Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (19 page)

Sal
stood there and watched the limo as it slowly pulled away.
 
All he could feel was happiness at the mere
thought that she would fly to see him on a whim, because they had argued.
 
For the first time in his life he felt
eternally blessed.
 
He was happy.

Gemma
leaned her head back in Sal’s limo as she rode to the Wingate.
 
Her day had started out so awful, with no
makeup call from Sal, her client firing
 
her, and Marsh’s nonsense.
 
But
now she was in Seattle, completely made up with Sal, and heading to his
penthouse.
 
Things were looking up, she
thought happily.

“Welcome
to the Wingate, Miss Jones,” William said as soon as she entered the lobby.

“Great
to be back, William,” she replied as he took the overnight bag she had with her
and escorted her to Sal’s private elevator.
 
All of the staff went out of their way to speak to her.
 
Her presence was treated with the same
deference they treated Sal’s presence.
 

When
she made it to the top floor and entered the penthouse, she was pleased at how
tidy he kept his home and how there was nothing out of place to suggest any
female had been roaming. Not that she expected there to be such evidence.
 
She didn’t.
 
But it was always good to get that confirmation.

She
went upstairs, took a long bath in Sal’s tub, put on one of Sal’s dress shirts,
cook Sal’s dinner, and then fell asleep across Sal’s bed.

She
woke up when the phone rang and he notified her that an emergency at
Diamante’s, some kind of kitchen fire, would cause him to be late coming
home.
 
He advised her to eat and get more
rest.
 
She took that advice and found
herself lying across his bed again, and falling asleep.

By
the time he made it home, she’d been asleep for nearly five hours.
 
He checked on her, loosening his tie as he
stood at his bedroom door and watched her sleep, and then he headed back
downstairs.
 

After
heating in the microwave the food she had cooked for him, he stood at the
center island in his kitchen and read over a thick file while he ate.
 
He was impressed with how good the food
tasted, and reminded himself to tell her so, then he slowly shut it all down
and headed upstairs.
 
By now it was after
ten.

He
entered his bedroom slowly, and stood at the nightstand.
 
As he removed his wallet and keys from his
pants pockets, he watched his beloved.
 
She was sleeping so peacefully, as if she was right where she was
supposed to be, and it made him feel even more loving toward her.
 
How did this happen, he wondered.
 
How could he ever have allowed a woman to get
so into his heart this deeply?
 
Everything about her turned him on.
 
Her intellect, her smile, her wit, the way she was even lying there,
with nothing on her gorgeous black body but his white dress shirt.
 
Not that he had peeped.
 
It was the way she was lying across his
bed.
 
Half of her ass was showing.
 
He couldn’t help but notice, and stay turned
on.

Once
he cleared his pockets, he went over to her and gently lifted her into his
arms.
 
Although she wrapped her arms
around him and appeared poised to wake up, she ultimately remained asleep.
 
He pulled back the bedding and laid her
between his soft, silk sheets.
 
He tucked
her in and kissed her on her forehead.
 
Then he stood there, his hands on his hips, staring at her again.

Gemma
Gabrini, he thought as he stared.
 
Now
that had a ring to it.
 
Or would she be one
of those females who preferred to hyphenate their names?
 
He’d heard that British women and many black
women preferred it that way.
 
Was his
woman one of them?
 
Would she prefer to
be Gemma Jones-Gabrini?
 
That had a ring,
too.
 

Then
Sal caught himself.
 
What in the world
was he thinking?
 
They weren’t ready for
marriage yet!
 
He certainly wasn’t
ready.
 
Not because he didn’t love her
enough, but because, in Sal’s mind, he loved her too much.
 
Far too much.
 
He couldn’t risk losing her.
 
And
that was his fear of marriage.
 
He’d seen
too many horrific marriages, beginning with his parents, to ever believe such a
union could work.
 
Marriage, or any other
tangible change in the dynamic of their relationship, could change their
relationship in all the wrong ways.
 
Nobody would admit it.
 
But many
deeply in love newlyweds yesterday, were divorced and bitter enemies
today.
 
He wasn’t risking that with
Gemma.
 
No way.

But
he was too tired to think about anything that major right now.
 
All he wanted to do was get some sleep.
 
So he stopped trying to think about anything,
undressed, took a quick shower, and finally crawled into bed with Gemma.
 

When
he turned to his side and pulled her into his big arms, holding her, he felt as
if it couldn’t get any better than this.
 
He was where he wanted to be, with the very person on the face of this
earth he wanted to be with.
 
And even as
his naked body was trying to give into temptation, especially when she parted
her legs ever so slightly and his expanding dick made its way between them, he
continued to hold her.
 
He just wanted to
hold her.
 
And he did.
 
All night long.
 
He fell asleep with her still in his
arms.
 

Life
was good.

FIFTEEN

When Gemma
woke up the next morning, she was lying on her back, the dress shirt she was
wearing was wide open, and Sal’s naked body was on top of her, sucking her
breasts.
 

