ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI Read online

  ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI

  By

  MALLORY MONROE

  Copyright©2013 Mallory Monroe

  All rights reserved. Any use of the materials contained in this book without the expressed written consent of the author and/or her affiliates, including scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book by way of the Internet or any other means, is illegal and could result in prosecution.

  AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING

  This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake.

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  MORE INTERRACIAL ROMANCE

  FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  MALLORY MONROE:

  THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND

  SERIES IN ORDER:

  THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND

  THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND 2:

  HIS WOMEN AND HIS WIFE

  DUTCH AND GINA:

  A SCANDAL IS BORN

  DUTCH AND GINA:

  AFTER THE FALL

  DUTCH AND GINA:

  THE POWER OF LOVE

  DUTCH AND GINA:

  THE SINS OF THE FATHERS

  THE MOB BOSS SERIES

  IN ORDER:

  ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS

  MOB BOSS 2:

  THE HEART OF THE MATTER

  MOB BOSS 3:

  LOVE AND RETRIBUTION

  MOB BOSS 4:

  ROMANCING TRINA GABRINI

  A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS:

  THE PREGNANCY

  (Mob Boss 5)

  ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING

  INTERRACIAL ROMANCE

  FROM MALORY MONROE:

  ROMANCING MO RYAN

  ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR

  ROMANCING THE BULLDOG

  IF YOU WANTED THE MOON

  AND

  INTERRACIAL ROMANCE

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  KATHERINE CACHITORIE:

  LOVERS AND TAKERS

  LOVING HER SOUL MATE

  LOVING THE HEAD MAN

  SOME CAME DESPERATE:

  A LOVE SAGA

  ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING

  INTERRACIAL ROMANCE:

  A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

  YVONNE THOMAS

  AND

  BACK TO HONOR:

  A REGGIE REYNOLDS

  ROMANTIC MYSTERY

  JT WATSON

  ROMANTIC FICTION

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  AWARD-WINNING

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  BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  TERESA MCCLAIN-WATSON:

  DINO AND NIKKI:

  AFTER REDEMPTION

  AND

  AFTER WHAT YOU DID

  COMING SOON FROM

  MALLORY MONROE:

  DUTCH AND GINA:

  BOOK SEVEN

  AND

  MOB BOSS 6

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  PROLOGUE

  Five Months Earlier

  They sat in the backseat of the limousine as if they had just attended a funeral rather than a Christening. Tommy sat on one side and ShoShawna sat on the other. Both, it seemed, in their respective corners. Like most of their arguments lately, it had been a bitter one. But unlike previous bouts, this one felt dangerous. This one felt as if they were on a floating raft, and even though the lifeline was there, they kept allowing themselves to drift further and further out to sea.

  When they first got into the limo they were in reasonably good spirits. The driver, Walter Lenzatta, left the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip and took the scenic route toward the Vegas airport. He knew to drive slowly without being told to do so because he’d been driving for Tommy Gabrini for nearly a decade. Whenever Tommy was in Vegas, he asked specifically for Len. Because Len knew what Tommy enjoyed. Especially when he had ShoShawna Shanks back there.

  And this time was no exception. They were both exhausted from the festivities that followed the Christening, especially since Tommy’s cousin Reno decided to turn the after-party into the event of the year, complete with a live band and circus acts. It was a party fit for a king, and everybody who attended were by night’s end, as Tommy and ShoShawna were, pretty well drained.

  But Tommy wasn’t so drained that he couldn’t slide Shawna onto his lap, remove her panties, and ease his fingers, and then his dick, into her folds.

  She groaned as she felt that manhood she knew so well penetrate her. She was on his lap facing him, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her upper body backwards. She knew Tommy loved to see her breasts heave, so she gave him the full monty as he opened her blouse, lifted her bra, and added his mouth to his molestations.

  Tommy’s cock kept stroking her pussy with slow, piercing strokes as his mouth licked her breasts and sucked hard on her nipples. She could feel every inch of him deep inside of her, grinding her, and it gave her that feeling of fullness and warmth she always craved.

  She moved her body as if it were a wave as he continued to suck and fuck her, and she stared her sensual dark eyes into his big blue eyes and marveled at how he did it. How could this man, above all other men, turn her on so intensely every single time? Even when she couldn’t stand the sight of his ass, which was beginning to become commonplace in their relationship, she still loved his cock. But how did he do it? How could anybody’s cock be so good to the feel every single, solitary time?

  But Tommy’s was. That was why she kept coming back. Tommy knew how to do her. Nobody else came close to putting on her what Tommy put on her. And he kept putting it on her. He kept sucking and fucking her hard in the backseat of that limousine as they made that connection they’d been making for years. It used to be a serious love connection. But lately, for both of them, it was just sex.

