Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (17 page)

“Always.”

“Are
you a potential,” she asked, “or a passing fancy?”

Tommy’s
jaw tightened.
 
“What do you say?”

“I
say passing fancy.
  
Although . . .”

“Although
what?”

She
frowned.
 
It was puzzling her.
 
“It has been my experience that most passing
fancies would not have come all the way to Chicago just to check on me.
 
They might have phoned, but they never would
have come.”

Tommy
stared at her.
 
He wanted to say,
then maybe I’m not as passing a fancy as you
think,
but he couldn’t pull himself to say it.
 
Mainly because he didn’t want to lead her
on.
 
But also because he didn’t know if
it was true himself.

“Anyway,”
she said with a smile, and ruffled his gorgeous thick hair.
 
“You’re too cute, you know that?”

He
smiled.
 
“You’re apparently feeling
better.”

“Oh I
am,” she said, heartfelt. “Thanks to you.”

“Me?
What did I do?”

“Absolutely
nothing,” she said, and then turned serious. “Which is exactly what I needed
you to do.”

Tommy
was touched by that.

Liz
felt a surge of emotion too.
 
“I’m starved,”
she said, and began to get out of bed. “I’ll fix breakfast.”

As
soon as she left his arms and began heading for the bathroom, he immediately
felt her absence. The sweet smell of her. The feel of her curvaceous body. He
looked at her naked form, at her beautiful dark ass as it shook when she
walked. He was throbbing.
 
But he wasn’t
going to rush her. She just got out of the hospital for Pete’s sake! He wasn’t
ever going to be that hard up.

Liz
took the last of her bacon out of the pan and placed it on the napkin-lined
platter.
 
She heard Tommy on the stairs,
and then she saw him enter her kitchen.
 
She smiled when she saw him.
 
He
was in the same suit he had worn last night, but incredibly, it still looked
pristine.

“You’re
up!” she said cheerfully.

“Yep.”
 
Although was fully dressed and ready to go,
Liz was still naked, he knew, beneath her bathrobe.
 
“You’re bounding with energy.”

Liz
nodded.
 
“Compared with yesterday,
right?
 
I think it was those
hospitals.
 
I hate hospitals!”

It
was what she experienced in that Humvee in Iraq too, he also knew, but he was
learning Liz Logan.
  
She
compartmentalized to survive, and she was a survivor.

“Hungry?”
she asked him.

He
glanced down the length of her, at her shapely legs.
 
“Yes,” he admitted, “but I’ve got to get
back.
 
I have a board meeting this
afternoon.”

“Oh.”
 
He could see the disappointment in her
eyes.
 
“I’ll put on some clothes and
drive you to the airport.”

“Thanks,
but I took care of it.
 
The car’s already
arrived.”

Liz
smiled.
 
“You think of everything,” she
said, wiped her hands on the dish towel, and walked toward him.
 
“I’ll walk you out,” she said.

But
when she got close to Tommy, and brushed past him, he took her by the arm and
pulled her back.
 
They were within an
inch of each other.
 

Liz
saw that Tommy’s eyes were now hooded.
 
He wanted some before he left.
 

“Are
you going to take the rest of the week off?” he asked her.

Liz
smiled.
 
“What do you think?”

Tommy
placed both arms around her.
 
“I think,
as soon as I walk out that door, you’re going to put on your wings and fly your
ass straight to your office.”

Liz
laughed.
 
“Good thought,” she said.
 

Tommy
stared at her lips.
 
They were the
perfect size for kissing.
 
Then he looked
into her eyes.
 
He pulled her closer. His
own eyes darkened.
 
“If I was a gentle
man,” he said, “I wouldn’t consider touching you the way I want to touch
you.
 
Not after your ordeal.”

Liz
was fine physically.
 
Completely
fine.
 
But she stared at him.
 
She wanted to know more about how he ticked.
 
“Are you a gentle man, Tommy Gabrini?” she
asked him.

“Right
now?” Tommy asked her.

“No
better time to know than now.”

Their
lips were now touching.
 
Tommy pressed
her against his erection.
 
“Right now I’m
as gentle as a roaring lion.”

She
smiled.
 
“My kind of gentle,” she said,
and he captured her mouth just as she finished.
 

They
kissed with passionate released.
 
Tommy
wanted her so badly he knew he couldn’t possibly go all the way with her
without hurting her.
 
But he needed
something.

He lifted
her into his arms, carried her back upstairs to her bedroom, and laid her on
the bed.
 
When he opened her robe and saw
her naked body, he had force himself not to pull out his cock and do her
anyway.
 
He, instead, knelt down, opened
her legs, and mouth-fucked her.
 

