Gloria considered him. “You thought all along I was going to ride with you in your limousine, and then on your plane. Didn’t you? You didn’t think there was a chance I’d turn you down.”
“It wasn’t quite that calculating,” Oz said.
“You figured I’d be happy to fly on your plane.”
“You’re Reno Gabrini’s niece. You’re not unaccustomed to flying on private planes, I’m sure. But yes, I thought it would be a winning gesture.”
“But I just called you a creep. Who gets on a plane with a creep?”
Oz smiled. “You?”
Gloria looked down. Panic set in for Oz. “Oh, dear, I did not mean it like that! I was just joking around! I joke about everything.”
Gloria looked back up and he realized she was smiling. “I know it was a joke,” she said. “A bad joke, but a joke.”
Oz relaxed and smiled too. “Let me escort you to Philadelphia. It’ll be my pleasure and I’m sure getting home is very important to you. I promise to get you safely there and back.”
“Just there,” Gloria said as if, in her mind, it was a compromise. “I can catch a flight back.”
Oz nodded. “Very good, madam,” he said, and took her overnight bag, leaving her with just her briefcase.
And they walked through that airport, to the VIP private planes section, and began heading across the tarmac to Oz’s plane.
When they got onto the plane through the back-side door, Oz began showing her where everything was: the bathroom if she needed it. The bedroom if she needed it. The lounge and dining area. It was a luxurious plane.
But when Oz got into the cockpit, and sat in the pilot’s seat and began putting on the headsets, Gloria stared at him. “What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Oh, I didn’t tell you?” Oz responded. “I’m going to fly the plane.”
Gloria was mortified. “Oh, hell no!” she decried loudly, and began running toward the back exit.
Oz broke into laughter, threw off the headsets, and began running after her. “Gloria, I was kidding! Gloria? Gloria!”
Oz was bent over with laughter at the way Gloria was running comically fast down that aisle, a look of terror on her face as she was knocking his crewmembers out of her way as she ran. She was fighting to get off of that plane!
“Eddie!” Oz was yelling to the pilot. “Eddie, come tell her!”
Gloria had run so fast that she was just about to run out of that side door when Oz caught up with her and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back in with a forceful thrust that rammed her against his hard body.
Gloria felt that thrust, and felt his hard body against her and his arm of steel around her waist. When she looked back at him, she realized he was smiling.
“I was kidding,” he said to her. “I was joking around.”
But as they both looked into each other’s eyes at that close a distance, they both suddenly felt something. And it felt so familiar when it shouldn’t have. And they couldn’t break the stare. Even when Gloria realized Oz’s penis had gotten hard against her ass, and was pushing into her, she still stayed where she was. Because of a feeling that she’d never felt before.
She only broke free from him when Eddie, the pilot, made it back there to them. “I am the pilot, ma’am,” he was saying anxiously to Gloria. “Mr. Drakos jokes around that way. I assure you, madam, he will not be flying any plane that I am on.”
Gloria laughed.
“You didn’t have to go that far,” Oz said to his pilot.
Eddie smiled, too, and headed back for the cockpit.
Oz was breathing heavily. And it wasn’t just because he had to run to catch Gloria. He realized how hard he was too. “Have a seat will you please?” he said to Gloria. “I’m getting too old for this.”
Gloria grinned. “It’s your own damn fault,” she said.
“I certainly grant you that,” Oz said.
Gloria looked at him again. Was he being a wise guy? When she saw that softness in his eyes, she took a seat. But as she did, she realized something profound. She’d never met a man who made her smile so much the way Oz made her smile. Never. She gladly sat down.
But as she was sitting down, she noticed that Oz was glancing out of the plane’s window. Then he leaned toward her. “Would you care for something to eat or drink?”
“No, I’m good,” said Gloria.
“Will you excuse me for just a second?” he asked. When she said that she would, Oz got off of the plane.
Gloria watched as he made his way across the tarmac to two men standing beside an SUV.
Oz walked up to that SUV where two of his men, Darkus and Stenos, were standing. “No complications, I hope,” Oz said.
“There’s been no blowback so far,” Darkus said. “But we don’t know what’s next.”
“Now that they know we have the capacity to strike back just as hard, they should want to deal. It’ll make no sense trading hits. But make sure everybody keeps their guards up.”
Stenos looked at Darkus. Darkus hated to go there, but knew he had to. “There’s another wrinkle, Boss,” he said.
Oz expected there was a problem or they wouldn’t have come to the airfield. “What is it?”
“We now think we know who’s the head of the Ghost Mafia.”
Oz was pleased. “Well alright then. About time. Who?”
Darkus glanced at Stenos, and then back at their boss. “We believe, although it hasn’t been fully confirmed, but we believe they may be affiliated with Mick Sinatra.”
Oz was floored. His heart dropped. “Sinatra? Mick the Tick Sinatra?”
“Unfortunately, yes, sir.”
“Damn! How the fuck did we not know that, Dee?”
“Nobody knew it!” Darkus fired back. “The only reason I found out is because one of the guys we took out had a number in his phone we traced to a top lieutenant in Sinatra’s organization.”
