Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Read online

  Reno could hear them laughing at some joke as he approached. They were so into each other, it seemed to Reno, that neither one of them saw or heard him until he was literally standing at Trina’s door.

  Although Trina was surprised and, he also noticed, a little annoyed to see him, it was the man, playing the big man in Reno’s opinion, that spoke first.

  “May I help you?” Jody asked.

  “May you help me?” Reno responded with incredulity in his voice, as if he couldn’t believe the nerve of that guy. “Yeah, you can help me, pal. You can help me by taking your hand off of my wife. That’s how you can help me.”

  Jody Parks immediately removed his sunglasses. “Oh, Reno,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t recognize you.”

  Reno knew better than that, but he let it slide. Especially since Jody immediately removed his hand from Trina’s shoulder.

  “It’s been a minute since I last saw you, man. What’s up, Ree?”

  “I could ask you that same question,” Reno said. “What’s up with you? What’s your problem?”

  Jody’s smile left. He took exception to Reno’s tone. “We were just talking, man,” he pointed out.

  “Talking and touching, yeah, I can see that.”

  “Reno,” Trina quickly interrupted before the testosterone overtook both men. Then she, too, had to calm back down. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to see that Reno was “checking” on her again. She looked at her husband. “What are you doing here?”

  “What is Parks doing here, that’s what I wanna know?”

  “What is that supposed to mean? We were going over the books and decided to take a break and go to lunch. Jody’s our accountant now,” she said.

  “Your accountant?”

  “Yes, Reno,” Jody said. “I own my own accounting firm, remember? That’s the department I ran for you. Accounting. Or have you forgotten? But then age does that to you, doesn’t it?”

  Trina looked at her companion. “Watch it, Jody,” she said. “That’s my husband you’re talking to.”

  Jody quickly put on his best charming smile and threw his hands in the air. “Just joking,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Reno said as he began opening the passenger door. “I’ve got your jokes, all right.” Then he looked at his wife. “Let’s go,” he said.

  She looked at him. “What?”

  “Out. Now,” he ordered.

  “But we’re still talking.”

  “I said get the fuck out now! What part of that don’t you understand, Trina? Now means now!”

  Trina was angry by Reno’s heavy-handedness, especially in front of somebody she considered a friend. But she wasn’t about to mix it up with her own husband in front of anybody, especially since she knew she would lose that battle every time. She got out of the car.

  “I can at least finish my work on the books I hope,” Jody said to her as she decamped.

  “Yes,” Trina started to say, but Reno interrupted her.

  “No, you cannot,” he said. “Your services at this boutique are no longer necessary.”

  Trina was livid. It was one thing for Reno to handle her, but he had no right handling her business.

  “You’re out of line, Reno,” she said forcefully. “Who we hire to do our books at Champagne’s has nothing to do with you. You have no right to tell me who I can and cannot hire.”

  “Well guess what? I’m telling you,” Reno said. “Jody Parks will not be doing the books for Champagne’s. End of discussion.” Then Reno looked at Jody. “Get the fuck away from my wife and stay the fuck away from her!” He said this and then slammed the car door shut.

  It was obvious that Jody didn’t like it. The way he stared at Reno now, without so much as giving Trina a second look, made that clear.

  “What says you, Tree?” Jody asked her, although he was still staring at Reno. “Nobody respects a puppet. Are you your husband’s puppet?”

  Jimmy looked at Trina. She was nobody’s puppet, but Reno ruled their nest. He ruled their family. There was no doubt about that.

  Trina stared at Reno. He never did anything unless there was a darn good reason for it, although she couldn’t see the reason here. But she knew Reno.

  She looked at Jody. “Thanks for what you’ve done so far, Joe,” she said. “But we can take it from here.”

  And those words alone slapped the smile off of Jody’s face. He had expected fireworks from Trina. She didn’t let anybody handle her. But she wasn’t going along.

  “Have a good day,” she said to him.

  “Have a good one yourself,” he said to her and then, as if to prove some point, put his car in gear and drove off in a jerk, putting an extra spin on his tires as he did.

  Reno looked at Trina with such anger that he could hardly contain himself. She looked at him with such anger that she could hardly contain herself. But they were at the front door of the boutique and customers were coming out and going in. This was not the place. But Trina knew, by Reno’s look alone, that he was all but telling her that if she didn’t want a scene that she’d better get them to a private place, and to get them there right now.

  She led him into the high-end boutique without saying a word. Jimmy followed behind them, keeping his distance from them on purpose. He knew his parents. He knew when it was going to be all-out war.

  Gemma Jones, who co-owned the boutique along with Trina and Liz Mertan, another friend, was near the back of the store assisting a customer. She looked up when Reno and Tree entered, but neither of them looked her way. They, instead, headed toward the side stairs that led to the upstairs office. Jimmy, however, headed toward her.

  “Hey, Jimmy, how you doing?” Gemma asked him.

  “I’m doing good. And you?”

