Page 13 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover

When she saw Teddy she was also glad he didn’t come running to her rescue.

He didn’t try to fight her battle the way he usually did.

That would been all she needed. Every worker on that ship would have dismissed every word she had to say and label her a fraud.

And their disrespect would have continued.

His intervention would have ruined everything.

When she finally made it up to him, she smiled. He was leaned against Marco’s Bugatti, his big arms folded, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, and he had put those sunglasses back on his face, covering those eyes Nikki loved so much. “So much sun,” she said jokingly.

Teddy smiled too. He knew it was ten at night. He knew the sun had long since gone down. “You are my sunshine,” he said. “What can I say?”

Nikki wanted desperately to run into his arms. He gave her that sense of peace and calm nobody else ever could. But they tried their best to never show affection around their employees. She remained where she stood.

But as she stood there looking at him, it alarmed her how much she needed him.

That was why holding back on him felt so unnatural.

So against the grain. And in the back of her mind she knew it could all blow up in her face.

She just wanted to get Emilio out of the way and the major threat he posed to her and potentially to her marriage.

Once he was taken care of, she hoped she could put it all behind her and move on.

But if he had backup the way she had at first feared, it could go from a problem to a disaster.

She would eventually have to tell Teddy.

She could only pray, if it came to that, that he would understand. “When did you get here?”

“Just arrived. And not a moment too soon. What was that about? You okay?”

She nodded, although he could see the stress. “I am now.”

“I saw you knock out Driessen.” He smiled again. “It was beautiful, Nikki. Did he come on to you or what?”

That was always Teddy’s go to ask anytime she had a disagreement with a man. He just knew every one of his men wanted her. They didn’t. She had too much junk in her trunk she heard one of them say. But Teddy would never believe it. They wanted her too, let him tell it.

“He was talking a lot of smack about how he was in charge,” she said, “and how I didn’t know what I was doing, and he called me a host of offensive names. But he wouldn’t say any of it to my face.”

“Coward.”

“I know right? But I still demanded he say it to my face. That’s all I was asking. He decided to shove me out of his way than own his shit.”

Teddy’s jaw tightened. The level of disrespect she had to endure! All this time she’d been onboard and it still wasn’t getting any better. “I hope you fired his ass.”

“I fired him,” she said, “and Sammy too.” She looked to see Teddy’s reaction. She knew she could fire capos who messed up. But Sammy was a made man. He was a higher-level lieutenant. She was curious how Teddy would take it.

And her suspicion was right: She would have gone too far firing Sammy. Because as soon as she said it, Teddy lifted his shades and sat them on top of his head. And his face went from smiling to frowning. “You fired Sammy Linzarta? What the fuck you mean you fired him, Nikki?”

“I’m in charge. So I fired him.”

“You had no business firing him.”

“So I’m not in charge?”

“Don’t pull that shit on me. You know you’re in charge.”

“Then why are you getting on my case about firing Sammy? I’m the underboss of this organization. When you were your father’s underboss you hired and fired at will!”

“Your ass ain’t me!” Teddy shot back.

It was a verbal shot that felt like a body blow to Nikki.

Because he said the hidden part out loud.

Because that fact alone, that she wasn’t Teddy T, was the real reason she would never be fully accepted by their men or anybody else in the underworld.

There was a hierarchy in the mob world. Mick Sinatra was at the top of the mountain.

Sal Gabrini was behind him. And Teddy, though not a boss at that time but as Mick’s underboss, was third on that chain.

Frankie “The Monk” Paletti was fourth. That was the pecking order.

When Mick gave Teddy the title of boss of his syndicate so that Mick could separate himself from most of the day to day, that pecking order didn’t change one bit.

Mick, though not even running the day to day, was still number one.

Sal Gabrini was still number two. Teddy was still number three.

Monk Paletti was still fourth. And even though Nikki was the underboss of the most powerful syndicate in the world just like Teddy had been, and should have been ranked high based on that fact alone just like Teddy had been ranked, she wasn’t give the respect her title demanded.

She was no Teddy T. That was a fact that would always undermine her with their men.

That was a fact that landed her so far down the pecking order that she wasn’t sure if she was ranked at all.

She was just another underboss to the mob world, and in its entire savage history Teddy was the only underboss that had ever been accorded a rank.

And because she could do nothing about that fact, she didn’t argue the point.

“I had good cause to fire Sammy. He’s a problem.

He dismisses everything those workers do.

He treated Mike Driessen’s insubordination like it was no big deal at all and I should just suck it up and ignore it.

He’s no longer dock supervisor. I ordered him to get off the docks and stay off. ”

“But why your ass had to fire him? You come to me. You talk to me. I’ll handle him.”

“I should have run to daddy and let him take care of it? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Fuck you, Nikki. That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Nikki knew battling it out with Teddy made no sense.

She wasn’t a traditional underboss and never would be a traditional underboss.

She was a non-Italian woman number two in an all-male, Italian institution.

She was the first. The first always had to beat the heat.

“I demoted him first. But when he said I didn’t even have the authority to demote him, it did something to me. ”

“He said that?”

“Yes he said it. Right in front of all of those workers he said it. That’s why I said okay, since I can’t demote him, I’ll fire him.

He begged then, which kind of surprised me.

When I saw he had been sufficiently humbled, I came down off of that nuclear option.

