“But what happened? You were angry when you came out of her office. Why?”
Tommy stopped reading and looked at her over his glasses. “She suggested that the only reason I’m interested in you is because I want your ten shares in Trammel.”
“So that you could be the majority shareholder, right.”
“I’m already the majority shareholder.”
“I know, but if it came down to it Cam is going to throw his five shares in with Jilly’s so she, technically, has forty-two shares, which is more than your forty shares. But with my ten, then you have more. That’s what she meant.”
Tommy looked at her. “You talk as if you buy into that nonsense too.”
“I don’t, but I have to admit it’s crossed my mind.”
Tommy hesitated, and then removed his glasses. He grabbed his cell phone from the table and handed it to her. “Google Gabrini Conglomerate.”
“I already Googled you,” Grace pointed out with a smile.
“Not me. My company.”
Grace didn’t want him to think that she doubted his sincerity, but she did as he requested. She Googled his company. “Which article to click on?”
“Pick your choice,” he said.
Grace clicked on one. “What am I looking for?”
“Anything about my net worth.”
Grace read further. And further. “Here it is,” she said and began reading. “Gabrini Conglomerate, Thomas Gabrini’s company, is reported to have a net worth of six hundred million dollars annually.” Grace looked at him. She was astounded by that figure.
“Trammel,” he asked, “brings in how much total revenue a year?”
Grace didn’t have to think long about that. “About three a year.”
“Three point six million a year to be exact, with nearly three of that going to operating costs. Which means it nets about six hundred thousand a year. My six hundred million versus Jilly’s six hundred thousand. I’m not bragging, Grace, but I sit on over half a billion dollars revenue stream annually. Yet you and Jillian assume my sole focus is to gain more control over little old Trammel.”
Grace smiled. She already had figured out how ridiculous that was, even before she knew his astounding net worth.
“The only reason I invested in Trammel to begin with was to help Jillian from losing the company outright. When I came onboard there were no takers. Trammel was about to start bleeding money every year. Even now it’s barely turning a profit. But Jillian’s husband was a good friend of mine before he passed away. I know how hard he fought to build that company up from scratch. It was remarkably successful when he was alive. He’s the only reason I gave that company a second thought.”
“I know my shares weren’t the reason.”
“No, they were not.” Then he exhaled, and pulled her to him. She sat on his lap and laid her head against his chest. “But let’s not even go there tonight. I’ve got a business trip coming up and I just want to spend some quiet time with you.”
“A business trip? When?”
“If I can manage it, I want to fly out tomorrow evening. I’ve got to go to Sydney.”
“Australia?” Grace asked, obviously disappointed.
“Yeah, that’s the place. But only for a few days.” He could see her disappointment. He rubbed her hair. “My travels are something you will definitely have to get used to, babe.”
“I know. And I will. It’s just that. . .”
“It’s just that what?”
“Do you always go alone on these trips, or are you accustomed to taking a woman with you?”
Tommy smiled. “What, you want to go with me?”
“You know I can’t. I mean your lady friends.”
Tommy wasn’t going to lie to her. “I usually go alone, though not always. But I can tell you this: I haven’t taken another woman with me anywhere, or so much as touched another woman, since the first time I slept with you.”
Grace was astounded. She stared at him. “Really?”
“Really.”
“But why? We both assumed it was going to be a one-night stand.”
“I know. But I lost interest. Every time I thought about being with another woman, I thought about you. And what it felt like to be with you. And If I couldn’t have you, then I didn’t want to bother with anybody else.”
Grace was touched and amazed by his revelation.
“So don’t worry,” he said. “Nobody’s getting in my pants but you.”
Grace smiled. “You mean like this?” she asked as she unzipped his jeans and pulled out his manhood.
Tommy felt the joy of her touch. “Oh, baby. That’s exactly what I mean.” And then she slid her body further down, and began licking him like a lollipop.
He closed his eyes and sighed as she made him feel so good.
But just as it started heating up to a point where he knew he was going to have to stick it in her, his phone rang.
“Fuck it,” he said to her. “Keep going.” He wasn’t about to interrupt this to answer any phone call. The feel of her tongue on his penis felt so warm and soft that he wasn’t about to let this stop.
Then there was his answering machine intro, a beep, and then a voice he knew so well came online.
“Tommy, it’s Trina,” the voice said.
Tommy’s eyes flew open and his body stiffened. Grace stopped licking and looked up. Apparently this Trina was his favorite female because he immediately grabbed the phone. Grace sat up.
“Hey,” he said onto the line. “What’s up?”
Grace just sat there as Tommy spoke on the phone. Tommy, too, noticed the disappointment in her eyes. She apparently thought Trina was one of his women.
“Of course I remember,” he said on the phone as he motioned for Grace to come to him. She came. He pulled her to him and wrapped one arm around her. She laid her body against him and placed her head on his chest. She still felt odd, what with all of these women friends of his, but at least she didn’t feel alone.
Tommy even placed the call on Speaker once he realized what it was about. “So Little Man will be a year old in a month-and-a-half?”