  Tommy placed his big hands on her big ass as he slid her body up and down along his massive cock. She felt as if she was riding the finest stud on the planet as he guided her. And Tommy watched her, too, as he fucked her. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and closing, but then they’d open back up, stare at him, and nearly close once again.

  Tommy continued to watch her. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Although it felt as good as it ever felt, and they both delighted in every contour of the other’s body, something was missing. And had been missing for well over a year. It started when ShoShawna developed cold feet and decided to leave Tommy on the day they were to be married. Because he blamed himself for pushing the idea of marriage on a woman who apparently wasn’t ready for that, he allowed her back into his life and eventually they reconciled. But nothing was the same. Their couplings began to feel more and more like pain than pleasure. And even now, in the backseat of that limo, as they drove away from the PaLargio, as he felt his dick become saturated with her wetness, they still felt the pain.

  They both realized just how painful their relationship truly was when he pulled her body against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and listened to her groans. And dared to go there.

  “I want you to go away with me, Shawnie,” he whispered in her ear. “I want us to work on our relationship.”

  ShoShawna closed her eyes, still in the throes of his lovemaking. “Can’t,” she said.

  Tommy closed his eyes. He was still in the throes of her lovemaking, too, but the pain was reemerging. “Why can’t you? We need to talk. We need to spend some time together.”

  “I can’t do it now,” she said. “
I’m going on assignment.” Then she began to ride him harder as his cock expanded even more inside of her. “Oh, fuck me, Tommy. Don’t talk, just fuck me. You make me feel stupid crazy!”

  But Tommy wouldn’t relent. He could feel the intensity, too, but he couldn’t relent. “Where are you going?” he asked her. But when she said “I can’t tell you,” Tommy stopped all movement.

  Shawna began bucking her thighs for him to keep pleasuring her, but he wouldn’t. She opened her eyes and looked into his.

  Tommy’s breath caught when she looked those big, doleful eyes of hers directly at him. His brows knitted as he stared deep into those eyes. He used to love this woman with a passion no one could match. Now he wasn’t sure if he even liked her all that much.

  ShoShawna, however, was more annoyed than puzzled. “Why are you stopping?” she asked him. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “You can’t tell me?” Tommy asked with an incredulous tone to his voice, as he repeated with amazement the words she had just said to him.

  But Shawna would not back down. “No, I can’t tell you,” she said. “So what? What’s the big damn deal?”

  “My woman is about to take off and go off to who knows where, and she can’t even tell me where she’s going? She can’t tell me?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “You can’t or you won’t?”

  “I won’t. All right? Satisfied? I won’t!”

  She said this with a defiance she quickly regretted. She looked at him. He looked so uncommonly handsome to her at that very moment. His thick, blondish-brown hair framed a face whose jaw was strong, nose was aristocratic, and eyes were so cobalt blue they looked like glass. He was always the best looking man in the room, and always the very definition of sexiness. But Tommy could be hard, too. And exacting. A man who gave no nonsense and took none. And right now, as she stared into those otherwise adorable eyes, she saw the steel in him.

  Tommy sat there, still staring at her. He could feel her vagina pulsating, revealing her need for his cock to continue pleasuring her, but he pulled out instead.

  ShoShawna, angry, scrambled off of him. “Fuck you,” she said as she moved off.

  Sometimes Tommy wondered why he even bothered. He was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Seattle, where he lived. He was a man with more women desperate to have him than he could count. But he kept putting up with Shawna’s shit.

  “We’re supposed to be a couple,” he said. “But you get to roam the world and I don’t even know what town, what state, hell what country you’re in at any given moment. That’s unreasonable, Shawnie.”

  “It’s not unreasonable,” ShoShawna said angrily as she put on her panties. “You’re the one who’s being unreasonable.”

  “Because I want to know where you are?”

  “Yes! It never bothered you before!”

  “That’s a gotdamn lie!” Tommy blared. “You know it’s bothered me for years!”

  “But you didn’t do anything about it for years!”

  “That’s why I’ve got to do something about it now,” Tommy said softly, his voice more measured.

  ShoShawna looked at him. There was something about his tone that made her know that his declaration, although not new to her since he’d said it many times before, was different this time. Everything about their relationship seemed different this time. And differentness always terrified her.

  She looked down, at his still exposed penis; at that same penis that had her so dick-whipped that she was still throbbing for more. And she did what she knew how to do whenever Tommy was upset with her. She removed the handkerchief from the pocket of his Armani suit, wiped off his penis, and then, before he could react, mouth-fucked him.

  Tommy closed his eyes with a frown on his face as she attempted, once again, to gloss over their monumental problems with a quick hit. It worked many times in the past, he was ashamed to admit. But he couldn’t allow it to work this time.

  “Not this time, Shawnie,” he said to her.

  ShoShawna knew he loved the way she gave him head. The fact that he was rejecting it now spoke mightily to her. She hesitated and then looked up at him. He was shaking his head.

