25. Zoe
25
Zoe
“You’re the closest thing to a miracle in my life. And sometimes the worst thing that ever happened to me.” – Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy
T his is all his fault. I knew it would be like this.
And this is only after a week with the man. What will happen if he sticks around for a whole month? Mellie will lose her voice from crying as she’s been crying ever since he was no longer in the vicinity of the cottage.
I thought the crying fits were over since we haven’t had one in a few days. That maybe whatever was hurting her had passed, but now I know better.
It was Matteo magic, and the apple doesn’t fall that far from this tree that has been under his spell ever since I’ve met him.
Bathroom show being the prime example. God, I can’t believe he was there, listening and…enjoying it? From the sounds of it.
No. I will not let my mind wander there. I am done. This is done.
No more playing for Zoe.
No more Matteo living with us. He must move out—if not for me, then for Mellie who is getting too attached.
How in the world did she know he left, I’m not sure, but just like before I have tried it all and nothing is working.
“Shh, baby girl.” I am on the verge of tears myself because I’m her mom and once again, I’m failing. “We are almost there.” And when we get there, I’m going to kill that favorite human of yours. First, for getting me hooked on him, and second, for getting you there too.
As soon as I fly through the front doors—which unfortunately doesn’t have the desired dramatic effect I’m going for because of the soft opening doors, damn it—Matteo’s head whips up that second, his eyes zeroing in on the car seat in my hands.
Perfect, there is no one in here yet.
Oh, I am going to hand it to him so bad right now. I will give him an earful for creating this issue for me! You just wait, Matteo Loverson, the baby whisperer.
Next thing I know, that man jumps over the bar top like his ass is on fire. Literally. Jumps over it, Rambo, or was it Jackie Chan-style, and runs to us with wild eyes.
“What happened?” he asks in panic, and before I can open my mouth to start cussing him out—swear jar be damned—Mellie stops crying.
Breathe, Zoe. Fucking breathe.
His voice. That’s all that little stinker needed to stop her wailing.
Matteo snatches the car seat out of my hands, lowers it to the ground and takes a now very peaceful Mellie out of it while cooing sweet nothings to her. “What’s wrong, my little watermelon?” he asks her in that ridiculous baby voice, kissing her cheek, nose, forehead, and her little fingers as my daughter sniffs and shakes dramatically.
She actually manages to pull her bottom lip over in a pout as he cradles her.
I should consider a career in acting for her when she grows up. Look at that talent at barely four weeks old.
I should be angry at him. I should tell him to move out right this second before my daughter gets even more attached to him but with every second that she gets more settled in Matteo’s arms, her little hand resting on his peck and closes her eyes without so much as a drop of milk, my body sags. My brain sighs in relief and my heart is filling with more and more mushy feelings that absolutely cannot be there.
Who’s the one getting attached here, Zoe?
“What happened, Beastie?”
“This happened.” I point to him holding Mel. “You’ve gone and done it.”
“Done what?”
“Got her used to your arms and now she refuses to sleep anywhere else.” I don’t mention that it might not be just about sleeping in his arms. The truth is, it’s just him. She wants him nearby.
Matteo’s body relaxes and he gazes at my daughter with so much love, my heart is about to explode. This is the same way he looked at her at the hospital when she was just born. The same exact way.
“You love me, Mel?” he asks her, gently brushing her little cheek with the back of his finger. “I love you too, little watermelon.” Mellie relaxes and nuzzles into him, falling asleep that instant.
“I hate you,” I throw out his way, but both of us are well aware there is zero heat behind those words. “You are making my life harder right now.”
“Shh, Beastie, relax.”
“Don’t you dare shush me! This is all your fault! How am I supposed to be a single mom when she doesn’t want me?”
“That’s because you’re not.” His hand reaches over to my face cupping it as his forehead tilts against mine and all I can see, breathe and feel is Matteo.
“What?” My voice is breathy just like it always is when he is this close. My body relaxing more and more with each second, turning into a limp noodle in his arms.
So much for handing it to him so bad, giving him an earful and cussing him out. Who were you trying to fool, Zo?
“You are not and were never supposed to be a single mom, Zo. I am here to take on that other half of the equation, remember? And she wants you more than anyone, she simply wants me too. And I mean, can you blame her?” The bastard has the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows at me while wearing the worst smirk of all smirks.
