Chapter Thirty Four
Mia
“Does everybody have their ticket?” Meg asks, eyebrows rising as she looks over the line assembled in the hall outside the media room.
“I do,” Lily volunteers, waving her printed movie ticket in the air.
“Me too,” clamors Isabella, joining in the waving.
I glance over at Mateo standing beside me, a hand resting lazily on my hip as we wait in line for the movie theater in our own home, courtesy of Meg.
“Do you have your ticket?” I tease, waving mine in front of his face.
Mateo rolls his eyes. “My ticket to get into my own media room in my own house?” The way he says it, it definitely sounds like he’s going to say no. So I grin when he holds it up to show me. “Of course I do.”
I look behind us at Adrian and Elise. “What about you guys?”
Adrian shakes his head. “This is stupid, so no, I do not.”
Elise flashes me two tickets. “I’ve got him covered.”
“Good thing.” I nod. “I’m pretty sure Meg would actually kick you out otherwise.”
“And my heart would be literally shattered,” Adrian deadpans.
Elise leans in and gives him a kiss. “You know you want to watch Beauty and the Beast.”
“I really don’t,” he replies.
I look back to the front and see Meg finally beginning to take tickets. Lily and Isabella go first, then Mateo and I are up.
Handing over my ticket, I say, “There you go, ma’am.”
Grimacing apologetically, she says, “You look underage. I’m gonna need to see some ID.”
“For Beauty and the Beast?” I ask, eyebrows rising.
Mateo shakes his head, reaching in front of me to hand over his ticket. “Let’s move this along, crazy.”
Isabella and Lily have moved on to the popcorn station, grabbing striped plastic containers full of popcorn and dropping some all over the floor.
Mateo sighs at the sight. “I don’t know why I agreed to this.”
Handing back our ripped tickets, Meg shoos us along so she can take tickets from Elise.
“Because you love us,” I inform him. “Just wait, she’s going to make us do this for Christmas movies next month, too; she told me.”
“Your first Morelli Christmas,” he remarks.
“I’m pretty excited. You buy me $800 shoes for dinner, so I’m pretty ready to see what you get me for Christmas. My current guess is an island.”
Grinning, he lets his eyes wander over my ass. “It seems like I need to buy you some new clothes. These aren’t even real pants.”
I look down at the black leggings with “love” scrawled in gold script all over the legs. “These are comfortable. Meg said we should dress comfortably.” My eyes move over his body, still in his dress shirt and slacks, though he did take off the jacket. Tweaking one of his buttons, I say, “You’re always so put-together and sexy.”
His gaze narrows and he looks me over again. “Are you wearing panties?”
My cheeks flush slightly and I smile. “This is a family event, mister.”
His hand drifts casually across my ass. “I feel like you’re not wearing panties.”
I hold out my ripped ticket stub and let it fall on the ground in front of us, then I stretch forward to pick it up, giving him a nice view. I stand, smiling as I feel him move up behind me.
“Does it look like I’m wearing panties?” I murmur.
He grips my hips, tugging me back against him. He’s hard, and I can’t help grinning even as desire spirals through me. “That’s not nice,” he tells me, bending his head to nibble on my ear.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re not coming to my room after the movie,” I say innocently.
His grip on me tightens. “I want you right now.”
“Right now we have to watch a movie,” I tell him, wiggling my ass against him anyway, just to be mean.
Growling in my ear, he leans in, pushing my hair to the side and dropping a kiss along the curve of my neck. “Don’t tease me, Mia.”
“What are you going to do about it?” I murmur back, glancing around for Meg.
“Come on.”
I laugh as he grabs my hand and tugs me back toward the door. “We can’t—the movie.”
“I don’t care about the movie.”
“Meg does,” I argue, pulling back with more power.
“I can be quick,” he says.
“Mateo…”
Meg spots us on our way out and flashes us a smile. “Whatcha doin’?”
“We forgot your gummy worms,” Mateo states.
“My gummy worms?” Pointing at the popcorn station, she says, “We have popcorn. And the movie is starting in a few minutes.”
“Five minutes,” he says, tugging me along with him.
Her gaze moves from me, to our entwined hands, then back to him, nodding once. “Gotcha. Well, you’re both so thoughtful. We will be here waiting for the gummy worms.”
I grimace apologetically, but she rolls her eyes good-humoredly and shoos me.
“We need to be quick,” I tell him, still holding his hand as we hustle down the hall. “This is cheating. I don’t think we’re supposed to do pre-movie quickies when you’re spending the night with Meg. Do you do this when you’re coming to me?”
Since I won’t shut up, he stops walking. I nearly run into him, but then I’m stumbling backward as he uses his body to move me up against the wall. “Does it seem like I do? I have a lot of stamina, but I’m not a machine.”