And he accepted his demotion after that. ”

Teddy knew it wasn’t a good idea to dangle out a firing and then draw it back. That wasn’t going to endear her to the guys either. “Next time you decide to fire a made man, you can’t change your mind, Nikki. You either don’t say it, or say it and mean it.”

Nikki nodded. “I know.”

“That’s why your ass come to me. Let me take the heat.”

“It was a mistake to even go there, I know it was. But when he questioned my authority like that, and in front of all those men, I was just tired of it, Teddy. But I overreacted. His insubordination wasn’t a capital offense. It didn’t merit the death penalty. So I couldn’t go through with it.”

“That’s why you don’t go around firing made men. They know too much. They get fired, they have to get eliminated too. Don’t forget that part.”

Nikki nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Oh so I’m sir now?”

“You’re the one who constantly makes it clear to me that you’re my boss and nothing else whenever we’re on the clock.”

“Is that what I said?” Teddy was already looking her up and down. “I’m just your boss, hun?”

“When we’re on the clock, yes you are.”

“Oh yeah?” Teddy’s hard green eyes began to look hooded.

When Nikki saw that look, she wanted him to pull her into his arms. When nobody seemed to be on her side, she could always count on Teddy to have her back.

But she knew they didn’t show affection around their employees. It would only lessen Nikki in their eyes, as if she slept her way to the top. But that look made it clear that Teddy had to have it.

That was why she didn’t object when he took her by the hand and walked swiftly into the office. When they were inside, he closed and locked the door, leaned her against that door, and didn’t hesitate to pull her into his arms and kiss her with a hard, longing kiss.

He could feel her anxiety as he kissed her. They both had too much on their plates. It was his job to ease that burden for both of them.

He turned the Do Not Disturb sign that hung backwards on the glass of the door so that it would face out, and then he pulled down the shades. Then he took Nikki by the hand and hurried with her to the small bedroom on the backside of the main office. He closed and locked that door too.

Nikki sat on the bed and began undressing as Teddy frantically removed his shirt, stepped out of his shoes, his jeans and his underwear, and then helped Nikki, who had already undressed up top.

He removed her shoes and slacks and undergarments too.

And then he laid her back, opened her legs, and began working on her.

Nikki could feel the relief almost immediately. Teddy had that way. She was arching and he was going easy on her the way she loved, and both of them were on the verge of cumming just from his abilities alone.

But he finally stopped and moved his mouth from below to her breasts, massaging them just as powerfully too, and she was arching again.

But when he got off of her and turned her front to his back and then entered her from behind, it was a totally different feeling.

It was the kind of feeling that made them both want to stay right there and do it that exact way forever.

Teddy laid on top of her back and was deep inside of her, stroking her with long, slow, gentle strokes that kept them both on the edge of cumming.

It was the way they loved it. It was so relaxing that they nearly fell asleep.

It was so relaxing that they were groaning and moaning and in love with being in love with each other.

It was what the doctor ordered. It cured, at least for that moment in time, all of that built-up distress within Nikki as if she was being operated on.

And Teddy was the surgeon who was surgically enhancing every inch of her body.

But when he began to squeeze and massage her like a masseur deep inside of her, Nikki knew she couldn’t hold out much longer.

She tried, because it felt that good, but her body was betraying her.

And when Teddy’s body began betraying him and he began grunting even harder than he already was, it was too much for Nikki.

She came. Hard. And her action caused a chain reaction that took Teddy over too.

It took several minutes for Teddy to completely pour out and for Nikki to complete take it all in. The sensations were overtaking them both. It was an off the chain reaction. It was that intense.

When it was done, Teddy laid onto his back exhausted and Nikki turned onto her side toward him. “We should have went home then we could have stayed in bed for the rest of the night,” she said.

“I would have loved that too,” said Teddy, “but I’ve got to check the final results on that audit and see if I have to pay Big Steve another visit.”

“And I need to find another cargo supervisor asap. We’ve got a big shipment coming in tomorrow.”

“From where?”

“Istanbul. Our biggest from them yet.”

“Firearms only?”

“Mainly yes. A few ins and outs thrown in. I going to need a supervisor on scene. But in the meantime, I may have to show up in the morning and take care of it myself.”

“I guess that means Nanny’s staying over again tonight.”

A regretful look appeared in Nikki’s eyes. “And we won’t get to see Kimmie awake again tonight, yes, that’s what it means. Sometimes I wonder what kind of mother am I.”

“You’re a hard-working mother who’s home most of the time. You’re an excellent mother. I’m the deadbeat dad.”

“You are not. And if Kimmie heard you say that she’ll say quit lying, Daddy in her tiny little girly voice.”

Teddy laughed.

“She’s Team Daddy all the way.”

“She’s my girl. Now all I need is a boy and I’m good.”

But as soon as Teddy said it that sense of dread they both felt at the very thought of bringing another child into their highly volatile lifestyle overtook them. And especially not right now. There was no way Nikki would agree to that right now.

She got out of bed and began putting back on her clothes. “You should have installed a shower up in here is what you should have done.”

“There’s a bathroom. You can always take a birth bath.”

“Or I can finish my work and take my Teddy-filled ass home and get in my own bath tub.” He laughed. “How about that?”

“I agree,” he said as he got up and began dressing too.