by Sam Mariano
“You okay?” Mateo murmurs, his strong arms tightening around my upper body.
“Oh, god,” I murmur into his neck. His thrusts slow as he checks on me, but thank fuck. I needed a chance to come down. My hearts pounds so violently I half-expect it to just give out.
Rafe notices and slows down, too. “Is she okay?”
Mateo nods, gathering my hair off my neck. “I think she’s just getting tired.”
Rafe chuckles warmly. “Aww, poor little one, are we fucking you too hard?”
I look over my shoulder to narrow my eyes at him. “I can take everything you give me.”
“Great,” he says, cheerfully. “I can keep going, then.”
I sigh, slumping forward on Mateo’s shoulder, but I suck it up and push my ass back down on his cock. “Bring it, then.”
Rafe grins at me, looping an arm around my neck and pulling me back so he can kiss the side of my face. “There you go, that’s the spirit.”
Mateo isn’t going to quit if Rafe won’t, so my overstimulated body gets tossed between them some more. Mateo makes me come again—I think, though it’s hard to say if Rafe helped, since he keeps touching me all over and pounding my ass so hard I think I might break apart. When I come that time, I nearly cry real tears. The orgasm is so sharp it nearly hurts, pulling energy I don’t have from my body. My pusses squeezes Mateo’s dick, begging it to be done. He thrusts deep inside me and groans; the hot sensation of his release is glorious—not just because I’m pleasing my husband, but because it means he’s done with me and I can finally lie down.
Rafe isn’t done, but seeing that we are, he grabs my ass and uses it until he comes, too.
“Jesus Christ,” I say, my weak arms giving out as I collapse against the pillow-top mattress. “Holy shit. Fuck.”
Rafe snorts with laughter, resting a hand on his chiseled abdomen as he lies down beside me. “Little one has a mouth on her.”
“You two could literally fuck someone to death; I’m just throwing it out there. You can’t, because Mateo is never going to fuck another woman as long as he lives, but it is a thing I think you could feasibly do.”
“Since I’m not tied down, I’ll keep the suggestion in mind. If I ever try it, I’ll let you know how it works out.”
“Ugh,” I mutter, burying my face in Mateo’s arm. “I need to sleep for five days.”
Smiling, he snakes his arm underneath me and pulls me snugly against him. “I anticipated as much. Your morning and afternoon are clear. You can sleep in as long as you’d like.”
“Five days,” I reiterate. “And I need water. Do you think Maria would be mad at me if I asked her for water?”
A devious little smile pulls at Mateo’s beautiful mouth. “I could always tell Adrian to bring it up.”
“Oh, my god. Adrian doesn’t know about this, does he?” I cover my face with my hands.
“No, he doesn’t know.”
“Please don’t tell him.”
Rafe props himself up on the pillow behind me and smirks. “Why? He’ll be jealous, won’t he? He gets all the second husband duties and none of the sex; I get sex without duties.”
“He would not be jealous,” I say, a little defensively.
“I think he would,” Rafe disagrees. “He doesn’t like me anymore and all I’ve done differently is flirt with you in front of him.”
“He just doesn’t like anyone who causes him trouble. You have trouble written all over you,” I point out.
Mateo’s eyes glow with pleasure as he tells Rafe, “Adrian was her first choice, you know; you were second string.”
Rafe’s eyes widen and he points to himself. “I’m the second choice? After Adrian? Seriously?”
I shrug without apology. “Adrian is awesome. Plus, he could play much nicer with Mateo than you did.”
“If he’s so awesome, why didn’t you suck his dick instead of mine?”
“He’s married,” I remind Rafe. “Also, I didn’t ask for a threesome at all. But if I had to have one, Adrian would have been my choice, yes. No offense. I just need things to be nice for Mateo, even in a fantasy situation, and you’re too… you.”
“But Adrian isn’t,” he surmises.
“Adrian would have been more accomodating, but I don’t think he would ever do this in a million years, married or not.”
