THE ROAD IS LONG

Well, here is chapter 24. A completely Vince/Donni chapter. I felt like I needed one to explain their situation a little more as I have kinda been focusing on Dom and Letty quite a lot. I know it's a little soon to have them develop something but the way I see it is that neither Vince nor Donni are one to hang around. They've both been round the block a few times and…well…I guess you'll have to read the chapter to find out what they decide to do.

I'm not too sure where the next chapter is going after this. I know I need another Tran chapter but after that I'm gonna be jumping ahead in time a few months or something as I've been pretty much chronicling the events day by day and that gets a little boring after a while, no? Plus I want to actually have the birth of Mia's baby in this story so I'd better look to speeding things up a little bit.

Okay, Happy Reading.

Gem

xxx

Chapter 24: No Strings.

Donni beamed up at Vince as he neared the bar where she was currently slogging her guts out cleaning it's surface of the booze, food and other less identifiable substances left behind by the nights many customers. His blue eyes smiled right back at her. That was the thing that she like about him the most. The thing that had intrigued her about him in the first place that very morning. Not the many tattoos, not the power just lurking beneath his taut, though somewhat sunburnt, skin. Not even his roguish, blundering charm. It was his eyes, plain and simple.

Some men that she had dated barely showed any feelings at all, their smiles all false and never reaching to their eyes. Vince's wild blue gaze, however, was overflowing with emotions too numerous to mention, to even attempt to identify them all, his thoughts and desires only barely concealed, if at all. That was exactly what had drawn Donni to him, pulled her into his orbit where she seemed content to be.

Sure, his eyes and his openness weren't the only thing that she found herself warming to, no, not by a long shot. He was funny and good looking to say the least. He was even caring, whereas many of her ex's had only cared for themselves. Yet, he still managed to be distinctly, completely and utterly male. Totally a man's man. Manly! Though not as overpoweringly so as she thought her baby cousin, Dom was.

She watched his grin flicker upon his lips, twisting them in a quirky, lopsided manner lighting his deep blue eyes further if that was at all possible. Yep, Vincent Keller was a whole new breed of man.

"S'up, Donni-girl?" he queried, stopping before her on the opposite side of the bar than he had been working all night, leaning his weight forwards onto his elbows. While Letty had had a rough night attempting to get into the swing of working the bar, her pride bristling every time a customer demanded another drink or shot her a lewd comment, Vince had taken to his new occupation like a duck to water and before long he was pulling pints like a pro.

Donni felt her own smile growing, more genuine than it had been in years, as she turned to replace a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels onto the shelf behind her.

"Not much, Vince." she replied with a shrug, stretching to reach the shelf and very aware of Vince's stare that scorched into her tanned back as her white vest top rode up. "How d'you like my bar?" she turned back to face him with a smirk, tossing her cleaning cloth onto the bar beside him with a sharp schlapping noise.

Vince's grin darted sideways again as he looked her up and down, not even bothering to disguise what he was up to. Honesty. He was an honest man as well. Not a quality often found in good looking men.

"The more I see of it…" he responded with a deep throated chuckle, slapping one hand onto the bar next to Donni's cleaning rag. "…the more I'm likin' it."

Donni shook her head and laughed, moving forwards to shove him in the shoulder lightly, knowing that he wasn't talking about her business anymore.

"Yeah…" she growled with amused suspicion leaning forwards onto the bar in front of Vince, narrowing her eyes at him. "What's up, Vince? Why aren't you over there having a celebratory drink with my idiot brother and Dom and Letty? I've been closing up and cleaning the bar for a good few years on my own. One more night ain't gonna kill me." she questioned, cocking her head to one side to consider his reply.

Vince leaned in closer to her, motioning her forwards with a crooked finger as if he was about to share a valuable secret with her. "I don't think your brother likes me very much." he whispered conspiratorially and Donni tossed her head back with a snort.

"Well, you did lay into him pretty roughly from what I heard from Letty and my Cuz." she chuckled, raising an eyebrow knowingly. "But that's not it. Why are you over here really? I've heard many a tale of you from Dom saying that you never turn a drink down."

Vince looked down at the bar top to his right and shrugged his shoulders, his movements coming together to make him seem bashful, though Donni knew he was anything but a shrinking violet.

"Dunno." he said finally, flashing her a devilish grin. "Just thought I'd come over here and talk to you for a bit."

Donni's face showed him that she blatantly did not believe his pitiful explanations and so he raised his hands in defeat.

"Alright! Alright! Damn woman! You caught me!" he growled before lowering his head so that he could whisper in her ear, quietening his voice so that it was little more than a rumble from deep within his throat. "Come on, we've been diggin' on each other all day. Don't deny it. How 'bout you let me do something about it an' take you out sometime, huh? Whaddaya say?" he pulled away ever so slightly, just enough so that he could gauge her reaction to his suggestion, watching deep in her eyes for some flicker of acceptance or the reverse.

