by Sam Mariano
Finally, I nod, turning my back to him and lifting my hair so he can put it on me.
As he secures the clasp around my neck, he seals it with a soft kiss to my nape. “Let’s go to bed.”
Chapter Fourteen
I wake up naked and alone. On Mateo’s pillow, a new cell phone, a black credit card, and a note.
I sink back into the secure softness of his bed, smiling to myself. The necklace I’d already forgotten about moves around my neck, and I reach up to touch it. It may have been a mistake to take it, but the alternative was to reject him. Considering I can’t even leave if I want to, rejecting him seems like a bad call.
Besides, I never would betray him. Once Antonio Castellanos is taken care of, I have nothing to worry about. I’d certainly never cheat on him. I can’t imagine any woman not being satisfied with Mateo.
I grab my new phone and scroll through to see what’s on it. He’s already put in my approved contacts—him, Mia, Adrian, Ju, and “home.” Presumably the house line, though I’ve never heard it ring.
Once I haul myself out of bed, I have to creep downstairs in last night’s dress. I way overslept and I’m surprised Maria didn’t wake me. I missed breakfast completely, and by the time I get back to Mateo’s room and get it cleaned, it’s going to be lunch.
Maybe I’ll see if I can get the afternoon off, so I can do the shopping Mateo apparently wants me to do.
I don’t feel like calling, so I text Mia on my way back to my room to ask if she wants to grab lunch with me and help me buy some new dresses.
Only, when I get to my bedroom, Elise is inside boxing up my things.
“Uh… whatcha doin’?” I ask, pausing at the door.
“Moving you?”
“Why?”
Shrugging, she turns back to her task. “Mateo’s orders.”
“Where am I moving?”
“His room.”
My heart drops at that news item. I grab my phone and scroll back to his name in the contacts, then I tap out, “I’m moving to your bedroom?”
It only takes him a moment to reply, “That’s not a shower pic.”
I roll my eyes, cracking a smile. “Are you busy?”
“Never too busy for a shower pic,” he sends back.
I shake my head, calling him since he obviously isn’t.
“Good morning,” he answers, sounding amused already.
“Good morning. You didn’t tell me I was being moved to your bedroom.”
“I thought it went without saying,” he replied.
“What about Lily? We share a room right now,” I remind him.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to do little rearranging. We can talk about it at dinner.”
“I’m coming to dinner tonight, too?”
“Of course. You’ll come to dinner every night now.”
“Am I not a maid anymore?”
“You’ve been promoted,” he says dryly.
I absently rub my thumb across the death necklace. “I found the black card on your pillow—I take it my promotion comes with a raise?”
“A significant one,” he agrees.
“So… I can do whatever I want?”
“This city is your kingdom,” he states. “I left Adrian home to escort you around today. Just let him know whenever you’re ready to leave.”
I’m a little blown away by my newfound freedom. The first thing I do is locate Ju and let her know I’ll take the girls for the day. Mia finally agrees to my lunch invitation, so I tell Adrian we’re going to leave as soon as I’ve showered, but we need car seats for the kids. No one seems to know how to respond to this initially, but by the time I haul both girls outside to head on our little field trip, everything’s running smoothly.
It feels super weird to be in Mateo’s Escalade with both our girls and without him.
I know I’m supposed to be buying myself things, and I will definitely get to that, but since Lily and Isabella are always cooped up, I let them pick our first stop.
As Mia peruses the lunch menu at the American Girl store, she glances at me across the table. “This is not what I thought you meant by a girls’ day.”
“I’m buying you shoes after this,” I inform her.
Lighting up, she nods and goes back to her menu. “Never mind, this is perfect.”
Isabella puts her new doll on the table. “What do you want to order, Monicella?”
“That’s a name,” I remark.
“And mine’s… Cheeby,” Lily puts in, holding up her new blond doll.
“These girls are never getting personalized pencils,” I state.