  “I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “I can’t keep kidding myself. What you want and what I want are worlds apart now. And yes, I put up with it. You’re right about that. For far too long I’ve put up with you. Even in your profession as a hired gun, a profession that you know disgusts me, I put up with it.”

  He stared into her now ominous-looking, darkened eyes. She knew where this was going. They both knew where this was going.

  “But I can’t put up with it any longer,” he made clear. “I want a wife who loves me more than she loves the thrill of the chase. I want children just like Jimmy Mack and little Dominic, whose Christening we just attended. I want the kind of love my cousin Reno and his wife have for each other. I want that, Shawnie. But you want your work. Which is fine. You can have your work. But you can’t have me, too.”

  ShoShawna’s heart began to pound.

  “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Tommy continued. “Since you stood me up the day we were supposed to marry, I’ve been thinking deeply about this relationship. It used to be good. I used to look forward to being with you. But now it’s just burdensome and painful and. . . and sad. And I can’t do sad anymore. I’m a man pushing forty, Shawnie. I’m too damn old for these games you keep playing! ”

  Then he exhaled and looked away from her and out at the quiet stretch of Vegas. “When we return to Seattle, I want you to pack up the scattering of clothes you have at my house, and I want you to leave my home. I wish you well in your career, and I pray you find in that work you love so much whatever it is you need to get by.” He then looked at her. And she saw the steel in him. “But don’t come back to me.”

  ShoShawna felt as if her heart broke in two when he said those words. And she hated Tommy Gabrini for breaking it. And she hated him worse because she didn’t see this coming. Not right now. Not when they were doing their thing. Why did he have to bring this into it? And it angered her, not just because he was dumping her, but because he didn’t give her the pleasure of dumping him first. Who did he think he was? It was his good fortune to hook up with her, not the other way around! And she wanted to lash out and tell him so.

  But she couldn’t.

  Because she knew it would be nothing but a lie.

  “Stop the car,” she said as she attempted to press the intercom button that would alert the driver.

  “When we get to the airport,” Tommy said, “and if you then want---”

  “Stop the car,” she said louder, her eyes unfocused, as if she were on the verge of panic.

  “We aren’t stopping any car in the middle---”

  “Stop the gotdamn car, stop it now!” ShoShawna screamed into the intercom.

  Walter Lenzatta, the driver, immediately pulled over to the side of the road. ShoShawna was hurrying out before the car could come to a complete stop.

  “Shawnie, wait,” Tommy said, reaching for her arm, but she was already out of the door. Tommy zipped his pants and slid across the seat after her. They were on a back road, where there was little in sight, but ShoShawna was walking as if she knew where she was going.

  And Tommy was hurrying after her. “Shawnie!” he yelled to her. “Shawnie! Shawn!

  But she kept going. Why he put up with this shit, he kept asking himself. But he hurried after her anyway. When he reached her, he grabbed her by the arm, slung her around, and then began force-walking her back to the limo.

  “Let me go, you asshole!” she was screaming and fighting.

  But Tommy wasn’t thinking about her screams or fight. He walked her to the car, his expensive suit coat flapping in the Nevada wind, and he slung her startled body back onto the seat. She moved to get back out but he pushed her back in, got in himself, and slammed the door.

  “Let me go!” she yelled again.


  “When we get to the airport you can go wherever the fuck you want. But I’m not leaving you out here in the middle of nowhere just because you don’t like what I said to you!”

  “I don’t give a damn about you! Who the hell cares what you have to say? I hate your guts! I’m glad I don’t have to put up with your white ass another day!”

  “Good!” Tommy said, although it pained him to hear her say that. “But you aren’t getting out of this car again.” Then he pressed the intercom button, and ordered Len to cut the scenic shit and get them to the airport as quickly as he could.

  As the car moved again and took, this time, the direct route to the airport, Tommy’s heart was hammering. And ShoShawna’s was just as stunned. Because this was it. All of their break-ups and make-ups might just be over for good this time. And it was a sobering thought for both of them.

  As soon as the limo arrived at McCarran International Airport, ShoShawna got out of the car and waited for the driver to get her luggage out of the trunk. Tommy got out, too, and ShoShawna glared at him as he buttoned his suit coat and rubbed his hair in place. The idea that she wouldn’t have a man that gorgeous in her life anymore was too much for her to even think about. She just had to get away from him.

  Len removed her luggage so that he could carry it to Tommy’s waiting private plane, but ShoShawna snatched her luggage away from him and began walking in the opposite direction. No goodbye, no see ya’, wouldn’t wanna be ya’. She just left.

  Tommy placed his dark shades on his anguished face and watched her leave. She had issues, severe issues that he’d been enabling for far too long. And even now he still had that urge to go after her. Even now. But as she entered the airport and disappeared from his sight, he knew he had to let her go. As difficult as it was, he had to let her go.