he thought, and was already getting to him.

TWELVE

Two
days later, while Gemma was at the Barker Lounge inside the PaLargio having dinner
with Reno and Trina, Marsh Denning, to her surprise, dropped by their table.

“I
thought that was you,” he said with his best charming smile.
 
Although Gemma smiled as if she was glad to
see him, Reno and Trina were too curious to smile.
 
Especially Reno.

“Hey.
 
How are you?”

“Great
now that I see a friendly face.
 
This
town is packed solid with faces, but not the friendliest I’ve ever been
around.”

“Really?”
Reno asked.
 
“That’s news to me.”

“You
must live here,” Marsh said.

“He
does,” Trina said with a smile, attempting not to sound as rude as Reno did.

“Then
you’re probably used to it.
 
But a
visitor like me?
 
Not as inviting a town
as you would think.”

“What
are you talking about?” Reno wanted to know.
 
“This is Vegas.
 
Who doesn’t love
Vegas?”

“Marsh,”
Gemma said, smiling too, “I want you to meet Katrina Gabrini, and her husband
Reno.
 
Or you can call him Mr. Vegas, at
least if you ask him.”

Reno
had to laugh at that.
 
Trina certainly
did, and nodded her head in agreement with it.

“Ah,”
Marsh said in a tone of recognition.
 
“The great Reno Gabrini.”
 
He
extended his hand.
 
“I’ve heard tons
about you, sir.”

Reno
shook his hand.
 
“It’s all been
fantastic, hasn’t it?”
 
Reno asked this
with a snide smile on his face.

“Ah,
man,” Marsh replied.
 
“I could overcrowd
a landfill with the garbage, I mean, fantastic things I’ve been told about
you.”

Reno
laughed out loud.
 
“Get a load of this
guy,” he said to Tree and Gemma.
 
“So
what are you?
 
A friend of Gemma’s?
 
What?”

“We’re
colleagues,” Gemma said.
 
“Marsh hired me
to consult on a case he’s been working.
 
That’s why he’s in town.”

“On a
court case, oh, okay.
 
So where are you
from?” Reno asked him.

“I’m
from D.C.,” Marsh replied.

“Our
nation’s capital,” Trina said.
 
“That’s
all right.”

“So
what brings you here?” Reno asked.
 
At the same restaurant Gemma just happened
to be fraternizing
, he wanted to add.

“I
came down to this particular restaurant to have dinner, although I’m still
waiting for a table.
 
But I’m staying in
this hotel.”

Trina
looked at her husband.
 
She could tell he
was loving this.
 
Then she looked at
Marsh. “Enjoying your stay, at least here at the hotel, I hope?”
 
she asked him.

“The
hotel’s been superb.
 
Best I’ve ever
stayed in.
 
This restaurant?
 
Eh.”

“Not
so superb?” Trina asked him.

“Just
crowded.
 
I hate waiting.
 
That’s all.”
 
Then he frowned.
 
“Hey, wait a
minute,” he said and looked at Reno.
 
“You . . . Don’t you own this hotel?
 
At least I think that’s what I heard.”

“You
heard it right,” Reno said proudly.
 
The
PaLargio was his baby, and he trumpeted it everywhere he went.
 
“And you don’t have a table yet?” Reno
started looking around for the restaurant’s GM.
 
He saw him just a few minutes ago.

But
Trina stopped him.
 
“That’s not
necessary, Ree,” she said.
 
“Marsh can
sit here with us.
 
If Gem doesn’t mind.”

“Not
at all,” Gemma said, before Reno could object.
 
He was always suspicious of good looking men cozying up to great looking
women like his own wife, and Sal’s lady.
 
But Gemma didn’t seem to mind at all.
 
She slid over in her booth seat, making room for Marsh.
 
Marsh, not at all surprising to Reno, gladly
accepted.

But
to Reno’s surprise, Marsh turned out to be a good fit for a dinner
foursome.
 
He made for wonderful
conversation.
 
And they talked and talked
and ate and talked.
 
It was a festive
evening for all.
 
Until Reno started to
notice something.
 
Marsh, throughout the
night, had been edging closer and closer to Gemma.
 
And whenever she would laugh unguardedly, he
would take advantage and leaned his body against hers.
 
It was all subtle, and could have easily been
missed.
 
But Reno was a dog from way
back.
 
He knew every move in the book.

But
what convinced Reno wasn’t those little moves Marsh was making on Gemma, but
later in the evening, when he made one, seemingly innocent suggestion.

“I’m
still worried about tomorrow, though,” Marsh said to Gemma.

“What’s
tomorrow?” Reno asked.

“Opening
arguments,” Marsh said.
 

“Why
would you be worried?” Gemma asked him, that concerned look on her face.
 
“I think all of the bases have been covered
for your opening.
 
All you have to do is
hit every point we discussed.
 
The jury
will eat it up.”

“But
I can’t seem to get it quite right yet.”

“What
do you mean yet?”
 
Then Gemma
frowned.
 
“Are you telling me you haven’t
finished writing your opening?
 
Let alone
memorizing it?”

“I
haven’t,” Marsh said.
 
“This case is so
darn layered, which, as you know, are the worse kind.”

“Don’t
I know it.
 
But, Marsh, tomorrow is your
opening arguments!
 
