Chapter 12
Present
New Jersey
I WELCOMED THE CHILL OF the dark early morning of January first, and its howling wind as I carefully stepped out of the Hammer Limousine and onto the tarmac.
Trevor’s jet was already waiting, all sleek and fancy, and it made my chest fill with excitement. Something I was desperately craving since the party.
I hadn’t planned on going to Hawaii, but maybe this was exactly what I needed. A short getaway to relax and get my get my head on straight. Maybe even meet a hot, Latin man with a six pack that would make me forget about the other hot, Latin man in my life…
The car-door shut with a loud bang behind me, Antonio and Gìovanni stepping up to my side.
“Ready?” Tony nudged me with his elbow.
I smiled big. “Yeah.”
Spoke too soon.
The roar of an SUV engine suddenly caught my attention, though Gìo was already waving at the driver, signaling it down to park next to our Hammer.
“You might wanna get back in,” Tony said, nodding his head to the Limousine. “We’ll be a while.”
I wrapped my jacket tighter around me as snow and rain began falling from the night sky in a weird mix. My heart was on the edge of its seat, anticipation building low in my tummy as I waited for the unexpected guest to step out. Then…
Messily styled brown hair, dark golden eyes, and six-foot-five of muscle in an expensive black Armani suit. Matteo stepped out of the Aston Martin, closing his suit jacket as the winter wind blew his hair back. He looked like he couldn’t feel any of it, while I was shitting myself I was so cold.
Matteo began talking to my older brother, though his eyes stayed on me, full of fatal attraction and secret affairs.
“What is he doing here.”
Tony gave me a weird look, heading off to join the guys. “He’s been friends with Zane and Gìo long before you even met Natalia.”
I rolled my eyes, starting towards the jet across the tarmac by myself.
My heels clicked against the cement, and it wasn’t long before I heard their footsteps thump behind me, running to catch up to me.
“Fuck.” Tony threw an arm around me, helping to warm me up, though I suspected he needed the warmth just as much. “It’s mad brick. Why couldn’t you wait for us to finish talking so we could take the fucking car, Frankie? Now I gotta walk all the fucking airport!”
“Can it and walk faster!”
I heard Gìo and Matteo laugh behind us, but I could barely hear them behind the shuddering of my teeth. They could laugh all they wanted. When we finally reached the jet’s open door, they were practically about to pick us up, just so they could get on faster.
“Oh, my God. Move, Gìo! You’re stepping on my foot!”
“That’s not my fault, you’re walking like a fucking giraffe.”
“Say that again and I’m stuffing you in the luggage hold, jackass.”
I stepped onto the plane first, feeling the warmth inside basically hit me in the face like whiplash. I smiled at the girls, already heading towards them.
The jet door shut with a loud bang, like a vacuum. I glanced over my shoulder out of instinct, my eyes landing on Matteo’s just as he stepped away from the door after locking it. Swallowing hard, I turned back to the front.
I faintly registered Trevor’s confused interrogation – he hadn’t been made aware about our arrival, hence our so-called high jacking – and kept walking towards the girls.
I plopped down across from Natalia, kicked off my red bottoms, and crossed my legs under a huge fluffy blanket, desperate to warm up. “You didn’t think you’d elope without us, did you?”
I chuckled at Trevor’s blank look, moving to search his jet for the fancy little bottle of alcohol, but only finding champagne.
While Trevor took a seat next to his wife, my attention was diverted to the huge man that made the couch dip next to me.
The soft material creaked faintly under his weight as Matteo settled beside me, and instantly the temperature in the cabin seemed to shift. The private jet was all cream leather, mahogany trim, and soft golden light – but the space between us was heavy, dense, charged.
Without a word, he reached into the small drawer built into the side of the seat and held out a mini bottle of whiskey. Exactly what I’d been looking for. The amber liquid caught the light, glowing like honey.
My brow arched as I took the bottle from him. My hand closed around the tiny glass. My fingers brushed his for the briefest second, warm and rough, and I hated the way it made my pulse trip.
I unscrewed the cap, trying to look annoyed, not grateful.
Matteo didn’t say a thing. He just picked up the rest of little champagne bottles and started handing them out with lazy efficiency.
Zach caught his, Trevor and my brothers too, and the girls, all giving easy thanks.