“That’s your only clue?”
“Why would he have a number like that in his phone? Sinatra’s men are premium. If you got one of their numbers, you’re in.”
Oz ran his hands through his hair. He couldn’t believe it!
“What are we going to do now, Boss?” Stenos asked.
“What do you think?” Oz said. “Same thing we were going to do before. We’re going to wait. Mick the Tick’s a crazy motherfucker, but even he can’t want a tit-for-tat. He’ll want this resolved, too, before he loses any more men. We wait for him to make the next move.”
“If only it was anybody but him,” said Darkus. “I knew he ran pockets out of the west coast, but the Greeks were supposed to stay clear of his territory.”
“That’s why we have to make sure he’s involved,” said Oz. “Why would he want to suddenly push that far North?”
“Didn’t make sense to me, either,” said Darkus. “But I couldn’t ignore what we found out.”
“Right,” said Oz. “Just make sure everybody keeps their guards up like I said. And don’t spread around what we know so far. The last thing we need right now is for any of the bosses to back out, as if Sinatra is going to let them if he is involved.”
“Right,” said Stenos.
“I’ll be in touch,” Oz said as he was about to head back to the plane.
“Where are you headed?” Darkus asked. “I was surprised when I called and Eddie told me you might be heading out of town again.”
“It’ll be a quick turnaround.”
“But why?” Darkus asked. “We got something going on?”
“I’m going to mine.
Darkus frowned. “Mine? Mine what?”
“My business,” said Oz. “Stop asking so many fucking questions. Just keep your eyes open and get back to work. And hope we didn’t just fuck around and get in a war with Mick the Tick.”
Darkus nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, and then Oz headed back to his plane.
Stenos looked at Darkus. “If it is Mick the Tick,” he said, “we’re already fucked.”
Darkus exhaled. He knew it too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Thirty minutes into their flight and Gloria watched as Oz, slouched down on the seat across from, handle some casino business on the phone. He was obviously tired, but when he hung up, he seemed rejuvenated. “Now that that’s out the way,” he said with a smile as he sat up straight. “Where were we?”
But then his cell phone rang again. “Well my goodness!” he said as he looked at his Caller ID. When he saw who it was, he exhaled. The one call he could never ignore. He answered the call. “This is Oz.”
“Where the hell are you?” It was Alex.
“I’m handling some business.”
“Where, Oz? I know your plane is out.”
“You know entirely too much about me.”
“We have a board meeting first thing tomorrow morning. You can’t miss it. Not this time.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Where are you?”
Oz rolled his eyes. “Minding.”
“Minding what?”
They always fell for it, Oz thought. “I’m minding my business. If that’s alright with you.”
“Just be back here for that meeting,” Alex said, and ended the call.
Oz tossed his phone aside. “Now,” he said to Gloria, “where were we?”
“You were just about to tell me why you joke around so much,” Gloria said.
Oz frowned. “No, I wasn’t.”
Gloria smiled. “No, you weren’t. But I thought it would be a good place to pick it back up again.”
Oz laughed. “Oh, okay. Well. I don’t have any particular need to joke around,” he said, “but it’s just something that comes naturally to me. Some people cry or get angry. I laugh my problems away, if that’s even possible.”
“It’s not,” said Gloria. “But I get your point.”
“What about you? What do you do for fun?”
“Fun?”
“Yes! Fun.”
Gloria had no ready answer. “I go out sometimes with my girlfriends.”
“And?”
“And we have fun when we go out.”
“That’s it? You go to a club every now and then?”
Gloria nodded. “That’s it.”
“What about when you’ve been in love?” Oz asked, staring at her.
“Who says I’ve been in love?”
“I do. You are definitely the type.”
“I’m not a type, okay?”
“What about when you’re in love? What was your idea of fun then? Traveling the world? Frequenting ski resorts? Skydiving? What?”
Gloria thought about it. “Sitting at home,” she said. “Watching a good movie together. Or just talking. Stuff like that.”
Oz stared at her.
Gloria smiled. “Not your idea of fun, is it?”
“With the woman I love?” Oz asked. “Oh, yeah. That would be magical.”
Gloria was surprised by his response. Or was he just saying what he thought she wanted to hear? “But that’s what I like.”
Oz stared at her. “You look tired. You can always go in the back and get some sleep.”
Gloria remembered what he said was his true intentions. “No,” she said. “I’m good.”
Oz smiled. “You’re thinking about what I said in the airport,” he said. “Aren’t you?”
“It’s crossed my mind, yes.”
“Don’t. I’m not that kind of man.”
“Are you telling me what you said in the airport wasn’t true?”
“Oh, it was true. I’m no liar. I definitely want to . . . do that with you. But I mainly just want to get to know you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“That’s not a good reason. Especially not for a busy man like yourself.”
“I’m not busier than any other businessman.”
“But you have your pick of the litter. I know. I’ve been told several times. Why, if a man can have his pick, would he be so gun-ho on picking me? That’s what I don’t understand.”
Oz looked at her. “You don’t feel you’re worth it?”
“Not for a man who can have his pick of the litter,” Gloria said honestly.