“Wipe that smirk off your face before I do.”
“There is my beastie.” He smiles. “Threatening me with a good time.”
“How is me punching your face a good time?”
Matteo leans over, bringing his mouth to my ear, his lips touching it with just the briefest of touches. “Because I like it rough,” he says in a low husky tone, and I fail at my attempt to not be affected. He straightens, sending a wink my way while I’m hyperventilating from one little line.
Matteo places Mellie back in her car seat and moves her to the back where he was doing some sort of inventory. The next couple hours pass with him working, Mel sleeping, and me shamelessly ogling the man I was going to kick out of my house while sipping on a non-alcoholic cocktail he made me. It’s sweet but fresh at the same time, just perfect. Everything about my current set up is perfect.
So, why am I fighting this thing between us so much, again?
“Why don’t you go upstairs and take a nap while my little girl helps me with these orders over here?” Matteo asks me.
“No, that’s okay,” I give him the practiced answer I’ve been giving everyone else when they offer to help me. I should go home anyway. The bar is starting to fill up.
“Zoe.” He pins with his brown eyes. “Go upstairs and take a nap. Please,” he commands me, and I find myself sliding off the stool despite my earlier answer.
“Okay, are you sure, though?”
“Yes.” His eyes are still on me, now growing darker. “Fuck,” he utters under his breath at the same time as his hand moves to his crotch, adjusting his suddenly tented pants. “Your obedience turns me on just as much as your violence,” he groans but my mouth drops open.
Why does he keep saying things like that?
“Zoe.” My name tumbles out of his mouth low and sexy with a slight note of a threat. “Are you trying to kill me, Sunshine? Or are you looking to get your mouth stuffed with my cock?”
My eyes snap to his.
No, no I wasn’t looking for that, but suddenly I really want that. I want to feel him slip past my lips as I wrap them firmly around his swollen head. I want to drag my tongue over the full length of him, down to his heavy balls. I want him down my throat, so deep I wouldn’t be able to breathe. I want him to spill his cum down it too.
I’m still lost in my thoughts, visualizing him fucking my mouth rough—like he likes—when I hear a long groan and a huge, warm chest crushes against me, with strong arms wrapping tightly around my neck and ass holding on to me like a savage with his prey. Matteo’s breathing is just as rugged as mine, his lips a breath from mine but not touching when I want them to—no, need them to—kiss me. Ravage me. Take me.
“You don’t understand what you do to me.” His eyes are wild, mad and a bit pained. “I exist for you.”
“Matteo.”
“What, Beastie?”
“Why aren’t you kissing me?” I don’t know why I just asked that.
I don’t want him to kiss me. I made the rule that he can’t. So, why does it feel like I will die without his lips right now?
His lips curve up into a small—yet disgustingly smug—smile, and he whispers into my ear, “Beg, Zoe.”
“W-what?”
“Don’t you remember? I’m not allowed to kiss you but I’m all for breaking rules. I only need a bit of…let’s call it motivation.” The hand on my ass, squeezes harder as he pushes us closer together. Fusing our bodies.
“And me begging will motivate you?”
“Oh, baby, it just might make me come in my pants like a fucking rookie.” Matteo drags the tip of his nose through my neck, from the curve up to my ear and a shudder passes through me and I feel his cock thickening even more against my lower belly.
I did that? I did that to this man who could have anyone, yet for some reason wants me. But it will pass. His infatuation with me will run its course and I’ll be left a broken mess again, right?
Then why does it get harder and harder to keep persuading myself in that? Why do I run out of my bedroom each morning as fast as I can just to see him? To make sure he hasn’t left yet and when my eyes land on now a very normal routine of Matteo talking to Mellie as they cook breakfast together, it feels right. So, so right, it scares me further more.
Yeah, I’m fucking coward.
“I can’t.” I make myself say and just as fast as he slammed into me, Matteo steps away, taking all the warmth away with him, getting back to work like nothing happened.
I am still trying to rein myself in—and figure out if I’m making the right decision here—when Matteo simply says, “Let’s continue the game.”
“What game?” If he means the one about kissing, I’m not playing. Because if he pushes just a bit more, I’ll break and fail at level one.
“Never have I ever.”