“That’s right,” Trina said on the phone. “But I want to give you a heads up now so you can save the date. I don’t know a man busier than you who’s ever been born. So save that date. And not just that date, Tommy, but give us a week of your time. Come up a week before the party, that would be great if you can swing it. We miss you.”
Grace’s body tensed when Trina spoke those words. Tommy pulled her closer.
“I’ll do that,” he said. “So tell me: how elaborate will it be?”
“Reno claims it won’t be elaborate at all, but he’s lying.” Tommy laughed. “He’s gonna go all out and we both know it. You saw how he went all out for the Christening. So be prepared. Oh, and before you ask it, the answer is yes, you may bring a date. As you always do.”
Tommy laughed again. “Well, thank-you, Mother, I really do appreciate that.”
“So you’re going to bring somebody?”
Tommy looked down at Grace. Grace looked up at him and smiled, relieved that this Trina, at least, wasn’t one of his females. He kissed her on the nose. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll be bringing someone.”
“Don’t tell me: Shanks, right? I knew it! I knew you and ShoShawna would get back together. Reno’s convinced you kicked her to the curb for good this last time, but I don’t see it. You guys have such a long and complicated history together.”
Grace’s relief deflated again. She could even feel Tommy’s body tense at the mention of this ShoShawna person.
“It won’t be Shawnie,” he said flatly.
“Oh,” Trina said. “Well. Reno would say it’s about time. You know how he feels about Shanks. But as long as this new girl is nice and treats you right, she’s fine by me. Because that’s what you need. Somebody who treats you right, and not just some of the time, but all of the time.”
“Preach it, Trina, preach it,” Tommy said w
ith a smile.
Trina laughed. “Let me get off of this phone, boy. I’ll see you in six weeks.”
“Okay, Tree. Tell the gang I said hello.”
“Will do. Bye, Tommy.”
“Bye, babe,” Tommy said and killed the call.
There was a long pause, as he continued to hold Grace. Then he exhaled. “That was my cousin’s wife,” he said.
Grace had already determined that the caller wasn’t his love interest. “She sounds like a really sweet person.”
“That she is. I’ve never met a better woman,” he said fondly. “Although,” he added, “you’re giving her a run for her money.”
Grace took her small fist and playfully hit him on his muscular bicep. “Ouch!” she said when she did it. “Your arm feels like steel!”
“That’s what your ass get for hitting it,” Tommy said with a laugh.
Grace rubbed her knuckle. Tommy kissed it. And rubbed it. And then spoke what he knew was really on Grace’s mind. “She was my fiancée,” he said.
Grace looked at him. “ShoShawna?”
“Yes. ShoShawna Shanks. Known to some as Shanks. Known to me as Shawnie.”
“She’s the one who left you at the altar?”
“She left me on the day of our wedding, yes.”
“Why would your cousin’s wife think you’d want to ever get back with a woman like that, a woman who left you on the day she was supposed to marry you?”
“Because I did get back with her after that.”
This surprised Grace. “You did?”
“Yes.”
Grace stared at Tommy. “She must have been very special to you.”
“It was a bad relationship all around, Grace. I wasn’t good for her, and she for damn sure wasn’t good for me. But we kept going back to the train wreck. When I finally broke it off for good it felt like leaving the scene of a crime. I just can’t go back there, not ever.”
Grace placed her arms around his neck. “Stick with me, boss, and you’ll never have to go back there.”
Tommy smiled, and then laughed. He pulled her tightly into his arms.
“Now,” she said when they stopped embracing, “let’s get back to our paperwork, shall we?”
Tommy snorted, hoisted her up, and then stood up with her in his arms. “We’ll get back to work,” he said, “but it won’t involve any paper.”
Grace smiled with giddy anticipation as he carried her upstairs. His dick, still wet from her oral, was dangling free as he walked. It was ready to penetrate her now. But he wanted to pleasure her first.
She already knew that Tommy was a master lover, but she never realized just how expert until he so deftly undressed her as he carried her to his bedroom. Her pants ended up on the bottom stair and her panties ended up on the top. He also lifted off her blouse, leaving it on the landing, and lifted up her bra. By the time he laid her on the bed, he quickly removed his sweatshirt over his head, stepped out of his shoes, jeans, and briefs, and crawled on top of her, sucking her breasts as he did.
Grace never had a lover this ably in her life, and the way he sucked her breasts astounded her. Her entire body immediately began to feel seared with passion. He moved his mouth from breast to breast, circling her nipples with his tongue and taking one hand to squeeze and hold her in that lifted position she loved. His other hand found her clitoris and her folds and began rubbing her.
When he moved down, her body began to clench. Because she knew what was coming.
She relaxed as his tongue licked her in the slowest up and down drag she’d ever experienced. His fingers kept parting her folds, allowing his tongue to slip deeper and deeper inside of her. She began to feel rolls of tingles the harder he licked her. She grabbed his hair and tried to close her legs, but he opened them wider, and licked harder, and slinked his tongue even deeper between her folds until they were red and wrinkled with his love. And she squirmed with pleasure and screamed his name as his licking intensified. And then he stood up, moved on his back, and laid her on top of him.
“You want it, babe?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “I want it.”
“You’re mine now. All raw. You understand?”
