Matteo #2
He’s spared from being slaughtered for the amusement in his eyes when Giovanni joins us in the hallway. The moment I saw Valentina in my room, I knew he’d be close by. Ever since Dante arrived on the scene, only ten short months after him, he’s had abandonment issues.
Vanni barely glances at me before he shifts on his feet to face Nico. “You owe me twenty.”
With a pfft, Nico hands over a bundle of hundreds, announcing their bet was in the thousands.
Giovanni pockets the money before aligning our eyes. “You wear lovesick idiot as well as the rest of us.”
Spit flies in the air when I brush off his commentary without words.
He acts as if I didn’t react. “If you want any chance of keeping her once your agreement is over, don’t take her back to the dumping grounds to get your dick sucked.”
“How the fuck does everyone know that’s where she sucked my dick?”
We’re joined by a third brother. “The stains on her knees were too dark for a standard Sicilian landscape. During decomposition, black fluids drain from the body, leading to heavily stained dark soil.”
Dante doesn’t bother hiding his hungry stalk of my room. His relationship with Lucia is brand new. He hates someone else hogging even a second of her time. He has the same issues with his daughter, but instead of a hungry gawk, it’s protective.
Needing a semblance of control, I add to Dante’s little tidbit of information. “If you’re ever searching for a mass grave, dig up a moss-covered field of black soil.”
After telling Lucia and Camille that dinner is almost ready, Dante turns to face us, his nose scrunched in confusion. “What’s with the family meeting?” Recalling the outcome of our last few meetings, he frowns, lines creasing his forehead. “Thought your arrangement with Azra was fake?”
“It is.”
I slant my head back and peer at the ceiling when Elio forms the fifth point in our crooked star formation. I don’t give a shit if they swear until they’re blue in the face that this intervention wasn’t staged—I’ll never believe them.
“Then why is she sucking your dick? Vanni said she was adamant that those benefits were off the table during negotiations.”
I melt under the glares of my four brothers but play the game like a pro.
“Because the dumping grounds are the only place around here a man can get his dick sucked without his brothers categorizing every expression that crosses his face and misreading it as something else. You’re a bunch of fucking freaks. ”
Nico doesn’t give my taunt even a second to settle. Party pooper. “He thought Antonio recognized Azra’s moans, so he took her out there to… discuss how that made him feel.” Could he make me sound any more like a dweeb? “Now that he understands the error of his ways, he regrets his decision.”
“The only thing I regret is that she didn’t bite my cock off. You know me. I love a bit of pain during sexual activities.”
My tease has the exact effect I’m aiming for. All my brothers look disgusted. Good. I’d rather they look at me like I’m a pig than like a loser drowning in feelings he doesn’t understand.
Azra and I only met thirty-six hours ago. That’s still stranger territory. So why the fuck does it feel like she imprinted herself on my soul the moment she entered Don Adami’s office?
“If that’s true, if everything about this…”—Vanni drags his hand down my ready-for-war stance—“is part of the ploy to get Azra back with Antonio, why aren’t you doing everything in your power to lessen the time you have to spend together?”
My mouth opens, but not a single sound comes out. How am I supposed to clear up their confusion while I’m drowning in it?
Giovanni pushes my head further underwater. “It’s because you like her. You’re reacting this way because you like her. It’s why you bartered for her and why you tried to send her home. You want what’s best for her, even if that means you can’t have her.”
His words are gospel, but I refuse to be seen as a chump.
“Just because you were pussy-whipped in under a minute, Vanni, doesn’t mean the rest of us will follow suit.
This is unrelated to keeping her after our ruse goes off without a hitch.
” There’s too much possessiveness in the way I said our, so I continue with an arrogant edge.
“I took her to the dumping grounds for exactly this. Have you seen the heat on her cheeks? Her cracked lips? A blind man couldn’t mistake them.
They’re clear signs of a woman moving on. ”
“Maybe if he’s a selfish prick, but to anyone else, it looks like a ploy and smells like a ploy.”
I glare at Dante as if he has two heads. What the fuck does he mean?
Elio speaks words I’ve not heard in over a year. “If he’s okay with his needs being met when yours are not, then he isn’t the man for you.”
I was pissed as fuck when my mother said that to the first girl I brought home. I wasn’t treating my first serious girlfriend right—not even fucking close—but I didn’t care since she was giving me what I needed.
Bettina was the first and only woman to break my heart.
Mama said it served me right. That she’d raised me better than to be a selfish man who only looks out for himself. I agreed with her until Bettina’s friends volunteered to kiss my boo-boos better with no strings attached and no stipulations of monogamy.
I spent the final six months of college basking in the benefits of imaginary heartache.
Until thirty-six hours ago, those sexual encounters rated as my highest.
Now they seem like child’s play.
I snap my eyes to Nico when he says, “It wouldn’t kill you to admit you like the girl, Teo.”
I glare at him, silently calling him a fucking hypocrite. He needs to take his own advice, but since I refuse to hang him out to dry as he is me, I remain silent.
It’s a fucking hard feat.
Especially when Vanni says, “If this is purely part of a ploy, I’ve got tips on how you can have Antonio falling on one knee sooner rather than later.” He twists to face me. “But if you’re not wanting to return to your normal life anytime soon, I’ll—”
“It’s a ploy. That’s all it is,” I interrupt, lying through my teeth.
Dante’s nostrils flare like he can smell the deceit on my skin, but he remains quiet.
After a beat, Giovanni says, “All right. As long as you’re sure?”
I take longer to reply than I care to admit. “I’m sure.”
He twists his lips before he moseys to my open bedroom door.
I hate what he sees, but it’s gospel. “If you want anyone to believe tonight’s event isn’t a sham, you need to fix her flushed cheeks and neck.
There’s a big difference between a sexually relieved face and one so tied up she’s seconds from snapping.
” He returns his eyes to me, hot and heavy. “Azra’s is the latter.”
I go still, then nod once, the fight to defend my reputation lost to a hunger so strong it’s deadly.