Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“What flavor tonight, Tommy?” I asked, trying to look as seductive as I could muster.
“Mm,” he eyed me up and down. “Neapolitan?”
I smiled and gave him a nod. A little vanilla, a little strawberry, and a little chocolate? Sounded good to me. I cleared the table as he strode off toward his office.
“Okay,” I told her, “You’re gonna put me to sleep.”
She was sitting on my rear, massaging my back with sweet smelling oil. I was on the bed, a towel around my waist.
“Maybe you need to sleep,” she told me, her lips against the ridge of my ear.
“But, I have plans for us.”
“Neapolitan plans?” she murmured.
I laughed. “We need to talk first, baby. Switch.”
She got off me and lay beside me on her belly. I climbed onto her backside and kneeled, not putting my full weight on her, lifted her t-shirt and pulled it off her, leaving her in just a pair of Daisy Duke jean shorts and her bra, a sexy, red satin one. I snapped the band and she jerked and then giggled shyly. I kissed her shoulder and then wiped oil from my own over-oiled shoulders, transferring it to her body, working it in to her back and her shoulders. She let out a little moan that went straight through my groin.
I ignored what her sexy moan made me wanna do; I needed to talk to her, not let myself get distracted again. The best way to do that was probably to stop touching her so I could stop thinking about getting inside of her and just play the recording.
I wiped my hand on the towel beside her, reached for my phone, which was on the nightstand, and put it beside her head.
“Listen,” I said and planted a kiss on her shoulder. “Then we’ll talk. We have to talk about this and then we have other shit to discuss. It’s going to be a lot. But it’s important. Okay? I didn’t want to come to you with this before I had everything figured out, but I’m at a dead end and need info from you before I can go further.”
She nodded softly. I brushed her hair behind her ear with my fingertips, kissed her temple, and then I pressed play on the recording while I continued to gently massage her shoulders and then moved down to her legs as the recording played what Greg O’Connor said to me outside the hospital when Tia had the allergic reaction. She tensed up almost immediately, upon hearing her father’s voice, but I kept massaging gently.
“…known your family for years. I’ve wanted to be on better terms and I tried to patch things up with Tom. He just didn’t wanna know me because Lita chose me over him, you see. And he always had this grudge about that. He told me one night out of the blue in a dark alley when he turned up after a poker game I was in that he’d have her back and that if he couldn’t have her, he’d make sure I didn’t either. He was in love with her, had been since they were kids, but he was best friends and business partners with her older brother, someone even more connected than he was, so she was off limits. A few years after your ma died and Lita’s brother died he tried to hook up with her but she broke up with him a few months later and when she met me, she told me her ex was a crazy possessive, psycho. She started to see me on the rebound, probably, but got pregnant so we got married before we really knew each other. I loved her, though. She was amazing. He said Tia should’ve been his. If we hadn’t had Tia, he wouldn’t have lost Lita. I was scared he was gonna hurt Tia. He was a bad motherfucker and I was afraid for my life, too. I tried to befriend him, started working on one of the crews, but when he found out about it, he canned me. All this shit kept happening to me and it was like he was out to destroy me. I know he was behind a lot of it.
Then he left us alone for a few years. But me and Lita had a huge blow-up about my gambling and partying, and she took my daughter and left. But she came back a few days later and wouldn’t say why. I think she’d gone to him, but changed her mind. Or maybe he’d kidnapped her and she got away. She wouldn’t tell me. He turned up drunk and stormed into my apartment and told us if she didn’t leave with him, he was taking Tia instead. Started screaming in my face telling me to pick whether I wanted to keep my wife or my daughter. Lita pleaded with him, but he pointed a gun at me and finally took Tia, put her in his car. Lita tried to change his mind, go with him, but he said it was too late. Tia got so upset that he let her come back a few hours later but he told me it wasn’t over. Lita killed herself a few weeks later. Your father showed at the funeral and told me he’d be back for Tia someday. That I took from him, so he’d take from me. Hinted that he was responsible for Lita’s death. I carried that shit around for years. Always watching my back, always wondering if she really killed herself. I was fucked up. I know it affected my relationship with my daughter. I just, I dunno, malfunctioned. But I want a relationship with her. I thought maybe you and I could be friends. I could work for you. See my daughter, be in her life, help you with the business. We’ll be family after you get married. Maybe Tom will finally let it all go now. Think about it. Will ya do that for me?”