Teddy woke up at six that next morning, while Nikki was still asleep.  She was still naked and laying on her stomach.  It felt good to have her in bed with him.  He felt almost kid-like, a way he hadn’t felt since forever.  Even as a kid, because he was responsible for his mother, because he had an absent father with a reputation he knew he had to live up to, he didn’t feel like a kid.

But with Nikki, he felt as if a load was being lifted.  She was a free spirit opening his cage.  He just had to be willing to fly out of his familiar habitation.  His familiar prison.  After last night, after the way she allowed him to hold her, despite her father’s display of anger, he was more than willing!

Everything about Nikki turned him on.  The way she stood up for him at his Dad’s house still astounded him.  He’d never had that happen before.   Teddy the Tower in need of a woman to stand up for him?  His men wouldn’t believe it!  And they’d be right.  He didn’t need it.  But it felt good to have it.  It felt good to know that somebody could be in his corner for a change.  All his life, and especially after he started working for his father, it was always the other way around.

And what a woman to have in his corner, he thought.  Nikki was so unlike anybody he’d ever met, he was still processing just how different and forthright she was.  Even Mick the Tick, the most unromantic man on the face of this earth, gave her a passing grade.  He’d also commented on her ass and breasts, as if he knew she was special in those departments too.  And she was, Teddy thought, remembering last night on the plane, as his eyes began to trail down to that plump ass that was right there, at his disposal, hardening his dick, and weakening him again.

She began to wake up, as if she sensed danger.  Teddy smiled when she opened her big, happy eyes, and smiled too.

“Good morning,” he said.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Around six.”

“Dang, Teddy.  And you look as if you’ve been awake for hours!  I’m used to keeping late hours.  I can’t remember the last time I was awake at six am.  Last night notwithstanding,” she added, with another smile.

He was glad she was getting past it, although he knew it would take some time.  “You work at night.  I work day and night.  I’m up all hours of the night.  This was the first time in a long time that I actually had a good night’s sleep.   I had to turn off my phone,” he added, “but still!”

Nikki smiled.  “Come to think of it,” she said, “I slept really good too.”  She placed her hand on the side of his face.  “Thanks again, bud.”

Teddy placed his hand on her ass.  “No need to thank me,” he said, and began rubbing her.

They laid there, with her hand on his face, and his hand softly rubbing her ass, and the feelings returned.  Not those feelings of lust that was always just beneath the surface when they were together.  But those feelings of need.  Of satisfaction.  Of uninhibited happiness.  Of being on a great vacation, and never wanting to leave!

He got on top of her, and then entered her from behind.

That pain returned because of his size, but it was bearable.  The side of his face rested on the side of her face as they made slow, achingly beautiful love.  He took his time, fucking her by massaging her, and they lasted longer than they thought they could.  Especially after that marathon session on the plane.

And then she came.   He had next.  He was just on the verge of a powerful cum, when his doorbell rang.

“Shit, shit and shit!” he yelled angrily. 

So angrily that Nikki looked up at him, to make sure it was the same person.  She saw that it was, but that he was frustrated out of his mind.  And despite the doorbell ringing, he continued to fuck her.   He continued to lay on top of her and fuck her hard.  He wasn’t going to stop, or get out of her, until he came.  He was that close.

He was groaning as he did her.  He was grunting as he pushed in deeper and deeper and stroked her harder and harder.  And even with the distraction of that darn constant doorbell ringing, he came with a hard and heavy outpouring.

“Ahhh,” he moaned in a sing-song voice as he relieved his tension inside of her.  “Oh, yes, baby.  Ah yes!”  He drenched Nikki’s vagina.

And then he laid there, as the doorbell ringing gave way to heavy door-knocking.

Nikki waited for him to get up.  But he just laid there.

“You want to get that, babe?” she asked him.

“Hell no,” Teddy responded.  But he knew he had to.  He knew Nikki was asking a rhetorical question.  He pulled out of her, causing her to immediately feel his huge absence, and then he got off of her.

