“Not slim, but practical,” Cecil corrected him. “No Maserati’s and Porsches and Mercedes. It’s good American cars up in here! And you being you,” Cecil added, “you undoubtedly told the man to give you the most expensive car they had on the lot. Am I wrong?”
“You make me sound flashy,” Reno said.
“Am I wrong?” Cecil asked again.
Reno had to smile. “You’re right, but I’m used to what I’m used to. What can I say?”
“Yeah, a place like little old Dale could definitely cramp the lifestyle of the rich and famous. It’ll be like roughing it for you Gabrinis.”
“Like living in the gotdamn woods,” Reno said, to laughter from Cecil. It wasn’t that Cecil, as a retired pastor, didn’t take kindly to Reno’s often colorful language. It wasn’t his cup of tea at all. But he knew there wasn’t a pretend bone in Reno’s body. He had to take him or leave him. He chose to take him.
“I like what I like. What can I say?” Reno said again.
“I’ll tell you what you can say. You can say you’ll let me borrow this Escalade for a spin around the block,” Cecil said.
Reno laughed. “No problem at all, Pop,” he said.
Then Cecil turned serious as Reno opened the trunk of the SUV and began taking out the suit cases.
When Reno realized Cecil was now staring at him, he looked at him. He knew why he was staring. “We’re going to be okay, Pop,” he said.
“Last time Trina came to visit us there was trouble in Paradise. To be blunt, it seemed to me there was trouble in your marriage. Now, if her body language is any indication, it still looks that way. I would have expected you two to have kissed and made up by now.”
Reno stopped removing luggage and stood erect. Cecil was always impressed by the strength of Reno, but today he looked a little uncertain.
“I have my challenges, as you know, and over the years it weighs on a person. It’s just weighing on Trina right now.”
“Or is it the fact that she believes you have too many challenges right now?”
Reno was surprised that he knew, although not entirely floored. He looked at his father-in-law.
“I’m a former pastor, Reno,” Cecil said. “I can sniff out trouble like nobody’s business. I knew she was in trouble. I knew y’all were in trouble. She had nobody to talk to, nobody that she could discuss something that intimate with, so she talked to me. Her father. She told me what happened.”
“There was a time she used to be able to talk to me,” Reno said. “There was a time there was nothing we couldn’t discuss.”
“But during those times,” Cecil said delicately, “you weren’t the problem. Now you are. At least from where Katrina sits.”
Reno looked at his father-in-law. “What’s her problem with me? My lifestyle? My past?”
Cecil shook his head. “That’s not it. You know my daughter. She entered that marriage with her eyes wide open. Even against her mother’s judgment at the time, she wasn’t about to give you up. She’ll never hold your lifestyle and past against you because you had the very same lifestyle and past when she agreed to marry you. Heck, you were ordering the death of the man who killed your father on the day of the wedding!”
Reno was stunned. “You knew about that?”
“I figured it out,” Cecil admitted. “Trina knew what she was getting into. At least she thought she did. It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” Reno asked with all sincerity. “What does she want from me?”
“I’m afraid,” Cecil said, “it’s freedom, Reno. She has always been a free bird, you know that. But now she’s beginning to feel caged, and trapped. I think she’s suffocating.”
Reno nodded and Cecil could see the anger rising within him. “I don’t know what to tell her then. I don’t know what I can do if I’m the one who’s suffocating her. Does wanting freedom means she doesn’t want me?”
Cecil had no answers either. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. Then he smiled. “But you know Tree. This too will pass. Trina will understand it better by and by.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Reno asked.
“Then you’re screwed, my man,” Cecil said and Reno couldn’t help but laugh. “Because when that wife of yours, when that daughter of mine makes up her mind about something, it will be hell to pay.” Then Cecil turned serious again. “But she loves you. Just give her time, even if you can’t give her the space she wants right now. She’ll come around.”
