27. Evie
Evie
BELLA
Hey love! Some of us were thinking of having a girls’ night at Totti’s next Saturday. Are you free?
EVIE
I’d love to come!
count me in x
Ihaven’t been able to look at Matteo the same since I found the bracelet in his duffel bag two nights ago. Matteo, on the other hand, has no qualms about pretending nothing happened, as if me finding the bracelet I gave him when I was eight and keeping it for nearly twenty years means nothing.
My bracelet is his lucky charm.
The pain radiating down my legs quickly snaps me away from my thoughts. Perfect timing as well. Matteo stops by his truck, opening the door for me, his sweaty curls somehow still looking attractive despite the amount of perspiration covering him.
If anything, his chest is glistening.
Is it weird I have the desire to lick it?
Yes, Evie, it’s very fucking weird you want to lick the sweat off the man you—
A groan escapes me as I awkwardly climb into Matteo’s truck. “Just so you know, I’m cursing you for not bringing your sedan.” My head drops down with a muffled groan of pain. “Why is it so hard to get into this goddamn thing?”
Matteo huffs, stepping forward. Before I realize what’s happening, his calloused hands are on my hips, lifting me in the air before gently placing me down in the passenger seat.
Allowing my head to drop against the head rest I feel his eyes on me. Cracking open one of my eyelids, I find him leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and a shit-eating grin on his face. “Bit sore, Dove?” he teases.
I point an accusatory finger at him. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you wincing every time you moved your pack.”
He waves me off. “You need to book an eye test, they’re playing tricks on you.” I’m about to snap a retort when Matteo pushes off the frame, leans forward, and taps my nose with his pointer finger. “So adorable when you’re riled up, like a cute little Chihuahua.”
My jaw practically unhinges as he steps back and closes the passenger door.
“Oh my fucking god, no he did not.” He doesn’t say anything as he slides into the truck, starts the engine, and reverses, placing his arm behind my chair.
Curse him for being so good looking when I’m trying to be mad at him.
I whack his shoulder. “Do you have a death wish?”
“Not particularly,” he says casually, right as a god-awful sound grates both our ears and the truck lurches to a stop. Matteo and I both turn, peering out our respective mirrors. He tries to give it gas again, only for the same sound to appear.
That’s when I spot it.
Dropping my head to the window, I groan. “Fuck.”
“Is the tire stuck?” Matteo asks, all humor and teasing from our hike vanishing with that one question.
“Yep. Back right is stuck in mud.”
Matteo puts the car in park as he opens his door, beckoning me over the console. “Come on, slide over.”
He rounds the truck to the passenger side. Sticking my head out the window, I call out, “And what exactly do you want me to do? Try and reverse just for the same thing to happen?”
He arches a brow. “Feeling sassy today, I see.”
“We just hiked for eight hours, I have dirt in places dirt shouldn’t be, my feet ache, and all I want is a hot shower but now our tire is stuck. Sue me if I’m a little grouchy.”
Matteo’s lip twitches.
“Don’t laugh at me!”
“You’re making that impossible these days.”
“Don’t piss me off, Valenti,” I huff.
A low chuckle escapes him, one that makes me glare at him out the corner of my eye.
Shaking his head, he points to the driver seat. “I’m going to dig us out. Try and put some gas on it while I push.”
“Push where? Into the bush?”
“Turn the wheel all the way to the right. You can drive up the small embankment.”
“Into the trees?” I squeal.
Matteo bites the inside of his cheek before saying slowly, “There’s no trees to the right.”
I look out the window. “Oh.”
“Any more protests?”
I climb into the driver’s seat, cussing him out beneath my breath. “And he calls me sassy.”
“Heard that.”
“Maybe I wanted you to!” I snap back.
“Are you hungry, Dove?”
“No! And if you say I’m hangry I’ll get out of this truck and show you what hangry looks like.”
“Absolutely hangry,” he mutters.
Turning in the driver’s seat, I peer out the back window, but I don’t spot him. It isn’t until I lean over the middle console, looking in the right side mirror, that I see a part of his shirtless back, crouched behind the tire, mud flying behind him.
Wrinkling my nose, I call out, “I hope you’ll clean yourself up before getting back in.”
“In my own car?”
“You’ll reek.”
“You offering to wash me, Dove?”
Maybe I am hangry, because why does my stomach hollow out at the thought?
I grunt a non-committal noise, but it isn’t long before Matteo’s calling out, “Give it a little gas. Turn the wheel all the way to the right!”
Putting the truck in drive, I gently push down on the gas, only for the same sound of the tire spinning in the mud to fill the air, the engine chugging along as it tries its hardest.
