Complications

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Michel

“Michel, it’s so nice to see you,” Connor said with a smile when I stepped into Matteo’s and his townhouse. His auburn curls formed a frothy halo that highlighted his freckles and grin. I reached out to shake his hand, but he held his up in protest.

“I don’t want to get you dirty.”

“Transplant day?” Connor’s canvas apron was streaked with soil and his nails were crusted with it.

“Close. Propagation day for the orchids. I was grabbing my notes from the study when I heard you at the door.”

Connor’s ease was a vast change from the frightened, beaten man I’d first met when he came into Matteo’s life.

He wasn’t who I thought my friend would fall in love with, but they were wildly happy and deeply devoted to each other.

The pang of jealousy that shot through me had to be ruthlessly quashed.

My wishful thinking had no business being projected onto them. It made me feel small.

“Well, I’m out, but more power to you,” I answered with a smile. “I hope Matteo is around here somewhere. He asked me to stop by this afternoon.”

Before Connor could answer, Frankie stepped forward.

“Yeah, he’s in his office. I’ll take you back.”

Connor waved us off and headed in the opposite direction toward his beloved conservatory, his leather-bound notebook tucked under his arm. I trailed behind the bodyguard and worked to keep my face neutral when he pushed open the heavy wooden door and waved me inside.

“Hey, Boss. Doc’s here.”

Matteo looked up from his laptop with a welcoming smile.

He always looked exactly like what he was: a wealthy man with investments and a penchant for the finer things.

His suits and shoes were expensive, as was his taste in wine.

He was a stickler for cleanup and keeping his crew discreet and private.

Given that I was in the study, I had to assume no one needed patching up.

“Took you long enough.”

“Believe it or not, Teo, you’re not my only client.”

But he was my most important. Not just for the retainer he paid to keep my time open, but because we’d been friends for close to twenty years. A true friend who might not appreciate my one-off interlude with his nephew.

“Fuck that,” he said with a grin. “I should’ve said someone needed you.”

“So long as the someone wasn’t you, it might’ve worked,” I fired back.

“Who do you think would get you here the fastest?” he mused. “Connor?”

“Definitely.”

“Maybe Frankie?”

“Meh,” I answered. Frankie’s guffaw from the doorway made me turn and smirk at him. “You’re not as pretty.”

“Now that’s the damn truth,” Matteo interjected with a laugh. “Elio might work too.”

Shit. Was that a dig or an observation? I couldn’t tell.

“What did you need to speak to me about?”

“Yeah, speaking of Elio, I wanted to ask you about him.”

“Me?” I schooled my features into blank neutrality. “I’m not sure I can help.”

“You sure about that?” I remained silent. “After that bullshit last week, he went straight to you. Why was that?”

“How do you know that?”

“We tailed him, obviously,” Matteo answered, raising a brow. “Do you know why?”

“You’d have to ask him,” I hedged. “He did have a cut on his brow though.”

“That shit was barely a scratch. Did he say anything to you?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

The walls closed in, and I had a quick decision to make. Give Teo the truth or keep Elio’s confidence. It should be a harder decision than it was, but there was no contest.

“He didn’t mention anything specific about how the injury happened.” My voice was calm and steady, but internally, I was at war with myself. My answer was technically true, so no lie was spoken, even if it wasn’t the spirit of the question.

“I’m worried about him.”

“Yeah? Why?” I tried to keep my tone mildly interested and hide how completely invested I was. “Did he say something?”

“So you don’t know how he got the cut?”

“No, but I assumed another stupid fight.”

“Yeah, exactly that, but it was with one of my guys.” Teo sounded thoroughly disgusted. “He’s a goddamn loose cannon, and that has me worried.”

“Elio is loyal to you and your family. You know that.” The speculative look Matteo gave me felt like he could see straight into my goddamn soul. “What I mean is, he’s part of your family.”

“One who isn’t part of the family business and went after one of my guys.” Matteo paused before adding, “It’s a long shot, but if you’re patching him up and he says anything, I’d appreciate a heads-up.”

“Of course.”

Michel

My house. 7 p.m.

Elio

Miss me that much? All you had to do was say so.

Don’t get cute.

I’m always cute.

Never mind. I shouldn’t have messaged you.

I was only fucking with you. I’ll be there.

“Coming.”

A smart man wouldn’t have been waiting when the bell rang at seven.

Elio was exactly on time, not even a minute early or late.

The best thing I could do was send him away with a bullshit excuse, but I knew what was going to happen when I opened the door.

He’d walk over the threshold, and I’d let him.

I knew it was a bad idea, dangerous even, and it’d put me at odds with Matteo, but I couldn’t bring myself to even contemplate sending Elio away.

“You rang?”

If I expected contrition out of him, I was sorely disappointed. There was nothing apologetic about the man standing in front of me. His perfect, pouty lips were twisted into a smirk, and his hooded brown eyes met mine before they deliberately dropped to my already throbbing cock.

“Going to invite me in?”

I stepped back and gestured for him to come inside. His swagger was slow and deliberate, giving me plenty of time to watch his body as he brushed past me, close enough that I caught the scent of his aftershave and felt the heat of his presence in my home.

“We can talk in my study.”

“We can do lots of things in your study,” Elio added with a wicked grin.

His sultry response forced me to swallow a bark of laughter because this man never gave up.

It was the part I loved, and hated, about him.

His rashness. His sexiness. His willingness to throw himself right into the middle of everything.

