by Sam Mariano
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 fle
x.”
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 ;)
Look out for the next book, Coming Home (Morelli Family, #6), probably in late August. (I have the pre-order set for September just in case I get behind schedule, but it should be out in late August. I’ll move the pre-order up once I’m sure I can meet the deadline. I’ve had the summer off from my day job, so I’ve been able to focus more on writing and that’s why I’ve been able to pump this series out the way I have, lol. But I’m back to work in August, so I figured I’d give myself a couple extra weeks just in case.)
COMING HOME (MORELLI FAMILY #6) PRE-ORDER
Remember, I have a Facebook reader group you can join, if you’re so inclined! There’s no deleted scene for this book, but the files section of Mateo’s Sweethearts has deleted scenes from previous books and a hot, fanfictiony bonus scene that I wrote for Once Burned because reasons.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story! If you choose to leave a review, please don’t spoil the big twist, that way everyone else can enjoy it, too. :)
About the Author
Sam Mariano loves to write edgy, twisty reads with complicated characters you’re left thinking about long after you turn the last page. Her favorite thing about indie publishing is the ability to play by your own rules! If she isn’t reading one of the thousands of books on her to-read list, writing her next book, or playing with her adorable preschooler… actually, that’s about all she has time for these days.
Feel free to find Sam on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, or her blog—she loves hearing from readers! She’s also available on Instagram now @sammarianobooks, and you can sign up for her totally-not-spammy newsletter HERE
If you have the time and inclination to leave a review, however short or long, she would greatly appreciate it! :)
