Time for her to join in. “Because you’ve trapped my arms, when you finally release my tortured nipples, I guess I’ll have to bend down in front of you and pull down the zipper of your pants with my teeth and lips.” Tony’s eyes smoldered. “I’ll bet your cock is growing hard just thinking about that.”
“Oh, dolcezza, I’m always hard for you, even when you’re two hours away.”
Knowing that he thought about her during those times too made her ecstatic. “I don’t know about you, T.G., but I think we need to call it a night here and move on to the rest of my date.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” When the music came to an end, he led her off the dance floor.
“I just need to make this final announcement,” she said, picking up the tally sheet, “then we can ditch this place.”
“Do you mind if I thank them too? My deputy chief got called back to Aspen Corners before the dancing, but he asked me to represent the department concerning the dive-team plans.”
She hadn’t wanted to put Tony on the spot, but this made her happy. “Not at all. I’ll call you up.”
He took her arm. “Give me a few minutes. I don’t think it would do for me to show up on stage with a hard-on.” She started to glance down, but he cupped her chin. “Trust me. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Carm wished she could take care of it for him but waited until he returned to the ballroom before making her way to the stage to join Sandro, who had returned as well to make the final announcements.
“I see you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck with Tony.” Carm met Sandro’s teasing gaze but decided not to say anything that might incriminate her. She wasn’t ready to reveal anything until she was assured she and Tony were headed toward the future together that she envisioned.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to call it a night after this announcement and whatever Tony wants to say.”
“Good for you. I think things are winding down anyway. You did a fabulous job, Sis.”
“Thanks for doing your part too.”
Carm made the announcement about the funds donated that night to a rousing round of applause and cheers. “And now I’d like to bring Tony Giardano up to say a few words about how the money will be used.”
Tony made his way up the steps onto the stage and stood beside her. “Thank you, Carmella, for putting this together. To say I was blown away when I found out this event was going to benefit the dive team in my county would be an understatement.” He turned to the audience. “And thank you all for your generosity.”
Carmella stepped aside to stand next to Sandro. Tony took a deep breath, becoming a bit sober. “This past June, the Aspen Corners Fire Department had a swift-water call involving a young mother and her toddler daughter who had been swept into the flooded river. Because we didn’t have a water-rescue squad, among other reasons, we weren’t able to pull them to safety in time and both were lost to flood waters.”
Several in the audience reacted. For Carm, this was the first time she’d heard him admit there were other factors than his own actions or abilities that had contributed to the deaths of the victims. Maybe he was ready to stop shouldering the blame for something beyond his control.
Tony cleared his throat before continuing. “My dream for the past several months has been to put together a dive team, knowing my county wouldn’t be able to fund a full water-rescue operation. While I didn’t say it out loud, though, my ultimate goal was to have a full-service water-rescue squad. And thanks to your generosity tonight and Carmella’s hard work, I can go back to my deputy fire chief on Thursday and let them know he can tell the fire chief we can now afford a bigger boat.” The reference to the famous line from Jaws broke the tension. “Maybe two.”
“Not having to wait in the middle of a crisis for another county to send a team to us will make it possible for us to save more lives and handle situations on our own that we haven’t been able to do before. I’m eternally grateful to all of you and invite you to come and visit Aspen Corners anytime. I’d love to give you a tour of the station and, eventually, the equipment and personnel your donations helped to fund. Thank you.”
To a rousing round of applause, Tony left the stage and joined Carm again. Apparently, talking about the tragedy from June hadn’t put a damper on their evening, thank goodness. Tony seemed to be riding high, his resolve strong about doing something to keep water-related tragedies from happening again.
Half an hour later, after Tony received lots of well wishes from attendees and family, they told their family members good night. Sandro assured her he had things under control there.
Tony and Carm walked into her condo shortly after midnight, and he pulled her into his arms. Pressing her against the wall, he made her fully aware of his erection. He brushed the loose tendrils of hair away from her face and released the pins that held it up. As he stared into her eyes, her breathing hitched. Carmella shook her hair loose and let it spill over her shoulders. When Tony wrapped a hunk of hair from her nape around his fist and pulled backward, she grew instantly wet.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all night, Carmella.” He leaned in and placed his lips on hers, gently for a moment then with more