“They can’t even write,” Isabella informs me.
“Oh, good, problem solved then.”
Seemingly struck by inspiration, Mia grabs her phone out of her purse and addresses Isabella. “Hey, can I get a selfie with you and your new doll?”
“Sure,” Isabella says, bringing her doll up next to her face and grinning.
She leans in and snaps the picture, then starts texting. Glancing at me between words, she says, “My mom still think I’m her nanny.”
My eyes widen. “You were Isabella’s nanny?”
Mia shakes her head. “Negative. This is the first time I’ve ever actually spoken to her. Not like my mom actually cares as long as she gets a cut of my pretend paycheck, but I’m kind of excited to actually have proof.”
“Why does she think you’re Isabella’s nanny?”
“Because Mateo lies to get what he wants,” she states, pushing send and sliding the phone back into her purse. “I’m sorry, is that news?”
A little unsettled by that, particularly coming from her, I ask, “Would you lie to me?”
Cutting me a glance that’s a little more wary than I appreciate, she states, “Only if it was in your best interest.”
That’s not the answer I wanted. “Have you lied to me?”
“Meg, don’t,” she says simply.
The waitress approaches, greeting us cheerfully and admiring the girls’ new dolls. They try to talk over each other as they tell her about the new school play set we just bought, and how their dolls are going to school as soon as we get home.
Once the waitress goes to put in our order, Lily asks Mia to take a picture of her doll, too.
Actually, remembering I have a phone now, I grab mine to take a picture.
“Man, I’m almost never around kids anymore,” Mia remarks, smiling at the picture she just took on her phone. “I’m realizing I kind of miss it. I should go visit my mom soon. Her boyfriend’s a turd, but I’m basically a Morelli now, so he’s a little afraid of me and it’s awesome.”
“You can come play with us, if you want,” Isabella offers.
Mia laughs, stuffing her phone back into her handbag. I cock my head looking at it, noticing it’s Gucci. I know Vince obviously works for Mateo, but I didn’t think he made enough to support them both with no other work and buy Gucci.
“Is that new?” I ask, glancing from her to the purse.
“Yep,” she replies, running a hand over it like it’s a pet.
“Is it from Mateo?”
She sighs to herself, placing it in the floor beneath the table. “Yes.”
“Vince doesn’t mind him buying you presents?”
“Vince hates Mateo buying me presents, but Vince doesn’t notice new purses.”
“Or shoes?” I remark, thinking of Mateo’s note that morning. “Why’s he buying you presents?”
“Because he’s madly in love with me and that’s why you’re the one taking me out to lunch today—and moving in with him. Obviously.”
I roll my eyes at her. “I’m not asking from a place of jealousy. I want you to have nice things, I just…”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Mia tells me.
“Is he rewarding you?”
Grasping my hand across the table, she meets my gaze. “I didn’t lie for him, Meg. I promise.”
I want to tell her he really did kill Beth, but I obviou
sly can’t with Isabella sitting here, and even if she wasn’t, I probably shouldn’t share that with anyone. I wish I could tell her more. I wish I could tell her how I met him, why I was really there. She’s obviously known him longer; maybe I wouldn’t really have anything to worry about. Maybe he wouldn’t react to it the way I’m thinking he would, and Mia could reassure me of that.
Probably not, though.
Mia seems to get by primarily by not rocking the boat, and it won’t put my mind at ease to keep considering that she could be covering for him. Would she? Probably. After all, Mateo just told me the night before that our loyalty to him is how we survive, whether we love him or not.
---
Once the shopping trip is finished, we head home. I told the girls in the car on the way that they might be able to have a sleepover in Isabella’s room tonight, and as soon as they got here, they both ran straight to her room to get started.
Adrian carries my bags to Mateo’s bedroom for me.
“Do you know when he’ll be home?”
“I’m not sure. He’ll be here for dinner though, so should be soon.” He drops the last of the bags on the bed and takes a step back.