Reno could only hope. But by the time he had removed the luggage, and he and his father-in-law were heading toward the home’s entrance, a Land Rover stopped in front of the house and Trina and a man Reno believed he’d seen before stepped out. This surprised Reno. He assumed she was in the house.
Cecil looked at them, and then looked at Reno. “I’ll take that, son,” he said, taking the suitcase from Reno.
Reno gave it up, and as Cecil made his way into the house, Reno made his way to the end of the lawn.
Trina expected him to show up soon, but not this soon. And seeing him again, in his jeans and sweatshirt, looking about as lost as she felt, caused her stomach to churn with longing. She loved him. She loved his messy hair and his big blue eyes and that body that always stayed trim and tight even when he ate horribly. She loved him. But love wasn’t the issue.
“That must be hubby,” Amos said as he stood beside her.
“It is,” replied Trina.
“Were you expecting him?”
“No.”
“But he came anyway?”
“Yes,” Trina said. And her heart swelled with emotion. “That’s what he does.”
Reno knew she was getting out of some man’s car, and he was a very attractive man, but that man was the last person on his mind. Trina cheating on him was about as plausible to Reno as him cheating on her.
“Hey,” she said when he arrived at her side.
“Hey,” he said and moved up to her. He felt all kinds of emotions seeing her again. He was happy to be by her side again, but he was disappointed in himself too. She wanted time and space, and he wasn’t strong enough to give her either. And when he stood beside her, and smelled her wonderfully familiar and fresh scent, he realized just how weak for her he truly was.
He placed his hand on her back and kissed her on the lips. He didn’t mean to close his eyes. He didn’t mean to turn what was supposed to be a peck into an full-blown kiss. But when he felt the bones of her back on his hand, and he touched her sweet lips again, he couldn’t help himself. This was his wife. This was his woman. He couldn’t hold back.
But just touching her and kissing her and loving the feel and smell of her saddened him too. Because he knew Trina would not have taken their child and left unless she felt she had to. That move alone made him certain their marriage was at a critical stage right now. She could decide, to his horror, that she couldn’t take it anymore. His marriage, his very life, could be over and he didn’t even know it.
Trina, too, missed his kiss. And when she realized it wasn’t going to be a peck; when she realized he was going to do it like he meant it, she leaned against him and couldn’t help but enjoy his nearness again too. She didn’t realize she had closed her eyes until she opened them again, and saw Amos staring at her.
Reno noticed his stare too when he finally moved his lips away. “Who’s your friend?” he asked Trina.
“Amos Cates,” she said. “An old friend. We’ve known each other since grade school. Amos, this is my husband.”
“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Amos said as he extended his hand.
“How are you?” Reno asked, shaking his hand.
“I’m well, thank-you. Was just enjoying your wife’s company.”
“I hope you wasn’t enjoying it too much.”
Amos laughed. Then he looked at Trina. “I’d better get back to the office.”
“Okay, Amos, thanks.”
“Maybe I’ll see you guys before you head back.”
�
��Yeah, maybe,” Trina said noncommittally. “You take care.”
“You too,” he said, said goodbye to Reno, and then he was gone.
Reno looked at Trina. “Let’s walk,” he said.
Trina had too much nervous energy as it was, so walking sounded good to her.
They started out, walking along the sidewalk of the quiet, tree-lined suburban neighborhood. Reno placed both hands in his pants pockets and watched the cracks in the sidewalk. “Good looking guy,” he said as they walked.
“Amos?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s all right.”
“So you guys had lunch together?”
“He heard I was in town, so he invited me out.”
Reno nodded. Glanced at her. Many men were going to want to invite her out if she moved him out of the picture, he thought. He found himself looking down at her body. She wore jeans too, and a tucked-in blouse. With her hair pushed back in a ponytail, and her bangs, she looked years younger. But he was still worried about her.
“Jimmy came with you?” Trina asked.
