Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Matteo
Completely spent, I fell onto my back, my arm thrown up over my eyes as I tried to catch my breath.
There was sex, and then there was sex with Sophia, and sex with Sophia was mind-blowing in a way that never felt possible.
Especially this time. There had been a desperation about her today, like she couldn’t get enough, and that was fine because I couldn’t get enough either.
Not of her, not ever.
“That was…” With a sigh, she curled up on her side. Peeking at her from under my arm, I saw the slack, almost blissful look on her face. Her eyes were hooded and glazed, and her lips were half-parted. They were also pink and swollen from the force of my kisses.
She had the perfect just-fucked look on her face, and she had never looked so goddamn beautiful.
“Yes, it was.” Still unable to catch my breath properly, I rolled over to meet her in the middle of the bed. Reaching for her, I pushed her hair back from her face. “Does this mean we are okay again?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
For a second, I closed my eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, Sophia,” I said softly and meant it with my whole chest. “I should never have put you in that situation,” I added, honestly, because truthfully, I shouldn’t have.
I’d wanted to childishly test her, and she had acted like any woman in her situation would. With anger.
“Okay.” She sighed again, and this time, I watched as her eyes closed. She lay there with them closed for several long seconds and her breathing grew heavy.
Smiling, I ran my fingers through her hair. “Are you falling asleep on me, Sophia?”
She murmured something that I couldn’t understand, and my smile grew.
“Let’s jump in the shower and clean up, Sophia.”
She didn’t move.
“Sophia,” I said again more sharply. “We need to clean up.”
Well, we needed to clean up a little bit, and I really, really wanted to see her with the water gathering on her hard nipples, so maybe I could lick it off.
The thought made my cock start to harden again,
“Too tired,” she murmured. “And I’m not sure my legs are capable of holding me up.”
Even with her eyes closed, she smiled.
“Is that right?” My chest puffed out with pride. If her legs were still jelly, that meant I had more than satisfied her,
“I could always carry you,” I began to say when a new idea took form in my mind.
I slid from the bed, and her eyes snapped open. “Where are you going?”
There was a note of accusation in her voice.
“Stay here, I'll be back.” Without another word, I headed toward the bathroom, coming back a few seconds later with a wet, warm washcloth dripping in my hand.
I threw the blankets back from her, baring her body to me.
Squealing, she grabbed at it. “Matteo, it's cold.”
Oh, I knew it was chilly by the way her pink nipples hardened.
Crawling up between her thighs, which parted for me instantly, I dragged the wet cloth between her breasts.
“Matteo,” she mumbled. All the sleepiness evaporated from her eyes as she snapped them open. “What are you doing?”
Not answering her at first, I ran it over her breasts and leaned over her, bringing our lips together but not kissing her.
“Cleaning you up, my love.” The last two words fell from my lips before I could stop them. “If you are too tired to climb into the shower with me, then I’ll clean you here.”
Over and over again, I swiped the damp cloth over her.
Across her breast, down her belly, and then between her legs.
She moaned the second before I kissed her, and I swallowed the sound down as I rubbed the cloth between her thighs.
“It’s kind of a shame.”
“What is?” Her hands found my shoulders to hold herself steady, and I could feel the tiny tremble within her beginning again. Was having me clean her with a wet cloth turning her on? Or was it my hands on her body that were doing it?
Yes. Tes to both.
“That I can’t just let all of it leak out of you.” I caught her lips with mine. Over and over again. Pushing my now solid cock into her thigh. “Maybe fill you with some more cream…”
“You could…”
I silenced her with my lips again. “And I will, but not tonight. You don’t want to be sleeping in a wet spot, do you?”
She giggled, a purely girly sound. “The water will also make a wet patch, Matteo.”
Laughing, I threw the washcloth away. It hit the floor with a wet plop.
“So it is.” Over and over again, I kissed her, each one more insistent than the one before, until it felt like I was going to explode.
“Sleep.” Finally pulling away I pressed my lips to her head and climbed from the bed. “I’m going to jump in the shower and then I’ll be back.”
“Okay.”
It was the quickest shower of my life, but by the time I got back, she was snoring lightly. Pausing in the doorway, I watched her sleep, and emotions overwhelmed me.
The kind of emotions I hadn’t felt since the night I had first made love to her, gone to the bathroom to take the call that would change my life forever, and come back to find her gone.
I had gone from unbelievable happiness to dread in minutes, and I was feeling that same emotion now.
Sophia was acting just like she had been back then, and that had all been an act.
Was she acting now? Was she yet again using me for some unknown reason, and I was a fool falling for it?