Great, now I’m disappointed it’s not the kissing one. Way to go, Zo.
“Fine.” I slide back onto the stool, still trying to rein myself in but now it’s not the unleashed lust, but rather my irrational irrationality.
“Never have I ever had sex in the shower.”
I choke on my drink. That was not what I expected. Why in the world did I think he wouldn’t play it dirty?
I guess it’s a kissing game after all. And I should not be smiling right now, damn it.
“Hmm, I’m pretty sure jerking off on the other side of it counts.” Matteo snaps his eyes to mine as they darken again.
That’s right, two can play. Well, I’ll only last so long, but it’s worth it.
“I guess you are right. What shall I drink then?”
Me. I want to say me. It’s right there at the tip of my tongue before I swallow it, pushing the cocktail over to him. Matteo leaves his inventory for a second and takes a sip with his eyes still in mine.
“Your turn.”
What a dangerous little game I’m playing. Yet I can’t stop my next words. “Never have I ever been in love.”
What I said is the truth. One I’ve come to realize after my night with Matteo and when I said it, I was one hundred percent sure Matteo wouldn’t drink. I was confident in that. Yet…
Yet I’m stunned speechless when he takes my drink and drains it full.
He’s been in love…
My eyes search his as my heart is racing but whether it’s from hurt or surprise is yet to be determined. I have a million questions to ask but don’t because the front door opens and loud, joyous laughter fills the whole space and Jenny, Nina, Willa and Fanny stroll in and just as always with Rick, Sam and my dad trailing in behind them.
Who I don’t expect are Hope and Alec to walk in as well but the looks on their faces tell me they have been ambushed just as much as I have been and their date night was ruined by their parents.
“Zoe,” Willa exclaims happily and embraces me in a warm, motherly hug. “How is my favorite daughter-in-law?” she asks with excitement in her eyes.
“Oh, um, if you mean me, I am good. But I’m n—” I don’t get to finish the sentence because Matteo swoops in behind me, drawing his arm around my waist and plastering my back to his front, rendering me speechless while claiming me in front of everyone.
Why would he do that? Isn’t he afraid his playboy status will take a beating if others see him embracing the single mom of LC?
“Hey, you all, are you in for an early happy hour?” he asks them.
I try to move his arm off my hip discreetly, but the behemoth won’t budge.
He’s been in love…
“We sure are,” Sam supplies. That man is in abnormally good shape for his age. “Give us those fall specials you’ve been brewing.”
“And here we thought none of you would show up this early,” Alec grumbles. “Don’t you all have your new rally to plan?” He twists his lips.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nina asks.
“Means we wanted some privacy for once.”
“We always give you privacy,” she argues back.
“The events of last night prove you very wrong, Mom.” Alec and Nina start going back and forth, and Hope slides next to us.
“They showed up to our place last night. Well, in the middle of it. And while we were in the middle of it ,” she says with a small blush and rolls her lips. “Needless to say, they killed the mood and Alec is still very sour about it.”
“What did they want?” Matteo asks, confused. Poor guy lived for too long away from these schemers and they have definitely escalated from what he remembers.
Hope sighs. “Well, you see, we were supposed to be out of town last night, and they knew about it. So, they decided it was a perfect time to hang up some weird pregnancy charms all over our house in discreet places so we wouldn’t find out about them, yet magically would get pregnant.” Matteo looks at her with a stupefied expression. “Oh, and when they walked in and saw that their plan has failed, Nina proceeded to tell us about a position we should try.” Hope cringes. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard my husband yell that loud.”
“No, they didn’t,” he gasps. “Please tell me my mother wasn’t part of this,” he pleads but when Hope scrunches her nose, he gets his answer and groans.
“Um, she was the one who found the charms. So, I recommend going through your house as soon as you can. And look under the floorboards.”
“The floorboards?”
“Yep.”
After another five minutes, Nina and the rest of the gang are put on curfew. And banned from Alec and Hope’s house.
You see, these four ladies want as many grandchildren as they can get and are willing to go to any length to get them. Case in point.
They are not malicious, they’re just a little crazy and a lot overboard, but no matter how much Hope, Joy, or even Grace want to complain about their schemes, they did help all three of them to find their husbands and live out their happily ever afters.
Maybe I should consult the Fantastic Four?