“Unmarried, he might have,” Mateo offers.
“I’m not so sure. Anyway, I don’t want him to know about this because aside from the possibility of him judging me, he would think it was a truly terrible idea,” I say, with certainty.
Mateo’s thumb brushes the base of my neck. It feels nice and I can’t move anyway, so I close my eyes and leave him to it. It doesn’t occur to me why, until he says, “I can’t believe you bit my wife, you fucking dick.”
I open one eye. I don’t care enough about this to open both. “Did it leave a mark?”
“It’s going to bruise,” Mateo says.
“No biting wasn’t one of your rules,” Rafe points out, sounding entirely unapologetic. “I didn’t kiss her on the mouth and I used a fucking condom. Speaking of which.”
The bed moves and I glance back to see Rafe climbing off to discard his condom. It’s the first look I got at his back, but Jesus Christ, he has some good-looking back muscles. My gaze drops to his well-formed ass, but he catches me looking and I look away.
“I saw that,” he says.
“Shut up,” I reply, burying my face in Mateo’s side again.
Mateo sounds less amused as he says, “Don’t throw that away.” He shifts me and reaches over to the bedside stand, cracking it open and drawing out a plastic bag. I frown in confusion.
“What the fuck is that for?” Rafe asks.
“Put the condom in it.”
Rafe just stands there, baffled. “What? Why?”
I don’t get why either, so I look at him over my shoulder.
Realization dawns on Rafe’s face and his jaw drops open. “Are you fucking kidding me? This is the first time I’ve fucked her. Unless my sperm can escape a condom and miraculously imprint over Vince’s months after conception, I am not the father.”
“Then you won’t mind if I check,” Mateo states.
Now I scowl. “Check what? I told you we didn’t have sex in Vegas.”
“I know you did, sweetheart,” Mateo says patiently, as if explaining away something to Rosalie that she’s just too young to understand. Still, he holds the bag out to Rafe.
“This is fucking ridiculous,” Rafe states, but he rips the bag out of his hand anyway.
I’m tempted to pull out of Mateo’s embrace, but I’m too tired. Still, I shoot him a dirty look because he’s talking to Rafe like he thinks there’s a chance he’s the father of my baby, and I already told him Rafe only touched me with his hand. Unless his fingers are capable of impregnating a woman, there’s no chance.
If he was planning to linger prior to Mateo springing a DNA test on him, apparently he’s not now. Rafe pulls his clothes back on and leaves, telling Mateo curtly the sample is on the bedside table. He’s nicer to me, but I understand why he’s so annoyed.
Mateo looks down at me, running this thumb over my furrowed brow. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just being thorough.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I do believe you. I believe that you believe Rafe didn’t have sex with you. But it’s possible you don’t remember.”
I lift an eyebrow. “I think I would remember that.”
He watches me for a moment, then says, “All right, but you didn’t tell me he slept in the same bed with you that night, and he says you passed out. Since I got new information, I’m just making sure nothing happened that you didn’t know about.”
“You think the man who didn’t want to have sex with me without a safe word may have raped me?” I ask, skeptically.
“No, I just…” Shaking his head, he says, “Don’t worry about it. It has nothing to do with not trusting you, let�
��s just leave it at that.”
I don’t much like it, but I know there’s nothing I need to do about it either. If Mateo needs the peace of mind, there’s little harm in letting him run a pointless test. I don’t understand his argument, but I’m too tired to run around in circles with him. He’s given my brain a hell of a workout today, and all I want to do now is curl up with him and sleep.
As if sensing my needs, he moves on. “How’d that stack up to your fantasy?”
“Well, it had the wrong third person,” I point out. “I think it would have been a much different experience with Adrian.”
“Better?”
“Different. Obviously I have no complaints about the physical satisfaction aspect, but with him, I think there would have been less head-butting with you. You’ve been there for my stories; you know the evolution of my Adrian fantasy. It’s more of a partnership with you two. He and Rafe are different personalities so they aren’t interchangeable. Rafe was a more dangerous third, even though Adrian is a more dangerous person in actuality. At any rate, now that we’ve actually done it, I think I’m going to retire that particular fantasy. My bedtime stories are just going to star us from now on.”
