Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) (13 page)

Tommy
stared at her a moment longer.
 
They used
to have good times together, but those days were forever gone.
 
Just like their friendship.

He
took Grace’s hand and left her apartment.

Marie
slammed the door behind them, fell against it, and sobbed.
 

Grace’s
Audi stopped in front of the Gabrini Corporation.
 
Tommy sat on the passenger seat.
 
He looked over at Grace.

“She
won’t try that shit again,” he promised her.

“I
know.”

“She
thought all she had to do was pressure you and you’d cave.”

“Cave?
 
Cave how?”

“You’d
leave me, I guess.”

Grace
shook her head.
 
“That woman’s
delusional.
  
Leave you over her?
 
Please.”

Tommy
smiled, leaned over, and kissed her on the lips.
 
“Drive carefully,” he said, and then got
out.
 
Grace waved as she drove off.
 
Too fast, in Tommy’s view.

But
he didn’t dwell on it.
 
He headed into
the building, took the executive elevator to the top floor, and then made his
way to his office suite.
 
Irma, his
secretary, was behind her desk, and his assistants were behind theirs.
 
But his entire attention was on Irma.

Known
for being discreet, he would have normally taken her into his office.
 
But not this time.
 
He didn’t want to make this a private
matter.
 
They all needed to hear
this.
 
“Have you spoken to Marie Knox?”

“Your
girlfriend?” Irma asked.
 
“No sir, not
lately.”

“My
former girlfriend.
 
And what do you call
not lately?”

“Not
lately, sir.
 
I haven’t spoken to her in
a while.”

“Did
you speak to her four months ago?”

“Four
months ago, sir?”

“Yes,
four months ago.
 
When I was scheduled to
go to Aspen.
 
Did you tell her I was
going to Aspen four months ago?”

The
secretary hesitated.
 
Deny all seemed to
be her strategy.
 
“Aspen, sir?”

“Don’t
bullshit with me, Irma.
 
Now did you or
did you not tell her I was going to Aspen?”

“I
might have mentioned it to her.
 
Yes, I
did mention it to her.”

“Why?
 
You knew I was engaged then.
 
Why would you need to notify my ex-girlfriend
about my schedule?”

“I
was . . . I didn’t see where it was any big deal really.
 
Could you do better than her?
 
Yes, I felt you could.
 
And I doubt if I was the only human being in
this organization who felt that way.
 
But
that’s not why I mentioned your schedule to Marie.”

Tommy
stared at her.

“What?”
Irma asked through his stare.
 
“I liked
Marie and I thought she would have made you a better wife.”

The
nerve of this woman, Tommy thought.
 
“You
wanted to sabotage our relationship,” he said, still staring at her, still
wondering what gave her the right to even have an opinion about his private
life.

“I
wanted you to see what you were missing,” Irma surprisingly admitted.
 
“If you want to call that such a loaded word
as sabotage then fine, call it that.
 
I
wanted to sabotage your relationship.”

“Well
lady,” Tommy said, “you just sabotaged yourself.
 
You’re fired.
 
Get out, and get out now.”

Irma’s
heart dropped.
 
“Fired?
 
Over
her
?”

Tommy
looked at the woman seated behind Irma’s desk.
 
Irma was already a non-factor in his eyes.
 
“Viv, you take over her duties until I can
find a replacement.”

“Yes,
sir,” Vivian replied, displaying loyalty to Tommy only.

Without
giving his long-time secretary a second glance, he went into his office.

TEN

He
entered her with a push-in that went so far in it almost took her breath
away.
 
It was early morning, they both
had to get up to go run their respective companies, but right now Tommy was
waking her up as only he could.
 
He was
lying behind her, both on their sides, as he pushed further and further in.
 
Once fully in, he placed his hands on her
hips and started screwing her hard.
 
He
stroked her and stroked her.
 
He was
groaning and she was moaning as the feeling was intense from the very beginning
of their intercourse.

Tommy
couldn’t stop sighing as his dick kept expanding inside of her, creating the
kind of friction and tight passages that kept him on the edge of cum.
 
He’d never wanted anyone the way he wanted
Grace.
 
Because he loved this woman
completely, and that made the difference.
 
He reached up and massaged her breasts, and rested his lips against the
side of her face, as he fucked her.

Grace
couldn’t stop moving her hips and her ass as he did her.
 
It was a rhythm that made her feel as drowsy
as she felt sensual.
 
