35. Matteo
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MATTEO
T he party was still in full swing, guests chattering and gossiping about what they’d witnessed while I nurtured my bloody nose in the library.
Once I corrected this motherfucking mistake, there’d be a lot more whispers and stares coming our way.
I’d been laying into my pa, about to explain that he arranged a marriage to the wrong goddamned sister, when I caught Nikola and Ari from the corner of my eye.
When I saw him touching her hand, the very same that was wrapped around my cock earlier today, fury unlike any I’d ever experienced before grabbed hold of me. I wanted to murder my best friend, to let his blood stain my mother’s marble floors as a warning to any other fucker who even thought of touching her.
I didn’t even know how I found myself standing behind her, but then I heard the motherfucker mention marriage and something in my brain short-circuited.
He was lucky I didn’t fucking murder him right then and there.
The fucking audacity.
The image of him touching her sent a new wave of rage through me and I forced myself to inhale a breath, pushing red mist out of my head.
It was exactly how I found myself in the library, trying to cool off. I knew one wrong word could send me flying off the handle, all because of the look I’d seen on the girl I’d been in love with for fucking decades. The look I put there.
I should have never followed the protocol of going through my pa. I should have gone and asked for her hand myself.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
The door to the library opened and I was about to snap at whoever thought to invade my privacy when I saw my two best friends stroll in.
Calm and reason flew out the window. I was on Nikola before the door could properly snick shut, shoving his body into a wall. The antique lamp rattled and a few books tumbled to the floor, but I couldn’t care less.
“What the fuck are you thinking flirting with… touching my woman?” I spat, getting into Nikola’s face. In all the years I’d known him, we’d never fought. That was about to change. “Do you have a death wish, is that it?”
“Let’s cool down.” Gabriel wedged himself between us. “And please, watch my suit.”
“Touch her again and I’ll tear you to pieces, Nikola,” I growled.
“What are you upset about, man?” Nikola deadpanned. “You just announced your engagement to her sister. She’s free for any man now.”
“Don’t fuck with me.” My ears pulsed with rage. “Or I’ll show you exactly how free you’ll be when you’re six feet under.”
Gabriel shook his head disapprovingly, stepping a little closer.
“You can’t expect Arianna to become a nun,” he said, still laughing. “She’s too pretty for that.”
“It was a mistake.” I could strangle both my father and hers for thinking I was into Hannah. For fuck’s sake, when had I ever shown the least bit of interest?
“I didn’t hear anyone shout ‘wrong sister,’ man.” Nikola chuckled, but he had a point. I should have roared and made it clear that Arianna was the one I’d asked for. “That’s what I would have done.”
Gabriel sneered. “Really? Because the way I see it, you’ve been avoiding a certain girl since she arrived.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have any claims on her. Never have. Never will.”
“Good to know.”
“And don’t forget, she’s almost related to me,” he muttered.
“ Almost doesn’t count,” Gabriel drawled. “But if you have no claims, I have a good friend who’d love to—” Nikola grabbed him and hurled his body against the table behind them, its contents crashing against the floor and some of it onto my friend’s clothes.
Gabriel only sighed. “Didn’t I warn you about my suit?”
“She. Isn’t. Available.” Nikola’s pale blue eyes turned dark. “Don’t ever fucking say that again.”
I shook my head at the two idiots, but I was no better. If Gabriel threatened to set my woman up with some suave Colombian, I’d rip his head off too.
“Then stop ignoring her, or she’ll move on.” Gabriel shoved him off, straightening his suit. “Next time you wrinkle my suit, I’ll fucking kill you.”
“You and those stupid suits,” Nikola muttered.
“You should try them sometime,” he retorted dryly. “I know you like to show off your ink, and your girl certainly seems obsessed with them, but?—”
“Really?” he asked in surprise, and I rolled my eyes, despite this agonizing situation I was in. Even a blind man could see Skye always studying his ink. “Probably because she’s my almost-cousin or some shit,” Nikola justified.
I strode to the bar area, done with this conversation. There was only so much stupidity I could take in a day.
Gabriel joined me at the bar, then muttered, “Is he blind?”
I shrugged.
Nikola soon joined. “Can I have vodka, bro?”
“Help yourself.” I tilted my chin in the direction of the clear liquid. “All the staff are at the party.”
“Ahhh, self-serve.” He unscrewed the lid of the top-shelf vodka and poured it until it spilled over. “Generous portion it is, then.”
“You know that’s not a shot glass, right?”
He shrugged.
“I can hold my liquor.” He downed it in one go, then slammed the glass on the bartop. “So, are we going to talk about it?”
Gabriel made a noise of frustration. “Talk about what?”
“Amara’s cold shoulder and those diabolical twins glaring at you.” Nikola didn’t miss anything when it came to others, but insight into his own life… blind as a bat. He turned to me and pinned me with a stare. “And can’t you just move on from Arianna? I mean, the women look… well, identical.”
I let out a sardonic breath. If only it was that simple.
“The sisters couldn’t be more different. Ari is my missing piece and the only one for me.”
Silence thickened the space. Gabriel could relate, but Nikola looked like I’d just spoken Greek to him—not that I could speak Greek.
I could see it in his expression the exact moment he decided to give up trying to understand the words I’d just uttered.
