17. Summer
Summer
Rolling over in bed, I gasped when my nipples grazed against the edge of the sheets. My eyes sprang open, and when I didn’t immediately recognize my surroundings, I recalled the events of last night.
Being eaten out at the club.
Having panties shoved in my mouth in an attempt to keep me quiet, while I was finger banged within an inch of my life in the car, so the driver didn’t have to die.
Willingly agreeing to become the mafia don’s whore before allowing him to ride my face.
Some kind of strange promise about becoming his queen.
If I weren’t naked in the man’s bed and sore as hell between my thighs, I might have believed it all to have been a dream.
As far as night outs went, it was a doozy. And I didn’t regret a single minute.
The silk of the bedding caressed my bare skin as I slipped out from beneath it, swinging my feet around the edge before standing.
My stomach rumbled as my gaze darted around the room, searching for my dress because even though our rooms were side by side, I wasn’t about to risk the short trek in my birthday suit. Not with the girls being right across the hall and having no clue what time it was.
When I came up empty, I mentally said fuck it , and waltzed into Matteo’s walk-in closet like I had every right to help myself to his clothes.
As I stepped into the smaller room, his scent washed over me, and I paused, inhaling deeply. The man smelled like sin and fucked like a god. Already, I was jonesing for an encore.
I bypassed the racks of suits, grabbing a black T-shirt off a nearby shelf.
The fabric fell to my knees, providing enough coverage to venture into the hallway.
Padding silently to the door, I cracked it open and stuck my head out to check that the coast was clear.
When my favorite four-year-old was nowhere to be seen, I raced toward my room, shutting myself inside.
With my back against the door, I willed my racing heart to settle. If Matteo and I slept together again, I would need to insist on returning to my own bed afterward. We’d gotten lucky this time, but more often than not, Bianca snuck into my room before dawn.
I hated the idea of sneaking around, but the last thing I wanted to do was confuse the little girl.
She’d already lost her mother, and I didn’t want to give her false hope that I would be filling that role if she found me in bed with her father.
It would be better for everyone involved if we didn’t have to explain that banging her daddy didn’t automatically make me her new mommy.
If you wanted to avoid those awkward conversations, you probably shouldn’t be getting involved with the guy paying you to watch his children.
Yeah, too little, too late for that. What’s done was done. And maybe it made me a bad person, but I was ready to do it again, tender vagina notwithstanding.
After I grabbed my own clothing from my dresser, my fingers faltered when they brushed the hem of Matteo’s shirt.
For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to take it off.
So instead, I slipped on a pair of pajama shorts underneath—not that you could tell, as they were completely obscured from view by the black fabric covering my thighs.
I ran a brush through the tangled mess of my hair and secured it atop my head in a messy bun. Then, it was off to the kitchen in search of food. I desperately needed to replenish the calories burned off during last night’s vigorous round of hot sex.
The smell of coffee infiltrated my nostrils halfway down the back steps, and I hastened my descent, desperate for the pick-me-up caffeine offered.
It didn’t occur to me that someone would have to be making that hot morning beverage until a silky-smooth voice purred, “ Buongiorno, bella .”
My knees went weak, and I grabbed onto the back of a chair to remain upright when my eyes landed on the bare-chested man leaning against the island, a pair of sweatpants slung low on his hips.
I moaned. “You’re playing dirty.”
A corner of his lips tipped up into a smirk. “And you look fucking incredible in my clothes.”
Heat flooded my cheeks, and my eyes dropped to the floor. “Couldn’t find my dress.”
Matteo chuckled. “That’s because I decided to keep it as a souvenir.”
Lifting my gaze, I arched an eyebrow. “How come you get one and I don’t?”
Those intense brown eyes pinned me to the spot. “You did. I gave it to you last night, and you’re walking around with it now.”
My blood ran cold when his meaning sank in. Holy shit, how could I have been so stupid?
Throat closing up, I croaked out, “I need to go to a pharmacy.”
“Tell me what you need. I’ll send Rico out.” He said it so casually, like this was no big deal, when in reality, it was fucking life changing if I didn’t handle it quickly.
“It’s personal.” I widened my eyes, hoping he would catch my drift so I wouldn’t be forced to say it aloud.
No such luck.
