Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) (22 page)

“I
know,” she said.
 
“With you beside
me.”
 

Then
she stared into his eyes.
 
She saw so
much love for her there, and so much compassion, that his care and concern made
her passionate.
 
And she kissed him.

He
removed his hand from her ass and held the back of her head as she kissed him,
until he took over the kiss.
 
He loved
this woman so much, and it pained him what she had to experience.
 
He kissed her long and hard, as if he wanted
to wipe away any memory she had of Deena Driscoll and Alex Dawse and any of
those women who would seek to destroy their marriage and Grace too, while they
were at it.
 
But not on Tommy’s watch.
 
He kissed her as if kissing was going out of
style.
 
He kissed her until she had to
pull back, just to catch her breath.

And
then he carried her to the bed, lifted Sal’s shirt off of her, and laid her
down.
 
Tommy removed his coat and shirt,
tossing them aside, and then he knelt down, opened her legs, and began to lick
her.
 
And suck her.
 
And eat her pussy until she was arching so
high and squeezing the bedding so hard that she was half off of the bed.
 
When he looked back up, he was panting.
 
He stood up, dropped his pants and his
underwear, his dick already aroused, and then he laid on top of her, sucking
her breasts as he moved up her slender, brown body.
 

As
usual, he feasted on her breasts.
 
He
licked her nipples and squeezed her mounds and made love to what he called her
second pussy.
 
Until the real one was
calling his name.

“Now,
Tommy,” Grace was saying.
 
“Do it
now.
 
I need to feel you now!”

And
he gave her exactly what she needed.
 
He
entered her with tender shove in.
 
Her
entire body felt the heat of his entry.
 
And he pushed further and further in until
 
he was lodged deep within her.
 
And he fucked her.
 
He screwed her so hard she felt as if she was
inflamed with passion.
 
Every inch of her
skin was on fire.
 

He
fucked her for the longest time.
 
She
thought it would be fast.
 
The remains of
the day were too emotional and raw for either one of them to be able to
maintain any level of intimacy.
 
But they
maintained.
 
Orgasm after orgasm.
 
She came and she came even more.
 
Every cum was more intense.
 

She
wrapped her legs around his back and held onto his sweaty body as he fucked her
hard.
 
He looked at her with love in his
eyes, as he fucked her.
 
This was his
woman.
 
They tried to destroy her.
 
But she fought back.
 
She was a Gabrini now.
 
She was no longer Tommy’s girl.
 
She was Tommy’s woman now.

And
when he started cumming, and began pouring into her, and she felt drenched with
his love, tears appeared in his eyes.
 
They wanted to forget their troubles.
 
They wanted to put all of that craziness behind them.
 
And for this moment in time, when their
bodies were meld together in lovemaking bliss, they did it.
 
It was them against the world.
 
Tommy kept pumping her, causing her to
experience yet another orgasm, until even he was all pumped out.

When
he finally gyrated her for the final time, when he finally pushed into her for
the final push, when he finally poured into her for the final pour, neither one
of them bothered to move a muscle.
 
They
remained where they laid.
 
They were
warm, protected, and loved, in each other’s arms.

EPILOGUE

Tommy
drove his Ferrari up his steep driveway and stopped in front of the circular
steps.
 
Grace’s new car, the Mercedes
S-class he had purchased for her, still looked as new as the day she drove it
off of the showroom floor.
 
Until he
grabbed his briefcase, got out of his car, and looked closer.
 
He saw a dent near the backside bumper.
 
His heart pounded, because she had
undoubtedly been in some kind of an accident.
 
But he didn’t fly off the handle with worry.
 
There used to be a time, before that night
with Deena, when he suffocated Grace with overprotectiveness.
 
He made all of the decisions.
 
He determined what was best for her.
 
But after that night, when he realized she
could handle herself just fine, he learned to ease up.
 
He was still protective of her, and would
always be protective of her, but every little thing didn’t demand his
intervention.

He
walked up the steps and walked into his home.
 
“Grace!” he yelled as he sat his briefcase on the side table in the
foyer, and picked up the small stack of mail.

“I’m
in the kitchen!” Grace yelled back.

“Good
evening, sir,” Henry said as he came from the kitchen area.
 
“Would you care for something to drink?”

“Mrs.
Gabrini is cooking?”

Henry
smiled.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.

“Then
I’ll wait.”
 

Henry
continued to smile, and Tommy failed to see the humor, but he was too busy
reviewing the stack of mail to make any comment, as he headed for the
kitchen.
 
Henry followed him.

“How
was your day, sir?”

“Hectic.
 
How was yours?”

Henry
smiled again.
 
“Wonderful,” he said.

Tommy
glanced back at him, what the hell was his problem, but he continued to thumb
through his mail as they headed for the kitchen.

Grace
smiled when they walked in.
 
Tommy,
however, frowned.
 
“What in the world are
you doing?”

“Baking
a cake,” Grace said.

Tommy
smiled.
 
She had flour all over her face,
her clothes, in her hair.
 