This makes me smile with pleasure, even though it shouldn’t. He bends down to kiss my neck and I wrap my arms around him, sighing happily. “God, I love you.”
Mateo runs his hands down my sides, then moves them under my ass and lifts me. I wrap my legs around him as he presses me against the wall, kissing his way across my chest. “I can’t get enough of you,” he tells me.
A pocket of butterflies bursts open in my stomach, pleasure coursing through me, making me feel light. Since we have to be quick, I reach for his fly, unzipping him. “Do you have a condom?”
“I do not,” he murmurs, shifting my weight so he can hold me with just one arm, using the other to lower his pants.
Sighing, I lower my legs and catch my weight on my left foot, then lower the right one. “Well, I certainly don’t have one.”
“Damn.” His tone indicates he doesn’t care, but I still do.
“I can go down on you instead,” I offer.
Before I can drop to my knees, he shakes his head, reaching for the waistband of my leggings and shoving them down. “Nope. You know I love your mouth, but right now I want to be buried deep inside your pussy.”
“Mateo…”
He ignores my feeble objections, turning me around and bringing his weight against me, crushing me. His hands skim my hips, catching my shirt and tugging it up and over my head.
“We were supposed to be quick, and we have to use a condom if you’re going to fuck me.”
“It’ll take too long,” he says before pressing his lips to my bare shoulder. “Either I fuck you without a condom or we run late to the movie.”
“You have to let me go on the pill,” I inform him, as his mouth moves in toward my neck. “I know you hate condoms and you’re going to get me pregnant.”
“Would that be the worst thing?”
“You know Meg doesn’t want that,” I tell him, shivers traveling down my spine.
“But you do.”
“Someday. Not now. I want to finish college first.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to start keeping condoms on my person.”
“That doesn’t help right now.”
He pulls me back by the hips, spreading my legs and pushing his cock inside me without waiting for my agreement. “Live dangerously.”
Since he’s already inside me, I don’t bother arguing. I love the feel of him, the friction. I love his hands on my hips, the force of him as I push against the wall to keep from slamming into it. It’s so hard to keep it to a quickie with him, but we manage it. As soon as he pulls out of my body, I want him again. He pulls me close, hugging me tightly, and I get the feeling he does, too.
“Maybe I could swap nights and go to Meg’s tomorrow,” he murmurs, as if reading my mind.
“I don’t want to hurt her feelings,” I murmur against his chest.
“Don’t worry about that, I can handle Meg.” He leans down, brushing his lips across mine. I close my eyes, pulling his body close.
“Whatever you want,” I murmur when he pulls back.
He smiles, kissing me one more time, then he bends over to retrieve my discarded shirt. “We should probably go get those gummy worms.”
“You get the gummy worms; I’m going to run to the bathroom real fast.”
We go our separate ways, but when I emerge from the restroom, he’s there waiting for me. He takes my hand and we head back to the media room together, slipping inside and closing the door behind us.
Meg’s playing with the girls when we get there. I drop Mateo’s hand and grab a container of popcorn while he goes over to our seats. His spot is in the middle of the couch, leaving a place for me and Meg on each side. I drop into the seat to his left, and he wraps an arm around me, tugging me in close to him.
“All right, gang’s all here; let’s get this thing started,” Meg says, dropping into her seat on Mateo’s other side.
Lily runs over and climbs up in Meg’s lap, wedging herself between them. Mateo ruffles Lily’s hair and she turns back with a cute little “who did that?” look on her face. He pulls a look of exaggerated innocence, looking around as if for the culprit.
Lily points her finger at him accusingly. “It was you!”
Meg laughs and tugs her close, giving her a kiss.
My heart aches with yearning, because God, I do want that with him. My stomach feels all funny, too, kind of hollow.
He did just fuck me without protection, though. Only once, we don’t make a habit of it, but the tempting idea skates across my mind. I don’t want to hurt Meg, though. She’s adapted to everything else. I wonder if she would be willing to adapt to that.
Isabella comes over and looks at Lily and Meg all snuggled up. She glances at Mateo’s lap, but then her gaze drifts to me.
“You wanna sit here?” I offer impulsively, patting my legs.
Brightening, she nods and hops up in my lap, mirroring the way Lily’s in Meg’s. My stomach feels sickish again, but a better kind of sick this time. Isabella doesn’t have a mom. I’m far too young to be her mom, but I’m with Mateo now, too, so I could probably try to bond with her a little more. Initially I didn’t want to step on Meg’s toes, but Isabella isn’t Meg’s daughter, she’s Mateo’s.
“Which song’s your favorite?” Isabella asks, looking back at me.