“Yeah, he’s here. Dommi ditched me for him when we first arrived.”
Trina laughed. “That little man loves you both.”
Reno looked at her. “How have you been? Been taking care of yourself?”
“Yeah, I’ve been okay.”
“When I called to check on you, Ma said you haven’t been eating.”
“She’s always saying that. I can eat a side of beef and she’ll declare I barely touched my plate.”
“But it’s not coming out of thin air. You have lost a pound.”
Trina smiled. “I lost a pound? You cannot possibly look at me and tell I’ve lost a single pound, Reno.”
“Yes, I can. I know every inch of that body of yours. Every crack, every crevice, every inch.”
Trina felt flushed when he said that. “I know every inch of your body too,” she said, “but I can’t look at you and determine if you’ve lost a single pound. No way.”
Reno frowned. He had weightier matters on his mind. “What’s going on with us, Tree?” he asked her. “Why are you here, and I’m in Vegas?”
Trina shook her head. “It gets tough sometimes, Reno. I think it all just got to me.”
“What got to you? The miscarriage?”
“That started it, yes. And then Dommi with Fran. And that woman.”
“They ruled her death a suicide,” he said.
Trina looked at him. “Bridgette Baranski? She killed herself?”
“Yup. Her husband died a couple months ago and she fell into a deep depression.”
“Oh, my. Her poor child.”
“There was no child, Tree.”
Trina stopped walking and looked at him. “What?”
He stopped walking too. “She made it all up.”
“But the picture. She showed me a picture of that little boy.”
“A fake,” Reno said.
Trina couldn’t believe it. “A fake? But why?”
“She and her old man had always wanted a kid, but they couldn’t have any, so she invented one.”
“But why would she claim you were the father?”
Reno shook his head. “Why do people climb mountains? Who the fuck knows. I was there, I was somebody she had a history with, who knows.”
Trina didn’t know how to take it all. She continued walking again. Reno continued too.
“What’s the matter?” he asked her.
She shook her head. A distressed look came on his face. “I don’t know,” she said.
Reno looked pained too. “What can I tell you, darling? I want you back, but I can’t tell you that things will be different. I can’t tell you that there won’t be more drama because I know there will be. That’s my life, Tree. That’s our life. Do I wish it wasn’t so? I wish to God it wasn’t. You know I do. I’d give my life to keep you and those children from harm. That’s why this hurts so bad.”
Trina looked at him. They both stopped walking.
“You should leave me,” he said. “You should take Dominic and even Jimmy with you. Your life will be easier if you leave. Mine will be hell, I’m not going to pretend that it won’t, but yours will be easier. But the idea of . . .” He took her hands and held them. Tears were in his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you, Tree. I can’t help that. I don’t want to lose my family.”
“I know that, Reno,” Trina said, placing her hand on the side of his stricken face. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
“But it won’t get better. It won’t get easier if you stay with me. I own a casino. I have a past. A terrible past. I have more enemies than I can count. It’s a hellish thing, Trina.”
Trina closed her eyes and then opened them again. “I know,” she said. “I’ve thought about that. That’s all I’ve been thinking about.”
Reno stared at her, his heart pounding. “And?” he asked.
“And I don’t know how I can swing it, Reno.”
Reno’s heart dropped. Oh, God, he thought. Dear God! “You don’t?”
“No. I can’t do it. How can I leave you? How can I not be with you?”
Reno’s heart soared. “What are you saying, Tree?”
“I’m saying I’ve been fooling myself. I’d rather die with you than live with another man. And I don’t wanna be alone. So what I’m saying is what are we waiting for? That’s what I’m saying. Let’s go get our children, and go home.”
Reno wrapped her into his arms. He wrapped her so tight that she was laughing. But then he pulled back and looked at her.
“What?” she asked.
His look was dead serious. “Are you sure, babe? Are you certain?”
“As certain as certain can be. Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I’m certain.”
