MATTEO
“If you’re going to do this right, Matteo, you have to tell her, and you have to tell her in a way that can’t be misunderstood. Forget about being the strong, silent type. Women need to hear the actual words.”
I’d given my mother an exasperated look when she’d said that over dinner the other night. A man can’t simply charge in with an “I’m in love with you” out of nowhere. Especially with our history. Her history. These things take finesse. Finesse is practically my middle name.
Except it turns out it isn’t.
I charged.
I couldn’t help myself. Being inside her proved too much for my self-control. Judging by her reaction, I’ve made a huge mistake.
Let’s hope it’s not a lethal one.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she says weakly. She sends me an unconvincing smile.
“Then I’ll assume you’re so pale because I’ve just given you the most earth-shattering orgasms of your life. Anything else will crush my ego.”
“I seriously doubt your ego could even be dented.”
It’s getting massively dented right now, but I decline to share that. I also decline to share that her bringing up Brad not two minutes after we had sex for the first time is more than a little disturbing.
She regrets it.
The thought makes my blood run cold.
“I should probably get back to work.”
She’s running away. Trying to avoid my eyes. Fuck.
“Look at me.”
She gives me those big green eyes, and for a moment I lose my breath. Everything I’ve ever wanted is there. It’s all right there.
And I’ve probably screwed the whole thing up by opening my mouth and coming on too hard, too soon.
My voice thick, I say, “I didn’t plan to declare myself like that. It just came out. I’m sorry it made you uncomfortable. I won’t bring it up again.”
A small furrow forms between her dark brows. She stares at me in silence for a moment, searching my face. “Don’t be sorry,” she murmurs, sliding her hands up my chest. “It was beautiful.” She stands on her toes and kisses me, a soft, sweet kiss that almost manages to break my heart.
I can already feel her slipping through my fingers.
What a fucking idiot I am.
A bell jingles over the front door. Someone’s come into the shop.
“Shit,” whispers Kimber, panicking. “Someone’s here!”
“Hello?” a man’s voice calls out.
Son of a bitch. It’s Dominic. I’d recognize that bastard’s voice anywhere.
When a growl of anger rumbles through my chest, Kimber smacks me on the arm and puts a finger to her lips. I scowl at her, ready to rip open the curtain and stride out, but she pushes me back, shaking her head, her eyes blazing.
“Hello?” The sound of Dominic’s voice grows fainter. He must have wandered into the back room.
“Stay here until I get rid of him.”
“What? You’re joking!” I’m red with anger at being forced to cower in the dressing room like a bad little boy, but she’s already gone, whipping the curtain back in place and calling out in a cheerful voice.
“I’m here! Hello!”
I stand there in shock and disbelief as Dominic and Kimber share friendly greetings and start to chat.
She’s hiding me in the fucking dressing room! She’s ashamed to be seen with me!
I’ve never been this humiliated in my life.
“How are you, tesoro? I’ve been so worried about you, living up there with the barracuda.”
My body stiffens with outrage. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to separate all his limbs from his body. No one calls my mother an ugly savage fish and gets away with it. We have our problems, but I won’t allow her to be disrespected.
I reach for the curtain, but freeze when I hear Kimber’s voice.
“You don’t have to worry. Things are okay.”
“Really?” Dominic sounds dubious.
Kimber laughs. It’s a nervous laugh, and completely insincere. “Well, one of her dogs destroyed my entire wardrobe, but that’s been the only skirmish so far.”
“You need to be careful, Kimber. I didn’t want to speak of it earlier. Things were already so upsetting with your father’s passing . . .” His voice drops. “But you can’t trust that woman for a moment. The son, either. They’re a pair of real slick operators, those two. You should get rid of her before she figures out how to get the house.”
There’s a long silence. I have to fight myself from bursting out of the dressing room, but I need to hear what Kimber’s going to say in response to this outrageous lie.
Tell him to go to hell. Tell him you don’t believe it for a minute. Stand up for me, if not for her.
Instead, she says in a strange tone, “Why do you say that?”
It’s like a dagger plunged straight through my heart.
Dominic scoffs. “Because I know them! He’s vicious, and she’s money hungry. The only reason she married your father is because she thought he had wealth. The house, the business—that’s what she fell in love with. Not your father. Believe me, I saw how she bled him. And once she found out there wasn’t much money to be had, she started pestering him to sell the business. Of course she had a buyer in mind.”
Kimber says faintly, “Of course she did.”
She believes him.
It hits me with the force of an avalanche. Just as suffocating. Just as cold.
She believes every word coming out of that bastard’s mouth.
Hope surges through me when she pushes back, her tone brisk.
“How do you know about any of that?”
“Your father told me.”
He sounds apologetic, the fucker.
After I tear off all his limbs, I’ll set them on fire.
When Kimber speaks again, her tone is no longer brisk. It’s confused, edged in desperation. “But . . . in the hospital . . . he told me he loved her. He said he was happy—”
“Your father was a romantic,” Dominic says softly. “You know that. A romantic who only saw the best in people. He looked at life through rose-colored glasses. He was a lamb, no match for the Moretti lions.”
Fury pulses through me like acid, corrosive and hot. There’s nothing more I’d like to do than reveal myself and choke the truth out of him, but I’d look like a fool strolling out of my hiding place now. She wouldn’t believe me anyway. He’s her father’s best friend, a man she’s known her entire life, and I’m the untrustworthy ex-stepbrother who forced her to trade kisses for her own designs.
Who she disliked on first sight.
Who’s done nothing but irritate her since, orgasms notwithstanding.
I already know how this story ends. It’s not with a happily ever after.