Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (13 page)

Sal’s
heart swelled with love.
 
And the longer
he stared at her, that love morphed.
 
He
untied his robe, revealing his toned, muscular, naked body.
 
And his fast-expanding member.
 
“Come here,” he said to her.

Gemma
didn’t hesitate.
 
She stood up, walked
over to him, and stepped out of her heels.
 
She allowed him to unbuckle and unzip her pants, and then slide them,
along with her panties, to the floor.
 
She stepped out of them.

With
her bottom half as naked as a jaybird’s, she got on his lap, straddling
him.
 
And they began to kiss.
 
Sal eased his fingers between her legs and
began to massage her as they kissed.
 
She
was so ready that her vaginal juices began to release around his fingers almost
immediately.
 
He loved her reaction.
 

But
they didn’t rush it.
 
He continued to kiss
her, and fondle her, and she continued to ruffle his hair and turn her head
from side to side as she fully enjoyed his kisses.
 
Until she was so wet, and the enjoyment was
affecting her so much, that she had to have more.
 
Without waiting for him to prompt her, she
took her hand, encircled his engorged dick, and pushed that juicy joy inside of
her.

She
moaned out as soon as she felt it again.
 
It was like food for her hunger and water for her thirst.
 
That rod of Sal’s filled her pussy until it
was so full that it was pulsating from the contact.

It
was the friction for Sal.
 
She still felt
as tight as the first time he did her.
 
But it was unbelievably better every time since.
 
And when he began to move, and her vaginal
muscles began to constrict his movement, he let out a moan that filled the
entire house.
 
It was early morning, they
should have been getting on with it because they both had things to do, but it
felt as if they were making the best love of their lives.

For
the longest time he fucked her.
 
He
pumped into her and she rode that rod as if she was catching wave after
wave.
 
She leaned down and kissed him in
the mouth, tonguing him, as he fucked her.

And
Sal was into it with a passion he didn’t think he had the strength to
mount.
 
After one of the worse nights of
his life, this morning was one of the best.
 
Not only did they decide to move full steam ahead, despite the haters
and people who thought they knew what was best for them, but they decided to do
it with gusto.
 
To rub it in.
 
To let this entire world know that this was
their live, their love was their decision, and they were no longer giving
anybody else a vote.
 
It was a democracy
of two people: Sal and Gemma.
 
Nobody
else would have a say.

And
when they came, it felt like an exclamation point for both of them.
 
It felt as if they were making a
statement.
 

Don’t
tread on us.
 

Don’t
bother us.
 

Don’t
fuck with us.

And
when they finished fucking with each other, and their cum was as strong as
their love, Gemma didn’t wait for the pulsations to ease.
 
She knew she didn’t have time.
 
She kissed Sal one last time, got up, grabbed
her pants and panties, and hurried back upstairs to shower.
 
Sal smiled as he watched her tight ass run
off.
 
But he couldn’t move as fast as she
did.
 
He no longer had the strength, for
one thing.
 
His dick was still feeling
her, for another.

He
even fondled it, as the feelings were still so potent.
 
It would take several more minutes, and many
more strokes of his penis, before he was fully back at ease.

He
finally got up, went to the downstairs powder room, and cleaned his penis and
the overflow on his thighs.
 
He would
shower later, but not yet.
 
He didn’t
have the strength yet to climb anybody’s stairs.

By
the time Gemma showered and dressed and made it back downstairs, Sal was lying
on her sofa.
 
And he was fast
asleep.
 
She smiled.
 
But decided not to disturb him.
 
The man had been through enough, she felt, to
warrant a little extra rest.

She
grabbed her briefcase and hand bag off of the kitchen table and made her way to
the front door.
 
She was late enough.

But
as soon as she opened her door, she was shocked.
 

Tommy
was standing on the other side of that door, about to ring her bell.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

If Gemma
and Sal looked refreshed and renewed this morning, Tommy looked drained and,
for a man always so well put together, almost disheveled.
 
He had on his usual Armani suit.
 
His thick, blondish-brown still swept along
his head and framed his big greenish-blue eyes and gorgeous face.
 
But he looked bad.
 
He looked as if he’d lost his best friend.

Gemma
exhaled.
 
“Hello, Tommy,” she said.

And
just saying that name was apparently enough.
 
Sal, who had been asleep on the sofa behind her, opened his eyes.

“Good
morning,” Tommy said.
 
“Headed to work?”

“Yes.”

“Courthouse
or your office?”

“My
office.”

“Ah.
 
I heard things are picking up for your
practice.”

“It
is.
 
I’m real pleased.”

“Good.
 
