Romancing Tommy Gabrini (21 page)

“I
wouldn’t say he was my type, no,” Grace said.

Tommy
took another puff.
 
She wasn’t going to
give him a direct answer, he now realized.
 
He had to go out on that limb all by his lonesome and then find out for
himself if she was interested.
   

“When
we talked at Jilly’s dinner party,” he began, “you mentioned some of the things
that you wanted.”
 
He looked at her.
 
“You remember that, don’t you?”

“I
remembered, yes.”

“If I
understood you correctly, being a wife and mother was at the top of your list.”

Grace’s
heart began to pound.
 
“That’s right,”
she said.

Tommy
stared at her.
 
She was astounded by the
intense seriousness in his big, blue eyes.
 
“I want that too,” he said.

She
almost joked about it.
 
She almost joked,
you want to be a wife and mother, too?
But she couldn’t go there.
 
She couldn’t
even smile.
 
This was too important to
her.
 
“You do?” she asked him.

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
I want marriage, and I want children, too.”

Grace’s
heart began to soar.
 
“How many?” she
asked with a smile.

Tommy
smiled too.
 
“As many as that sweet
vagina of yours can pop out.”

Grace
laughed.
 
Tommy remained serious.
 

“It
was a dream I thought was never going to come true for me,” he said.
 
“And, who knows, it still may not.
 
But I thought, since we want the same things,
that we might hook up and see where it goes.
 
I won’t rush you into any marriage, that’s not my style.
 
We’ve still got to get to know each
other.
 
But if, at the end of the day, we
haven’t murdered each other, then I say we should go for it.”
  

Then
he paused, staring deep into her eyes.
 
“What say you, Miss McKinsey?” he asked her.
 
His heart was hammering when he did.

Grace
wanted to say yes immediately.
 
But she
remembered what Nayla had said.
 
And what
he had said about his relationship preference.
 
“What about all of your friends with benefits?
 
Will I have a man working on building a
relationship, and a life with me, or will I have a man working on a
relationship with me while fooling around with a truckload of other females?”

Tommy
smiled at her truckload reference.
 
He
tossed his cigarette to the ground and smashed it underfoot.
 

Grace
looked at his expensive shoes as he smashed his cigarette.
 
She looked at his tailored trousers, at that
diamond ring and Rolex that sparkled against his white skin.
 
This man owned Diamante’s, and the largest
share of Trammel, and she didn’t even know what else.
 
This man that she was about to go down the
road to her dreams with was in a league she’d never even played in.
 
Jillian was wealthy.
 
Her own father had been upper middle class
successful.
 
But Tommy was rich.
 
This was going to take some getting used to
for her.
 
It was as thrilling as it was
daunting.
 
But she wasn’t about to decide
anything until he answered her question.

He
walked up to her, placed his hands on the side of her arms.
 
“I assure you,” he said, “there will be no
benefits given to anyone but you.
 
I want
you, Grace.
 
You.
 
I want to see if I can make it work with
you.”

Grace
nodded her head.
 
She was as terrified as
he was.
 
She’d been hurt, too.

“I
say we go for it,” he said.
 

Grace
thought about it.
 
She thought long and
hard.
 
Then she smiled.
 
“Okay, Tommy Gabrini,” she said.
 
“I would love to for you to be my boyfriend.”

Tommy’s
heart soared at the thought of a man-of-the-world like him being somebody’s
boyfriend.

“But,”
she added.
 
“Just so that we’re
clear.
 
I’m not interested in just having
somebody.
 
I want somebody who wants to
see it through to the end.”

Tommy
smiled.
 
“Understood.”

“I
know many guys would say and have said anything to get into my panties.”

“Oh,
yeah?”

“Oh,
yes.
 
But since you’ve already been in my
panties,” Grace added and Tommy laughed, “then I don’t think I need to worry
about that part.”

Tommy
pulled her closer, placing his arms around her waist.
 
“You won’t be sorry,” he said.
 
“I promise you that.
 
I don’t know what you heard about me, but I
keep my promises.”

“I
did hear a lot about you, though.”

“Yeah?”
Tommy asked and looked at her.
 
“Like
what?”

“I’ve
heard that you’re an asshole and a womanizer.”

“Ouch,”
Tommy said with a smile.

Grace
was serious this time.
 
“So it’s true
then?”

Tommy
turned serious, too.
 
A grim look
appeared on his face.
 
“I’m no saint,
Grace.
 
You aren’t hooking up with any
choirboy.
 
I’ve done things in my life
that I’m not proud of, but I handle my business.
 
And if that means I have to be an asshole to
do it, then that’s what I am.
 
But as for
the womanizing, that’s over.”

“It’s
not going to be easy.
 
I know
females.
 
And I’ve experienced your
dick.”
 
Tommy laughed.
 
“I’m just keeping it real,” Grace
continued.
 
“They are not going to like
the fact that that piece of plumbing of yours is out of commission.
 
I’m telling you they are not going to take
that well.
 
Are you going to be able to
handle
that
business?”