  “I’m okay,” she said as she watched Tree and Reno. She’d seen the activity outside. She saw when Jody and Trina arrive in Jody’s Maserati, and she could tell, by Reno’s body language alone, how displeased he was. As an attorney in town, Gemma occasionally did legal work for Reno. She knew him. “They okay?” she asked Jimmy.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said. “They just need to talk, that’s all.”

  Gemma appreciated Jimmy’s loyalty to his parents, but she was nobody’s fool. Reno was hot. She knew him. Trina was hot. She knew her. And that was why she didn’t bother to say hello, or to say anything to either one of them, as they headed upstairs.

  The upstairs was mainly the storage unit for the store, with an office in the far back. Trina and Reno made their way to that office. Trina was walking steadily, with Reno just behind her. And even though he was so angry with her he could strangle her, he was unable to stop himself from checking her out as they walked. She had, in Reno’s estimation, one of the finest figures he’d ever seen. Everything was the way he wanted it to be. Her shoulders were small, her waist was narrow, her ass was round and firm. And her brown legs were so smooth and shapely that he could hardly wait to put his hands on them again. And the idea that a prick like Jody Parks would have his grubby hands on any part of that fine body, even if it was only her shoulder, angered him even more.

  Once inside the office, and once Reno closed the door behind them, Trina began walking toward the desk. But Reno grabbed her by the arm, and slung her back against the door.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know what you’re so upset about, Reno,” Trina replied, equally upset. “We needed an accountant and Jody is a good one, so he agreed to help us out.”

  “You asked him?” Reno asked, staring deep into his wife’s beautiful hazel eyes.

  “No, I didn’t ask him. He came by to congratulate us on our grand opening and offered his assistance.”

  “I’ll bet he did.”

  “Why are you saying it like that? He’s just a business partner, Reno. He’s just a friend!”

  “Like hell he is! I know Jody Parks, Trina, don’t you forget that. He and I used to chase tail like it was nobody’s business. That man never me
t a spectacular looking woman in his life he didn’t try to fuck!”

  “Since there’s nothing spectacular looking about me, I don’t see what you’re so worked up about!”

  Reno just stood there. Sometimes it astounded him how Trina viewed herself. She once told him that she believed most men would find her attractive, maybe even pretty, but nothing like how Reno viewed her. Let Reno tell it, she said at the time, Miss America had nothing on her.

  “She don’t,” Reno had replied.

  “Stop selling yourself short,” he now said to her. “I told you about that.”

  “What I’m saying, Reno,” she said, “is that every good looking man that comes my way isn’t trying to get into my panties. Jody is a friend of mine and Gemma’s both. He’s just trying to help us out.”

  “Fine. Gemma’s single. Why didn’t he take her ass to lunch? Why did he have to take you, a married woman? Because he wanted you from the moment he met you, that’s why. And don’t you dare tell me I’m exaggerating, either. He told me so himself!”

  This surprised Trina. “He told you? When?”

  “When he was working for me. Why do you think he isn’t anymore? You think some shitty-ass accounting business would give him the same prestige he had when he was working for me? Get real! He started that business because he had no choice.”

  But Trina frowned. “You fired a man just because he told you he liked me?”

  “I fired him because I overheard him telling a group of out of town investors that he hit that thang of yours a time or two and if he could convince them to come onboard, he could set something up with them.”

  Trina couldn’t believe it. “What?”

  “Yeah. Your so-called friend was more than happy to prostitute you out to some fucking Russians who were more than ready to take him up on his offer. Some friend, right?”

  “But why didn’t you tell me, Reno?”

  “Tell you what? That Parks is going around saying all of these awful things about his relationship with you and I want to know if any of it is true? Of course that shit ain’t true! I wasn’t telling you about that nonsense.”

  “It couldn’t be nonsense if you fired him.”

  “Of course I fired his ass. No way was he going to disrespect my wife like that and there be no retribution. His ass was gone that same day.”

  Trina nodded her head. That was the one thing she loved most about Reno. He looked out for her. “Good,” she said. Then she looked at him. “And I love you for standing up for me, Reno, I really do. But you’ve got to start telling me what’s going on. You should have told me.”

  “I told you to stay away from him, that’s what I told you.”

  “Yeah, but I thought that was because of some business disagreement y’all had. I had no idea it was because of me. You should have told me, Reno. I would have never thought about letting him help us out if you would have told me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, sweetheart. You should have stayed away from him because I told you to stay away from him, I don’t care what the reason was! That’s the main problem I have with you, Tree. I tell you to do something and you ignore me and do whatever the hell you want. Then the shit hits the fan and you come running to me when you should have never been away from me to begin with. I set your ass straight about that before. It’s nothing for me to set you straight again!”

  Trina still remembered that so-called spanking Reno put on her. It was months ago, but she still remembered it. Back then she was questioning whether he was overreacting to a situation involving Jimmy. Reno became so enraged with her that he put it on her. And after what happened to Jimmy, he was right to be enraged with her. Reno never overreacted, she was still trying to accept. There was always a method behind his madness.

  But she couldn’t completely give up her right to disagree with him, because they still had serious disagreements. She respected him above any other human being, but she still had to have her say.