That’s good, Gemma.”
 
Then a hesitation.
 

Sal
was still lying there, but unbeknownst to Gemma, he was awake now.
 

“Is
Sal around?” Tommy finally asked her.

Gemma
was afraid to wake Sal up and tell him Tommy was there because he might not let
him in.
 
But they needed to talk.
 
In Gemma’s mind, they needed to talk
desperately.
 

“Yes,
he’s here,” Gemma said, walking out of the door. “Go on in.”

 
And she quickly left.
 
She didn’t want him to apologize to her for
anything, or explain his meaning.
 
It was
Sal, she felt, who needed the apology.

Tommy
watched her leave, and then he went inside her house and closed the door.
 

Sal
was still exhausted, and was therefore still lying on the sofa.
 
But he was wide awake.
 
His eyes, in fact, were barely blinking.

Tommy
was at first surprised to see Sal downstairs, lying on the sofa, but given the
seismic shift their relationship undertook last night, nothing was all that
surprising anymore.

“I
thought you were asleep,” Tommy said as he walked further in.

“I
was,” Sal said, his big, blue eyes following his brother’s every move.
 
Tommy’s hair was flapped down over his
forehead, making him looked years younger, but a dullness, and a tiredness was
in his eyes.

He
sat in the chair flanking the sofa.
 
“Gemma looked lovely today,” he said.

“She
looks lovely every day,” Sal responded.

Tommy
knew he didn’t mean it the way Sal was implying, but he didn’t have the energy
to argue about it.
 
He looked at his
brother.
 
“When are you leaving for
Jersey?”

“I
cancelled the trip.”

“You
canceled it?
 
Why?”

“I
have a wedding to plan.
 
I’m not going to
leave Gemma here to do it alone.”

“So
it’s going to be a big wedding?”

“Absolutely.
 
She deserves nothing less.
 
Nobody has to show up.
 
We don’t give a shit.
 
But we’re going all out.”

Tommy
didn’t respond.

“Where’s
Grace?” Sal asked.

“She
went back to Seattle last night.
 
She has
a company to run.”

“Smart
lady.
 
She takes her responsibility
seriously.”

“Whereas
you and me on the other hand,” Tommy said with a smile, and Sal smiled too.

“We’ll
get it together,” Sal said hopefully

Tommy
looked at him.
 
“You’re upbeat.”

“What
else am I supposed to be?
 
I’m getting
married.
 
This is the best time of my
life.
 
We’ll planning our wedding.
 
We’re going house hunting.
 
We’re doing what we need to do.”

“House
hunting?
 
Where?
 
Here?”

“Yeah.
 
Around here.”

“Sal,
what are you saying?
 
Are you saying . .
. You’re leaving Seattle?
 
You’re moving
here, to Vegas?”

“One
of us has to move.
 
And I’m not uprooting
Gemma.
 
It’s enough she’s marrying me.”

Tommy’s
heart dropped.
 
Sal actually believed
himself to be a negative for the woman who married him.
 
This good man.
 
The best man Tommy had ever known.
 
He leaned forward, a worried look on his
face.

“Don’t
worry,” Sal said.
 
“I’ll continue to do
my job.
 
The Gabrini Corporation, and the
restaurants, and the Wingate, all of it.
 
I’ll commute.
 
Stay there a few
days out of the week and do what I need to do.
 
But my home will be here, with Gemma.”

“But
not in this house?”

“Hell
no. I’m buying her her dream home.
 
And
this ain’t it.”

Tommy
smiled.
 
Then he nodded.
 
“I understand,” he said.

Sal
looked at him.
 
He didn’t expect him to
understand any of it.

“It’ll
be odd not having you in Seattle with me, however.
 
It’ll be the first time we never lived in the
same town before.”

He
and Sal exchanged a glance.

“I’ll
be around,” Sal ultimately said.

But
the elephant was still in the room, and they both knew it.

Tommy
exhaled.
 
He decided to go there.
 
It was the very reason he had come.
 
“About last night, Sal,” he said.
 
“What I did, what I said, was bullshit.
 
I need you to know that.”

Sal
considered him.
 
“Bullshit?”

“All
the way.”

“Then
why did you say it?
 
You said I didn’t
deserve Gem.
 
I don’t, but I never
thought I’d hear you say that.”

“It
wasn’t about Gemma.
 
It was about
you.
 
I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 
Sal stared at him.

A
look of anguish came over Tommy’s face.
 
“Gemma is a wonderful person.
 
And
she’s right for you.
 
She’s perfect for
you.
 
But . . .”

Sal
continued to stare, to study, to size up this man he’d known and loved all his
life.