When he reached Natalia, though, he bypassed the champagne entirely, cracking open the fridge and handing her a bottle of fresh orange juice instead.
“Thank you,” Natalia said, smiling, her voice warm.
The conversation in the cabin picked up again, laughter and banter weaving between clinks of bottles.
Trevor teased Natalia about wedding things, Zach leaned in to tease his brother about business, and for the first time since the summer, I noticed the way Matteo and Zach looked at each other.
Less like rivals, more like brothers. Their tones were easier now, sharper only with the quick edges of habit, not hostility.
Gìo and Nat even sorted out their previous issues and were back to being best friends.
Everyone fell into the rhythm of it – the family they had built, the friends who felt like siblings.
Everyone except me.
Because no matter how cozy the cabin became, no matter how much I curled beneath my blanket with my whiskey burning warm in my throat, I couldn’t ignore the heat radiating off the man beside me, the quiet power in his silence, or the weight of his nearness.
And no matter how I tucked myself into the blanket, I couldn’t shake the chill…
The air was perfectly comfortable – Natalia even complained about being too warm – but something in me refused to thaw. My toes curled under the thick fabric, and I hugged it tighter around my body, trying to focus on the burn of the whiskey instead of the shiver that refused to leave my bones.
No one noticed.
No one, except him.
Matteo shifted slightly, his frame brushing mine, the faintest ripple in the stillness.
I didn’t look at him, not at first, but then the blanket lifted just an inch at the edge, his large hand pulling it across, tucking it more securely around me.
Before I could protest, the heat of his body rolled in over me, solid and unyielding at my side.
I stiffened, my back brushing against the warmth of his big bicep, and glanced quickly around the cabin.
Everyone else was wrapped up in their own conversations – Trevor making Natalia laugh, Zach going on about some surf thing in Maui that him and Tony were going to do.
Maria and Kali were whispering about something.
Even Zane was in deep business conversation with Gìo.
Nobody was paying attention to me.
“Better?” Matteo’s voice was low, threaded with that lazy confidence that always made me want to argue.
I narrowed my eyes, willing my voice steady. “I was fine.”
The corner of his mouth curved, smug, like he knew I was lying. But he didn’t call me out, didn’t push. He just shifted slightly closer, his shoulder brushing mine, his heat sinking past the blanket and into me until the shivers finally eased. And suddenly… I was a little too hot.
We slipped into conversation so naturally, I almost forgot to guard myself.
He asked about Hawaii, what I wanted to see, if I’d been before.
I told him about a waterfall hike Maria had begged me to try, about luaus and fire dancers, about snorkeling even though I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of fish.
He listened – really listened – his deep voice weaving questions and teasing remarks between my words, like we’d done this a thousand times before.
Somewhere between the laughter, the warmth, and the low hum of the jet engines, my eyelids grew heavy. My head tilted without my permission, my body betraying me as it leaned ever so slightly into his arm at my shoulders. His arm was firm, steady, impossibly warm – like leaning into a wall of heat.
Before I knew it, the blanket and his body heat had lulled me under, and I drifted into sleep with the sound of his heartbeat, steady and unyielding, just beneath my ear.
I hadn’t experienced feeling uncomforted since I was a teenager. I despised the feeling. And for as long as I could remember, I’d done everything in my power to never feel it again.
My arm was numb.
Long past the pins and needles.
Long past uncomfortable.
And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to even breathe differently.
I didn’t want to wake her.
Fuck, she was beautiful.
In an unreal sort of way.
Her olive skin was like silk, not a single blemish. Her dark lashes, soft like the flutter of butterfly wings. Her brows, thin and perfect in their shape. Her blonde hair, straight and platinum, glowed like a halo around her entire frame.
She was at ease, warm and feeling safe enough leaning into my arm, she allowed herself to close her eyes – around me.
I couldn’t bring myself to look away. Hadn’t been able to for what must’ve been hours.
I still couldn’t stop thinking about our conversation before she fell asleep. She was funny, intelligent and kind. And I couldn’t wait to talk to her over the next week.
If it wasn’t for having to hide my arm in an awkward sort of way from everyone else, I wouldn’t have had any problem holding Francesca for the entire flight.
But considering the allegations she hated me, holding my arm around her properly wouldn’t have passed.
In all honesty, I’d been surprised she’d let me get this close at all.
I guessed the only thing the Donna hated more than me, was the cold.