She did. “Yes,” she said.
He took his cock and guided it into her vagina. She arched her body as he guided it in. She felt his naked dick against the texture of her pussy and it made her pulsate in a way that felt like his tongue times ten.
Tommy, too, felt the passion when his dick met her pussy. And the feel was so different, and so intense that he had to fuck her slower and slower to avoid an early release. It felt that wonderful to him. He even laid her all the way down on top of him, wrapped his arms around her, and continued to thrash her slowly. Then his strokes moved over her with an ever-increasing crescendo of gyrations. For nearly fifteen minutes straight he fucked her this way. Slow and then faster, and then slower again. He rubbed her hair, and her back, and her bare ass. And he kissed her, long and hard, as he fucked her.
Then she came, causing her pussy to squeeze his dick so tightly that it did him in. He was ready to shoot the moon, too.
His entire body clenched and he poured out. He tried to keep fucking her, but he couldn’t. The intensity was too great. His energy was too sapped.
Grace was sapped, too, as she leaned up onto one arm. She smiled and her long hair dropped to the side. Tommy smiled too and rubbed her hair behind her ear. He then kissed her. And then he kissed her again.
“You’re good,” he said and she grinned. She laid back down onto his warm chest as he wrapped her tightly, once again, into his arms.
Anne, one of Tommy’s numerous assistants, stopped typing a report long enough to answer her ringing desk phone. “This is Anne,” she said into the phone.
“Hey, Anne, it’s me.”
“ShoShawna? Hey girl, what’s up with you?”
“Just trying to make it day by day.”
“Yeah, right,” Anne said with a smile. “Just trying to get info on a certain man day by day.”
ShoShawna laughed. “You’re good,” she said.
“I know it. Where are you? You here in Seattle?”
“No, not right now.”
“So what’s up? As if I don’t already know.”
“How’s Mister Wonderful?”
Anne laughed. “Girl, you need to quit.”
She and ShoShawna had been acquaintances for years, but they only became friends after her last breakup with Tommy. She knew Shanks was only interested in her because of the fact that she worked for Tommy and could feed her intel, but Anne accepted that arrangement. Mainly because of how Tommy rebuffed Anne’s own flirtatiousness, telling her bluntly that he didn’t date his assistants, but also because she liked Shanks, and always did.
“He’s fine, that’s how he is. Fine and still gorgeous.”
“Still flying solo?”
“Child probably. Although . . .”
“Although what?”
Anne lowered her voice. “There is this one girl he seems to be all into right now.”
“Who is she?”
“She works at Trammel for Jillian Birch. You know Jillian, right?”
“I know that witch.”
Anne laughed. “Well, she works for Jilly as her assistant or chief of staff or some such job.”
“Probably Jilly’s secretary, but anyway.”
“You need to quit, Shanks.”
“What’s her name?”
“Gwen or Gran or some such name. I only met her once. But he seems to be elevating her above all the other girls, that’s all I know. He used to have me calling all these different females depending on what kind of female he wanted in his bed that night, but now he’s stopped all of that. He don’t be bothering with none of them. Except her.”
“Really?”
“That’s my read on it.”
“How does she look? She must be perfection in motion for Tommy to elevate her like that.”
“You mean like he once elevated you?”
“Something like that. What does she look like?”
“She’s black of course. And she’s pretty, I’ll give her that. And she has a kind of charm to her.”
“A charm? That’s the best you can say about her? That she’s pretty and has charm?”
“It’s not about what I can say about her. It’s what Tommy’s saying about her. And I’m just saying he seems impressed.”
Anne could hear a sigh on the other end.
“Maybe I need to come to Seattle after all,” ShoShawna said.
“Don’t come yet. He’s leaving for Sydney tomorrow night.”
“Meetings?”
“Yep.”
There was a long pause on the other end, as if some serious thinking was going on. “Will he be staying at the usual place in Sydney?”
“The Ambrose hotel? Yeah, that’s the one he had me book.”
“Okay. Good. Okay.”
“What are you up to, girl?”
“I’m just being me.”
“Then you’re most certainly up to no good,” Anne said and ShoShawna laughed.
But she didn’t deny Anne’s assertion.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Moors was wired for sound as young professionals gathered for a night of good music, good conversation, and passable food.
Grace and Nayla were seated in their usual table enjoying the atmosphere too.
“Look at that fool,” Nayla said as Jamie, out on the dance floor, did a split and then needed help to get up.
Grace laughed. “He thinks he’s Beyoncé.”
“He’s Beyoncé all right,” Grace said as Jamie made his way to their table, his hand on his hip.
“Child,” he dragged out, “I can’t hang like I used to.”
“Duh,” Nayla said as he sat down beside her. “You’re getting old, same as the rest of us.”
“Oh, forget you! I’m not ancient like you. But speaking of ancient, where’s Tommy?”
“Oh!” Nayla said with a laugh and covered her mouth.
“Very funny,” Grace said.
“But where is he? He figure he’s too good for Moors?”
“Of course not,” Grace said. “He had to go to Australia.”
“Oh,” Jamie said. “Excuse us. You got you a real traveling man. I ain’t mad at ‘cha.”
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