Her eyes were
hooded, his big hands on her breasts were like fire in her nipples, and the
intensity kept growing.

“It’s
time, Tommy,” she started saying.

“Do
it,” he said.
 
“I want to fuck you harder
so you can cum hard.”

“But
I couldn’t bear it,” she said, as he began fucking her harder.
 
“I can’t, Tommy!
 
I can’t bear . . . I can’t . . .”

What
she couldn’t do was continue speaking.
 
Because she was cumming and cumming hard.
 
Because Tommy was breathing heavily into her
ear and pounding her insides with a dick so full it made her feel as if she was
inflamed with pulsations.
 
She couldn’t
contain it.
 
She started screaming out.

“Let
it out,” Tommy was saying as he pounded her.
 
“Show me how you love it!
 
Show
me!”

She
showed him.
 
She showed him so well that
his own control broke, and he showed her.

He
poured into her.
 
He leaned against her,
squeezing her breasts so hard it hurt, until he flooded her with his cum.
 
Her vagina, and her breasts, were fire red by
the time Tommy finished with her.

It
had been nearly a week since Marie’s little stunt, they had not heard a peep
out of anybody else, so life was good.
 
But as she and Tommy came down from their morning fuck high, somehow
they knew they had to take happiness whenever it came, and to embrace it fully,
before their peace would, inevitably, be breached.
 

And
the breach did come.
 
Later that same
evening.
 

It
started after work.
 
Grace had received a
phone call from one of her neighbors about loud music and arguments coming from
her apartment the night before.
 
When she
arrived at the apartment, and confronted her, Tamara denied it all. She denied
so much as turning on a radio.

“And
what loud arguments?” she asked.
 
“I
haven’t even had anybody here.”

They
were in the living room.
 
Grace was
seated on the sofa and Tam was seated, Indian-style, beside her.
 
“Nobody was here?” Grace asked her.

“Nobody!
 
Not anybody.
 
So I don’t know what that lady talking about.”

“Don’t
lie to me, Tam,” Grace said.
 
“My
neighbor isn’t making this up.
 
She heard
what she heard.”

“And
I know what I didn’t do.
 
I know you
don’t play that.
 
Why would I have
somebody here?”

“Are
you talking to Bobby again?”

Tam
hesitated.

“Well
are you?”

“On
the phone, yeah,” Tam admitted.
 
“But I’m
working now.
 
I don’t have time for that
player.”

It
was a good thing she had gotten a job.
 
But this report from the neighbor bothered Grace.
 
“Have you argued with him on the phone?”

“Sometimes.
 
Yeah.
 
So what?”

“Maybe
that’s what my neighbor heard.”

Grace
watched Tamara.
 
“Yeah,” she said, quick
to agree.
 
“That’s what it was!”

Grace
shook her head.
 
“You’re full of shit,
Tam.
 
You had that joker here and you
know it.”

Tamara
gave in.
 
“He didn’t spend the night or
anything, aw’ight?
 
I wouldn’t let
him.
 
But we did argue.”

“Why
would you let him come here at all, Tam?
 
I told you I didn’t want anybody in here.”

“He
just came over to talk.
 
That’s all.
 
To talk.”

“And
party?”

Tamara
didn’t deny that any longer either.

Grace
shook her head.
 
“Why are you going
back?
 
You’re doing good now.
 
You’ve got yourself a little job.
 
You’re saving your money.
 
Things are going good for you for a
change.
 
Don’t mess this up.
 
My husband already isn’t crazy about this
arrangement.
 
If I tell him about any
problems going on here he’ll make me kick you out of here, I hope you realize
that.”

“And
I hope you realize you ain’t got no business letting a man make you do
anything.
 
You’re a grown woman and this
is your apartment.
 
Why he got to make
you do anything?
 
Slavery’s over.
 
He don’t own you!”

“Yeah,
okay,” Grace said.
 
“Keep talking that
shit.
 
Keep making all of your little
bold pronouncements.
 
And see don’t I
kick you to that curb.
 
Keep bringing
Bobby over here, keep thinking my husband has no sway in my life, and you’ll be
up out of here in no time flat.”

Tam
attempted to smile.
 
“I was just playing
around, all right?
 
I know how important
Tommy is in your life, I was just messing with you.
 
And I told you Bobby isn’t coming here
again.
 
And there won’t be any more loud
music, I promise you that.
 
I appreciate
what you’re doing.
 
I really do, Grace.”

Grace
looked at her.
  
She was probably still
full of it, but she wasn’t ready to give up on her just yet.
 