Cocking his head, he asked, “Personal how?”
I let out a frustrated groan, dragging a hand down my face. Keeping my voice low, I hissed, “We didn’t use a condom last night.”
“Oh.” Matteo waved a dismissive hand. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Uh, yeah, I think I do. I’m not on birth control, and it’s bad enough the prissy preschool moms have a bet going to see how long it takes before you knock up the too-young-for-you nanny.”
The sip of coffee he’d just taken spewed from his mouth, and he began to cough loudly. He thumped his chest a few times, but his voice still came out rough. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
Wry laughter fell from my lips. “I wish I were.”
A rumble vibrated through his chest before he pulled in a deep breath and brushed off my concern for a second time. “The trip to the pharmacy is unnecessary.”
My temper flared, and my fist came down on the marble island as I shouted, “Yes, it is! You don’t get to make this decision for me!”
Angrily, I spun on my heel, stomping toward the stairs when a hand circled my wrist, hauling me back into a hard chest as arms locked around my waist.
“Let me go!” I struggled against his hold.
“I need you to calm down.” The command was firm in my ear.
“Fuck you,” I spat. “I might’ve agreed to be your whore, but I didn’t sign on to carry your baby.”
“There won’t be any baby.” He let me go so suddenly that I stumbled.
Sucking in gasping lungfuls of air, I turned around as his word sank in slowly. “Last time I checked, any time you have unprotected sex, those little swimmers of yours”—I gestured toward the prominent bulge visible beneath the fabric of his gray sweatpants—“are on the hunt to impregnate me.”
I pressed both hands to my stomach as bile rose up my throat. I was going to be sick just thinking about it.
“Someone was paying attention in health class,” he mused, and I saw red. Before I could scream at him that this wasn’t a fucking joke, he added, “But I don’t have any swimmers, as you so eloquently put it.”
My jaw dropped, and a rush of air escaped my parted lips. “You don’t?”
Matteo shook his head before retrieving a cup of coffee and offering it to me.
Gratefully, I accepted the mug. “Did you have some kind of accident?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m afraid it was just a run-of-the-mill vasectomy.”
“Oh.” Now I felt like a total ass for flying off the handle, but in my defense, how was I supposed to know he’d gotten snipped? It’s not like we’d discussed he was shooting blanks before he took it upon himself to come inside me without asking.
He ran a hand through his dark hair. “After everything that happened when Serafina was born . . .”
My heart twisted. I could only imagine how painful it must’ve been for him to lose his wife, and that was before taking into account he was left to care for a premature infant and a toddler while grieving.
A heavy sigh lifted his chest. “I won’t sugarcoat it. Things were rough. Truthfully, I didn’t come out of the fog until that day you pulled Bianca out of that pool.”
“Matteo.” I reached for him, but he stepped back.
“You were right. I wasn’t watching her like I should’ve been. And I’m so fucking ashamed that my negligence almost cost my daughter her life. But it was enough to scare me straight. I made a promise that I’d get my shit together, get back to being the father they deserve. The one I used to be.”
“If it’s any consolation, minus that little blip when we first met, I’ve only seen you be a loving and attentive dad. Bianca and Serafina are very lucky.”
A sad smile formed on his lips. “For a long time, it felt like I’d failed them. So, on one particularly dark day, I decided to eliminate the risk of dooming any other innocent lives to having me as a father. A thirty-minute procedure later, I was sterile.”
This time, when I went to place my hand on his arm, he let me. I moved closer, my touch skating up his bicep until his stubble prickled against my palm.
“Everyone has demons. You fought yours the best way you knew how.”
He grunted, eyes cutting to the side. That’s when a chair scraped against the tiled floor, indicating we were no longer alone.
Expecting Bianca to have joined us, ready for breakfast, I let out a surprised yelp when I found a haggard-looking Gabi sitting at the table.
She placed both hands over her ears and groaned. “For the love of God, keep it down.”
Matteo snickered, and I spun on him. “You know she was here?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But I can’t say I’m all that surprised.” With a pat to my ass, he strode out of the room, tossing me a wink over his shoulder that made my heart flutter.
Dropping onto the chair beside my best friend, I graciously slid my coffee in her direction. “Want this?”