“A little more, V!”
Pushing down farther on the gas, the truck lurches forward right as Matteo yells, “Fuck!”
With wide eyes, I quickly throw the truck into park and leave it on the embankment, jumping out. “What happened? Are you okay? Did—”
My words die off as I round the back of the truck and find Matteo pushing himself out of the mud pile we were stuck in. With a frown, he lifts his dirty hands, scooping mud off his chest before flicking it out to the side.
I lift my hand, biting my fist to stop myself from laughing, but then I think better of it. This man has teased me mercilessly for the past eight hours.
I let my laugh spring free.
“Don’t fucking say a word,” Matteo growls, his body covered head to toe in mud.
The clear frustration wafting off him is what truly sets me off. My chuckle turns into deep belly laughter. Matteo glowers at me through the mud on his face, but the sight makes me lose it all over again.
“Why do you look like you’re wearing a Bigfoot costume?” I howl.
“Dove,” he growls out, a low warning.
Wiping the tears from the corners of my eyes, I double over, clutching my stomach. “Oh my god, please go back on the trail! I bet you’d end up on the news!”
“Evie,” he warns once more, but I can’t be stopped. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I lift it to snap a photo, but the moment Matteo sees it in my hand, he charges. “Absolutely fucking not.”
I scream, turning on my heel and running. I throw my phone through the truck’s open window and hold up my hand in innocence. “I don’t have it anymore!”
“I heard the damn photo go off!”
Fuck.
“It’s okay, I won’t post it anywhere!” I call as I run around the truck and up the embankment, trying to avoid him. The second I see Matteo charging up the embankment covered in muck, only to slip and lose his footing, I lose it all over again.
“Fuck!” I wheeze out. “Sorry not sorry, I am absolutely sending that to everyone.”
Growling under his breath, Matteo comes for me, and I’m not quick enough this time.
His arms wrap around my waist and he pulls me flush against him, mud and all. Screaming, I try to wiggle free and push him off.
“Matteo!”
“Oh, now we’re on a first-name basis?”
He throws me over his shoulder and I get a cheek full of mud from his sweaty lower back. Now I’m really screaming. “Ew! I swear to God, Matteo, if I catch some disease because of your shenanigans, I’ll haunt you!”
“Don’t tempt me with a good time.”
“Get it off me!”
The mud is disgustingly thick and warm. It’s clinging to my skin and I can already feel the acne breakout that’s going to happen if I don’t get home and wash it off soon.
Except, the lock engages on the truck, and we’re walking farther and farther away from it. I try to haul myself upward, but my hands slip on the mud and I collide with his muscular back.
“You’re like the fucking Tin Man. Jesus Christ, Valenti, is any part of you flabby?” The only response I get is the stomping of his hiking boots. “Where the hell are we going?”
“You said you want it off you,” he says flatly.
“Exactly, so tell me why we’re walking away from the truck? Ugh, Valenti, I swear to God—”
“What are you going to do, Dove?” he taunts.
Narrowing my eyes, I growl under my breath before reaching out and squeezing.
Matteo jumps a foot in the air, but he doesn’t let go of his hold on me. “Ow! The fuck? Did you just pinch me?”
“Yes! Put me down, you giant fucking mud buffoon!”
His head tips back with a burst of shocked laughter. The sound has me momentarily stunned, a bolt of electricity striking my system. The hair on my arms stand up, a shiver runs down my spine, and my breath catches.
It’s the most beautiful sound in the world.
Until a sharp pinch on my thigh has me squealing, and the euphoric bliss that came over me is snapped away.
“Valenti,” I grit out through my teeth.
“Yes, my sweet Dove?”
“Did you just pinch me?”
“I believe so.”
“Oh, you fucking bastard,” I hiss before leaning forward and pinching him on both sides. “Put me down!”
He stops suddenly, a teasing lilt to his voice as he sing-songs, “If you wish.”
Before I can register what’s happening, we’re falling, tumbling through air. A scream rips from my chest as I’m suddenly looking at the blue cloudless sky and not the forest floor. I only have a split second to take a deep breath before icy water encases my body.
Matteo takes me with him as he dives, holding me as my body locks up. He’s dragging me to the surface before I even have the right sense to begin kicking my legs.
Sputtering as we breach the water, my wide eyes locking with his teasing ones, I push him off me.
“What the fuck?”
Matteo just shrugs. “You asked to be put down, so I put you down.”
“I didn’t mean in the water!”
His voice lowers, deepening to the point goosebumps break out along my arms. “Should have been more specific.”