Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor

by Mallory Monroe

“Hi, Tommy,” she said with a big smile as she made her way to the conference table. “Don’t you look attractive.”

  “Hi,” he said, standing to his feet. She leaned over and they cheek-kissed. “Have a seat.”

  “Thank you, thank you.” Liz was surprised that he didn’t comment on how great she looked. She went all-out for this meeting.

  But Tommy had eyes for only one woman now, and he didn’t play games about it. “What brings you to Seattle?” he asked as he sat down too.

  “I’m on the go again, but I wanted to check in with you first.”

  That sounded like an odd way to put it to Tommy. “Check in about what?” he asked her.

  “What do you think, Tommy?” Liz said with a smile. “I wanted to check in about you, about me. About us.”

  Tommy studied her. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you and me. I know we’ve had our difficulties in the past, but I think our time away from each other has been a good thing.”

  Tommy continued to lean back, his chair on two legs, as he watched her. “Liz, what are you talking about? There is no you and me, and you know it. So why are you here?”

  “I’m here to see you. I’m here to let you know that I think we should give this another try.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Why would you say that? Why not?”

  “I’m not available,” he said. “That’s why.”

  Liz smiled. “You mean you’ve been seeing other people? So what? So have I. That doesn’t mean we can’t try to rekindle what we had. We had something good going on, Tommy. Nobody can top that.”

  “I’m not available, Liz,” he said again.

  Then Liz smiled. And shook her head. “Are you telling me it’s true?”

  Tommy felt as if he had missed something. “What’s true?”

  “That you went back to your ex-wife. That you and Grace are dating again.”

  Tommy nodded. “It’s true.”

  “But why, Tommy? Why would you go back to that witch?”

  “Watch it, Liz,” Tommy said. “I mean it. Watch it.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend the . . . I didn’t mean to offend her. But I don’t get it. You want her because I have a life? You want her because I know how to live my life? Is that what this is about, Tommy?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Tommy said. “This is about far more than you and your wants. Grace is a wonderful lady. She’s a wonderful mother. She’s the woman I love and, if she’ll have me, she’s the woman I want above any woman alive to spend the rest of my life with.”

  But Liz still was unconvinced. “Oh, I see. She’s a good little mother to your cute little child. That makes it all alright. Well, my life has not been easy like that, Tommy. She’s had it easy, and so have you.”

  Tommy frowned. “Easy?”

  “Yes, easy! Compared to me, yes! I’ve had to scratch and claw for everything I have. Everything! I didn’t sit around like Grace and be handed a company. I didn’t sit around like you and let my daddy fuck me to get ahead in this life. I made my own way!”

  She realized the gravity of what she had just spoken, not by the words she had said, but by the look on Tommy’s face. It was as if his anger and his disappointment mixed together and left him stunned with alarm. He could not believe she had uttered those words. “You didn’t sit around and let your daddy fuck you?” Tommy asked. He rose to his feet. “You didn’t sit around and let your daddy fuck you?”

  “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” Liz said, rising too.

  “Are you suggesting I allowed that to happen?” Tommy asked her. “Are you suggesting I welcomed that abuse?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Liz said regretfully. She wanted to explain. But even she knew that horse had already left the barn.

  And Tommy was livid. “I was a fucking child when that grown-ass man started touching me!” he yelled. “What the fuck do you suggest I should have done? Fought him off? I was a child!”

  “Tommy, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it! I’m just a little frustrated, alright? I didn’t mean it like that. I just think our relationship can still be salvaged. If you accept me for who I am, and I accept you for who you are, we can still make this work.”

  “What are you talking about? Make what work? I told you I’m not available. That should be the end of the conversation. You made your choice, and I made mine.”

  “But you can do better than her. Don’t you see that?”

  “No,” Tommy said bluntly. “Because it’s not true. I cannot do better than Grace.”

  Liz was puzzled. “What does she have that I don’t have?” she asked. “Why would you want her over me? I want you back, Tommy.”