“Sounds heavy.” Nikola yawned. He fucking yawned, then his eyes lit up and I could see an idea flicker in that pale gaze. “Tell her you’re dying,” he suggested, dead serious. “Terminal disease or some shit like that.”
No. Fucking. Words.
“Yeah, nothing works as efficiently as faking your own illness,” Gabriel muttered. “It’s exactly what he’s going for. Pity.”
Nikola shrugged. “Pity fuck is better than no fuck.”
“I can’t fucking wait until you’re in love, because I swear to God, I’m going to?—”
“Let me stop you right there.” Nikola raised his hand, his palm in Gabriel’s face. “Love is not in my vocabulary. Foreplay, on the other hand, definitely is, and let me tell you, women love it.”
Gabriel stared at him in disbelief. “Are you fucking with me right now?”
“You’re not my type.” He directed his next words at me. “Listen to me, buddy. If you’re insisting on not marrying Hannah, go all out with Arianna—stalk, leave a beating human heart at her doorstep, kidnap her. It worked for my uncle Sasha. Think of it as…”
I stopped listening, but as I left a babbling Nikola behind, I couldn’t shake off a thought. Damn crazy Russians and their ideas.
First, I’d do things the right way. If that didn’t work, Ari would get a taste of exactly how far I would go for her.
For us.
I found my pa in his office with Uncle Massimo. It was like déjà vu, except that everything had gone to fucking hell.
“Nobody is as good as Nico at following a digital footprint. We need his help to get to the bottom of this.”
The whole belles thing was weighing on Pa, and me if I was honest. If there was any chance of those medieval auctions resurfacing, Francesca would be first in line for the taking.
Uncle Massimo snickered. “Are you sure it’s wise to ask Nico for help after his daughter sucker-punched your son?”
“She didn’t,” I stated, taking a seat opposite my uncle and father.
“That’s right, you accidentally fell into her fist,” Uncle stated dryly.
“Which accidentally broke your nose,” Pa added with a grim expression.
“None of it would’ve happened if you hadn’t set me up with the wrong fucking sister .”
Uncle Massimo whistled. “That sounds like quite the pickle.”
I glared at him.
“I’m so glad you’re able to see humor in the shitshow that is my life.” I gave him a sarcastic smile. “But Pa fucked up big-time and?—”
“Hold the fuck on, son,” Pa cut me off. “There was never any talk of you and Arianna being matched. Ever since we met the twins, it was always Hannah who had claimed you. How in the fuck was I supposed to know you wanted the other twin?”
“We’d just rescued Ari and Francesca from the shooter,” I bellowed. “Why in the fuck would I say anything about Hannah?”
Pa shot me a blank look. “Well, Hannah has always claimed she’d marry you. Arianna has never said a peep.”
“But I did,” I roared. “After her near-death experience, I didn’t want to risk losing her.”
“Arianna?”
“Yes, Arianna, for fuck’s sake.”
“Well, the girls are… identical,” Pa tried to reason.
I pushed my hand through my hair. “How do you not see the differences between the two?”
“Son, there are only two women I notice and who matter in my life. Your mother and your sister. Besides, Arianna never even showed interest in you, and don’t think I don’t know she’s the one who broke your nose on your eighth birthday.”
I held my head between my hands. “There’s no fucking way I’m marrying Hannah. Get a meeting with Nico Morrelli and I’ll explain the whole thing.”
“I’ll ask him, but are you sure Arianna will say yes? Because Nico gave Hannah the choice and she accepted you.”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Good. And I’ll talk to Arianna.”
Uncle Massimo raised a brow. “What if you talk to the wrong twin?”
“Good point,” Pa acknowledged, then looked at me. “Can you get her a name tag?”
I groaned. “Pa, she’s not a dog.”
Uncle shook his head. “You’re digging this hole deeper, Luciano.”
“Bullshit. I’m just trying to be sure I talk to my correct intended future daughter-in-law. No more mistakes.”
A knock sounded and my mom peeked her head inside.
“Luciano, our guests are still here. Sasha thinks you’re hiding.”
“He’s not wrong,” Pa muttered. “I might shoot him if I hear a single smartass remark from him.”
Mom strode in, taking a seat next to me. “Nobody’s getting shot, but you need to come out of this office and visit with everyone. And we need to smooth things over with the Morrellis.”
“Why in the fuck would Hannah agree?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Mom straightened in the seat. “What do you mean? You wanted this, didn’t you, Matteo?”
Pa stood up and went over to the minibar, refilling his glass of bourbon. “Oh, our son wanted this, but with Arianna who, coincidently, looks just like Hannah.”
“Luciano!” Mom reprimanded him.
“They couldn’t be more opposite,” I told him. “And Arianna is the one I want.”
“Arianna?” Mom asked in a soft voice. At my nod, she leaned over and stroked my cheek. “You always manage to surprise me, Matteo.”
“The question is whether you’re willing to start something in order to have her,” Pa cut in.
There was no hesitation. “Yes. It’s her or nobody.”
My parents mulled over my words while Uncle Massimo held my gaze. “Better be ready to go to war, then.”
Mom put her hands to her chest. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ll talk to Bianca, and your dad will talk to Nico. Arianna is still out, but she’ll be back. She’s a reasonable girl.”