You’ve got to be
ready for your client’s sake.”

“I know,
I know.”

By
now Reno’s eyes were glued on Marsh.
 
He
was waiting for the suggestion.
 
Just
waiting for it.

“If I
had somebody to bounce ideas off of,” Marsh said, seemingly innocuously.
 
Then he looked at Gemma.
 
“Wait a minute.
 
You are the consulting attorney on the case.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Yes, Marsh, I’m the consulting
attorney.”

“We’re
paying for your advice.”
 

“Yes,
that’s true too.”

“Then,
after dinner, could you please come upstairs with me and advise me?
 
I really need to do a dry run on my opening
with you, and I can’t allow it to be heard by anybody not on the team.
 
If you’ll do it it’ll be great, Gem, and such
a big help to the client.
 
If you’ll do
it.”

Bam, there it is
, Reno thought.
 
A robbery in plain sight.
 
Reno looked at Gemma.
 
She was sipping her wine.

“I
know it’s a lot to ask, Gem,” Marsh went on, giving it the hard sell.
 
“But could you please, please, please help me
out?”

To
Reno’s dismay, Gemma started nodding.
 
But how was she to know that she was being robbed?
 
She only dated dogs before.
 
Reno used to be one.
 
“Sure I can,” she said.
 
“I need you to win this case. I need a winner
under my belt.”

Marsh
laughed.
 
“Great,” he said, raising his
glass in a toast.
 
“After dinner then.”

But
while they all continued to talk and ignore the robbery, Reno excused himself
to the little boy’s room.
 
To report
it.
 
He didn’t stay away long, but he
wasn’t returned a full minute before Gemma’s phone was ringing.
 
When she looked at the Caller ID and saw that
it was Sal, she smiled.
 
And quickly
answered.

“Hi,”
she said into her phone.

“No
way, no how,” Sal said.

Gemma
frowned.
 
“Excuse me?”

“There
is no way on this green earth that you’re going into any hotel room with Marsh
or Larsh or whatever the fuck his name is!”

Gemma
was thrown.
 
What in the world?
 
And he wasn’t through, either.

“Can
you help him out my ass!
 
I’ve got his
help out
right here, Gemma.
 
I’ll help him out all right.”

“Wait
a minute,” Gemma said.
 
But Sal was still
going strong. “Sal, wait a minute!” Gemma said with an edge in her own
voice.
 
Then she looked at Marsh.
 
“Could you let me out, please?”

“Sure,”
Marsh said with puzzlement as he got up to let Gemma out of the booth.

“What’s
wrong?” Trina asked, looking concerned.

“Who
knows,” Gemma said, sliding across the seat, looking more flustered than
concerned.
 
She then stood up and headed
for the exit.

Trina
looked at Reno.
 
“Wonder what that’s
about?” she asked him.

But
Reno wasn’t answering.
 
He sipped his
wine.

Once
outside, Gemma was frowning as she spoke into the phone.
 
“Will you please calm down, Sal, and tell me
what in the world has gotten into you?”

“What
has gotten into me?” Sal asked on the phone, incredulity in his tone.
 
“What the fuck’s gotten into you?!
 
On what planet did you think it’s okay for
you to hang out in another man’s hotel room?”

“How
did you know about that?”

“What
difference does it matter how I know?
 
Who the fuck cares how I know?
 
You just answer my question!”

It
was cool outside, and Gemma had one hand gripping her sleeveless arm as she
held the phone with her other hand, but it was humid outside compared to Sal’s
rage.
 
“I don’t know what you heard,” she
said to him, “but I wasn’t going to hang out in any hotel with anybody.
 
Marsh Denning has hired me as a consulting
attorney on a case.
 
We were going to
discuss the case.”

“After
dinner?”

“That’s
right.”

“In
his hotel room?”

“We’re
here at the PaLargio, Sal.
 
He’s staying
at the PaLargio.
 
He can’t verbalize his
opening arguments in public.”

“So
the answer is yeah,” Sal said.
 

Gemma
batted her eyes.
 
Her emotions were so
all over the place that she didn’t quite know how to respond.
 
She was angry with him for being so angry
with her, but she was also upset with herself for disappointing him so.
 
It was like crazy to her.
 
She’d never gone to these kind of deep and
disparate emotions with a man before.
 
This was all so new to her!

“So
the answer is yes?” Sal asked her again, when she didn’t respond the first
time.

“Yes,”
she finally said. “The answer is yes.”

“Hell
no,” Sal said.
 
“That’s the real answer.
No,
hell no
are you going into any
hotel room with Marsh Denning or anybody else!
 
You hear me Gemma Jones?”

But
his seeming right to tell her what to do only made her angrier.
 
“What’s with you?” she asked him.
 
“How can you think so little of me?”

“Think
so little of you?
 
What are you talking?”

“I’m
talking trust, Sal!
 
How could you
believe that I have the kind of morals that would have me going into a hotel
room with another man, knowing I belong to you, and just letting that man have
his way with me?
 
Because let’s face it,
that’s what this entire conversation is about. You act as if a handsome face
and a big dick is all it’ll take to win me over.”

But
if she thought that would calm Sal back down, she was mistaken.
 
“How the fuck do you know what size his dick
is?” he blared at her.