He grabbed his cell phone off of the nightstand and pulled up his home’s security monitors.  When he pressed the Front Door icon, and he saw who it was banging on his front door, he tossed the phone back onto the stand.

Nikki got up too, in case there was trouble, as Teddy quickly put on a pair of discarded jeans that was already on his bedroom floor.  She put on one of his discarded dress shirts, that was thrown over a chair, and got dressed quickly too.  Teddy kept a neat and tidy house downstairs, Nikki thought, as she followed him downstairs.  But that was probably because he wasn’t down there that much.  Because upstairs, in that bedroom, where clothes and shoes were everywhere as if they had been quickly discarded for what appeared to be days on end, he needed a maid!

“Wait here,” Teddy said to Nikki at the bottom of the stairs, and he kept walking toward the front door.

Nikki did as she was told and waited.  She already felt some ease because he allowed her to come downstairs with him.  And when he opened his front door, and she saw his kid brother Joey walk across the threshold, she felt completely at ease.  She was a bartender who saw all types day in and day out, and Joey was the type that didn’t scare her in the least.  Guys like Joey were all talk and no action.  They were the kind of big-mouths who would bet all day long that they could beat your ass, but they would never cover the bet.

Types like Teddy, by contrast, were the real deal.  All action and little talk.  Teddy was the kind of man Nikki respected and feared in equal doses.  Respected him because he was all man who knew how to handle his business.  Feared him because he was a bad boy who had to do bad things in this life.  She wasn’t sure what his limit could be.  Including when it came to treating her right.

She stopped her wild thinking.  What did she have to do with it?  But she did have something to do with it!  She was, after all, staying at his house, sleeping in his bed, allowing him to make love to her without condoms!  And as she watched his big, fine ass close the front door, and could still feel what it felt like to have that big-rig of a dick inside of her, the idea that she could someday be his woman was a heady proposition.  Pipedream land before she left L.A.  A world of possibilities now that she was in Philly, with him.

“Why,” Teddy asked his brother as soon as he closed the door, “you never bother me at a decent hour?”

“I tried to call your ass, but you wouldn’t answer.”

Teddy had turned off his cell phone on purpose.  He wanted to be alone with Nikki, without interruptions for once.  Last night he made it.  No interruptions.  “What is it that can’t wait?” he asked.

Joey glanced toward the stairs at Nikki.  Teddy had forgotten that she was there too.  But fuck it, he thought.  They were together now.  And she’d already figured it out anyway.  He just had to make it clear to Joey that this was how it was going to be.

That was why, instead of saying another word to his brother, he walked over to the stairs, reached out for Nikki’s hand, and then, with his hand in hers, walked her to the living room, where he sat her down, and sat beside her, on the couch.

Even Nikki saw it as an act of defiance.  A kind of in-your-face reaction to Joey’s natural rudeness.  An action statement, as Nikki saw it, that said Teddy was not going to take his brother’s nonsense when it came to her.  Respect her, his unspoken words seemed to say, or else.

Joey got the message loud and clear.  They’d been fucking, probably all night in his mind, and Teddy was smitten.  He realized that at their father’s house, when Teddy kept taking peeps at that woman as if she was a fresh piece of meat he couldn’t wait to consume.  Joey would never consume her: he wasn’t into big girls.  But Teddy acted as if he could just eat the shit out of her.  And, Joey figured as he made his way into the living room behind them, as he watched her sashay that big ass in Teddy’s big shirt, Teddy probably already had.

He sat down, in one of the chairs, and move to the edge of his seat.  If Teddy was certain he could trust this girl, who was he to object?  Besides, if the shit went sideways, it was going to be Teddy’s ass on Dad’s grill.  Not his.

“Okay, let’s have it,” Teddy said.  “What happened?”

“Bovenconti happened,” Joey said.  “He hit the docks.”