  “I told you I’m not available, especially to a woman who would throw my childhood in my face just to prove some point.”

  “I was trying to get you to see that any man should be happy to have me. I’m self-made, Tommy! Men want me!”

  “Then go and enjoy your life with one of those men.”

  “But I don’t want them. I want you!”

  “But I don’t want you, Liz,” Tommy said. “Understand that. I have who I want. There is no two ways about it. There is no maybe about it. Grace is the woman I want. You were right about that. She’s the woman I’ve wanted, and needed, all along.”

  “That’s bullshit!” Liz said. “Because if you never wanted me, then why did you stick around? Hun, Tommy? Why were you still sticking around? We both saw the writing on the wall long before Syria. We both knew how different we were. But why did you stay with me? You’re known as Hit and Run Tommy. Why didn’t you hit and run with me?”

  She wanted brutal honesty, Tommy thought, he was going to be brutally honest. “Because I felt I owed you,” he said. “When our relationship began to sour, I stayed around because I felt I owed you.”

  Liz frowned. “You owed me? For what?”

  “For saving my life.”

  “For saving your life? You don’t owe me for that! I would have done the same thing for a stranger in trouble!”

  Tommy nodded. “I know that now,” he said. “I didn’t know it then. I know it’s in your DNA to risk your life for others. That’s why you thrive in war zones. That’s why you didn’t bring your ass home from a hellish place like Syria until now.”

  “Oh, I see. So now that you know you don’t owe me anymore, since you saved my life too, after all, you figure you can just kick me to the curb?”

  “That had nothing to do with it, and you know it.”

  But it was as if she didn’t hear him. “Is that your mo., Tommy?” she continued. “That’s what I heard after I hooked up with you. All kinds of people were telling me to watch out. Tommy Gabrini was not the kind of man who committed to anybody. They said you didn’t know how to treat a woman’s heart. Now I see how right they were.”

  “Yeah, sure, Liz. That’s the reason we didn’t make it. The fact that I refuse to be involved with a woman who enjoy putting herself in dangerous situations over and over again when she doesn’t have to put herself in any of those hot spots don’t have shit to do with it. The fact that I am not interested in a globetrotting superwoman is irrelevant to our decline.”

  “I was globetrotting when you met me, Tommy. And yes, I said I was going to ease up. Yes, I said I was going to keep it stateside and see if we can make our relationship work. But staying in the safe confines of my office far away from the action is not me. It’s not who I am, Tommy! I don’t want to be some bullshit housewife and mother. I want more out of life than that. Am I wrong?”

  Liz seemed genuinely confused by why he wouldn’t want a go-getter like her. She just didn’t get it. “You’re not wrong,” Tommy said to her. “You are who you are, and you shouldn’t change for me or anybody else. But I’m who I am too, Liz. And I want what I want, I told you that before.”

  “But who do you want, Tommy? Who do you truly want? Grace? Is that who you truly want? I mean, real
ly? I’m not bragging, but what could that woman possibly have that I don’t have? Men are banging down my door. You just don’t know. You’re the only man banging down Grace’s. For real, though.”

  Tommy knew Liz believed that. She, like many of his previous women, didn’t understand the attraction and probably never would. They were beautiful and desirable. What else could a man want? But Tommy wanted more. In Grace, he had everything he wanted because Grace was beautiful and desirable too, and so much more.

  “I want Grace. She’s who I want. Whether you like it or not, whether you understand it or not, where you accept it or not, I don’t give a fuck. She’s the one I want.” Then he exhaled. He was done. “Goodbye, Liz.”

  Liz was done too. She knew she’d lost somebody special. But she also knew that nobody, not even a great lover like Tommy Gabrini, a man whose dick she still craved even as she stood there, was going to stand in her way as she made her mark in this world. His business was thriving. Hers was getting there. Maybe one day, when she was up there with him businesswise, she’d give him a shout out. Maybe by then he’d see the fallacy in falling for a woman with nothing more to offer him than her body for his babies, and her cooking skills.

