Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Matteo
She was shaking.
I just didn’t know if being next to me was making her nervous or murderous. Knowing Sophia, it was probably both.
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I side eyed her. She’d been quiet the entire drive from the hotel, her face turned to stare out the window and her lips spending half their time trembling like she was trying not to cry and the other half of the time in a thin, set line.
It made me wonder what she was actually leaving behind in London that made her want to cry. She’d said there was no man in her life, but maybe there was a woman? Maybe even the roommate?
Even if it wasn’t the woman she lived with, it was definitely someone, and I made a mental note to get someone to look into it when we got back to the States.
“Not long now and you will be home.” I did a double-take as the words slid out of my mouth.
Sure, I had been thinking them, but I hadn’t meant to say them.
Sophia’s head snapped around, her eyes swimming with tears as she studied me. “What?”
“I just mean,” running my hand through my hair, I groaned, “it’s been a long time since you came home, right?”
Ten whole seconds passed as she looked at me. Her eyes narrowed as she searched my face. “Why are you trying to make conversation with me Matteo?”
“We might as well be civil don’t you think?” Shifting my weight, I half turned to her.
It wasn’t just her lips that were trembling, but her hands as well. In fact, her whole body was shaking like she was trying to control herself and not burst into inconsolable sobs.
My eyebrows slammed down. Just who was she going to miss in this city? Jealousy ripped through me.
“After all, we are going to spend a lot of time together.” My fingers flexed into my palm so I didn’t reach for her. I wanted to.
I wanted to run my hands all over her body and see if I could still make her shiver and tremble in a new but familiar way.
I wanted to push any memories of the person she was going to miss right out of her brain and fill it with nothing but me.
She’s not yours and you are not hers, a small, bitter voice said in my brain. And my fist clenched. She used you. Sophia is the enemy.
“Yeah.” One last sweep of her eyes across my face and then she went back to staring out of the window, leaving me to stare at her profile with a frown on my face.
“Are you really going to miss this place so much?” I blurted. “You never liked London before. You always preferred being close to your family and friends in New York. Really, I’m doing you a favour.”
Sophia’s head snapped around. “I was a stupid kid back then. I didn’t know any different. I love New York, but my life is here. My family is…”
“In New York,” I snapped.
“My brother is in New York,” she snapped right back. “Well actually, he’s in London where I’m supposed to be. And the rest of my family is gone.” Again she turned to me. “I have people I care about here, Matteo. People I love.” She stressed the word, and my eyebrows punched together.
Someone she loved? She had said she wasn’t seeing someone, that I was the only person who she had ever been with, so who was this person?
“Oh yeah?” I leaned forward, invading her space. “And who is that?”
For a split second her eyes widened. Absently, she lifted her fingers and rubbed them against her eyes, brushing away the tears.
“It doesn’t matter. I would have liked to have said goodbye to them that’s all. I would have liked to explain.”
We lapsed into silence as the sleek car moved toward the small private airport we were flying from.
“Like you said goodbye and explained to me?”
Shit.
I didn’t meant to say that out loud.
“I guess that’s what happened before.” There was a crack in her voice that I didn’t understand but I didn’t have a chance to ask because the car pulled to a stop.
“Ready?” We only had seconds before the door would open and we would have to climb the steps to the plane. Then we would be in the air and in a few hours I’d have her alone. In the apartment in New York that I had bought for us. Back when I thought that one day she would be my wife.
Oh, how things had changed. Me most of all.
Sophia had changed as well. She was still beautiful, but there was a soft strength in her now that she had lived her own life for a few years.
She had finally figured out who she was as a woman, and now it was my turn to figure her out as well.
“As I’ll ever be.” Squaring her shoulders she sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a long painful sounding sigh. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
“Let’s get this over and done with.” Chuckling I swung my legs out of the car and stood, reaching down to take her hand and help her.
She was so damn graceful. Even in her casual clothes she looked like a princess. She might have slummed it in London, but you couldn’t take away what she really was.
Mafia royalty.
No, a small smile curved up my lips. She used to be a Mafia princess. Now she was my mistress.
A goomah.
What a fall from grace.
Keeping a tight hold of her hand, I pulled it through the crook of my arm and led her forward. Not that I really thought she was going to run, because there was nowhere to go, but Sophia was always full of surprises, and I had never been good with those.