Tommy
pulled her closer still.
 
“Yes,” he said,
kissing her on the lips.
 
“I’ll think of
them, and I’ll think of you.
 
It’ll be a
piece of cake I assure you.”

Grace
smiled.
 
This man really did know how to
handle his business.

“Now
you take your pretty little ass,” he said as he looked around first and then
squeezed it to her pleasure, “and tell your date and your friend goodbye.
 
You’re going with me.”

“Yes,
sir,” she said as she turned to leave.

“And
Grace,” he said and she turned back around.

“Yes?”

“If
going forward you even think about having a date with any man other than me,
then that sweet little tight ass of yours is gonna be grass, and my dick is
gonna be the lawnmower.”

Grace
shook her head.
 
“That is so lame,” she
said with a laugh, and went back into the club.

Jamie
and Ray both saw how intimate she had been with Tommy.
 
Although they couldn’t hear a word of their
conversation, they could tell it was intense.
 
They could also see how Tommy had kissed her and had squeezed her
ass.
 
Jamie realized at that moment just
how much he had underestimated Grace’s feelings for the man.

When
she arrived at their table, Ray was ready to pounce.
 
“What’s going on, Grace?
 
If Nayla hadn’t stopped me, I would have been
out there all over that brother.
 
Squeezing your ass like that.
 
What’s the deal?
 
I thought you
were my date?
 

“I
thought so too,” Grace said as she grabbed her purse and jacket.
 
“But I was mistaken.
 
I’m leaving with my boyfriend,” she said
proudly.

Jamie
looked at her with stretched eyes.
 
“With
your
what
?”

Grace
smiled.
 
“With my boyfriend,” she said to
her good friend.
 
“He asked if he could
be my boyfriend.
 
That’s why he came.”

Jamie
looked concerned.
 
“But you remember what
Nay said about his, for lack of a better word, reputation?”

“I
remember.
 
We’re working on that.”
 
Grace reached down and kissed Jamie on the
cheek.
 
“I’ll call you later,” she said.
 
“Bye, Teron, bye Ray. I’m sorry but. . .”

“But
shit happens, right?” Teron asked.

 
“Right,” Grace said with a smile.

“Wrong,”
Ray said.
 
Grace and Jamie looked at
him.
 

“Don’t
be difficult, Ray,” Jamie said.
 

“I
don’t get this,” Ray said, looking at Grace.
 
“Why you letting that white cracker make you leave?”

“He’s
not making me do anything.”

“Then
sit down and finish your drink with us.
 
Why you all of sudden got to go just because he showed up?
 
It’s because he said you’ve got to go, that’s
why, and you
yessur, massa
and get to
stepping?”

“That’s
nonsense, Ray,” Jamie said and Grace, refusing to even dignify it with a
response, turned to leave.

Ray,
however, wouldn’t let up.
 
“He’s an
abuser, you know that, right?”
 

Grace
looked at Ray.
 
“What?”

“He’s
an abuser.
 
He’s one of those guys who
love to date young girls so he can boss them around.”

“Well,
then, he’s out of luck this time because I’m hardly a girl.”

“First
time he beats you, don’t come running back to me.”

The first time he beats me
?
 
Grace looked as if she couldn’t believe his nerve.
 
“Don’t worry,” she said, said goodbye to
Jamie again, and left.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The
drive to Tommy’s home was filled with a kind of quiet acceptance.
 
Grace had many mixed feelings, although the most
dominant feeling was joy.
 
She was happy
to give a relationship with Tommy a shot.
 
He was high maintenance, she knew that to be true.
 
Nobody who drove a Ferrari and had the style
Tommy Gabrini had couldn’t be anything but high maintenance.
 
But he maintained himself, and was now asking
to maintain her, too.

She
looked over at him as he turned another dark corner and drove them down another
dark road.
 
She knew hooking up with a
man like him was risky.
 
He was one of
those men who wasn’t about to let his woman dictate to him.
 
He was going to be the boss in this
relationship.
 
He would be the one to
determine their fate as a couple.
 
She saw
how he handled Jillian.
 
Nobody handled
Jillian, yet he did so with ease.
 

She
stared at his profile as he drove.
 
She
could lose herself in him.
 
She saw it
that night, when he made love to her, and she saw it even clearer now.
 
She could fall so hard for this man that she
might forget where the bottom really was.
 
She might keep moving the goal post, keep moving the line, keep allowing
him to control every aspect of her life until she wouldn’t know where he ended
and she began.
 
And because of her love
for him, and devotion to him, he could have all of the power.
 
He could take advantage of her on every turn,
and irreparably break her heart.
 

Maybe
that was the beating Ray was talking about.

But
she couldn’t let it happen.
 
She had to
walk down this new road slowly.
 
And the
first false move he made, especially if that move involved a female and
anything that could harm her self-respect, she had to be strong enough to walk
away right away.
 
She couldn’t hang in
there like she did with Cam.
 
Because if
she stayed this time, with this man, she might not be able to ever leave him.