“Maybe, to this man,” Oz said, “you are the pick of the litter.”
Gloria laughed. “Yeah, right.”
Oz considered her.
When Gloria realized he wasn’t laughing it up with her, but was staring at her, her smile evaporated too. She was confused by his reaction. “What?” she asked him.
“Who did this to you?” he asked her.
Gloria frowned. “Did what to me?”
“Who decimated your self-worth? Your self-esteem?”
Gloria stared at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But Oz would not back down. “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’ve been with a lot of women in my time. That is the truth. Some give themselves all kinds of credit. Way too much, in my opinion. Others give themselves too little credit. Way too little, in my opinion. But you top them all. You don’t seem to give yourself any credit at all. Who decimated you like this?”
Gloria was stunned by his precision takedown of her inward devastation. Who was this man? How would he know her innermost turmoil? And before she realized it, tears were in her eyes. Why was she crying? Why was she such a basket case? In a way, all of her father’s children were varying degrees of basket cases. But she had never, not ever, met a man, or any other human being besides her siblings who suffered the damage too, to realize how deep it ran.
When Oz saw her tears, his heart sank. He knew he would hit a nerve, but not one that painful. “Come here, Gloria,” he said to her.
It was an odd thing for her to hear. Why should she come to him, the man who just exposed her so profoundly that even she didn’t see it coming. But when she looked into his eyes, and saw nothing but compassion there, she couldn’t help herself. She went to Oz. And Oz pulled her into his arms and lifted her onto his lap.
He held her there for the rest of the flight to Philly.
But thirty minutes later, Gloria woke up. She had fallen asleep within minutes of being in Oz’s arms. When she realized it, too, she was about to jump off of his lap but his strong hands held her down. “What happened?” she asked.
“You fell asleep,” he said.
“And you were holding me that entire time?”
Oz smiled. “Yes.”
“You poor man!”
Oz laughed. “I must admit, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. In fact,” he said, his smile leaving, “not at all unpleasant.”
Gloria stared into his eyes, too, and before she realized what she was doing, she gave him a hug. “Thanks,” she said, and he held her closer to him. He could feel every inch of her breasts and the smooth skin of her face.
She felt him too. She felt his big arms around her and there was a safety there. She wanted to close her eyes and fall right aback asleep. But she knew she couldn’t. “I wasn’t snoring I hope,” she said to him.
“Not at all,” he said.
“Liar,” she said, and they both laughed.
“My hair looks okay?” She attempted to blindly smooth it down.
“It’s gone for itself, girl,” Oz said with a grin.
Gloria smiled. “All that time I was asleep on your lap, you could have fixed my hair.”
Oz looked mortified. “Me? I can barely fix mine!”
Gloria laughed. Then they were staring into each other’s eyes again, and all laughter ceased.
He wanted her. Desperately. There was no denying it. He wanted her in every way. And as he looked into her eyes with a look that could not possibly hide his motives, he knew if she didn’t let him, he was going to burst at the seams.
Gloria was feeling that feeling, too, but she knew it would be like parking her car on a dead-end street. It wasn’t going anywhere. With Oz, her heart would just take up temporary residence in his. B
ut as he stared into her eyes, and as she stared into his eyes, she made a decision. Going down that road with Oz would lead nowhere. That she knew for a fact. But it would lead to a moment. Just one moment with this man she felt something for. And she wanted that moment with him.
That was why she didn’t object when they stood up and walked, hand in hand, along the corridor that led to his bedroom, and he closed and locked the door behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
And when he laid her on his bed, and began removing his clothes, she couldn’t say if she was making a good decision or not. It wasn’t that simple anymore. Because she knew she wanted to be with him, at that moment in time, despite all of their differences. And she wanted to be with him even more so when he got naked.
Oz had the kind of body that made her wet just looking at him. And when he began removing her pants, and then her panties, and opened her legs, reasons not to let him got harder to determine than she ever thought possible. And when he licked her there, and kept going down on her, deeper and deeper, she was squeezing the bedding as reasons flew out the window. And when he removed her blouse, and lifted her bra, and moved up kissing her there, too, she was his. No more inhibitions about this man. No more holding back. She let him have her.
And Oz felt her surrender. He felt it when he put on his condom that could barely contain him. He felt it when his rock-hard penis penetrated her and her wetness saturated him.
He sucked her breasts as he fucked her. Gloria had her legs around him, and her arms around him as the bed shook every time he stroked her.
For nearly half an hour they made love. Long, sweet, endearing love. Until Oz kept saying Oh, Gloria. Now Gloria. Now. I’m cumming now. And then he couldn’t help himself. He came. He poured into her with such a burst of heat that she began cumming too.
Even that took several minutes of pure pleasure too.
When it was all over, and both were well spent, Oz pulled Gloria into his arms and moved onto his back, taking her with him. He was still lodged inside of her, and as she laid down on top of him, he wasn’t about to love.
And like two very satisfied lovers, they both fell fast asleep.
When Oz woke up, the plane was landing in Philly.
Oz Drakos: Loving Mick the Tick's Daughter Page 8