Donni smiled as though she was about to gently reprimand a child for misunderstanding something, meeting his hopeful stare with her own glance that was decidedly dubious.

"Vince." she began in a low voice to match his. "You do know that I am almost four years your senior, don't you?" she queried, fighting to keep her tone light, though beneath it could be heard the fear of a rejection now that he had found out how old she was. She needed to test him, though. To find out if he was just the same as all the others. So many men had beat a hasty retreat after learning that she was a few years older than them, some not even stopping long enough to let her down gently, but Vince instead beamed wider than before, his tongue darting out from between his lips to wet them. He shrugged his broad, tattooed shoulders, feigning nonchalance.

"I like a woman with experience." was his response and Donni felt her mouth flap open and her cheeks burn red. However, before she could splutter something in return, Vince chuckled to himself and continued. "Get's a bit boring being the only one with a bit of stamina and knowledge in the relationship. Perhaps you could teach the ol' Coyote a few tricks."

Donni didn't know what to say. Her mouth still hung open until he reached his hand up and snapped it shut with a firm finger under her chin, making her blush a second time. She could only stand and consider him and they remained in silence for several long moments before she finally found her voice, speaking with seriousness.

"I'm not looking to be tied down anytime soon, Vince. I'm sorry." she apologised. "I've spent my entire adult life, since I turned eighteen, always being someone's girl. Never myself, always Marco's girl or Ricardo's woman or Paul's girlfriend. Never once was I just plain Donni." she paused for a second, searching Vince's face for any signs of anger, for the sudden change in his demeanour that she thought was likely to come after her admission but he only continued his wonderful smile, listening to her intently. "I've been single for almost three years now and I was enjoying it."

"Was?" Vince asked curiously, attempting to conceal his triumphant smile and Donni brushed her long, dark hair from her face, attempting to hide the growing flush on her cheeks. "Ah, I thought so." he continued like she had spoken, nodding to himself as if her actions had confirmed something to him. His dark sapphire gaze sparkled at her as he tilted towards her again. "Ain't nothing wrong with a bit of fun now and then, chica. It's not like we're getting' hitched or nothing'." he moved his large, work roughened hand that had closed her wide, surprised mouth previously, up to brush her ebony hair back as she had done seconds before, with a flick of his fingers. His warm fingertips rested on her cheek for a moment longer then he returned his arms to folding onto the work counter that was separating them. "Look, I've spent my entire adult life thinking that I was in love with someone who wasn't in love with me. She doesn't even like me very much most of the time and all I seem to do is piss her off. She only puts up with me 'cause she has to. Sure, I've had my fair share of women," he paused to take a steadying breath, his gaze flitting up to meet Donni's briefly and then he resumed his watch as his fingers fiddled with a rogue beer mat that had escaped the clean up. "But I've never had this feeling before…"

Donni's eyes widened in panic and she shot back from Vince as if she had been stung, raising her hands in a warding away gesture.

"Shit, Vince!" her voice was a desperate, shocked hiss. "I only just met you like today! I can't-"

"No, no, no." Vince interrupted, rapidly, shaking his hands in front of her. "Shit, I should have explained myself better than that. Sorry." he shot her a grin and slowly the 'rabbit caught between the headlights' look began to ebb from her features. "What I meant was, I've never had someone who was interested in me for me. It was always coz I knew Dom, or I won some dumb race or some bullshit like that. So this is all new to me." he paused and then loosed a wild barking laugh. "Fuck! Did you think I was professing my undying love, or something like that?"

Donni placed her hand to her heart and let out a deep, rushing breath of air as if she was relieved. "Erm…yeah!" she retorted. "Scared the hell out of me! Jesus H. Christ!"

Vince continued to laugh, throwing his head back and clinging firmly to the edge of the bar to steady himself.

"Donni, you are fucking priceless!" he snorted but he sobered somewhat, calming his outburst of hilarity to merely an amused grin. "I don't think I know what love is so I can't very well be in it."

"True, true." Donni replied, rubbing her slender hand across her forehead slowly. "Ditto." she watched, quietly knowing that he wanted to say more and something inside her made her want to listen to him, even if he had almost just given her a heart attack! "So? What are you suggesting?" she asked finally when he remained silent, cocking an eyebrow at his hesitance.

Vince shook his head in bewilderment. "I really don't know…" he sighed. "But what I do know, is that we got something going on…" his smile broadened and he took a step backwards, spreading his arms and inviting Donni to take a look at him. That coaxed a smile from her own lips and it evolved slowly into a light chuckle.

"Alright, Vince, I'll give you that." she admitted, jovially. "We got something. Whether that's insanity on both our parts, I dunno but…" she halted, her amber eyes sparking slightly as she looked over him a second time. "…we got something."