How his family, including his uncle, didn’t see him that way baffled me.

When I stalked into my study, I tried to tell myself that I didn’t care whether he followed me or not, and refused to turn around to check.

But I knew he had.

My body was too aware of him to lose track.

Rather than put my hands or my mouth on him, I forced myself to walk to the far side of the room and sit in my desk chair.

Elio followed a few steps behind, moved around the edge of the desk, and sat on it.

His proximity was the sweetest torture. Heat radiated from him, and I had to pretend I couldn’t feel it.

“What happened?”

Between his rolled eyes and heavy sigh, I learned nothing useful.

“Answer the question.”

Still nothing.

“Answer me. Please.”

Elio’s pretty brown eyes almost imperceptibly softened.

“I wasn’t trying to interfere, but I’m not going to let some asshole throw his weight around.” Elio’s eyes flashed with fury, but I still had no damned idea what had actually happened to create this much of an issue that Matteo was actively worried about him.

“Okay, so who was it?”

“Joey brought in a few guys this year. I thought they were all right in the beginning, but one went with me to the store and was being a dick to the guy behind the counter.”

“And that was enough to blow all this up?”

“The new one started running his mouth about people he knows and that the guy might need to start paying for security.” Elio shook his head, disgust written all over his face. “What the fuck does he think he’s playing at? Matteo sure as shit isn’t out there doing shakedowns.”

“So then what happened?”

“We got back to the house, we had words, Joey laid into me about knowing my place, and then I left.” As Elio spoke, the anger gave way to something else, but I wasn’t sure what to call it. Anger, yes, but maybe shame too? “It was the same one I got into it with before.”

“Mind if I ask a personal question?”

The tension had slipped from him. When he nodded, I asked, “Why aren’t you more involved with Matteo’s business?”

“Do you know what that is?”

“All I need to worry about is that sometimes his employees need a bandage…or something.”

“Or something,” Elio snorted. “Technically, Matteo is my great-uncle on my mom’s side, and my dad worked for him. It was just Dad and me, and after he got sick, Dad made Matteo promise to protect me. Protect turned into not letting me do a damn thing.”

“Does anyone know what the guy was saying besides you?”

“Nah, Joey shut my ass down.”

His frustrated tone made my fingers twitch to touch him. Soothe him. Comfort him. His sigh rang out, and my urge couldn’t be ignored anymore.

Against my better judgment and good sense, I traced a finger across the prominent vein on the back of his hand. He jerked away before his hand returned to rest on his thigh, where I could touch him again. The warmth of his skin tempted me to explore more.

I knew what his mouth felt like on my cock, but not what he tasted like on my tongue. The heat of his stare sent a surge of awareness through me. When I glanced up, his dark-chocolate eyes were guarded, but the want was unmistakable.

Slowly and deliberately, I sat up in my chair while Elio met me halfway. My fingers slipped between the curls at the nape of his neck. Slowly, our lips met, and the shock of electricity sent a jolt through both of us.

We skipped over tentative exploration and jumped straight into devouring each other.

Our bodies strained toward each other, but it’d never be enough.

With a yank, I pulled Elio off the desk and onto my lap, where he landed with a grunt.

Without hesitation, his entire body melted into me.

My arms tightened around his waist, and the answering sigh from deep in his soul activated something in me.

When my lungs burned from lack of oxygen, I wrenched my mouth away from his.

With a growl, I explored the skin along the column of his neck.

It was salty with a sheen of sweat that drove me wild.

His soft moans sent a shock of electricity through me.

My throbbing cock strained against the zipper of my slacks.

This man drove me insane in all the ways I didn’t know how to explain.

“This is a fucking terrible idea.”

“The worst.”

The heave of Elio’s chest tempted me even as common sense struggled to regain control, but everything was too far gone.

It wouldn’t have mattered anymore. Now it was just about having him near me, feeling his skin on mine, and finally giving myself a taste of him that I desperately wanted. And needed.

Fuck.

I needed this man, and I was too goddamn tired to fight it anymore. I wanted him. He wanted me. We were both adults. He wasn’t something I could walk away from.

“We gonna do it anyway?” Elio’s question hung in the air, and I admired the shit out of him for asking it. His gaze was steady, but questioning. While I’d been contemplating, he put it on the table. It was more courage than I’d shown tonight.

“Yeah, we are.”

I needed to taste him again and again because no one had ever stirred me this way. Elio infuriated and worried me, but he also intrigued me and, fuck me, charmed me too. The insolence and the flirting were like a drug.

“Michel, you’re making a choice here.” Elio’s soft warning stopped me in my tracks. “He’ll know, and he’s gonna be pissed.”

“I’ll handle Matteo.”

Elio looked into my eyes, and it felt like he could see straight into my soul. There was nowhere to hide, and strangely, I didn’t want to. What I wanted was for him to know that he had a soft place to land with me, which, given our lives, was a fucked-up sentiment.

“I’m not worth that much effort.”

My breath caught at his words, and a sound I didn’t recognize choked my throat.

“Shut the fuck up,” I finally managed. “Yes, you fucking are.”

There wasn’t anything I could say that he’d believe, so I yanked him forward until our chests collided and smashed our mouths together.

The keening sound wrapped around my larynx and squeezed out whatever breath I had left until it was gone.

I’d be damned if I let anyone come between this man and me.

He needed me.

And I wasn’t letting him go.