Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full by Mallory Monroe Page B

shower and change, or wear what you have on?” She asked this as she glanced back at him.
    Reno plopped down in her chair.  “Shower and change to have dinner with Jimmy and some female we’ve never even met?  Give me a break!  If I’m not presentable enough for them, then tough.  I’ll bring my funky ass back home, with your freshly scrubbed ass right along with me, and we’ll get in our comfortable bed and have ourselves a comfortable feast.  Tongue style.”
    Trina laughed.  “Is that all you think about?”
    Reno smiled and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands.  Trina could see that he really was a very tired man.  If it wasn’t Jimmy, she would cancel this dinner in a heartbeat and get in bed with him right now.  But it was Jimmy.  And she had promised him.  But still.
    “We can cancel,” she found herself saying to her husband.
    Reno thought about it, but then dismissed it.  “We can’t let Jimmy down like that,” he said.  “He’s a good kid who doesn’t ask for much.”
    “That’s that truth,” Trina agreed.
    “Finish getting dressed.  We’ll rest later.”
    Trina looked at that man she loved so much.  Yes, it would be a heartbreaking thing if he was cheating on her.  It would be a devastating thing.  But what stunned her more was the truth of the matter.  There was a time when she wouldn’t hesitate to leave a man who cheated on her.  She’d leave him in the dust, as she used to say.  But now that she had Reno, now that he was her man, she honestly didn’t believe she could do it.  She could never leave Reno.  And that truth, that reality, was a sobering thought.  So sobering a thought that she knew she could never, not ever, even think about verbalizing it.
    She began to dress quickly.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
    SEVEN
     
    Melita Murphy was accustomed to turning heads.  Tall, statuesque, skin as black as coal and as smooth as soft velvet, a face small and round and stunningly beautiful, she packed a powerful entrance.  It used to bother Jimmy whenever they would go out together.  Guys would do double takes at her even with him walking beside her.  But tonight, as they followed the waiter to their table, Jimmy was happy with the attention his lady was getting.  Pleasing his father had never been an easy thing for him to do, especially when it came to his choices.  His father had never been impressed with any of his previous girlfriends.  Not one of them.  But with a girl like Lita, he thought, even a hard-to-please man like his old man would have to give him his props.
    Jimmy helped Melita to her booth seat, and then sat down beside her.  The restaurant was crowded with tons of conversation, but he could tell many eyes were still on them.
    After placing their drink orders, he looked at her and smiled.  “You look so beautiful tonight,” he said, looking at the dark-skinned beauty.
    Melita ran her fingers through his silky, curly hair and smiled too.  “You look beautiful yourself,” she said with a grin.  “I never thought I would find somebody who has a big heart to match his beauty.”
    Jimmy smiled.  He knew he was a good looking young man, but a compliment like that coming from such an experienced woman like Melita pleased him.  “Thank-you,” he said.
    He never thought he’d be attracted to an older woman.  But it seemed the right way for him to go.  Younger women were too full of games for his taste.  The younger ones often showed more excitement over the fact that he was the son of the owner of the PaLargio than anything he could do or say to them.  Melita, on the other hand, owned her own business and had her own success.  She didn’t want shit from him.  She didn’t even know who his father was, except that he was a businessman too, and she never asked for details.  Their relationship, her style said to him, was about them.  Not their parents or anybody else.  Them.  He loved that about her.
    But he could see this