Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
CHASTITY
“ H oly shit.”
I can’t lie—the breathy exclamation that slipped from Matteo’s lips as I descended the stairs that evening sent an electric thrill up my spine.
True to her word, Liv had helped me pick out an outfit for the night. A simple black dress, the longest in the collection Matteo had assembled for me. But just because it was floor length didn’t mean it was modest.
Not by a long shot.
The halter top still showed a great deal of skin on my shoulders and arms. Not to mention the deep plunging neckline that dipped all the way down to the base of my breastbone, revealing the top swells of my breasts for all to see. If that wasn’t enough, a long slit cut up the skirt, allowing movement but causing my right leg to slip out into the open air with every step.
It was the kind of dress I could have never imagined wearing. Not in a million years. But even I had to admit, a part of me liked it.
A lot .
Especially as I saw the expression on Matteo’s face as I came into view.
His dark eyes were wide. His lips slightly parted as if the sight of me like this had truly surprised him.
I couldn’t blame him.
It had surprised me as well.
Especially after Liv had generously taken the time to help me fix my hair and makeup—two things I’d never had to deal with before.
I appreciated that she hadn’t gone overboard. She’d gone light with the cosmetics, applying just enough to even out my skin tone and bring out my eyes.
My hair she kept simple, pulling it back from my face but still letting it cascade freely down my back. Then, she’d used an iron to put in a few loose curls.
It might have been a basic look by modern standards, but for me, it felt daring.
And that sense of excitement only grew when I saw Matteo’s appreciation.
Even so, decades worth of habit pushed their way to the surface, and I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “No blasphemy, please.”
“Yeah, brother.” Gabriel, standing just behind his twin, said with a laugh. “Watch your fucking mouth around the penguin.”
“Gabriel,” I said, coldly greeting the older D’Angelo brother with a nod.
“Chastity.” He nodded back. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it?” I asked pointedly, ready to get him back for the penguin jab. “Your wife said you felt differently earlier.”
I had the satisfaction of watching his brows shoot up in surprise as his eyes shifted from me to Liv. She froze in place a few steps behind me on the stairs.
“Did she?” he said, his mouth tilting down.
But despite his frown, it was clear he wasn’t actually upset with her. I doubted that was an emotion he was capable of directing her way. The devotion shining in his eyes for the woman was obvious.
“I’m sorry if I gave that impression,” he continued. “I was just surprised to hear you would be our guest for a couple of weeks. It’s been a long time since you’ve been in town, hasn’t it?”
“Over ten years.” Even though he clearly knew the answer, I was willing to let him off the hook. For Liv’s sake, if not for his own. “But it’s good to see you too.”
Though it was clear that the older twin had done a lot of growing up since I’d seen him last, I could still make out some flashes of the brash, over-confident boy I’d known in school. But clearly, the years—and no doubt Liv’s influence—had tempered the worst of Gabriel D’Angelo’s unchecked bravado.
“So where are you taking her, Matteo?” Liv asked, finally coming down to stand at her husband’s side.
“I thought we’d start with dinner at Bianco’s,” he said.
“Wait.” I turned my attention away from him and back to Liv. “You two aren’t coming with us?”
“Not tonight,” she said, slipping her arm around Gabriel’s waist. “It’s been a long week, and we’re going to stay in.”
The hungry look in Gabriel’s eyes as he looked down at his wife made it clear that, while they might not be going out, they weren’t planning on a restful evening.
I swallowed down my disappointment.
Spending time with Liv all afternoon had been the highlight of my day. She was easy to talk to and fun to be around—so different from my cousins or the other sisters at the convent. I wasn’t sure what I would have done without her company.
She was well on her way to becoming my first true friend.
Given how she talked about Matteo and Gabriel’s social life, I’d assumed the couple would be joining us for dinner. I’d been counting on her company to help ease some of the stress of my new situation.
But it looked like that wasn’t happening.
I would be alone with Matteo.
Again .
I drew a deep, fortifying breath as he offered me his arm. I took it, only wobbling a little in the heels Liv had picked out for me. Even though they were short, I had never worn anything like them in my life. It wasn’t as if they were standard footwear at the convent, and my father never allowed me a pair.
“You look wonderful,” Matteo said as he guided me out the back door and toward his Jag.
“Thank you.” I raised my free hand to rub at the goosebumps quickly springing up along my bare arms.
I wish I could say they were solely from the chill in the night air, but that wasn’t the complete truth.
This was just my body’s reaction to his touch, it seemed.
Even the simple feel of his fingers against my skin was enough to set off a physical response in me. It didn’t help that I’d gone all day without seeing him. Anticipation had built up inside me, making me even more receptive to the feel of him.