Again.
Shaking my head, I slipped in next to her and lay there, staring at the ceiling high above me.
Why did things have to be this way between us? With so many secrets and lies.
And so much doubt.
Was the woman sleeping next to me using me again? I couldn’t help but think she was.
“Matteo.”
My head snapped around to stare in the darkness at her face, and my heart slammed into my chest. She had called my name out.
“Matteo…” she said again, and this time, I could see the line deepen between her eyebrows. She was frowning in her sleep.
Was she having a nightmare?
Reaching for her, I had barely touched her when she called my name again.
“I’m here.”
Sophia’s sigh was loud. Rolling over, she curled herself into my side, and her face relaxed.
I stared down at her for several seconds before wrapping her up in my arms.
Yeah, she was having a nightmare, but not about me. I was the thing that drove those bad dreams away.
That had to mean something.
Relaxing, I closed my eyes and just held her.
I don’t know how long I lay like that, with her in my arms and my eyes glued to her face, but it seemed like a long time, and there was no chance of any sleep.
Not when I didn’t know the truth.
Finally, some time just before dawn, I slipped from the bed. “I’ll be back,” I whispered even though she was too asleep to hear me, and then, dressing quickly, I headed to the elevator and down to the city street.
Even at this time in the morning, there was life on the New York City streets, but in a way that was a good thing. Jogging and running had always been a way for me to gather my thoughts, but it was even better like this, with a whole city’s chatter floating around me.
I took off toward the park, weaving in and out of people and ignoring every single one of them,
I didn’t even register their faces, which was stupid, because attacks could happen at any time to a man in my position.
No, the only face in my mind was hers.
The way she looked just before I left, the way her lips tilted up in a smile that made every hard, cold part of me melt.
She was the perfect woman.
She was perfect for me in every way, and yet I knew she was hiding something from me. I just didn’t know what it was, and every check I'd run on her had come back blank.
She had a job in a bakery, and a roommate called Natalia, who everyone called Nat. Nat worked in her family’s business.
There was nothing I had found that should make me suspicious.
But I was. I couldn’t help it.
I knew Sophia, and she was hiding something from me. And if she wouldn’t be honest with me, then I would find out by myself.
It was the only way we…
Mid-thought, I stopped and made my way to the nearby wall. I had run further than I expected, completely lost in my own thoughts as I pounded the pavement.
Pulling my cellphone from my sweat pants pocket, I swiped through the numbers until I came to the one I wanted.
It rang and rang. Grumbling, I redialled, and this time someone answered on the third ring.
“This best be fucking important. It’s not even…” a grumpy male voice snapped.
“It’s Matteo, and I know what time it is, Simeon,” I said in my usual calm, don’t-fucking-mess with me voice.
Instantly, his tone shifted from angry to apologetic. “What can I do for you, Matteo?”
“I want you to dig into Sophia…”
His sigh was exasperated. “I’ve looked. There’s nothing. She left New York two months after her parents were killed. Coach, not first class. She lived on her trust fund for a little while and got her current job eighteen months later.”
I’d heard all of that before. Groaning, I pinched the skin between my eyebrows. I didn’t know what bothered me about it all, but something did.
Why did she get a job? And why so long after she had arrived halfway across the world? Eighteen months seemed very specific.
Unless, of course, she had run out of money, but that didn’t make sense, either. She should have had more than enough.
Unless…
Gio. Had her brother somehow cut her off? But why would he send her away for her safety and then cut her off? Gio idolized his baby sister.
“Yeah, I know. Can you check her financial records?”
Another sigh. “Look, if you want my opinion, the girl is innocent. She’s not up to anything. She’s completely and utterly clean, and no amount of digging up her past is going to change that. You are looking for something that isn’t there, Matteo.”
“I don’t want your opinion,” I snapped back. “Sophia might be innocent, but her family?” I gave a sarcastic laugh. “I don’t trust Gio. I want you to check them all. Look into every single associate they have. He’s up to something, and he’s using his sister as a way to get it.”
The silence was thick.
“You think she’s part of the plan?”
I didn’t answer him. “Maybe. But honestly, I don’t know. She’s hiding something, and Gio is most definitely up to something. I need to know what those things are, and I need to know now. So dig into everything. Money, personal life, even medical records. I want to know what is going on.”
“You got it.” He ended the call without even a goodbye, but that was fine with me. I wasn’t one for pleasantries anyway.
I typed up several quick texts and then headed home. Maybe if I asked nicely on my knees, I could get Sophia to be honest with me.