It
was everything and more for him.
 
It
brought back memories of their first time.
 
It was so enchanting for him that he unzipped his pants, pulled out his
cock, and began jerking as he ate her.
 
Liz was jerking too.
 
Her entire
body was arching under the direction of Tommy’s tongue.
 
He twisted around her clit.
 
He licked between her folds.
 
And he placed his entire mouth over her
vagina, bit down deep inside of her, as if he was eating steak.
 
She arched and squirmed and loved the way he
did her.

But
she remembered what his cock did to her the last time they were together, a
cock she had been craving ever since that night.
 
And although she loved his oral, and could
easily have an orgasm on his oral alone, she wanted his dick again.
 
She wanted to feel that fullness she felt
when he fucked her on his plane.

She
grabbed him by the catch of his thick
 
hair and lifted his gorgeous head.
 
He looked at her.
 

“I
want more,” she said.
 
“Put it in.
 
I want it in.”

“You
can’t take that yet.”

“I can.
 
Tommy, I can.
 
Do it.”

Tommy
was already so aroused, and he wanted in too, that he weakened under her
request.
 
He shouldn’t have.
 
He should have been a better man.
 
But looking at her body, looking at her face
weakened him beyond any turning back.
 
He
laid on his back, put her on top, and they both were so weak and so in need of
the other’s sex that he entered her, and she let him enter her, raw.
 

And
he fucked her.
 
He gave them both exactly
what they wanted.
 
He sucked her breasts
as they beat him in the face, and fucked the shit out of her.
 
She held onto him, with her head leaned back,
as he pounded into her the way she needed it most.
 
And the rawness of it.
 
She couldn’t believe she was allowing
it.
 
Talk about taking risks she never
took before.
 
Not ever!
 
But Tommy was doing her.
 
And, in truth, she wouldn’t have it any other
way.

Tommy,
too, was in uncharted territory.
 
Not
since his separation well over two years ago had he entered any woman raw.
 
That was his fast and hard rule.
 
He wasn’t getting anybody pregnant, he wasn’t
spreading or getting anybody’s diseases.
 
But with Liz, with this woman that was now lying on top of him and he
was wrapping her into his arms, he threw every rule out he’d ever lived
by.
 
He was fucking her raw and loving
every second of it.
 
He didn’t think he
could want a woman’s sex as badly as he wanted hers.
  
And to feel every ridge of her pussy.
 
To push in further and further and feel her
muscles tighten around his shaft was a turn-on that made him push even harder.
 
He was having the fuck of his life.

And
as soon as Liz began to orgasm, as soon as her vaginal muscles began to clench
and she climaxed, Tommy went over too.
 
He came right along with her.
 
He
let out a grunt so loud and so hard that it stretched every muscle in his body,
and he poured into her.
 
Liz felt his
warm cum saturate her vagina with so much juice that she couldn’t stop cumming
herself. It was as if she was having orgasm after orgasm as he did her.
 
And he continued to pound into her as he filled
her and poured out of her.
 
She didn’t
have to squirt this time because Tommy was doing it for her.
 
He was taking her to the heights again.
 
His hot, white cum was all over her thighs,
trailing down her legs, before they even began to come back down.

Kutana
Magazine was on the twenty-eighth floor of the Crest building in downtown
Chicago.
 
The elevator doors opened, and
Liz Logan, with Tommy Gabrini by her side, entered the bowels of her busy
office.
 
It was a wide open, no frills
newsroom, filled with rows and rows of desks and busy reporters typing or
answering their constantly ringing phones or consulting in a corner over coffee
and cakes.
 
Her employees, Tommy noticed,
were generally young, primarily African-American, and all with that go-getter
look of determination that undoubtedly made them invaluable to Liz’s bottom
line.

When
her staff recognized that she had entered the building, many of them stopped
what they were doing and applauded, with yells of
welcome back,
and
glad to
have you back, boss,
and
Rome is a
tyrant, don’t leave him in charge ever again
!
 
As Liz walked toward her office in the back
of the newsroom, with Tommy close behind her, she laughed with them and hugged
them and thanked them all for their flowers and cards.
 
Tommy could feel the respect and love the
staff had for Liz, although it felt wafer thin to him.
 
He could feel that line of demarcation.
 
She was still their boss.
 
Like most employees, if a bigger paycheck and
a better boss came along, they were out of there.
 
Tommy should know.
  
His employees felt the same way about him.

When
they entered her office, however, one employee whose voice he recognized looked
up from behind the desk.
 
“What are you
doing here?” he asked her.
 
“You just got
out of the hospital, Liz!”