Teddy frowned.  “Why would he do that?  I handled that shit.”

“I’m telling you what I know.  He took out one of our ships.  I just got the word.  The fire department’s been called.”

Teddy was stumped.  “But that shit was handled.  Bovenconti wouldn’t pull--” And he had a different thought, and he looked at Joey.

Joey frowned.  “What?” he asked.  “What are you looking at me like that for?  I didn’t set that fire!”

“What happened, Joey?” Teddy asked.

“I told you what happened!”

“Cut the bullshit, alright?  Why would Bovenconti strike us about that thing after I took care of that thing?”

Teddy might have trusted Nikki, Joey noticed, but he was nobody’s fool. He wasn’t going to tell it all, not with her hanging around.

“Tell me the whole story before I get down to those docks and find out for myself.”

“Give me a break!” Joey said as if he was offended.  “I come here to give you the heads up, and you want to fuck with me?  Fuck you!” he yelled, and then turned to leave.

But Teddy was up so fast it almost gave Nikki whiplash watching him.  Talk about going from zero to one hundred!  He moved up to his kid brother and grabbed him by his jersey.  And it was obvious Teddy could break his brother in two.  “What happened, Joey?” he asked him again.

Nikki stood up, too.  She was expecting the brothers to come to blows.  From the father on down, the Sinatras, she already was seeing, were a violent bunch.  Or, at the least, a highly charged bunch.

“Tell me what happened or I’ll break every bone in your punk-ass body!” Teddy said.  “What happened?”

There was no fight.  Joey, as Nikki already suspected, was all talk, and no action.  He bent like a bow.  “Bovenconti paraded Khaki around town like he was some wild game hunter showing off his catch, and then he tossed Khake into the city dump.”

Nikki didn’t know if she wanted to hear this, but in for a penny, in for a pound.  She was in it now!

“Go on,” Teddy said.

“Some of the guys thought it was wrong,” Joey continued.  “They thought, who does this motherfucker think he is?  Khaki made a mistake, but he’s a made man with the Sinatras.  You don’t mess with our people like that, what the fuck is wrong with him?  Some of our guys saw it as total disrespect.”

“By some of our guys,” Teddy asked, “you mean some of your guys in your crew, right?”

Joey hated to admit it.  His end was always the fuck-up end.  “You can say that, yeah.”

Teddy wanted to slap the shit out of Joey.  You can say that?  But Teddy was the kind of leader who always looked at the big picture.  His father was that kind of leader too.  “What did their asses do?” he asked his kid brother instead.

“They went to the hospital,” Joey said, “and they kinda, sorta, finished him off.”

Teddy frowned.  “They what?”

“They finished him off.  They went to that hospital and took out Bovenconti’s son.”

Teddy was livid.  “Motherfuck!” he yelled.  “Who the fuck gave them permission to take out a boss’s son?  Who, Joey?  You?”

“You know I didn’t give nobody that kind of permission!  You know I can’t give it.  That’s on you and Pop’s level!  They did it themselves.  They loved Khake, Teddy.  They loved him!”

“They loved him?  They loved him?  I don’t give a flying fuck if--” Teddy’s voice was loud with anger.  He was so angry he could barely contain his rage.  He was so angry he couldn’t complete his own sentence!

Nikki was angry too.  She was angry that Joey was putting Teddy through so much distress.  And although she didn’t hear the backstory in detail, she’d heard enough to know Joey had fucked up.  She knew Joey should have controlled his people better than this!

“They knew better, Teddy,” Joey said.  “This can’t be on me.  I told them you can’t hit the son of a Don.  I told them that even before Khake took that fall.  They understood that.”

“But they did it anyway?” Teddy asked.  “That’s what you’re telling me?  Your own men don’t listen to a fucking thing you tell them?  Is that what I need to know, Joey?”