The rugged man before her gave a relieved breath, one that he had been holding while he listened to her speak and it was followed by another one-sided curl of his lips.

"So, I guess I'm suggesting that we roll with it. Have a little fun. No serious shit." his large, art emblazoned shoulders jerked up and down in another vague shrug. "Go out for a drink…or six. Go dancing', though I can't dance. Party our asses off a little-whatever the hell takes our fancy."

"And if one of us gets cold feet? Wants out? What then?" Donni reasoned, folding her arms across her chest and leaning her head to one side.

"That's the beauty of it." he countered with a grin. "We call it quits. We're honest, up front. No sneakin' around horseshit, look where that got Dom an' Lett." he inhaled deeply, the air still smoggy from the many smokers that had graced the bar that night with their presence. "We do what we want, when we want but if one of us doesn't like it, we agree to respect that."

Donni nodded, carefully, thoughtfully, contemplating his words. It sounded tempting. Being single for three years, while it had been something that she had needed to do, had left her missing the feeling of being someone's someone! However, she didn't want to get into a relationship just for the sake of having one.

"That sounds an awful lot like an open relationship, Vince. I've done the whole spreading myself around. I've been the other woman before and no matter what you say about it being just a bit of fun, nothing serious, I don't want to be in that position again."

"Nor do I." Vince responded gently but lightening fast. "I figured that it was time to take a good, long look at my life when Dom started calling me a man-whore!"

Donni had to laugh at that. The thought of Dom lecturing anyone about being a man-whore was absurd when Dom himself had hopped more beds in the four years between the age of sixteen and when he had gotten together with Letty, than Donni had sold cold beers in the entire time of her running the bar.

"I ain't kiddin' neither!" Vince continued, deadly serious, raising his eyebrows and making Donni laugh harder until she had to clutch at the pain in her stomach. "But truthfully, I'm not gonna be hussy-grabbin' anytime in the near future, Don. I want more in my life. I think Dom's little proposition for Lett tonight made me wake up a bit. They're not going to want me hanging around forever, cramping their style, as much as I love them and they love me. And I want something more than just getting pissed, getting laid with some random chick and then working on some car with a blazing hangover day in, day out."

Donni crossed her arms again, breathing in deeply through her nose and fixing Vince with a knowing stare. "But, you still want to have a bit of fun…with me." she stated rather than asked, turning Vince's smile wolfish. "Oh, don't worry. I know how it is!"

"Come on, Donni. Don't even try to say you don't want a piece of the Coyote!" he hooked his thumbs into the strap of his dark green vest top and pulled them, letting them snap back against his shoulders as if he wore a pair of suspenders.

Donni gave a snort of dubious amusement though she did nothing to deny his accusations, simply smiling right back at him.

"Lets just see how it goes, huh?" he said, his mischievousness gone for the moment. "See what happens?"

Silence, save for the raucous chattering going on between Dom, Letty and Tino in the background, fell about the two as the considered each other, Vince with hope in his eyes and Donni trying to make her decision. It was a long moment before she could reply, nodding her head in small, jerky bobs. She liked Vince. She liked him a hell of a lot more than some of the boneheads that she had dated in the past. That was a start at least…and she couldn't lie. She'd take a piece of the 'Coyote', as he called himself, any day!

"Alright, Vince." she said finally with a more sure smile. "I'm up for it."

He beamed in response, trying and failing not to seem too pleased that he'd gotten his way.

"Hey, who knows? We might even fall in love…" he teased, waggling his eyebrows and causing Donni to roll her eyes and shove him in the shoulder.

"Don't push it!" she shot back, tossing her previously forgotten cleaning cloth at his face though he managed to catch it before it hit him full pelt. "So? What are we like a couple now?" she chuckled, trying to keep the mood light but Vince shook his head with seriousness.

"Nah. You don't want to be someone's girl. And I don't think I can be someone's man right now…" his eyes shifted upwards to the ceiling or towards heaven, she didn't know, as if he was looking for answers from some higher power. Slowly, his stare crawled back down to her and he gave a one-shouldered shrug and a lopsided grin. "We're just…Donni and Vince. Out to have good time…no strings attached."

"No strings?" Donni repeated, retrieving her cloth from him and resuming her work.

"No strings." he confirmed.

Donni smiled down at the bar top. "I like the sound of that."

-00000-

Well, how interesting. You know Mia's gonna have a fit when she finds out about their little…arrangement. Poor Mia…I'm going to have to ease up on her a little, I mean I did make her pregnant…and kick Brian out of the picture…and Dom won't let her work…so she has no money…aw, I feel sorry for her now. I'm so wicked. Hmmm, who else can I torture? I feel my Letty-twist coming up soon (dun, dun, duuuuuuuun!) Please gimme a review…If you feel like it that is…

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