  “All I’m saying,” she said, “is that you have to talk to me. You need to tell me what’s going on and stop trying to protect me from the truth. Trust me, I can handle the truth.”

  Reno knew she couldn’t, not the kind of “truths” he had to deal with, but he rubbed her arm anyway. “You’re a handful, you know that?”

  She stared into his deep, blue eyes.

  “You’ll try the patience of a saint, you know that?” he added.

  But Trina chuckled. “And you won’t?” she asked and placed her arms around his neck. “You’ll try the patience of patience itself. I consider myself a hero for putting up with your ass.”

  Reno laughed, and put his arms around her waist. “Oh, yeah? Heroic, are you?”

  “Hell yeah I’m heroic. I’m a veritable wonder woman for putting up with you!”

  Reno stared at her, and his smile slowly faded. It became serious for him again. “That you are,” he said as he moved closer against her. “That you are.”

  And then he kissed her. And despite their contentiousness, she accepted the kiss. But as she felt his lips on hers, and the texture of his tongue, she relished it, placing her arms tighter around his neck and moving her own mouth to his lead.

  She smiled. “Just because you’re kissing me,” she said as he trailed kisses down her neck and to her chest, “doesn’t get you off the hook. You treat me as if I’m not your equal.”

  “Do I?” Reno asked distractedly as he kissed her chest and began unbuttoning the front buttons on her dress.

  “Yes, you do,” she replied as he opened her dress and lifted her bra. “You --- oooh, Reno!” He sucked and licked her breasts and nipples with such expertise that her heart pounded and her vagina tingled.

  “You treat me . . .like . . . I’m . . . not . . . your . . . equal.”

  She tried to continue her complaints, but Reno lifted her into his arms and carried her to the desk, plopping her down on top of it. His mouth continued to work her breasts as he lifted her dress and pulled her panties completely off.

  “Think you’re my equal?” he asked as he opened her legs as wide as they could go. “That’s what you think?” He had moved his face back up to hers, and now was within an inch of hers. His hands were on her knees. “Is that what you think?” he asked her again.

  “Yes,” she said breathlessly as he continued to stare at her mouth, at her African lips, and to blow his sweet breathe into her hair.

  “Think you’re Reno’s equal, is that what you think? Think you can fuck me like I fuck you? That’s what you think?”

  And then he couldn’t bear it a moment longer. He covered her mouth with his own again, giving her a long, passionate, jarring kiss. And when he did bring her back up for air, she let out such a full exhale that she could feel it against her ribs.

  And then he knelt down, placed his face between her legs, opened her legs so wide they began to ache, and began licking her. She knew then that any anger they may have started with, and all complaints and conversation, were over.

  She leaned back on her elbows and forced an intake of breath with every lick he slid on her. She felt every rumble in her stomach, every tingle in her pussy, as his tongue licked with long, slow strokes. It felt so good to her that her reaction to him was swift and undeniable. So swift that she was saturating him almost as much as his tongue was saturating her.

  “Oh, baby,” Reno said as he continued to make love to her pussy. “You aren’t my equal, Tree. You’re not my equal. You’re my superior,” he said lustfully as he began to eat her. “The way you make me feel. The way you give me love. Oh, Tree!” He said this with such passion that Trina held onto his silky hair, and kept pushing his face further and further into her cunt. She had one leg on his back now, and the other leg on the desk, and she was squeezing her muscles so tightly and releasing her juices so sensually that the feeling became too intense.

  “Do you feel it now, baby?”

  “I feel it, Reno.”

  “I feel it too. Oh, Tree. I feel it too
!”

  She tried to pull his head back. She tried to slide her ass away. But Reno kept doing her. His tongue felt as if it was branding her with every long, slow lick it took. And then she had to have him. She had to feel Reno in full.

  “Tree!” Reno said as his tongue kept slicing inside of her folds.

  “Shut up, Reno,” she said to him. “I can’t take it. Shut up and fuck me!”

  Reno stopped licking as if he had been waiting for those words. And he stood up strong and tall, with his chest breathing in and out in near-hyperventilation, with his penis so erect it was pressing hard against his zipper.

  He buckled his pants and unzipped them. “Pull it out,” he ordered her, as he stared at her. She was staring down at his bulge. He loved the way she reacted every time she saw his dick. And she hadn’t seen it yet, and was already reacting.

  With her legs still opened wide, and Reno still standing between them, she eagerly pulled down his pants and briefs, and then pulled it out. It felt long and juicy in her hand, primed and pumped for her well. She looked at Reno, with hazel eyes that were already heavy-lidded.

  “Is it ready?” he asked her.

  “Good and ready,” she replied.

  “Then what the fuck you’re waiting for? Put it in,” he ordered her.

  And she did. She took his dick and slid it inside of her. Shoving it in. Reno’s eyes began to dilate, and his head began to roll backwards, as soon as his dick touched her there.

  And then he began to stroke.

  His strokes were long push-ins and slow push-outs in that masterful way of his. His ass cheeks squeezed in and out he was fucking her so hard. It was the middle of the day, they were in a stuffy office, but the sensations that rushed through their bodies were like sparks of electricity.