“I’m going out on a limb for you, Tam.
 
Don’t push your luck.”

Tamara
nodded.
 
“I won’t.
 
I messed up, but I won’t again.”

The
apartment’s doorbell rang.
 
Grace looked
at her sister.
 
“I thought you said
nobody comes here?”

“They
don’t!”

“Except
when Bobby came.”

“Right.”

“And
other people you haven’t mentioned.”

“Right.
I mean, wrong.
 
No!
 
Nobody comes here!”

Not
that it would have mattered if it were some friends she’d met.
 
But Grace knew her sister.
 
She was all about men, and Bobby was the one
she wanted right now.
 
That was why Grace
walked over to the door cautiously, just as the bell rang again.
 
She opened it.
 
When she realized it was a woman she didn’t
know, she at first assumed it was indeed some new friend Tamara had met.
 
But when she took a closer look and saw that
this woman was gorgeous, was tall, was African American, and was far too old to
be Tam’s friend, she instinctively knew what this was about.
 
This was going to be all about Tommy.

“Yes?
 
May I help you?”

The
woman, Deslyn, stared at Grace.
 
Grace
wasn’t as homely as she’d been led to believe.
 
Grace, in fact, was rather attractive to Des.
 
But she was still not in Des’s league, and
Des knew it.
 

“Are you
Grace McKinsey?” she asked.

Grace
was now certain of the woman’s motive.
 
“I’m Grace Gabrini, how may I help you?”

Tamara,
suddenly curious herself, came and stood beside Grace.

Deslyn
ignored her.
 
She had a job to do, a job
Marie had apparently failed miserably at doing, and she was going to stick to
it.
 
She couldn’t wait for Tommy to show
up at her place and try to read her the riot act.
 
She was going to answer the door naked.
 
Tommy could never resist her nakedness.
 
“He’s still in love with me,” she said.

“Who’s
still in love with you?” Tamara asked.
 
But Grace only stared at the woman.
 

Deslyn
didn’t quite expect silence.
 
But she
forged ahead.
 
“He still wants me,” she
said.
 
“He told me so himself.”

Continued
radio silence from Grace.

And
continued boasting from Deslyn.
 
“He’s
always favored me.
 
For years.
 
He finds my kind of woman the only kind of
woman that can turn him on.
 
I’m his
ideal woman.
 
He’s told me many times
before.”

Still
nothing from Grace. Deslyn decided to pounce.
 
“But as for you?
 
No.
 
No ma’am.
 
There’s nothing ideal about you.”

“Excuse
you,” Tamara said.

“He
wants me,” Deslyn said, completely ignoring Tam.
 
“He loves me.
 
You may not believe it, but I would never expect you to believe it.
 
You think you’re his one and only, which is
absurd.
 
You?
 
Over me?
 
Please.
 
But I’m telling the
truth.
 
And I’m not the only one he’s
pursuing either.”

Grace
stared at her, but she didn’t feel any surge of emotion whatsoever.
 
It felt like child’s play to Grace.
 
It reeked of desperation and calculation and
just plain pitifulness.
 
She folded her
arms.
 
She felt so superior to this
beautifully misguided woman that it wasn’t even funny.
 
“It’s so obvious,” she said.

Deslyn
looked at her.
 
“What’s so obvious?”

“You
must really want my husband very badly for you to take time out of your busy
schedule, drive all the way over here, and tell your lies.”

“I’m
not lying!”

“You’re
a liar,” Grace said firmly.
 
“You’re
lying your desperate head off.”

“Say
anything you like.
 
But ask Tommy about
me.
 
He’ll tell you how much he loves
me.
 
He’ll tell you.
 
My advice to you is that you should get out
now, while you can.”

Grace
laugh, prompting Tamara to laugh too.
 
“Get out?” Grace asked.
 
“That’s
your advice?
 
That I should get out while
I can?
 
And why, I wonder?
 
So you can get in?
 
Yeah, right.
 
Get real!”
 

And
then Grace, tired of this entire conversation, slammed the door in Deslyn’s
face.
 

Tamara
was astonished.
 
She’d never seen Grace
quite this animated.

“Now
back to your situation,” Grace said.

“My
situation?
 
But . . .”

Grace
exhaled.
 
“But what, Tam?”

“You’re
worried about my situation?
 
What about
yours?
 
That woman said Tommy’s cheating
on you.
 
And she said she’s not the only
one either.
 
You don’t believe her?”