“I
didn’t need to be there to begin with,” Liz said as she headed for her
desk.
 
“Get out of my office.”

Jerome
Langley smiled.
 
“And they call me a
tyrant,” he said as he stood and began grabbing up his papers.
 
He and Liz hugged each other warmly.

“Now
go,” Liz said playfully as she replaced Jerome behind her desk.
 
“Before you go, however,” she said, “I want
you to meet---”

“Tommy
Gabrini,” Jerome said with his hand outstretched.
 
He and Tommy shook hands.

“And
how would you automatically know his name?”

“I
Googled him after you told me about him,” Jerome admitted.
 
“I wanted to make sure you weren’t bringing
some ax murderer into the mix.
 
We’ve got
you.
 
That’s enough.”

Tommy
laughed.
 
Liz smiled.
 
“Very funny,” she said.
 
“Tommy, this is my unreliable, unnecessary,
undeserving assistant Jerome Langley.”

“Nice
to meet you, Jerome.
 
Or do you prefer
Rome?”

“Rome,”
Jerome said.
 
“And nice to meet you.”

“Bring
us some coffee, will you, Rome?” Liz asked him.

“See,”
Jerome said with an all-knowing look.
 
“I’m her managing editor, a big deal in the publishing world.
 
The second in command in fact.
 
But she treats me like her secretary.”
 

“Make
mine with cream,” Liz said.
 
“What about
yours, Tommy?”

“Black,”
Tommy said.

Jerome
glanced at Liz, smiled an all-knowing smile, and left.

“He
seems like a good guy,” Tommy said as he walked up to the desk.

“He’s
a good pain in the ass,” Liz said affectionately and sat down behind her
desk.
 
Tommy sat down in front of
it.
 
Then she exhaled.
 

“Feels
good to be back to work?” he asked her.

Liz
smiled.
 
“Yeah, it does.
 
It feels great.”
 
Then she looked at him.
 
“Thanks for not battling me about returning
to work too soon.”

“After
the workout you put on me this morning,” he said, “are you kidding?”
 
She laughed.
 
“I’m the one who needs a day off!”
 
Then his look turned serious.
 
“You’re physically fine,” he said.

“As I
said all along.”

“And
as you confirmed last night,” Tommy said, thinking about just how powerfully
she confirmed it.
 
A look passed between
them that caused his dick to throb. He was ashamed to admit it, since they’d
just had sex, but he wanted her again.

 
“And I also want to thank you for all your
kindness and thoughtfulness, Tommy,” she said.
 
“I really do appreciate it.
 
I’ll
contact my insurance carrier and appeal their decision, but that could take
months, as I’m sure you know.”

“Don’t
worry about that.”

“So
you don’t want me to bother to appeal it?” she asked, playing with him.

“I
didn’t say that,” he said, and she laughed. “But I don’t want you worrying
yourself about it.”

She
understood.
 
“I won’t.
 
Thanks.
 
And thanks for wanting to come by and see the magazine before you flew
out of town.
 
It means a lot to me that
you would even care.”

“It’s
my pleasure, Liz,” he said as he slouched in his seat.
 
He was so comfortable around her that it
surprised him.
 
“I rarely get to meet
such a special lady, to be honest with you,” he said.
 
“It makes me want to linger.”

Liz
was touched.
 
But she didn’t quite know
how to respond.
 
Tommy was a ladies
man.
 
He knew exactly what words to say
to get a female hooked.
 
Although, given
his sexual abilities, words weren’t necessary to achieve that goal.
 
“So,” she said, “how do you like my
empire?
 
My very small, intimate empire?”

“I
like it,” Tommy responded.
 
He crossed
his legs.
 
“I see you hire a lot of
African-American reporters.”

Liz
nodded.
 
“I do.
 
Mainly because I know how tough it is for
them to break into the foreign correspondence business.
 
It’s a small island of reporters, and almost
all of them are white and well-connected.
 
They rarely ever get that chance.
 
I was one of the lucky ones.
 
I
had a boss who wanted to push that envelope and he gave me that chance.
 
Most bosses wouldn’t dare.
 
So I knew if I didn’t hire them, who would?
 
And besides, they’re great reporters.”

“Good
that you had a pool to pull from.”

“Now
that’s the truth,” Liz said, and then knocks were heard on her door.
 
Before she could respond, the door flew open
and Annie Kurtz, from her legal department, hurried in.

“Welcome
back, Liz, we’ve got trouble,” Annie quickly said.
 
Then she looked at Tommy.
 
“I didn’t realize you had company.”

“How
could you realize anything the way you flew in here?” Liz asked.
 

“I
didn’t mean to just barge in---”

“Then
barge right back out,” Liz ordered, “and try again.”