She
stretched with pleasure as he smiled and said good morning to her, but from the
feel of her wet, hard sucked breasts, and the feel of his completely aroused
penis against her thigh, this was no smiling matter for him.
 

He
kissed her.
 
“Good morning,” he said.

She
could taste the fact that he had already given her an oral this morning, and as
soon as she thought it, she felt just how wet she was between the legs.
 
It was so many sensual feelings greeting her
into this good day that she didn’t quite know how to handle it all.
 
So she stopped trying to handle it.
 
She smiled, said good morning back to him,
and stretched and enjoyed his attention some more.

He
entered her.
 
But unlike yesterday, he
didn’t plunge in.
 
He eased in, taking
his time, making sure she felt that heightened feeling of entry that always
turned them on.
 
Then he laid on his back
and moved her gently on top of him.
 
His
penis was so tightly lodged inside of her that it did not move an inch when he
moved her on top.
 
She laid down, and he
wrapped her in his arms, as he fucked her.

Gemma
could enjoy this all day long.
 
She was
lying on her man, he had her in his muscular arms, and his thick dick was
stroking her in such a steady, tender way that she became relaxed.
 
So relaxed that she began to feel drowsy
again.
 
It was the best kind of sex he
put on her.
 
When it wasn’t urgent or too
ramped-up.
 
She even closed her eyes, and
nearly fell asleep, as he fucked her.

Sal,
too, loved it this way.
 
Because Gemma
seemed so comfortable with him this way.
 
She was even falling asleep.
 
He
didn’t have to put on any exhibition with her.
 
He didn’t have to prove his sexual prowess with her.
 
With Gemma, he felt as if he had no points he
needed to prove.
 
She already knew his
strengths.
 
She already knew his
weaknesses.
 
Yet she still hung
around.
 
She still loved him.

He
closed his eyes and stroked her with tender love.
 
He rubbed her dark back, and her soft hair,
and he listened to the sloshing sounds of their lovemaking in the calm of the
morning.
  
This was priceless for
Sal.
 
Times like these made him even
reconsider his issues with marriage.
 
If
he married her, he could have this every morning, his heart was telling
him.
 
But his head was telling him
something too.
 
If he married her, that
closeness might cause her to conclude that he wasn’t the prize catch she
thought he was from a distance, and she could leave him.
 
And that, for Sal, would be the blow.
 
He’d had many in his life, but that would be
the one.
 
Losing Gemma could take him
down.

That
was why he, once again, rejected that internal discussion he’d been having, and
focused, instead, on fucking her.
 
At
least he could do that right.
 
His father
used to say he couldn’t do anything right, and his mother used to laugh when he
said it, but no woman had ever laughed when he put his dick inside of
them.
 
That was Sal’s strength and he was
playing to it.
 
Not that he felt Gemma
only wanted him for his sex.
 
He didn’t
feel that at all.
 
But he wasn’t taking
any chances.
 
He wanted to turn her on
the way she turned him on.
   

So he
continued to gyrate her for nearly an hour on end.
 
He didn’t know what time it was, and he didn’t
care.
 
This was Gemma time.
 
And his lady, he thought sweetly as he began
to feel his cum coming on, didn’t share the stage with any one.

And
just as he was thinking that very thought, and was on the verge of cum, knocks
were heard on his front door.
 
He kept
doing her.
 
He couldn’t just stop on a
dime.
 
But the knocking would not let up.
 

He
stopped all movement.
 
Gemma, too, looked
up.
 

Sal assumed
it was his building manager, since he was the only person with unfettered
access to the penthouse, but the knocking seemed desperate to him.
 
As if it wasn’t some casual,
we have a leak in the building, boss
,
kind of visit.

“Who could
that be?” Gemma asked.

“It
has to be William,” Sal said, as he pulled out of her.
 
She moved off of him, and he began to get out
of the bed.
 
His penis was still
throbbing, and her vagina was still pulsating, but Sal put on a robe and headed
downstairs all the same.
 

Gemma
buttoned back up his dress shirt that covered her body, as she slid off of the
bed too.
 
Her plan wasn’t to go
downstairs at all, but to go to the bathroom and freshen up.
 
But then she heard a voice on the other side
of the front door say, “
FBI, open up
,”
and her heart slammed against her chest.
 
The FBI?
 
She was an
attorney.
 
She knew how serious it was if
the FBI was knocking at the door.
 
Especially Sal’s door, given his extra activities.
 

She
hurried to his drawer, searched every one until she found a pair of shorts she
had left there from one of her previous visits, and quickly put them on, her
heart still pounding as she moved.
 
Then
she hurried up front.

Sal
had already opened the door by the time she made it up there, and two agents,
both tall, both white, were inside his penthouse. They were only talking, she
thought, but they looked as if whatever they were discussing was major.

One
agent took on a decidedly more aggressive pose when Gemma walked up front.
 
Sal turned, and immediately made clear who
she was.

“This
is my lady,” he said.
 