“But
I know how you are, Sal,” Tommy went on.
 
“I know what you’re capable of.”

“So
what are you saying?
 
I’m not capable of
love?
 
Is that what you’re saying to me?”

“What
I’m saying is that you aren’t capable of balance when it comes to Gemma.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“What the. . . What’s that
supposed to mean, Tommy?
 
That I’m some
psycho nutcase when it comes to my woman?
 
Is that what you’re saying?
 
That
I’m
un
balanced?
 
That I’m unstable?”

“No,”
Tommy shot back.
 
“You know that’s not
what I mean.”

“Then
what the fuck do you mean?”

Tommy
exhaled.
 
He looked at his brother with
equal parts love, anger, and deep, deep concern.
 
“When you marry Gemma, you’re going to be
all-in with her.
 
All in.
 
There is not a doubt in my mind about
that.
 
But if anything happens to her,
and if you guys have kids and something happens to your children, you won’t
survive that, Sal.
 
You’ll be so far in
that you won’t be able to get out.
 
And
that shit scares me.
 
I’ll admit it.
 
I love you so much.”

Tommy
had to stop speaking, to keep his emotions in check.
 
Sal’s heart went out to his brother, but he
had to hear him out.
 
He had to
understand why he would speak so cruelly to him last night.
 
Fuck emotion, as far as Sal was
concerned.
 
He needed to know what was
really going on inside of Tommy!

Tommy
continued.
 
“Even though we’re only four
years apart,” he said, “you know our relationship has always been
different.
 
I’ve always felt a sense of
responsibility for you.”

Sal
nodded his head.
 
“I understand all of
that.
 
We’ve been closer than brothers.
 
I get that.
 
But you need to explain to me where all of that anger was coming from
last night.
 
You need to explain to me
why you don’t think I deserve happiness.”

“You
deserve happiness.
 
Of course you
do!
 
That’s not what I meant.”

“But
that’s what you were saying, Tommy!
 
Don’t talk to me about what you meant.
 
Talk to me about what you said.
 
Why did you say those harsh . . .”

Now
Sal had to take a moment.
 
But he quickly
regrouped.
 
“Those were some harsh words
you said last night.
 
Why?”

Now
Tommy was getting animated, and passionate about his concern.
 
“Because I know you, Sal!
 
Because I know, if you marry Gem and
something happens to her, it’s going to destroy you!”

Sal
continued to stare at Tommy.
 
“What are
you blind?” he asked him.

They
locked eyes.
 
“Your point?” Tommy asked.

Sal
couldn’t believe his brother couldn’t see it.
 
“You think I’m not there yet?
 
You
think I have to marry Gemma to get to that point?”

“I
was hoping---”

“You
were hoping, Reno was hoping, Gem’s parents were hoping.
 
Everybody’s hoping, but
 
nobody’s looking at me.
 
Look at me, Tommy!”
 

Tommy
could see the hurt deep in Sal’s eyes.

“I’ve
been madly in love with Gemma for months now.
 
But all you guys see is the old Sal.
 
The love’em and leave’em Sal.
 
I
tell you how much I love her and care for her, and you dismiss it.
 
Because it’s good ol’ Sal.
 
What does he know about love, right?
 
I may not have received that much of it, but
I know a hellava lot about it.
 
And all
that love I had that all those people rejected, from our own parents on down,
I’ve given to Gem.
 
And you think it
won’t be until after I marry her that I’m all-in with her?”
 

Sal
shook his head.
 
The emotions of the past
few days weighing heavily on him.
 
“You
say you know me, Tommy, but you don’t.
 
Because
if you think for a minute that I’m not already all-in with Gemma Jones, you
don’t know me at all.”

 
Tommy just sat there, still staring at
Sal.
 
And then he exhaled again.
 
“You’re already there?”

“I’ve
been there months ago,” Sal said.
 
“You
just wasn’t paying attention.”
 
Then Sal
frowned.
 
“But why wouldn’t you know
that?
 
You’re married to Grace.
 
Wasn’t you already there before you married
her?”

Tommy
didn’t immediately answer.
 
It was never
that cut and dry with him.
 
It was never
that simple with him.
 
“It grows
stronger,” he said, “after you get married.”

But
Sal was shaking his head.
 
“Not possible
here.
 
The way I feel about Gemma right
now, there’s no room for growth.
 
My
feelings for her are as strong as they can ever be.
 
And you’re right, I probably will go to
pieces if, God forbid, something were to happen to her.
 
But I’m working on it.
 
Gemma is helping me to work on it.
 
So don’t worry about me.
 
I have Gemma.
 
Worry about yourself.”