The marbled
top center island, where she was mixing her ingredients, was an unqualified
mess.
 
“Sure you have enough flour for
the cake?” he asked as he walked around the island toward her.

 
“Very funny.
 
I know what I’m doing.
 
I’m baking
you a cake.”

“And
destroying the kitchen in the process?”

Grace
grinned, and continued mixing her ingredients.
 
“Something like that,” she admitted.
 
When he walked up to her, she turned toward him and he kissed her on the
lips.

“I
saw a dent on your car,” he said casually, although he definitely wanted an
answer.

“It
was my fault.
 
I was backing out at the
doctor’s office today, and didn’t see this cement post I should have seen.
 
I only bumped it, but it did produce a
dent.
 
I already called the insurance
company.
 
They’ll take care of it.”

“Be
careful out there, Grace.”

“I am
careful, Tommy.”

Tommy
nodded.
 
He was still learning.
 
“I know,” he said.
 
Then he smiled at the flour on her face.
 
“This cake baking of yours is admirable,” he
said, “but it’s really not necessary, love.
 
You could have had the chef and his staff take care of this.
 
Or Henry,” he added with a smile, which
mortified Henry.
 
He wouldn’t know a
ladle from a baking pan.
 
“Or you could
have ordered a cake.”

“I
know,” Grace said, “but we need a cake and I wanted to bake it myself.
 
So it’ll be memorable and special.”

Tommy
stood beside her.
 
She smelled sweeter to
him than the cake she was trying to make.
 
He placed an arm around her waist.
 
“And why do we need such a special cake?” he asked her.

“To
celebrate.”

“To
celebrate what?”

Grace
smiled, then looked at him.

“What?”
he asked, attempting to figure out why did Henry first, and now she was smiling
at him as if they had a secret.
 
Then he
remembered.
 
She had her annual physical
today.
 
But could it be?
 
Was it possible, he wondered?

“Are
you telling me,” he decided to ask, “that we’re . . . that I’m having a baby?”

Grace
laughed.
 
“That
we’re
having a baby, yes!”

Tommy’s
heart swelled with joy as soon as he heard the confirmation.
 
“Oh, Grace!” he said, and pulled her into his
arms.
 
She dropped her spoon and held him
too.
 
She was as joyous as he was.
 
They both had always wanted a big
family.
 
Now was high time they got
started.

Then
Tommy pulled back, his expensive suit now covered in flour too.
 
“How far along are you?”

Grace
inhaled.
 
“Three weeks,” she said.

This
surprised Tommy.
 
“Three weeks?
 
You mean . . .” It was three weeks ago when
Tamara was killed.
 
It was three weeks
ago when Grace had to handle Deena Driscoll.
 
It was three weeks since that horrid night.

Grace
was nodding.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“That terrible, awful night produced
something beautiful, Tommy.
 
Our child
was conceived.”

Tears
began to well up in Tommy’s eyes.
 
It had
been a long road, but they were going to make it.
 
He knew it all along, but now they had no
choice.
 
They had to make it.

“You
know what this means,” Grace said, wiping his tears, despite her own.

Tommy
looked at her.
 
“What does it mean?”

“It
means you’re a great husband now, and you’re going to be a great father.”

Tommy
smiled and pulled her into his arms again.
 
He was overjoyed.
 
No news could
have been better than this.

But
then he realized what all he had to do.
 
He had so much to do!
 
And he
released her from his grasp.
 
“I’ve got
to get started making the arrangements.”

Grace
frowned.
 
“What arrangements?”

“What
arrangements?
 
Everything, Grace!
 
Where we’re going to stay, for instance.”

“Where
we’re going to stay?
 
What are you
talking about?
 
We’re going to stay
here!”

“Oh
hell no,” Tommy said firmly.
 
“You aren’t
staying here.
 
Not while you’re carrying
our child!
 
You and I will take a leave
of absence from our respective businesses, and I’m going to find us a nice,
quiet, stress-free home, in a nice, quiet, stress-free town.
 
At least until Tommy, Junior is born.”

Grace
laughed.
 
He’d even determined the
sex.
 
“You’re kidding, right?”

“Don’t
bet on it,” he said, as he began heading out of the kitchen.

“But
Tommy!” Grace said, amazed that he was actually serious.
 

“I’ll
handle it, Grace,” he said as he walked out.
 
“You just cook that cake.”

Grace
looked at Henry.
 
“He can’t be serious,”
she said.

But
Henry was laughing.
 
He was enjoying
this.
 
“He means it,” he said.
 
“I’ve known him for a very long time.
 
He absolutely means it.”

“He
means it!” Grace said, still amazed, as if she still had to convince
herself.
 
But then she smiled, too, and
shook her head.
 
“This pregnancy is going
to be a trip,” she said.
 
“You hear
me?
 
It’s going to be crazy!”

“Are
you ready for it?” Henry asked her.

“No,”
she admitted.
 
“But Tommy is.
 
Tommy definitely is.
 
I guess I’ll just have to follow his lead.”