Chapter 14
Present
Hawaii
I MANAGED TO IGNORE MATTEO for exactly five hours.
During the absolutely beautiful wedding, I stayed as far away from him as possible, probably only managing to avoid speaking because the dreamy afternoon was all about Natalia and Trevor and their love.
My luck ran out once we got to Nobu for dinner.
There were two empty seats by the time it was my and Zach’s turn to sit down. Both across from Maria and Matteo, at the end of the table.
I knew technically Zach was supposed to get the seat across Maria, next to Trevor… But there was no way in hell I sitting across Matteo. So I stole Zach’s seat – at least diagonally from his brother.
Zach was about to sit next to me, when suddenly, Matteo appeared between us. His hand settled on his younger brother’s shoulder. “Why don’t you sit with Maria? I’ll take this one.”
Zach gave his usual easygoing smile. “Thanks, man.”
Within a moment, Zach was on the other side of the table, throwing his arm around Maria and giving her a kiss on the cheek. He turned to me as Matteo lowered into the seat next to me, and mouthed sorry. Though his smirk told me he was not sorry at all.
The table was a loud mess of chatter – Natalia laughing into Trevor’s chest, Tony making a toast that was half heartfelt and half nonsense, Maria glowing beside Zach, and Kali throwing in dry comments about Zane that made Gìo nearly choke on his drink.
And yet, beside me, it felt like the air was thinner.
“Francesca…” Matteo’s voice was low, velvet and rough all at once.
“Matteo,” I said through my teeth, turning to face Matteo.
“You seem tense, Donna. Want me to help with that?”
“So, now you want to talk to me?”
“So, you noticed when I didn’t.” His mouth curved, slow, infuriating.
I scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
He leaned in a fraction, enough that I could smell the clean spice of his cologne, feel the heat rolling off him like he carried the sun inside his body. “If I wanted to flatter myself, princesa, I’d remind you how hard you blushed the last time I got this close.”
I rolled my eyes, willing the warmth creeping up my neck to disappear. “What do you want, Matteo?”
His gaze dipped to my lips for a split second before dragging back up to meet my eyes. “You’re upset.”
I bit back on my teeth. “I have no reason to be. You have made yourself very clear this morning.”
His hand wrapped around my upper arm, pulling me back so I couldn’t ignore him.
“Maybe I needed to step away earlier. For my own sake.”
“Excuse me?”
“I thought a little distance between us might cool me off.” He smirked faintly, a dangerous tilt of his mouth. “Clearly, it didn’t work.”
My pulse escalated, but I hid it. “You’re unbelievable. You disappear when it suits you, then show up expecting me to just… What? Be grateful you’re speaking to me?”
He tipped his head toward mine, whiskey brown eyes glinting under the low light. “I missed your fire.”
The table erupted in laughter over some joke Tony made, and I forced myself to join in, even though my skin still buzzed where Matteo’s arm brushed my back. He hadn’t won – not tonight. But the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth told me he thought otherwise.
I turned back toward the table, pretending to hang on to every word the others were saying. My laughter joined the theirs, too light, too easy – but Matteo’s presence still pressed into my skin, impossible to ignore.
His arm stretched along the back of my chair, casual in appearance, but his warmth skimmed the top of my shoulder, a claim no one else seemed to notice. My brothers were all the way on the opposite end – too busy having fun to see what was happening right under their noses.
I sat straighter, refusing to lean even an inch closer.
Then, Matteo’s warm, minty breath brushed against my ear, low enough that only I could hear.
“You know, Francesca… I’ve never let anyone use me before. Not for business… Not for favors… And definitely not for my body.”
My hand froze halfway to my glass.
“Least of all to fall asleep on me,” he added, the words a soft burn against my skin. Matteo’s tone was steady, teasing, but beneath it was something sharper, something true.
Heat rushed straight to my cheeks. I stared him right in those dark eyes of his, doing everything in my power to hide the fact that my pulse had just betrayed me.
So, I ignored him. For the rest of the meal, I focused on Maria’s stories, Natalia’s smile, Kali’s funny comments. I didn’t once look his way.
But he didn’t move his arm.
The weight of it stayed there, the warmth of him steady and unyielding, brushing so close I felt it every time I shifted.
And damn me – by dessert, I realized my spine wasn’t so stiff anymore. I had softened, just a fraction, letting myself breathe beneath his quiet claim.