Nodding in understanding, Mateo says, “Since you and Elise are going to be friends now, that’s probably a good idea.”
“She doesn’t want to be my friend,” I state, shaking my head.
“I don’t care what she wants,” he replies. “You want her for a friend, so she’s going to be your friend.”
I shake my head, pulling myself up to kiss him. “You’re crazy, but I love you.”
Rolling me on top of his body and securing his arms around my waist, he looks at me, his eyes unreservedly warm since it’s just the two of us. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”
“Thank you for making me have all the orgasms.”
Smirking, he says, “Anytime.”
A Perfect Valentine’s Day
Mia
Once in a while, I’m sneaky.
Like right now. I creep barefoot across the marble floor of the master bathroom and peek into my bedroom.
My beloved husband is supposed to be getting ready for dinner. Instead, he’s lying on the bed next to our sleeping baby girl. She fell asleep holding his hand and he didn’t want to wake her up, so he stayed put. That’s his official story, anyway. I think he just loves watching her sleep as much as I do.
Warmth washes over me looking at them together now. His face is so relaxed, so at peace, so happy—usually he only looks like that around me.
His brown eyes shift suddenly and narrow on my face. A faint smile tugs at the corners of his mouth and he says, “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Is the secret that we’re going to lose our reservations because Annalise is holding my big, bad husband hostage?” I ask, giving up my attempt at spying and walking over to our bed, toward two of the most important fragments of my whole world.
“No,” he says, then pauses. “Well, probably. But the secret was that you’re not the least bit stealthy.”
I look at Annalise’s tiny hand, wrapped securely around Mateo’s finger. God, I love that finger. I love that hand. I love every single inch of this man, and I’ve gotta say, with my newborn baby girl’s tiny fingers wrapped around it, the love is reaching nearly painful levels.
Since we’re clearly not going anywhere anytime soon, I climb on the bed and snuggle up on Annalise’s other side, looking down at the tiny bundle that has brought so much additional joy into our life.
For Valentine’s day, I dressed her in pink and white. Her little white onesie reads quite accurately, “My heart belongs to Daddy” and she has a pink bow on her tiny little head, resting on her soft, dark hair. Bunched up on her legs are little pink leg warmers with white polka dots. She’s absolutely perfect. Just looking at her makes my heart swell up with love—not just for her, but for the man who gave her to me. The man I’m sharing my life with. The most impressive man I’ve ever met. God, I am a lucky woman.
I already feel all gooey, then I look across the bed and see him watching her again. He watches her all the time, like he’s terrified she might blink out of existence if he looks away.
“Remember when you didn’t want to have another baby?” I tease.
Mateo smiles faintly. “Once in a great while I have a truly terrible idea. You always fix it for me.”
I push up on my hands and knees and crawl gently across the bed. I’m careful not to disturb Annalise as I crawl around to Mateo’s other side, but I need to be close to my husband. The man is my favorite drug, and I need a little hit.
When I get there without waking the baby, I curl my legs beneath me and lean against my sexy husband, gently combing my fingers through his dark hair. “I love fixing your terrible ideas.”
His free hand comes up to catch mine and he drags it to his chest, flattening my palm over my heart. “I love you.”
Filling up with affection, I keep my hand on his heart and lean down to brush my lips against his. “I love you, too. More than anything. More than everything.”
Sighing with contentment, his brown eyes meet mine. “How about we stay in tonight and we’ll go out for Valentine’s Day tomorrow night instead?”
“Fine by me,” I say, easily. “We don’t have to do Valentine’s Day at all. I have everything I could ever want right here in this house.”
Smirking, he says, “Cornball.”