“Can I ask you something?” I hesitate, but given he was the one who told me about the water that first day, I figure maybe he’ll talk to me. “Mateo told me about Beth last night.”
He seems surprised by this, but recovers easily enough. His eyes move to the necklace then, and he nods. “Okay.”
“Well, he told me about Beth, but I didn’t ask about specifics. It was a lot to absorb. It also seemed like potentially a sore subject, so I didn’t push, but in the interest of not repeating my predecessor’s mistakes, I was wondering if you could give me those specifics.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That she betrayed him and cheated and he…” I trail off, touching the necklace. “You know,” I say.
“He told you that? Huh. That’s an interesting wooing technique.”
My face catches somewhere between a smile and a grimace. “Isn’t it? And yet, here I am.”
Cracking a smile, he says, “You didn’t have a lot of options, I understand.”
“I don’t think he would mind you telling me,” I assure him, since I really don’t. “I just really don’t want to ask him again. He has a tendency to be suspicious, and I don’t want him to think I’m too worried about it.”
“Right,” Adrian says, nodding his understanding. “Well, if he already told you that much, I suppose it doesn’t matter. There was this cop on Mateo’s payroll who had a little crush on Beth. It was harmless enough, Mateo knew and didn’t care. What he didn’t expect was that Beth would get tired of him—though I sort of expect that of all Morelli women sooner or later. The Morellis have a lot of flaws, and Mateo seems to collect them. Anyway, so Beth seduced the cop, tried to get him to turn on Mateo. He found out – because Mateo always finds out,” he tells me, eyeing me pointedly, like he’s giving me a warning, “and once he knew he couldn’t trust her, that was that.”
“Did he give her a chance to explain herself?”
He cocks his head to the side, thinking. “I mean, he confronted her. There wasn’t a whole lot to explain though; it was pretty clear what happened.”
“She didn’t try to deny it?”
“Of course she tried, but there was evidence against her. The cop caved under—” He stops, cutting a look in my direction. “—Given a little incentive,” he amends. “Told on her, hoping Mateo would spare him. Don’t know why he thought that might happen. You fuck Mateo Morelli’s woman and you may as well shoot yourself in the face and save him the trouble, but he tried.” He shrugs. “She eventually admitted it and begged for mercy, but it was too late.”
“You think he loved her?”
“I know he did,” he verifies.
“And he still killed her.”
Adrian watches me for a moment. “Don’t think about it too hard. You’re not Beth. Don’t ever give him a reason to turn on you and I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“I’d never do what she did,” I tell him. “Even if I didn’t feel the way I feel about him anymore, I would never do that. I can’t imagine ever wanting to hurt him—and I’d never do it, even if I did.”
“Good,” Adrian says, giving me a small nod of approval. “Anything else?”
I shake my head, offering a small smile. “No. Thanks, Adrian.”
Chapter Fifteen
I’ve experienced a few moments of pure tenderness in my life—not a lot, but a few.
My high school boyfriend took me out on Lake Michigan with some friends one memorable night. We drank some beers and he let me steer at one point. When the rest of the group was on a different part of the boat, he gave me this really loving smile and just grabbed my hand to give it a squeeze, and it was one of those pure, simple moments that sticks with you. Even after I married Rodney, with whom I do not have any of those memories, I always regarded it as the most tender moment of my life.
Until tonight, when I return to Mateo’s bedroom after my bath and see him in the bed, still in his dress pants and his white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up, both of our daughters curled up against him as he reads them a bedtime story.
I’ve never experienced the moment I fell in love before—not with that high school boyfriend, not with Rodney, not with anyone. But I feel it right now. I haven’t been noticed yet, and Lily points to the little girl in the last picture, then she holds her little finger up and gives her “one more time” spiel.
He smiles down at her and rolls his eyes, but he flips back to the front of the book with a, “Fine, fine. Only one more, though.” Isabella gives her a high five, apparently never having thought of that before.
