Page 57 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

“You look dead on your feet, son. Go to sleep.” Although Sal and his father discovered that they were father and son late in life, they were extremely close. And Sal listened to him. And to his father-in-law and uncle. He couldn’t argue the point. And since Gemma wasn’t trying to, they heeded the order.

Although they had been showering at the burn center daily, Gemma wanted a tub bath. And she got one. She hopped into their luxurious tub and took a long, hot bath, Sal took a long hot shower, and then they went to bed.

But once they were beneath their satin sheets, with Sal behind Gemma spooning her, and they both were naked in bed, it took seconds flat for Sal’s penis to become rock-hard. And his fingering of Gemma had her dripping wet.

He entered her from behind. They hadn’t been together since the day after Mason Curry’s party and they couldn’t hold out another second. It was a long, slow fuck for both of them. A chance for them to try and get their normalcy back. They had to talk. They knew they had a lot to talk about that they had swept under rugs for weeks. But for those forty minutes Sal was doing her, they put all conversation on mute. They needed to relax. They needed to forget all their troubles and just relax their intense, overextended bodies.

And it worked. They both nearly fell asleep more than once it was just that relaxing to them.

But the way Sal fondled Gemma’s breasts, and the way he was groaning in her ear as he did her, made it impossible for Gemma to hold out any longer. She came first, the way Sal always designed it to be, but he wasn’t long behind her. And even their cum wasn’t their usualbest they’ve ever hadkind of cum. It was relaxing too. So much so that their bedsprings weren’t singing the way they usually were, their bodies weren’t bouncing with euphoria the way they usually were, and they weren’t too exhausted to talk when they had both poured out.

After Sal cleaned them both up, and he and Gemma were lying on their sides facing each other, that was exactly what they did. They talked.

“Lucky looks strong,” Gemma said to Sal.

Sal nodded. “He pulled through. I’m proud of him. He’s a fighter just like you said. I just hope his back doesn’t give him long term problems. It’s pretty scarred.”

There was a long pause after Sal said those words, as if they both were digesting the fact that Lucky would probably have some degree of back problems the rest of his life. But he was alive and otherwise healthy. They were grateful.

Then Sal said what he knew needed to be said. “You were pissed with me too, weren’t you, Gemma, when I saved you first?”

Gemma looked down at his broad chest, her naturally long eyelashes making her eyes look half-closed, and then she looked into his eyes. “I was at first, yeah I was. I thought you should have . . .”

“You thought I should have let you die while I just stood there and watched? Or while I tried to save Lucky, just let you rot for all I cared? How can you think I could do that, Gemma? You were right there and I pulled you to safety.”

“I know you did.”

“That was my job.”

She touched Sal’s face. She saw the anguish in his eyes. “And you did the right thing, Sal. You saved us both.”

“I saved both of you! That was my job, I don’t give a fuck what Reno and anybody else says. My job was to rescue my wife and my son and I’m sorry but I can’t distinguish between the two of you. I’m completely devoted to both of you. I’ll die for both of you. Maybe some men out there would let their wife burn, or save their son and go back and try to save their wife even though she was right there. But I’m not that man.”

Gemma smiled and gave Sal a long, hard kiss of love. “I know you aren’t,” she said when they stopped kissing. “And I’ll never want you to be. I know you’ll always do what’s best for me, Lucky, and Marie too. And she’s not even your biological daughter.”

“She’s my kid too. I didn’t birth her, but she’s my kid too.”

Gemma smiled. “You didn’t birth her? For real?”

Sal, realizing his error, smiled too. And pinched Gemma’s ass. “Smart ass,” he said to her.

“But you always look out for our best interests, Sal. You always have. I should have remembered that.”

“Reno had you all twisted around, that’s all,” Sal said.

But Gemma was shaking her head. “Don’t blame it on, Reno,” she said. “I was twisted long before he even showed up.”

Sal laughed. “Your ass right about that!” he declared.

But Gemma’s look turned serious. “I was all twisted up,” she said, “mainly because we haven’t been doing great as a couple, Sal. We’re up and down too much. The way you were behaving about Mason made me feel as though you didn’t trust me. And the way you didn’t call me for a whole week like you were still pissed with me when you knew how I worried about your safety, was tough. And that woman Marie said she saw you having dinner with when you couldn’t even be bothered to give your wife a call? And then, at the ballpark, the way you were going on about some videotape and calling me a liar. It’s been rough between us, Sal.”

“First of all,” Sal said as if he was eager to set the record straight, “I never said I didn’t trust you. I trust you with my life, Gem, you know that. But I wouldn’t trust Mason Curry as far as I could throw the joker. And I still don’t trust that joker. And as for that woman you’re talking about, she was just a snitch. That was a business dinner. She’s just somebody who helps feed me intel, that’s all.”

“And Mason’s just an old friend. That’s all.”

“His ass used to be more than that to you,” Sal said.

“Did that woman you wined and dined used to be more than just an intel-feeder to you?”

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