The afterparty at the nightclub had passed by in a blur of cocktails, loud music, pink and purple lights… And the heated eye contact between me and Matteo. Across the VIP table. The room. The dance floor.
We couldn’t exactly dance together like everybody else. Even talking when not cornered was a bit of a stretch. So, instead, I stayed with the girls, and he stayed with the guys. That didn’t stop either of us from ‘accidently’ meeting the other’s eye throughout the night, over and over again…
The next day became a sick game that only him and I were playing.
I avoided him at the pool. Every time he approached me with a different, teasing pick-up line, I replied with one of my sharp comebacks and walked away as fast as I could.
Even our friends, including my older brother, were starting to notice Matteo’s advances.
Though, Gìovanni only thought Matteo was being an asshole, and not actually trying to get in my pants – hence why no one was taking the exchanges between us serious.
Good to know everyone thought there was no way Matteo would actually be into me.
It only fueled me to get meaner, which in turn made Matteo’s teasing worse than before. By the end of the day, I was burning, and he was… Hot too. Watching me with those sinful, amber eyes that made me bite my lip…
We kept that up for the next few days
In front of our friends, we exchanged nasty retorts and fire-fueled insults. But when no one else was looking, all the built-up tension between us simmered into something… Hot.
I was in my bikini, standing by the resort’s pool bar, when I felt the warm pressure against my skin. Only to look up and see Matteo at my side, his hand resting on my lower back, not even glancing at me as he ordered a drink – old fashioned on the rocks.
When he finally looked down at me, I didn’t move, suddenly unsure why I’d wanted him to look at me so bad when I could feel my cheekbones blush from more than the Hawaiian sun.
And when the bartender brought both of our drinks, he reached for mine instead, stealing a sip from the tall, fruity cocktail while tipping his head and giving me that sexy frown.
With my mind all dizzy, I reached for his tumbler and took a slow sip of his whiskey, leaving my lipstick stain on the rim of the glass.
Matteo – all sun kissed skin, golden brown hair and dark amber eyes – took the glass from my hand, our fingers brushing, and drank straight from where my red lips had left a pretty mark. It sent a rush of heat to my stomach that dropped between my thighs like a weight.
I swallowed.
“Good?”
He shook his head. “Better.”
Sirenas were a Latin folklore tale I’d been warned about since I was a young kid in Mexico. Beautiful women, with poisonous fangs and angelic voices, that lured even the strongest of men to their demise.
I’d never come across a woman who twisted my mind.
That was until I met Francesca DeMone.
She’d threaded her delicate fingers through my hair and dug them into my mind, only to mix my thoughts with her perfectly manicured nails – until she occupied my every waking moment and nightly dream.
The way her hair flowed in the summer air like she was swimming in the ocean.
How the water around her sparkled like a million diamonds when she went in it.
The way her tan skin glowed like sunset at golden hour.
That soft, relaxed look in her eyes, like she was finally at peace – here, by the beach.
I sat by the edge of the pool, in the searing heat, watching my vice walk outside my body.
I couldn’t sleep. Think. Eat.
I tried, but nothing made me feel anything.
Except her.
I didn’t know what it was. Because it felt like everything all at the same time.
Trying to pinpoint what effect Francesca DeMone had on me was pointless.
We’d never even kissed, let alone touched.
We barely spoke over the past five months.
She acted like she wanted nothing to do with me. But I couldn’t get her out of my mind.
The woman had forsaken me.
She’d poisoned me with obsessing over her sacred femininity – the perfect temple of her human body that could take away the life of any man by just snapping her fingers. And then she abandoned me. Left me all alone to torture myself thinking about her.
I watched Francesca walk toward me, slow and sensual, her witchy eyes fixed on me the entire time.
I almost felt my jaw unhinge. Only for her to walk right past me, the brush of air a ghost touch on my skin.
I twisted my head, following her still and watching like a dumbass as her hips swayed from side to side.
I ran my tongue over my teeth.
She got in the pool, on the far end, and joined her girlfriends. I narrowed my eyes at the way her platinum hair turned golden in the water. Her ‘fuck-me’ eyes met mine across the water, daring me to come over like I’d done all week and chase her ass around some more.
I grinded my molars together, reminding myself I was a thirty-four-year-old grown man, who’d never been down bad for a woman before in his life.