Maybe that’s why I had been so attracted to her to start with. Maybe it was because I knew her and that she was dependable. Sophia wouldn’t surprise me. Well, right up until she did.
“We won’t need anything,” I said to the flight attendant at the top of the stairs, and saw her face fall. It fell even further when she saw Sophia’s hand on my arm. “We will call for you if we do.”
“Of course.” A fake, too white smile splashed across her face as she stepped back, but not before I saw her throw Sophia a dirty look.
Sophia’s shoulders snapped back, and her glare had the hostess looking away quickly.
I couldn’t help it. I smiled.
“Let’s take our seats and get comfortable.” Heading toward the cream-colored, buttery seats at the back of the plane, I motioned for her to take the one nearest the window and fastened her seatbelt for her like she was a child.
“Do you recognize this plane?” I asked after several long minutes of silence. She didn’t answer me.
“Sophia?”
“It used to be the one my parents used,” she said in a completely flat voice. “How did you end up with it?”
Fastening my own seatbelt, I looked around before settling my eyes on her again. “I bought it.”
“I see.” There was a sharpness in her voice that I didn’t like. “Anything else of my family’s that you have acquired?”
“Several things, Sophia. A lot has changed since you ran out of the bed we had just shared.”
Sophia made a grumbling sound in the back of her throat. “Don’t say it like that,” she spat. “Don’t pretend.“
Pretend? Rage engulfed me.
What right did she have to look angry when…
The plane lurched forward, and she closed her eyes. Her hands clenched into fists as the plane picked up speed and took to the air.
She was afraid.
How had I forgotten that she was afraid of flying? Placing my arm next to hers, I used my pinky to rub a small circle on the back of her hand.
She didn’t move or make a sound. She just sat there shaking with fear.
“It’s okay,” I murmured over and over again. “It’s going to be all right, Sophia. deep breaths.”
Her chest moved, heaving under the simple white T-shirt.
“Do you remember that time we all went to Paris, I think you were about fifteen and—"
Her eyes snapped open. “Stop it, Matteo.”
Taken aback, I frowned. “I was just trying to get you to remember—"
She cut me off. “I don’t want to remember, Matteo.
I don’t want to be here with you. I want to be at home with the people I love.
If my brother didn’t need me to help him, then I would have happily gone through my life never seeing your smug, arrogant, lying face again,” she hissed. “Oh, is that why you are here?”
Cocking my head to the side, I leaned forward, invading her space but not quite touching her. Even so, she leaned back, desperately trying to put some space between us.
“You’re doing this to help your brother.”
Her lips thinned and then disappeared altogether, and my eyes fixed on them. I’d always hated it when she did that.
Her lips were so full and kissable.
Reaching out, I rubbed my thumb across them, coaxing them out so I could feel their softness.
Her eyes widened. “Yes,” she whispered.
The moment her lips opened, my thumb pushed into her mouth, swiping against her tongue and silencing her.
“And what exactly are you doing to help your brother?”
I had wondered why she had suddenly agreed to come with me. Why had all the fight left her?
She glared at me, and my smile grew.
“You’re here with me because I want you to be, Sophia.” Sliding my thumb from her mouth, I curled my fingers around her jaw, leaving a smudge of wetness against her cheek.
“Everything is because I want it to be. You want to know what I have taken from your family?” I lowered my voice. “Everything I could. But I think taking you will be the best of them all.”
“You’re a monster,” she hissed.
“And you’re the one who made me that way, Sophia.” I drew her closer, inch by inch, until every breath we took brushed our chests together.
She was close enough to kiss, close enough that her scent tickled my senses and made it hard to think.
“You let me fall for you, let me fuck you.” My fingers tightened.
I was going to kiss her, I might even take her right here in the cabin where the staff could see.
“You let me fall in love with you,” I hissed. “And then you ripped my heart out.”
Surging forward, I brought my lips to hers, in a gentle sliding of my lips against hers.
A wave of need zapped through me like a million volts of electricity. It was like no time had passed at all. I might as well have been the same lovesick fool I’d been six years ago.
Because by God, I still wanted her.
“I’m going to ruin you, Sophia,” I muttered against her mouth, and I felt her breath hitch as she sucked in a startled breath.
“I’m going to ruin you and watch your parents’ empire crumble.
I’m going to take away everything you care about because—” another kiss, this one harder than the one before.
“Because that’s exactly what you did to me. ”