Tommy
I’d just woken up. I was wearing a pair of track pants and nothing else, standing in the kitchen trying to get my first mouthful of coffee into me.
Tia was in one of my shirts, sleeves rolled to her elbows, sitting at the table, munching on toast with peanut butter.
“God, I’m hungry today. I had two bowls of Sugar Crisp before this. I want pizza for dinner tonight, from Venetia. Oh, and what do you think about the name Bella for a girl?”
“Hm?” I was half-asleep, still.
“If we have a girl. Bella. Little baby Bella.” Her eyes were shining with hope but that didn’t occur to me immediately.
“I want her name to have meaning,” she continued.
“Uh, no.”
“No? Why? I think it’s beautiful. It means beautiful in Italian, doesn’t it?”
“A, I fucked a Bella. Twice. The second time was a mistake. Most annoying grating voice I ever heard. B, we’re not havin’ a girl. Fuck that noise.”
Her face went sheet-white. She looked shocked for a second. And then her eyes narrowed and I immediately realized my mistake. Shouldn’t talk before coffee. Fuck. Shouldn’t bring up someone I fucked. Ever. Terminator warning screen malfunction.
Her face then went red and shit started flying across the room. The salt shaker, pepper grinder thing, her napkin, the jar of peanut butter. And then the butter knife hit me right in the fuckin’ mouth before clanging to the floor, still covered in fuckin’ peanut butter.
My arms came up to protect my head and I barked,
“Whoa, Tia. Fuck!”
“You’re such a fucking asshole!” She screamed this at me and I heard the disjointed noise of the chair being shoved away and then she ran from the room.
Shit.
I followed her upstairs and watched her slam the bathroom door.
“Tia,” I knocked on the door and then jiggled the doorknob. It was locked, “Open up.”
She didn’t answer me. I heard a bunch of shit being banged around in there.
The lock was a shitty bathroom door lock, so I unlocked it with my thumbnail in less than two seconds.
When I got the door open, her eyes were on me and they were on fire. She was pissed at me.
“The second time was a mistake? Only the second time?” she snapped.
“That was a dick thing to say. Wasn’t thinkin’, baby girl. I got a lotta shit on my mind, and---”
She came at me and gave me a shove against my bare chest with both of her palms. She didn’t budge me even a little and I grabbed her wrists.
“Hey. Chill out.”
She tried to wrestle out of my arms and I picked her up and carried her out and put her on the bed and pinned her down.
Grunting, she tried to shove at me.
“Baby, give me a second to apologize.”
“Let me go. I don’t wanna hear it right now.”
“Tia, I’m sorry.” I put my mouth against her cheek as I said it. I rubbed my nose up her cheekbone, “Okay?”
She stopped struggling but she was still pissed. I put my lips to her ear, “I’m sorry. Anyone before you meant nothing. Not a fucking thing. You just threw me off when I was half asleep. I’m not sleepin’ well. I’m edgy.”
Her body relaxed a little bit but her eyes were still fiery.
I kissed her mouth and palmed her face, “I’m a dick. Forgive me.”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “You can’t boss me to forgive you.”
“Yes, I can,” I insisted and started to kiss her neck, tracing the curve of it with my tongue.
She shivered and her breath quickened but she was still trying to resist me.
“Forgive me,” I ordered and took one of her tits into my hand and squeezed, nibbling on her earlobe.
She shivered again, but she was trying to fight that pull. She was chewing on her juicy lower lip.
“I have to talk to you. After I fuck you. Gonna fuck you now,” I smiled against her lips.
She tensed up.
“You don’t want me to fuck you?” I asked.
“No. No, I don’t.” she said, turning her face away but I could feel her resolve melting against me.
“No?” I teased and grabbed her hair and used it to bring her mouth to mine again.
“Tommy, I can’t.”
“Hm?” I got a hand under the shirt, into her panties, and to her ass. I squeezed and tongued her throat, “You don’t have to, because I can. You just gotta take what I have to give you.” I grinded against her.
“Tommy, I really don’t think I can. All I can think about is poor Tess, and---”
“I have news. She’s okay. She’s in Zack’s hands by tonight.”
“Huh?” she jerked back and looked at me, wide-eyed.
“We’ll go to Vegas tonight, meet with Zack, get Tessa.”
The rest of the tension and anger in her locked tight body melted away, totally forgotten with this news.
“She’s okay? Thank God. Oh my God, ohmygod!”
“She is now, but I don’t know what she’s been through.”
“Where was she?”
“Mexico. Nephew of Juan Carlos Castillo has her.”
Tia jolted.
“Someone else took her but he got her back as a goodwill offering to us. Long story, can’t get into it right now. I would’ve told you last night but you were dead asleep. Pack for us? Shit for three, no make it five days, just in case. Something formal, too. We’ll need formal for the Fete opening so pack my black Boss tux. If you want, you can buy your dress there. Up to you.”
She stared at me.
“Sarah and Tessa’s boys are coming so Tess can see her boys right away. Talked to Sarah last night.”
“Uh, wait, Um…” She looked stunned. I knew she was trying to absorb all the facts I’d just spewed but she was also thinking about being in Mexico, when Earl Johnson had taken her from me and put her through that hell.
I rubbed her shoulders and kissed her forehead.
“Gotta stay there a few days. It’s strategic. She’ll need to see her boys so we’ll bring them and Sarah can look after them. I’ll get someone to bring racks of dresses in to the hotel for you two to go through, if you want?”
“I’m not going to the Fete opening.”
“Yeah, I need you on my arm. I want Tessa there, too. I’m booking a private hotel suite for us and it’ll be under heavy security.”
“I want nothing to do with that. I’d rather just stay home. I also don’t even want you to go but whatever.”
“Huh? What’s all this?”
“If you have to do Vegas, can you do Vegas alone, please?”
“Because you’re worried you’ll be sick the whole time?”
“Because I don’t wanna go. How on earth can you expect your sister, after being kidnapped, to go to a sex club opening?”