  Liz grabbed her pocketbook, and headed for the exit. She was calling her office, to book her a flight back to Syria, as she walked out of the door.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Grace was naked and in his bed when Tommy made it home late that night. They had already agreed that she and Destiny would spend the night, so that they could hop his plane to Vegas early the next morning, and he was pleased to find her there. He removed his clothes, showered quickly, and then threw the covers off of her sleek, brown body. He wanted to fuck her so badly he could taste it. And he did.

  She was lying on her stomach, still asleep, when he pulled her legs apart, moved in between them, and began licking her there. Tommy’s big, bright eyes became hooded as he licked her. He rubbed her tight ass and groaned as he loved her taste, and for several minutes he didn’t want anything more than to lay there and enjoy her.

  Although Grace began to stir as soon as he began licking her, and was slowly waking up as her body reacted to his masterful tongue, her body didn’t become fully awake until he turned her onto her back, opened her vagina, smothered her clit with his mouth, and then began to eat her. He ate the shit out of her. Grace was lifting and squeezing the sheets, and moaning and groaning as he ate her. Nobody ate like Tommy and he was enjoying it as if he was starved for her. He was feasting on her. And she was loving every second of the feast. She was squirming, not because of its intensity, although it was highly intense, but because of the joy she felt when he began biting as he ate.

  But if she thought he was bringing the best he had to give to her that night, she was sorely mistaken. Tommy moved his mouth from her pussy to her breasts, feasting on them too, and then, as he began kissing her with a combination of her and him that made her drunk with passion, he put it in her. And when he put it in her, when his fully erected penis made contact with her fully aroused vagina once again, she thought she was going to pass out from the feelings.

  He laid on top of her, holding her tenderly in his arms, and fucked her like there was no tomorrow. He put it on Grace with every ounce of testosterone he had in his body. His ass pumped into her, pushing deeper and deeper with every thrust, until he was lifting her legs for even deeper access.

  “This is it! This is it! This is it!” He strained and groaned as that access came and she was tightening around his rod to that point of no return. The friction was electric.

  Grace was groaning too. But it was all about fucking her. She wanted him to keep doing what he was doing. She didn’t want him to stop!

  “I won’t,” Tommy promised, as if she hadn’t seen anything yet. “I won’t!”

  And he put it on her even harder.

  They wrapped themselves into each other’s arms and enjoyed the night. Tomorrow they would be facing the family. Tomorrow they would face maybe even a hostile crowd. But it didn’t matter tonight. Because they had each other. And they had a kind of incredible sex that didn’t make them forget their problems, but made them realize just how small their problems were compared to their love. There was no comparison. As Tommy made passionate love to Grace, as he fucked her until she had tears of joy streaming down her face, they knew there was absolutely nothing, not famine, not pestilence, not doubtful family and friends, that could ever compare to what they now had together.

  But later, when they were still awake and lying face to face, Tommy studied her. For several minutes not a word was spoken. But he knew she had a right to know. “Liz came to see me today,” he said.

  Grace’s heart squeezed. There was a time that she would have been afraid that Liz would come back and take him away from her. But that time was gone. Grace felt completely confident in her position in Tommy’s heart. They would not be together if their bond wasn’t unbreakably strong. Liz, nor any other woman, was taking him away from her. “How did it go?” she asked him.

  “It was a rough scene,” Tommy said. “She even threw up my past, and the sexual abuse I suffered at the hands of my father, to prove her point.”

  Grace nearly sat up in bed. “Why that bitch! Why would she say such a thing? You were a child!”

  “I know. She was hurt, I guess, and was lashing out.”

  “So that’s what she wanted? To hurt you?”

  “She said she wanted to see if I was interested in giving it another try.”

  Grace laid back down. “With her?”

  Tommy nodded. “Yup. But I think the real reason she came was because she heard I was back with you and she wanted to test my resolve.”