Then Teddy couldn’t hold it in another second.  “Pop was right!” he yelled.  “He told me to fire your ass last night because of what Khaki did alone.  That was enough for him!  But I didn’t.  I stood up for you.  Now you bring me this?  Motherfuck, Joey!”

Joey was reeling now.  His father told Teddy to fire him?  “It’s not my fault!” Joey proclaimed.  “What did I do?  I’m not taking the fall for this shit!”

Teddy just shook his head.  It was a monumental mess and that was all there was to it.  And his father already made it crystal clear: the buck stopped with Teddy.  This fuck-up was all on Teddy.

“Get to the docks,” he ordered Joey.  “I’m sure not only the fire department will be out there, but snooping cops, too.  Make sure those assholes handle that right.  And call the suits,” he added, which Joey knew meant the lawyers.  “They need to be there too.”

“I already made that call,” Joey said.  “They’re on their way.  I was on my way to the docks, too, when I was trying to call you.  I wanted to give you the heads up.”

Joey was depressed.  Teddy could hear it in his voice.  He knew Teddy was the only champion he had in their father’s syndicate, and he was losing his support fast.  But he still wasn’t taking the blame for somebody else’s fuck up, he didn’t care what his champion said. Teddy knew that too.

As Joey left, Teddy began hurrying toward the stairs.  Nikki was right on his heels.  “Motherfuck!” Teddy said again.

“What does it mean, Teddy?” Nikki asked as they hurried up the stairs.  “Are you in danger?”

Teddy frowned.  “What the fuck kind of question is that?” he asked her angrily as he stopped in his tracks and turned to her.  Then he caught himself when he realized who he was unleashing on, and when he saw the agony in her eyes.  “Sorry.”

But Nikki wasn’t having it.  “Don’t be!” she said.  “Your ass is angry.  I’d be angry too.  Blow off some steam.  I can take it.”

Teddy appreciated that.  Steam was always being blown off on him, he needed somebody he could blow a little off himself.

But he wasn’t doing that to Nikki.

He continued to hurry upstairs, with her hurrying behind him.  “In my line of work,” he said, answering her question and keeping it real with her, “there’s always the possibility of danger.”

“So, what happened?” Nikki asked, following him.  “Somebody disrespected the crew?”

“Ah, fuck that,” Teddy said.  “That was Joey just making excuses.  He knows that’s not the real problem.  The real problem is what our people did.  Those stupid assholes took out the son of a Don!”

“A Don?” Nikki asked.

“The head of a family,” Teddy clarified.  “It could mean war if we aren’t careful.”  Then he realized his error because his father had already served him notice: the next Joey fuck-up was on him.  “If I’m not careful,” he said.

They entered the second-floor landing, and then headed for the bedroom.  “Where are you going?” Nikki asked as they made their way into his bedroom.

“To the docks,” Teddy said.  “To see how bad it is.”

Nikki was bold if she was anything.  And she decided to go for broke.  She was already in for a penny, after all.  “Can I go with you?” she asked.

Teddy was ready to tell her hell no.  What the fuck was wrong with her?  But then he thought about it.   He thought about his Uncle Tommy (in their world, cousins of high authority were considered to be uncles).  It was Tommy Gabrini who tried to shield his woman from the horrors of the mob life, too, just like Mick had told him, and he almost lost her forever.  It was a bitter situation.  Teddy and Nikki had hopes that their relationship was going somewhere, if their intimacy was any indication.  Why wouldn’t he put her feet to the fire in a real fucking way, to see if she’d burn, before he gave his heart and soul to a losing proposition?

If she couldn’t handle it, he’d know early on.  And maybe, just maybe, he could get out without losing his mind.  Losing a chance to be with her could be that intense.  But if she could handle it, he thought, he’d know that too.  That would be a great thing to know.

“Get ready,” he said to her.

Nikki was shocked.  She was certain he was going to cuss her ass out for even asking to go with him.  But she was a practical girl.  She wasn’t about to look that gift horse in the mouth.

She, instead, saddled up.