“Nope, it’s just the truth. We have a night off, no one will bug us, we can relax, play with our babies, curl up and watch a movie or cuddle. I don’t care what we do; as long as I get to spend the night with you, it’s a perfect Valentine’s Day. Annalise or Tristan might want to borrow my boobs from time to time, but other than that.”
“As long as I get some time with your boobs, too.”
Smiling and leaning down to give him another kiss, I say, “You get as much time with all of my naked body as you want. I’ve had three babies in three years; that doesn’t happen because I’m depriving you of your husbandly rights.”
“Well, to be fair, I was only responsible for two—” I cover his beautiful mouth with my hand to shut him up.
“Shh.”
He moves my hand but his grip on my wrist tightens and he yanks me forward. I go easily, curling against his sexy body and getting lost in his kisses. My abundantly powerful husband can easily sweep me up in him and wipe out my ability to even think, but right now he’s still holding Annalise’s hand, so he keeps things calm. As much as I crave my husband, I crave the family time, too. It’s a difficult balance, finding time for everyone when Mateo works as much as he does. I make sure to try to fill in any gaps with the kids—and Adrian helps, bless him—but there’s only one Mateo.
Gently breaking the kiss, he settles me against his chest and rests his hand on my back, looking over to check on Annalise again.
“Do you like the outfit I ordered for her?” I ask.
“Sure. I’m much fonder of the little human inside it.”
I squeeze him, sighing happily. “Me too. I can’t believe we made something so beautiful.”
“I believe you did. We’ll have to wait until she does more than sleep to see if she got any of me.”
“She’s devastatingly beautiful—clearly she got that from you.”
“Yeah, right,” he says, warmly. “I can’t be away from her very long without thinking about her—a little worried she got that from you.”
“That’s just because you’re her daddy,” I assure him.
“I don’t know, West hangs around her every chance he gets.”
“West is six,” I state.
“Doesn’t matter. She already pulls him in and she can hardly stay awake.”
I shake my head against his chest. “You’re crazy.”
His tone is dry as hell. “Yes, because I’m wrong so frequently, I couldn’t possibly be picking up on something you’re not.”
“I think maybe you’re just not used to this
feeling of protectiveness. It’s scary, loving someone so much. Obviously you love all our children, but Annalise is the baby. The last one. And she does already show a strong preference for you over everyone else—even me, and I’m not only the family baby whisperer, but her only source of food. She would rather be snuggled by you than let go so she can eat, and that’s not how babies usually work. She’s already a daddy’s girl. It makes sense that you’re more paranoid about her.”
“I’m not paranoid,” he mutters.
“Not to mention, you’ve seen how much trouble I’ve stirred up over the years, and I was just some nobody. Annalise is your daughter. She’s a Morelli.” I prop myself up on his chest so I can look at him, and bring my free hand up to lightly tap his head. “She may have the power of this mind, the appeal of your name, and whatever odds and ends I managed to throw in there. She has all the ingredients to be a real force of nature.”
“Like I said, it’s going to be trouble.”
“You think all our kids are going to be trouble. You insist that with literally every single one.”
“Because they’re all Morellis,” he states. “It goes without saying they’ll be trouble. Lily’s the only one I’m not worried about. All the other kids will terrorize everyone.”
I lift an eyebrow, since he’s been so cocky about the importance of his genes before. “Well, that’s your fault, not mine. And Dom isn’t going to be any trouble. He’s a little sweetheart. Did I tell you what he did the other day when—”
The door bursts open. To say this is not a regular occurrence would be an incredible understatement. No one ever opens our bedroom door and comes in unannounced, but suddenly Adrian flies in, uncaring of whether or not he’s interrupting.
Mateo grabs my waist and pulls me off him, extracting his finger from Annalise’s hand and leaving us here on the bed. His voice is much harder as he demands, “What’s wrong?”
“We don’t know where Bella is.”
“What?” Mateo barks.
I glance beyond Adrian and see Lily in the hallway, twisting a lock of blonde hair over and over again, a nervous look on her face.
