ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS (15 page)

“Why such quick break-ups?”

“He loses interest is the usual answer,

from what I’ve heard. Sometimes, though, they

can’t deal with him, with his background mainly,

and take off themselves.”

“And those women you would cal

smart?”

“Yeah, because they realize they can’t

handle it. If you don’t want to be with a man

whose father may be, shal we say, not

necessarily a righteous dude, then you need to

get out now, before you can’t get out.”

Trina’s eyes met Lee’s eyes. “What if

you’re already in?”

Lee thought about this. He was a man

who seemed to chose his words careful y, who

wasn’t going to reveal anything about Reno that

Reno hadn’t already given him permission to

reveal. “Like I said,” Lee said, “I’ve never known

Reno Gabrini to stay with a woman longer than

three weeks, for whatever reason.” Then he

paused again. “Until he met you,” he added.

Trina stared at Lee. This was a man

Reno talked to, he said so himself. “So, from

what you’ve heard, I’m considered different than

the others?”

Lee smiled. “Oh, yeah. You can take

that to the bank, young lady.”

Trina smiled too. Her phone buzzed

again. She glanced at it. It was Amos. ‘Get

again. She glanced at it. It was Amos. ‘Get

butt here now,’ his text said.

“Amos again?” Lee asked.

“Amos again. Wel , nice talking to you.”

“Anytime, Tree,” Lee said. “And I mean

that.”

Trina nodded. Then thought he would be

the perfect mentor for Jazz. “Listen, Lee, before

I go. I have this friend. She and I worked

together at Boyzie’s, and I’m sure Reno told you

about my job there.”

“He told me.”

“Wel , this friend, she’l real y make good

management material. She just never got a

break, you know? If you can hire her maybe, to

work under you? I’ve already spoken to Amos

about it, and he said if I find the right manager

for her, that it would be okay with him. And

Reno, he says my word on her is good enough

for him.”

“This woman, is she a sister?”

Trina smiled. “Yes, Lee, she’s a sister.”

“Wel then,” Lee said, “if Reno says your

word about her is good enough for him, and his

word is good enough for me, then sure. Bring

her to see me. I’l help her learn the ropes.”

Trina smiled. “Thanks,” she said,

excited to tel Jazz that she final y found the right

mentor for her.

As soon as she left Lee’s office,

however, to head over to Amos’s office, Reno’s

voice stopped her progression.

“Tree!” he yel ed.

She turned. He was hurrying up the

quiet corridor. She was stil amazed at how

different, how serious he always looked when

he was on the job. She also flashed back to

how broken he looked last night, when he cried

in her arms.

“What you up to?” he asked her as they

met. He kissed her on the lips, however, before

she could respond.

“Just had a nice conversation with Lee

Jones.”

“Good old Lee. Nice guy.”

“Yes. He’s agreed to mentor Jazz.”

“Jazz? Who’s Jazz?”

“My friend from Boyzie’s, Reno. The girl

I told you about.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay. Good. Good choice.”

“I think so. So what’s up?”

“I need you to go and pack your bags.”

Trina stared at him, searched his tired

blue eyes. “Pack? Why?”

“Because I want us to get away together

for a little while.”

Trina hesitated, searched his eyes. “Is it

because of the . . . retaliation?”

Reno shook his head. “I don’t give a shit

about that. They started down that road, against

my advice, so that’s their fight. Pop got Dirty

and Joey orchestrating a retaliatory hit, I can’t

believe that nonsense, geez. But that ain’t got

nothing to do with this trip. This trip ain’t

because of no retaliation, it’s because of you

and me. You stood by me. I love you even

more for that. And I want to show you my

appreciation.”

“Period?”

“Yes. For the most part, period. Okay,

yeah, I want to get you away from this craziness

around here right now. Yeah, that’s true too. I

don’t want you to think it’s always this way,

because it’s not. But what you say? Wil you go

with me?”

“Where are we going?”

“Paris, my dear.”

“Oh, Reno!” Trina said, ready to jump

into his arms. Then she thought about the fact

that this was the middle of a work week. “What

about my job,” she asked. “And Amos? He’s

been texting me to get my butt over to his office

already.”

“He talk to you like that?”

“He talks to everybody, except you, like

that.”

Reno smiled. “I’l handle Amos. You go

get packed.”

Trina smiled. Kissed him on the lips.

Going to Paris? He didn’t have to ask her twice.

They checked into the famed Ritz Paris

hotel, its magnificence making the opulent

PaLargio look almost tacky, but they were out

and about as quickly as they could put down

their luggage and leave. They walked along

Paris’s famous squares, took tea at a sidewalk

café, laughed uncontrol ably for some strange

reason as they visited the Eifel Tower, and later,

took a romantic, quiet cruise along the Seine

River.

It was heavenly for Trina, as Reno was

determined to show her the sights and sounds

of his favorite city, the city he always visited

when he needed time away, and he didn’t

disappoint. Especial y when he was able to

wrangle sold-out tickets to the Moulin Rouge

and Trina saw high-stomping Cancan girls

dancing it up in their over-the-top feathers and

extravagant frumpiness. She laughed so hard

at the sheer spectacle of it, that Reno, who had

never in the past found a Moulin Rouge show

funny, couldn’t help but laugh, too.