“It will be warm in the car,” he promised as he opened the passenger door for me, noticing my shivers.
He was right. Comforting heat poured out the vents of his car almost instantly after he’d turned the ignition. While my outward shivering stopped, my reaction to his closeness did not.
He looked as handsome as ever, dressed in a suit that was every bit as nice as the one he’d been wearing the night before. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to stare at his body as he pulled out into the street.
Instead, I turned my head and focused all my attention out the side window at the passing buildings and pedestrians.
“How do you like the new clothes?” Matteo asked after a minute of silence had passed.
“They’re not what I’m used to.” It was a diplomatic answer and the best I could come up with.
“But do you like them?” he repeated.
“I like some,” I answered honestly. “This dress, for instance, is lovely and not overly revealing. But some of them are a bit… much .”
I glanced over just in time to catch a wicked smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “And by too much, you mean too little.”
Exactly. “Some of the hemlines are very short.”
“I like short hemlines,” he stated frankly.
Ha ! That was the understatement of the year.
“What you like is to look at naked women,” I said, calling a spade a spade.
But if I thought I could shame him with the truth, I was mistaken. He took his eyes off the road just long enough to shoot me a heated look that singed straight down to my core.
“I like to do a hell of a lot more than just look at you when you’re naked.”
“Matteo!” I tried my best to sound shocked, but the noise that came out of my mouth was far too breathy.
“I also like it when you scream my name.” His smile grew. “I’ll have to figure out a way to make you do it more often.”
Forget about the goosebumps. Suddenly, the interior of his car was far too hot. Not only were my cheeks burning, my whole damn body was on fire.
“Are you going to spend every second trying to get a reaction out of me?”
He shook his head, turning fully toward me as we pulled up to the valet stand outside the restaurant. “The only reaction I’m interested in is the one you had this morning when you?—”
Oh, hell no .
I opened the door before he could finish that sentence. The last thing I needed to be reminded of was my shameful behavior.
And not just because every time I thought about the scandalous desires I’d succumbed to in his bed, I was gripped by the uncontrollable urge to do it again.
But also because I still had some pride left.
Not much, maybe, but still some .
And while it might be prideful to want to save face, somehow I doubted that particular sin even made it onto the Top Ten list of the ones I’d committed in the last twenty-four hours.
I slammed the car door shut before his words had a chance to follow me out onto the sidewalk.
The respite from Matteo’s presence was brief, though. In a matter of seconds, he was out of the car and back at my side, escorting me inside the restaurant.
Even though the place was packed with customers, a hush still came over the crowd as we entered.
At first, I thought the diners had mistaken Matteo for his older twin, but then I saw more than a few of them clearly mouthing his name to their friends.
A few of the diner’s faces even looked familiar. And bizarrely, every last one of them was a man.
A cold chill that had nothing to do with the weather outside raced up my spine.
Something strange was going on.
Even if the all-male crowd was just a coincidence, the only people I could recognize in New York were either priests or mobsters...and there wasn’t a single white collar in Bianco’s dining room.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” I whispered, pulling close to Matteo’s side.
“You don’t like the food here?” he said. “You should have told me back in the car.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” The savory aromas filling the space certainly smelled delicious. “But there are men my father knows here.”
Matteo didn’t look the least bit surprised by the news. “They have to eat too.”
Well, of course they did, but… “They’ll talk, and my father will find out we’ve been out together in public.”
“Good,” he said, sliding his arm around my waist for everyone to see. “The sooner he comes to terms with the fact that you are no longer a child under his control, the better.”
“But—”
He turned his head, looking me in the eye with such resolve that the protest hitched in my throat.
“I don’t live my life in fear, Chastity,” he said. “If you only take one lesson away from our time together, I hope it’s that no one should. Especially not you.”
Gazing into the fathomless depths of his dark eyes, I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
God, I wanted to believe him.
When he talked like that, it was impossible not to get wrapped up in the magic of his words and wish for impossible things.
I could have stood there forever, enraptured by the sight of him, standing so tall and confident at my side. But the next second, the ma?tre d’ appeared, breaking the spell.
“Right this way, Mr. D’Angelo,” the man said from behind the podium. “We have your table, just as you asked.”
“Keep your head up,” Matteo whispered against my ear as he led me through the tables to a booth on the far side of the room.
Even though my natural impulse was to hide my face, I forced myself to do as he said. It wasn’t easy with so many faces staring at us. My fingers clung to his forearm as I forced myself to breathe.
“Good girl,” he purred against my ear when we finally arrived at the booth, and I slipped into my seat.
And God help me, my heart hammered at the sound.