Chapter 13
Mateo Ricci
“Umm…Mateo?” Andy’s voice has me pausing. I set down the knife and push the chopping board away. Ma Rosa has given me her secret recipe for ossobuco, and I’ve been preparing it for dinner. The veal shanks have been simmering for over an hour, and the kitchen smells incredible…hopefully enough to tempt the woman in my care. Andy’s too damn thin. It’s not good for the baby…or her.
“Mateo,” she calls again. I’m already in the doorway. She’s standing in the bathroom, her arms at an awkward angle over her head through the sleeves of a t-shirt.
What on earth?
“I’m stuck.” Her voice is muffled through the fabric. I try not to grin, but I can’t help it. And then I see the flesh of her breasts spilling over the cups of her bra, and my amusement is forgotten.
Jesus, she’s lush as fuck…
“My shoulder,” she mumbles through the shirt. “I can’t move it at this angle. It hurts.”
Fuck! I’m such a dick!
I reach her in an instant and carefully unhook the sleeves from where they’ve trapped her elbows. Her head pops out through the neck of the shirt, and I gently smooth the fabric down her ribs and over her belly. I’m sure I’m imagining it, but I’m almost certain I can feel a slight swell there. It can’t be possible so soon. She’s not much more than three months along.
She clears her throat, and I look up quickly, realizing I’ve been staring down at my hand on her stomach.
“Mateo…”
“Dinner will be ready soon.”
She nods and tugs at the hem of her shirt, pulling it more tautly over those beautiful fucking tits. Jesus, this is killing me. Since she got back, I’ve kept my distance. Sleeping in the guest bedroom. Keeping our interactions carefully courteous. It’s enough to drive me to insanity.
I take a deep breath of her freshly washed scent and let it soak in for a second. Then I step back. She rolls her lips together, still fiddling with her shirt. She’s wearing a short denim skirt beneath it, and I force myself not to stare at the toned flesh of her thighs. Though I know the bruises have almost faded now.
“Mateo,” she says again, “I was thinking…maybe I could meet up with my mother for lunch again this week?”
I stare at her. “You what?”
“It’s just… My parents… Well, I’m sure they heard what happened. They’re probably worried.”
“Worried?” I scoff. “If they’d been worried, they’d have come to see you in hospital. Or maybe called.”
She bites her lip, and I realize how cruel that was.
“I’m sorry.” I reach out to stroke her cheek, then pull my hand back. If I touch her, I’ll be lost. She’s put a wall up since she woke up in that hospital, and I know I can’t try to pull it down without spooking her. But that doesn’t mean I’m letting her go either.
“You can’t keep me cooped up here, Mateo.” Her eyebrows pull together. “I’ll go out of my mind.”
I don’t point out that her behavior these past weeks was completely insane already.
“You’re staying here.” I fold my arms over my chest. My snug shirt pulls tightly over my biceps, and I watch her lick her lips as she runs her eyes over them. It occurs to me that she might be feeling the tension between us too. What was it Dario said about Nikki and pregnancy? Horny as a goat. It should make me laugh, but right now, the thought of her making plans to go out to speak to the people who tried to pawn her off to that psychopath—
Don’t think about it.
“I’ve already called her,” I hear her saying. “We’re getting together tomorrow.”
“You what?” I bark out.
For fuck’s sakes!
We reactivated her old phone after I brought her back here…but not before I’d gotten my teenage tech guru to load it with every type of spyware known to mankind. Now it looks like I’ll have to put a goddamn tracker into the idiot woman herself.
“You can’t stop me. I’m not a prisoner here. I’m having lunch with my mother tomorrow, and that’s final.”