And later that night, when they final y

returned to the Ritz, they were both exhausted

but not so tired that they couldn’t make love as if

they were making love for the first time.

That was how it felt to Trina. Like they

were starting over. They showered together

first, something they’d done before in the states,

but this night, in Paris, it felt so sensual to her.

Especial y when he entered her as they bathe,

as the soap lathered down both their bodies

and Reno lifted her legs around him, pressed

her against the back of the stal , and began to

pound her. She lifted her head up, her hands al

over his hair, and screamed.

“Easy, baby,” Reno whispered in her ear

as he pounded her, “we don’t want to get kicked

out of this establishment.” And both of them

smiled. For Trina it was a wakeup cal that was

crystal clear to her now: she wasn’t in Dale

anymore.

Afterwards, he laid her naked body on

the bed, the curtains drawn and revealing a

sweeping view of Paris at night, and he made

sweeping view of Paris at night, and he made

love to her again. This time far more gently, his

penis sliding in and out of her with a slow

deftness that made her hunger for more. And

he gave her more, little by little, inch by inch,

able to draw it out for nearly an hour, until he

began to catch the vibe she was catching and

he began to pound harder and harder, so hard

that his cum began to spil through his penis until

she was so ful that it began to pour out of her,

dripping out like milk al over her thighs and

down her legs.

And he kept on pounding. She could

hear the cum smashing against her clit, could

feel it draining out of him and into her, and she’d

never felt this good before. Never felt this

connected to another human being before.

Reno felt the same way, connected to

this woman. So in love with her that he could

have pounded her al night. There was no

tiredness when he was with her, no exhaustion,

but nothing but unexplainable energy. And a

searing electricity so intense that it made him

want to fuck her in a way he could hardly

contain. And it was he who was too loud now,

so much so that it was Trina who had to

whisper, “easy baby, we don’t want to get

kicked out,” as every muscle in his body

stretched, and he screamed.

+++

Over the next week, it was more street

walking and sightseeing and Trina just knew

she had died and gone to heaven. There was a

day of Disneyland Paris, where they rode

Space Mountain and they both felt like kids

again, with Reno laughing so hard at Trina’s

terror on that kiddie ride, that he had to excuse

himself to the restroom afterwards.

Then there were the days of culture,

where they visited places like the Louvre

Museum where Trina got a chance to see Da

Vinci’s Mona Lisa up close and personal, a

moment that brought her to tears. She never

dreamed, when she was a kid in Dale, when

she was going through so much hel in Reno,

when she was a waitress in Vegas, that this

kind of life, this kind of world was even possible

for her. But it was more than possible now.

And it didn’t let up. Because Reno

seemed determined to give her the time of her

life. Because there were more walks along

Paris’s famed squares, to the Champs Elysees,

the Arc de Triomphe, the Palais de Chail ot.

They also, one night, visited Versail es and saw

the Grand Eaux, where Trina watched in

romantic awe as the fountains of Versail es

exploded in magnificence to the sounds of

music.

And later that night, when they crawled

into bed, they were stil so high that they didn’t

fal asleep for hours. Just talking and talking like

two kids in love who would eventual y fal asleep

on the telephone. And it was that night, that

perfect night, that Reno got out of bed, pul ed

something from the drawer, got on his knees,

and asked Katrina Marie Hathaway to be his

wife.

Trina didn’t even look at the diamond

ring that he had dangling before her, but her

eyes, her tear-stained eyes, were trained on

his.

“I know I’m not a perfect man,” he said to

her, tears staining his own eyes, “and life with

me won’t be easy. But what I do promise you,

Katrina Marie, is that it’l be grand. I promise

you that I wil love you and keep you and I wil

make decisions that wil never compromise my

life with you. I have never, Trina, asked any

woman to be my wife. Not ever. I have never

even considered any woman for that kind of

commitment. Until I met you.”

This touched Trina in a way that seemed

almost surreal. She stared at Reno.

“Somehow” he continued, “I knew it was

going to be you that very first night we talked in

your apartment, when we talked for hours. I

think I was in love with you even then. I’d never

admit that to anybody, but I was. Now I’m

hopelessly in love with you, there’s no getting

around it, kid. I want you in my life, in my bed,

for the rest of my days. Wil you marry me,

Tree? Wil you become Mrs. Dominic Gabrini

for me?”

Before he could finish speaking, Trina

was in his arms, her nakedness and his

nakedness appropriate, she felt, for the

nakedness appropriate, she felt, for the

bareness of their love. Because their love

wasn’t about anything but the two of them, even

if it pitted them against the world, and she knew

unlike she had ever known anything before, that

she was more than wil ing to take on that fight

now.

“Yes,” she said. “Oh, yes!”

And that night, they didn’t make love, but

slept with a oneness that made them feel as if

they were already joined. They slept like a

baby.

That next morning, however, reality hit.

Reno was awakened, not by his cel phone

ringing because he had purposely left it back in

the states, but by the hotel manager knocking

on their hotel door. When Reno returned to the