Her nose wrinkled, and she shoved the mug away. “Are you trying to make me throw up?”
“You might feel better if you do.” I’d witnessed my share of hungover mornings with Gabi, and more often than not, she wound up with her head in the toilet.
“Pass,” she muttered.
“Okay, then why don’t you explain how it is you came to spend the night here and why you look like an electrocuted raccoon?”
Her hand came up to the tangled mass of black hair sticking out from her head. “Yeah, about that . . . I slipped in from the guardhouse.”
“The guardhouse,” I repeated. Then it hit me, and I gasped. “Oh my God. You slept with Rico?”
“We didn’t do much sleeping.”
“So, you’re done with Nikolai?” I hedged, naming the bouncer at Ballistic, with whom she had an ongoing fuck buddy situation.
Gabi rolled her eyes. “Rico and I fucked once. Don’t make it a thing. Though, I will say there’s something to be said about hung Italian men.”
I hummed my agreement, and that sparked her interest. Assessing me carefully, she must’ve found what she was looking for because she pinched the bridge of her nose with an “Oh, Summer, no.”
Burying my face in my coffee, I tried to act innocent. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t do that.” She wagged a finger in my face. “We don’t lie to each other.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “We fucked once. Don’t make it a thing.”
She scoffed when I mimicked her words. “Yeah, definitely not the same, and you know it, Summer.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right. Matteo and I lived together, and I worked for him, which created a total power imbalance. Last night, we’d opened Pandora’s box, and there was no going back.
All I could do now was hope that mixing business with pleasure didn’t blow up in my face.
They were staring at me again.
Ignoring the weight of the Preschool Pickup Posse’s judgment, I bounced Serafina, quietly singing the ABCs low enough that only she could hear me. But unfortunately, keeping my voice hushed meant the words spoken around me could still reach my ears.
“Who would have thought she could clean up that nice?”
The fuck?
Relief surged that maybe they weren’t talking about me this time because today’s ensemble consisted of baggy sweats visible beneath a knee-length parka, my hair stuffed haphazardly under a beanie.
Covertly, I peeked around the packed hallway, searching for the new object of their scrutiny.
“Meredith, you owe me a grand.”
“Like hell I do! There’s no proof of penetration.”
My head whipped up to find a half-dozen huddled around the phone I assumed to be Meredith’s as their conversation continued.
One of them let out a loud scoff. “ Please . There’s no way you get caught in a position like that and don’t seal the deal.”
“That’s speculative. Until you have substantial evidence, I’m withholding payment.”
A tsk sounded. “Careful, honey, using that legal jargon might have people wondering if the rumors about you fooling around with that hotshot lawyer on the side might be true. What was his name again? Aaron Bishop?”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” came a haughty reply.
“Sure you don’t.”
“Don’t act all holier than thou, Vanessa. Everyone knows you’re fucking the gardener. You practically begged Bruce to install a greenhouse so your boy toy could stay on the property all year round.”
The urge to cover Serafina’s ears was strong. These women were ruthless and not even attempting to censor their language inside a preschool.
“Was the bet how much dirt we could dig up on each other, or whether Bellini was going to bang the new nanny?”
Well, that cleared up any confusion as to who they were talking about before. But it still didn’t make any sense. When would they ever have seen me “cleaned up?” My standard pickup attire was beyond casual.
“You’re right.” The one presumably having an affair with a lawyer sighed.
One of them leaned closer to the phone. “Damn, what I wouldn’t give for video footage with sound. I’m dying to know if he’s one of the few men who actually enjoys a face full of pussy.”
Okay, I’d had enough.
Stomping across the space separating us, I cleared my throat loudly, and six pairs of eyes lifted expectantly.
Cocking my hip, I couldn’t keep the sass from my tone. “Care to share with the class, ladies?”
A wicked grin curved on the overfilled lips of the one with her talons curled around the cell. Condescendingly, she cooed, “Oh, sweetie, you are in way over your head.”
Then she turned the phone around, and when I caught sight of the image on the screen, the paper cup fell from my hand to the floor, splashing coffee all over the bitch who was getting off on my public humiliation.
Her screams about how I’d ruined her seven-hundred-dollar shoes fell on deaf ears because my privacy had been violated in the worst possible way, and my reputation was ruined forever.