“Oh, from the movie? I don’t know. What’s yours?”
“The village Belle one. And I like the one where they dance, too.”
“Those are both great choices,” I tell her.
“I wanna get my doll a Belle dress. We should go back to the doll store like we did that one time. Remember?”
“I do remember. We should get your doll a Christmas present. We could wrap it up for her and everything.”
“Yeah!” Turning to Mateo, she tugs on his arm. “Mia said we can get Monica a Christmas present.”
Mateo smirks at me. “Did she now?”
Isabella nods, looking back at me. “Could we get the dolls a Christmas tree, too? And we could decorate it with little ornaments, just like our tree?”
“Oh.” I have no authority here whatsoever, so I look to Mateo. He gives a little nod, encouraging me, so I say, “Yeah, of course we can.”
She settles back into my lap and I lean into Mateo. He still has an arm around me, and this is the most like family I’ve felt with him. Normally he does the family stuff with Meg, but I really like this side of his life, too. Now he leans in to whisper in my ear, “I like you maternal.”
My heart sinks with pleasure and I can’t bite back a grin. Leaning in, I whisper back, “You should swap nights with Meg; I want you in my bed tonight.”
He looks pretty pleased with himself, but I don’t even care. If we were alone right now instead of surrounded by family, I’d be on my knees worshiping his cock. Daddy Mateo is somehow hotter than scary Mateo and playful Mateo combined. There’s no side of this man I don’t completely adore.
Man, this is going to be a long movie.
Elise leans forward from her seat behind us, peering over the back of the couch and pecking Mateo on the shoulder.
Mateo raises a questioning eyebrow as he glances back at her. “Yes?”
“Can you break a belt with your neck muscles?”
Now he frowns in utter confusion. “What?”
“How are you at expectorating?” she continues.
“Okay,” Adrian says, leaning forward to tug Elise away. He’s faintly smirking, and I have a feeling we’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle piece.
“Did she get into the wine at dinner?” Mateo asks.
“She’s not drunk,” Adrian says, rolling his eyes. “It’s Gaston. You’re Gaston.”
Still leaning forward, Elise says, “Can you flex your biceps? Give us a good Gaston flex.”
I’m still a little lost, but Meg is currently losing her shit. Leaning forward, she squeezes Mateo’s right bicep and says, “Oh, my God, they’re right. You even have the cleft in your chin.”
“He is not Gaston,” I say, offended on his behalf.
“Yeah,” Isabella puts in loyally. “Daddy can’t be Gaston. Gaston’s the bad guy.”
Adrian raises his eyebrows but offers no commentary on that observation.
“Yeah,” Mateo says, but only for Isabella’s benefit. It occurs to me that since he keeps the kids so sheltered, they’re probably in for a rude awakening when they become a part of the world and realize who he actually is.
It also occurs to me that I’ll be there for it. This man is mine now, and I am his. Beth’s death necklace hangs around my neck, her child in my lap, and her man on this couch with his arm wrapped around me. I never met the woman, I don’t like anything I’ve heard about her, but I think I’m taking her place in ways even Meg hasn’t.
The good ways, at least.
Obviously I won’t make the mistakes she made and drive him into a homicidal rage. If there’s anyone in the world capable of not only surviving Mateo, but having a happy life with him, surely it’s me.
Well, me and Meg.
It may not be exactly the way I envisioned having Mateo, but I have no complaints.
Mateo leans in so he can whisper in my ear again. “I hate quickies. I still want to fuck you.”
I whisper back, “In an hour and a half, I will run straight to my room and rip off all my clothes. You can have your way with me all night long.”
“Not long enough,” he complains. “I won’t be done with you by morning.”
I lean in closer, so I can catch his earlobe between my teeth and give it a little nip. “I never want you to be done with me.”
His eyes are so warm as he looks over at me, and since he already has his arm wrapped around me, it’s easy for him to pull me in for another kiss.
The commotion catches Isabella’s attention and she glances up just as our lips are disconnecting.
“Hey,” she says, scowling up at us.
“I didn’t forget about you,” Mateo says, leaning down to kiss her cheek.
She grins up at him and then leans back against us.
My stupid heart fills up, overflows, refills, and overflows again. There’s so much love and yearning moving through me right now, I could fill five people with it.
Since I can’t attack him right now, I settle my head on his shoulder. I don’t think I could hold more happiness and contentment in my heart than I have right at this very moment.
Mateo might think he’s hard to love. He may think life with him is no fairytale. But on both counts, he’s completely wrong.
I don’t know if Mateo Morelli could ever be described as the perfect man, but I do know he’s the only man for me.
THE END… kinda. You know the drill ;)