“Relax,
Mr. Gabrini,” the aggressive agent said.
 

“Don’t
tell me to relax,” said Reno.
 
“I just
don’t want anybody pulling that
I thought
she had a gun
shit.
 
She’s packing
nothing, that’s all I’m saying.”

“What
about you?” the more aggressive agent asked. “Are you packing anything?”

“Yeah,
I’m packing.
 
I’m packing your mama’s
asshole,” Sal replied, to Gemma’s horror.
 
Didn’t he know these men could try to frame him just for insulting them?

But
Sal knew what he was doing.
 
Fight
strength with strength, he always believed.
 
If FBI agents or any cop on the beat felt as if he was weak and would
easily roll over, they would try to roll over him. “What is it you want?” he
asked them.
 
“I’ve got things to do.”

“Like
what?” the aggressive agent asked.
 
“Cooking, cleaning, murdering somebody?”

Gemma
couldn’t believe he joked about a thing like that.
 
Sal didn’t like it either.

“What
are you a comedian?” he asked the agent.
 
“Murdering somebody?
 
Yeah, that’s
real funny.”

“Will
Murelli ain’t laughing,” Aggressive said.

“Neither
is Chazz Charski,” the other agent added.

Sal
could hardly believe it.
 
Will and Chazz
were dead?
 
Both of them???
 
He was stunned, but he wasn’t letting his
visitors know it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We’re
talking Will and Chazz.
 
Two of your
men.
 
They were found dead, right here in
Seattle.”

Again
Sal was floored.
 
They had no business in
his town.
 
Gemma pulled him against
her.
 
“You have a right to remain silent,
Sal,” she said.
 
“Remain silent.”

But
her comment only aggravated Aggressive.
 
“Who the hell do you think you are?
 
Shut the fuck up!”

Sal
almost told that agent a thing or two, but Gemma interrupted him.
 
“I am an attorney,” she said, although she
knew she wasn’t licensed to practice in the state of Washington.
 
“I was giving him legal advice.
 
Now before we continue any further, is he
under arrest?”

The
supposedly good agent smiled.
 
“Arrest?”
he asked.
 
“Who mentioned anything of the
sort?
 
We’re here to talk with Mr.
Gabrini.
 
Nothing more, nothing less.”

“If
he’s not under arrest, then you need to leave.
 
He has nothing to talk about.”

The
agents looked at Sal.
  
Sal looked at
them.
 
“What, are you deaf? My attorney
said you need to leave.
 
So leave.
 
I’ve got nothing to say.”

“We
know they work for you, Sal.
 
Will and
Chazz both.”

“That’s
news to me,” Sal said, and then broke away from Gemma and went and opened the
door.
 
“Now you heard my attorney.
 
Get outta here.
 
Get lost.”

The agents
walked toward the door.
 
“We can always
take you for a ride,” the good agent said.

“Then
take me for one,” Sal replied.
 
Gemma
walked up to him. She didn’t see how that was a good idea.
 
“You want to question me?
 
Then let’s make it official.
 
Let’s put that shit on tape!
 
I didn’t kill any Will or Chazz or anybody
else.
 
So take me for a ride.
 
Who the fuck do you think you’re threatening?”

The
agents hesitated, as if they were actually considering it, but Sal knew them
like he knew the back of his hand.
 
He
was once a cop.
 
He worked with the FBI,
and after leaving the force, was constantly harassed by the FBI.
 
They were convinced, at one time, that Sal
was a mob boss.
 
They gave up that hunt
years ago, but that didn’t endear them to Sal in any way.

To
Gemma’s shock, Sal’s bet paid off.
 
They
didn’t take him for any rides.
 
They
simply looked at her again, looking down at his shirt she wore and those
shorts, looked at Sal again, and then they left.
 
Sal closed and locked the door.

But
he didn’t delay.
 
He began hurrying back
upstairs, for the bedroom.

“What
was that about, Sal?” Gemma asked him, following him.

“It
was about nothing,” Sal said.
 
“A whole
lot of nothing.”
 
He grabbed his house
phone off of the nightstand and pressed a button.
 
William answered.

“They
flashed badges, boss,” William said before Sal could say a word.

But
his words only made Sal hotter.
 
“I don’t
care if they flash the
got
damn
presidential seal, you always notify me when those fuckers are on their way up
here!
 
You hear me?”

“But
they told me---”

“I
don’t care what they told you!
 
You
notify me!”

“Yes,
sir.”

Then
Sal slammed the phone down.
 
“
Got
damn idiot!”

Sal’s
sudden anxiety made Gemma’s worse.
 
“Sal,
what’s wrong?” she asked again.

Sal
looked at her.
 
He dreaded that she had
to witness this.
 
He placed his hands on
her arms.
 
“Nothing’s wrong, all
right?”
  
He kissed her on the forehead.
 
“Nothing’s the matter.
 
You don’t need to worry about anything.
 
What I need you to do is run us some bath
water.
 
Why don’t you be a good girl and
do that for me.
 
All right?”