“Then that’s alright then,” Reno said, a big grin on his face. But as Trina moved to head back, and he caught a glimpse of her tight ass in those tight jeans, he thought of something else. He pulled her back in front of him.
“What is it now?” she asked, still smiling.
He looked down at those breasts he hadn’t sucked in days, and he looked up into her eyes. “It’s a long trip back home,” he said. “I miss you.”
Trina could feel the sudden heat too. She knew where this was going. “I miss you too.”
“In more ways than one.”
“Same here.”
Reno began rubbing his thumb across her shirt collar. “I say we take a visit to a certain discreet establishment, fuck our brains out, and then get our kids and go home.”
Trina smiled. “It’s not exactly the plan I had in mind,” she admitted. “But that can work too,” she said, and they both laughed heartily.
But it was no laughing matter when they entered the small motel room. With his Escalade parked out front, and their clothes tossed across the carpeted floor, Reno had Trina’s naked body pinned against the wall, lifted up, while he sucked her breasts. He sucked them until they were red with the fire of his passion. He sucked them until they were wet with the slice of his tongue. All that could be heard in the small room was the smacking of his lips as he sucked her raw. She was holding onto his head, with her own head leaned back, as she felt his passion with every fiber of her being. She wrapped her legs around his naked body and let him have his way with her.
And he was having every way with her. First it was her mouth when they first entered the motel, now it was her breasts. But just when she was craving even more from him, he didn’t disappoint. He had another way with her. He carried her to the bed, opened her legs, got between those legs, and began to lick her as desperately as he had sucked her.
Trina’s vagina had spasms the entire time Reno was between her legs. It was all in how he was doing her. It was all in the way his tongue licked with those super-long licks and then sliced in. And then, instead of flicking on her clit, he’d bite it with just enough power to make her nearly cum.
He made her get so close to the edge of cum re
peatedly that she knew she had to change the dynamic or their passionate love experience would be over for her within seconds. And she didn’t want that. Not with Reno. They didn’t play that hit and run.
So she did something that he was well familiar with. She pushed him away from her, causing him to land on his back, and she got on top of him. Backwards.
Reno felt as if he was a kid in a candy store when she straddled him backwards and began to suck his dick. He laid back and enjoyed the ride as she gave him the kind of treatment that only her lips, her mouth, could give to him. She licked his balls, underneath his rod, and kissed his head with the kind of kisses that made her squeezed her bare ass in joy. She was going to make him cum. If she wasn’t careful, he was going to cum all over her face.
And then she took it to yet another level. She took him in whole. Every inch of his massive rod. Reno actually lifted his body half-way up from the ecstasy of her touch. He knew he couldn’t last much longer. And Trina would not relent. She kept moving up and down on him, and then kissing his head again, and then moving all the way down again. He couldn’t last!
He sat all the way up, kept her on his lap, and with her back to his face he guided his dick into her vagina.
“Oh, baby,” he purred as he laid back down, on his back, and laid her down with him. Her back was on his chest as he began fucking her with thrusts that made it clear there would be no drawn out process. They were both too near.
Trina placed the flat of her feet on his thighs and opened her legs wider as his hands squeezed her breasts and his dick fucked her so hard that she felt as if she was burning down there. Reno was moving her up and down on his rod, making her ride his bull, until she rode him too perfect. He couldn’t bear it a moment longer.
He came before she came. It was never the way he wanted it, but there was no way he was going to be denied. He grunted and poured into her. He squeezed out every drop within himself. And just before he had nothing left to give, Trina came too. Her back arched off of his chest, and her feet pressed down hard on his rock-hard thighs, and she had an orgasm as intense as his had been. Because this was a desperation fuck. This was a fuck mixed with love, adoration, and fear. Plenty of fear. They didn’t know where things were headed, but they were determined to get there together. As one.
RENO AND TRINA: GETTING BACK TO LOVE (The Mob Boss Series) Page 12