Annie
gave Liz that
how dare you
look, but
she exited back out of the office, closing the door behind her.

“Good
for you,” Tommy said.
  
“Demand respect.”

“I
shouldn’t have to demand it,” Liz said, “but I do.
 
And I do,” she added as knocks were heard on
her office door.

But
before Liz could say anything again, the door flew open and Jerome, this time,
barged in with two cups of coffee. He was looking back at Annie. “What are you
just standing out here for?” he asked.

Liz
looked at Tommy, shook her head, and they both laughed.

“It
wasn’t me that time,” Annie said.

“Just
come on in and close the door,” Liz said.

Annie
did as she was told while Jerome handed first Liz and then Tommy their
coffee.
 
Liz took a sip and then sat her
cup on the desk.
 
“Okay, what kind of
trouble are we in?”

“Trouble?”
Jerome asked.

Annie
looked at Tommy.
 
“Perhaps your guest can
wait outside?”

“He’s
fine,” Liz responded.
 
“What’s the
trouble, Annie?”

Annie
exhaled. She was a middle-aged, thin redhead, with big, pop eyes and a pair of
glasses swinging from her hand.
 
“Jeffrey
Haggard is suing you.”

“That
bastard,” Jerome said.

“For
what?” Liz asked.

“Sexual
harassment,” Annie replied.

Liz
smiled, and then laughed.
 

“This
isn’t funny, Liz,” Annie said.
 
“He has a
cause of action.”

“Like
hell he does!”

“Let’s
review the facts,” Annie said.
 
“Shall
we?”
 

But
Liz wasn’t convinced.
 
“There’s no facts
to review.”

“He
was one of your reporters,” Annie said.
 
“Is that correct?”

“You
know Jeff used to work for me, Ann, yes.”

“Because
he was one of your reporters he was your subordinate.
 
You and he entered into a sexual
relationship.
 
Correct?”

Liz
wanted to glance at Tommy, but she didn’t.
 
She could already feel his eyes staring at her.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“If you want to call it that.”

“You
used your position of authority over him, he claims, to coerce him into having
sex with you and to ultimately fire him when he began to refuse your advances.”

“Oh
please!” Liz said.
 
“I tasted it once, didn’t
like it, and that was the end of that.
 
And the reason I fired him was because he lied on a story.
 
It had nothing to do with any past encounter
I had with him months and months earlier.”

“It’s
a mess, Liz,” Annie said, “no matter how you try to minimize it.
  
I cannot sugarcoat this for you.
 
This is bad.
 
He and his attorney are threatening to go public if we aren’t willing to
settle.”

“I’m
not willing,” Liz said.
 
“That liar won’t
get a penny from me!
 
I didn’t coerce his
ass into anything!”

“I know
that’s right!” Jerome echoed her.

“He
begged and he begged,” Liz said.
 
“I was
the harassed one!
 
I gave in to him that
one time, and yes, that was my mistake.
 
That was a bad move.
 
But I’m not
paying for it by paying that little liar.
 
And I mean that.”

Tommy
stood up and placed his coffee cup on the desk.
 
“Let me see the particulars,” he said to Annie.

Annie
gave him a sidelong look as he began pulling out his reading glasses.
 
“Excuse me?”
 
she asked him.
 
When he didn’t
respond, she looked at Liz.

Liz
was already considering the request.
 
She
was already processing it.
 
Then she
nodded.
 
“Let him see it,” she ordered.

Annie
was stunned that she would allow some outside, random guy to even hear about
this lawsuit, let alone read the particulars.
 
But she did as she was ordered and gave the paperwork to Tommy.

Although
Annie might have thought Tommy was simply being nosy and wanted to know the
facts about the sexual aspect, Tommy wasn’t reviewing the document for facts,
sexual or otherwise.
 
He was reviewing it
for an address.

“I
really don’t want us to drop the ball on this, Liz,” Annie said as Tommy
reviewed the document.
 
“We have to mount
a vigorous defense because Jeffrey’s people certainly will.”

“I
don’t care what kind of defense you mount,” Liz said, “but at the end of the
day it better not require me to admit to something I didn’t do, or to pay a
dime to that worm.
   
Anything else is on
the table.
 
Those two things are not.”

Annie
looked at Jerome for help.
 
“Don’t look
at me,” Jerome said.
 
“I agree with her a
thousand percent.
 
Jeffrey Haggard used
to chase her tail like she had a million dollars stuffed in there.
  
She didn’t have to coerce that fool into
doing anything.
 
I’m with Boss on this
one.
 
And I’ll be the star witness if I
have to be.”