  “To see how serious you were about being with me?” Grace asked.

  “That’s how I read it,” Tommy said. “I’ve had many of my former ladies try that too.”

  Grace looked at him. He hadn’t mentioned any of the others. “Really?”

  “Oh, yes. But you have to understand where they’re coming from. They only know me as the guy who didn’t commit and wasn’t going to always be around. When I committed to Liz, they weren’t convinced, but they gave me my space. When Liz and I broke up, they figured a leopard can’t change its spots. They figured commitment wasn’t in my DNA.”

  Then he placed a hand on the side of Grace’s face. “But they’re wrong. I am totally devoted to you, Grace. I am committed to you and you alone.”

  Grace smiled, and placed a hand on his face too. “I’m committed to you too, Tommy. I left before. The heat was on and I took off. But I promise I’ll never leave you again.”

  “Good,” he said. “That’s why I’m going there.”

  Grace was confused. “Going there? Going where?”

  Tommy, completely naked, got out of bed and onto his knees. Grace’s heart was pounding by the time he reached over and took her hands. “Grace Gabrini,” he said, although they both knew that was not her name, “will you become Grace Gabrini officially again? Will you marry me, sweetheart?”

  Grace’s heart hammered. And tears appeared in her eyes. She never thought it would happen. She thought, after she divorced him and realized her horrific mistake, that she would never walk in this level of happiness ever again. “Yes,” she said. “Yes! I will be so happy to be Mrs. Gabrini once again.”

  It was heartfelt for both of them. Tommy kissed her on her lips, as if he was sealing it with a kiss, and pulled her, once again, into his grateful arms.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The room was as large as a ballroom, but it felt smaller than a box. Tommy and Grace stood before the Gabrini family, hand in hand, as everybody digested the news. Tommy’s kid brother Sal was there, alongside his wife Gemma. Tommy’s first cousin and best friend Reno was there, alongside his wife Katrina. Reno’s grown son Jimmy Mack was there, as was his wife Val, but Val was in the backyard watching the children play. You could hear a pin drop in that room.

  All eyes turned to Sa
l, who was affected the most by the divorce to begin with. He was shocked by it. And particularly angry at Grace for breaking Tommy’s heart. He had his arm around Gemma, and his legs crossed. He didn’t get it. “When you say you’re back together,” he asked with a puzzled look on his face, “what do you mean by that, Tommy? Help me understand what that means because she divorced you. She dumped you. Why would you want her back?”

  Tommy removed his hand from Grace and placed it around her waist. Of all of the family, they knew the most resistance would come from Sal. “Because I love her unlike I have ever loved another woman,” Tommy said with all sincerity. “And I always will. Because she does for me what no other woman can.”

  “You mean in bed?” Sal asked, and Gemma elbowed him.

  Sal frowned. “What did I do?” he asked his wife.

  “Don’t ask impertinent questions,” Gemma responded.

  “But you know what I mean,” Sal said. “I’m trying to understand this here. I want to know what he mean about her being different than all his other women.”

  “I mean in every way, Sal,” Tommy said. “We’re back together because we love each other and want to be a family again.”

  “But why her?” Sal asked. “Why go backwards?”

  “Uncle Sal!” Jimmy admonished. “Wanting Aunt Grace doesn’t mean he wants to go backwards. Don’t say that!”

  Sal was defensive. “I didn’t mean it like that, okay? I mean no disrespect, Grace. You know I don’t. You’re Destiny’s mother and I’ll never disrespect you like that. But you and Tommy have got to help me understand this. Tommy has got to tell me why, of all these women out here, he wants his ex-wife back. His ex-wife!”

  “Because she’s the one I want,” Tommy said.

  “But she divorced you! Why her?”

  “Because, Sal,” Tommy said.

  “Because why?”

  “Because, because, because, because, because,” Reno jumped in and said. “What is this? The fucking Wizard of Oz? They’re back together because they want to be back together. What is that our business?”