I step back into the bathroom and lean against the wall, needing a moment to collect myself. My heart is still racing, and it’s very difficult not to go back in there, rip the book away from them, and shoo those cute little munchkins to bed so I can jump in bed with him myself.
Very hard.
Oh, man.
I listen for him to finish the story again—and admire the enthusiasm with which he reads it for the second time in a row, because I’m always less into it the second time—then I head back in there, just in time for Lily to ask again for him to read it one more time.
“No, no, no,” I say, climbing up on the bed with a smile. “It’s time for you to go to sleep, little one.”
“I’m older than her,” Isabella informs me.
“And you also have to go to sleep,” Mateo informs her.
“But Audrey doesn’t want to,” she says, holding up her doll to show him. “See, she says no.”
“Good thing I don’t take orders from dolls,” he states.
“I thought her name was… Marcella?” I ask.
“It was Monicella, but I changed it,” she informs me. “We should get them some pajamas next time we go.”
“Agreed,” I say with a nod.
“We should take Daddy there.”
I look at him, my eyes mockingly wide. “I would pay good money to see your daddy in the American Girl doll store. I second that.”
“I’m completely comfortable with my masculinity, I can handle a doll store,” he informs me. “We’ll go this weekend, get your dolls some pajamas. But right now…”
I climb back off the bed, dragging a giggling Lily with me. “Off to bed with you two.”
Getting them off the bed is the hard part, then they’re padding down the hall with their bare little feet and matching Cinderella nighties. Once I get them both tucked in, good night kisses delivered, I hustle down the hall back to Mateo’s bedroom—my bedroom now, I guess.
He’s sitting there amongst the pillows, hands crossed behind his head, looking all smug like he can read my mind. It doesn’t even lessen how much I want to jump his bones.
Kicking the door shut, I leap up on the bed and attack him with my face.
He laughs against my mouth, his arms encir
cling my waist. “What’s this for?”
I pull back just enough to give him a dry look. “I think you know.”
“I’m as clueless as can be.”
“There’s literally nothing sexier than a man being a good dad. Looking at you in these suits every day? Super hot. Your scary, dangerous mob boss thing? Fine, okay. But you snuggling our daughters and reading them a bedtime story? Holy shit. Get your cock inside me right now, Morelli.”
“You’re my favorite person in the world,” he states, shaking his head as he yanks me down onto the bed and climbs on top of me.
“Ditto.”
A thrill soars through me at the sight of him hovering above me, an adorable, playful smile on his face before he swoops down, his lips moving to his favorite spot—my neck. I love that he’s a neck kisser. He lets his teeth graze my skin briefly before dropping a kiss right in that spot, like he’s making up for even a hint of roughness.
Mateo’s hand moves under the red satin of my nightie, sliding between my legs. I did not bother with panties tonight, and he smiles, pleased, as his finger easily moves inside me. When his fingertip grazes my clit, I moan softly, my back arching away from the bed.
“You like my hands on you, don’t you?” he murmurs into my ear.
“Oh, yes,” I say, my hold on his back tightening as he moves a second finger inside me.
“Tell me how much.”
His thumb moves in circles around my clit, spreading pleasure everywhere. “So much. I love the feeling of your hands all over my body. You make my heart race, Mateo Morelli—and not for the reason most people’s hearts probably race around you,” I add, smirking.
With his free hand, he yanks my nightie up around my waist, dipping to leave a searing trail of kisses down my stomach. His fingers withdraw and he sits back, yanking his shirt off and tossing it off the bed. Then he’s between my legs, his hot breath on the inside of my thigh. I clutch the pillow in anticipation, and a moment later his tongue is inside me, flicking against my clit and sending jolts of pleasure all through my body. Particularly ravenous tonight, he has me arching off the bed as an orgasm rocks me in about a minute.
