"How can you say that?"
He kissed back up her neck, his lips finding her ear. "Because I wouldn't let him."
She wanted to believe him. God, how she wanted to believe this stunning creature could keep her safe instead of being the catalyst for her demise, but it was difficult. One night of passion couldn't wipe away a lifelong animosity. "I'm not so sure you could stop him."
Matty let out a bark of laughter as his mouth left her skin, but he didn't loosen his hold on her. "Genna, have you ever met Enzo?"
She scoffed. "I know who he is."
"Errnt!" He cut her off, the brusque noise making her flinch. "Not what I asked. I asked if you've met him."
"Of course I haven't."
"Then how can you say what he'd do? How can you judge him if you've never even spoken to him?"
"He's a Bar—"
"Barsanti. Got it." Matty loosened his hold, swinging her around to face him. "I am, too. Been a Barsanti since the day I was born."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm well aware."
"Yet you trust me."
"Don't get ahead of yourself," she muttered. "Just because I'm trusting you doesn't mean I trust you yet."
"Whatever. All I'm saying is maybe you ought to give him the benefit of the doubt. I know my brother, and he might not be the most chivalrous guy around when it comes to women, but I've never heard of him hurting one."
"No women tied up in his trunk?"
He laughed. "Nope."
"Huh." Her breath hitched as Matty gripped her hips, his eyes flickering to her lips. "There's a first time for everything."
He leaned closer, his expression suddenly sober, all hint of joking gone. "Trust me, Genna."
"I'm trying," she whispered.
His lips met hers, softly, sweetly, as he kissed her. Genna wrapped her arms around his neck, trembling as she reciprocated, her lips parting and tongue darting out to mingle with his. She lost herself in his embrace, his arms tightly wrapping around her, holding her close as the scent of his cologne ignited her senses. He pulled back from the kiss after a moment, pressing his forehead to hers. Genna opened her eyes, seeing his still closed, a serene look softening his sun-kissed face. She tilted her head, pressing a soft, chaste kiss to his bottom lip, when a sudden loud ring disrupted the silence.
Every muscle in Genna's body grew taut at the foreign sound. "What's that?"
Matty stepped back. "My phone."
Her eyes widened instinctively from apprehension, but he just laughed at her expression and playfully nudged her chin.
"Don't look so terrified," he said. "You have it."
She'd nearly forgotten. Sliding out of his reach, she grabbed her purse from where she'd left it by the door and pulled out his ringing phone. She glanced at the lit-up screen, the short name prominently displayed. En.
"Enzo?" he asked nonchalantly. She hesitated before nodding slowly. En. Enzo. "Not surprised."
She eyed him cautiously. "Why?"
He motioned toward his watch. "It's almost ten o'clock."
"So?"
"So technically I'm supposed to be working," he explained. "He probably called the Blackberry and is wondering why it's shut off."
Genna's gaze shifted from the quiet iPhone in her hand to the Blackberry lying on the top of her purse. Before she could say anything, his phone started ringing again. En.
"You probably want to turn it off," he said. "He'll just keep calling."
Genna stared at it for a moment, her finger hovering on the button, but she hesitated. Carefully, she stepped toward him instead, holding the phone out. "Here."
Matty took it, eyeing her peculiarly as the phone stopped ringing. Within a matter of seconds, it started ringing once again.
"Go on," she insisted. "You can answer it."
Matty pressed something on the screen, the ringing instantly stopping, but instead of bringing it to his ear to talk he looked away. He declined the call. Genna watched him with surprise as he turned it off and set it on the nearby counter.
"I work for my father," he said quietly. "That's what the Blackberry is for. It's my direct line."
"And you're supposed to be working?"
"Yes."
"Right now?"
"Yes."
She hesitated. "You're not, right?"
"Not what?"
"Not working," she clarified. "Right now."
His expression softened as he stepped toward her, his hands lightly gripping her hips. "I don't mix business and pleasure, Genna. And you? Well, you're not business to me."
"Does that make me pleasure then?"
A smile touched his lips as he pulled her closer to him. "Hmm, well, that's certainly the way I remember it."
Genna's heart thudded hard in her chest when he leaned down to kiss her. Tingles shot down her spine as another sensation bubbled up inside of her: anxiety. It was wrong, so very wrong, so why did it feel so right?
His lips never left hers as he pulled her through the house, to a darkened back bedroom with nothing but a king sized bed. Her nerves skyrocketed, fizzling and fraying as she tried to ease her worries. She was admittedly far from inexperienced, but this felt different than anything she had ever done before.
He busily went to work on her clothes, carefully discarding them. She nervously followed his lead, shaky hands trying to unbutton his shirt. He pulled her hands away after a moment, tearing it off and tossing it to the floor. The white undershirt was pulled off right after, and Genna's breath hitched as her eyes came into contact with his bare chest for the first time. The ink up his arms extended to his shoulders, peeking out along his chest. She scanned it instinctively, her stomach in knots when she saw the fancy scrawl over his heart:
Barsanti
If only she had taken his shirt off last time. She would have known. She would have seen. How would she have reacted? She couldn't fathom it. Standing there, knowing what she knew, believing what she believed, the sight of it—a physical reminder spelled out on his flesh—made her weak in the knees.
Before she could dwell on it, Matty pulled off her bra and tossed it to the floor. His mouth captured her nipple, a shiver running through her, her mind going blank, as he pulled her into the bed and hovered over her. He teased her flesh as they discarded the rest of their clothes, before he reached over and grabbed a condom from the bedside stand. Her heart thudded hard when he pulled away to put it on, her hands nervously reaching up to cover her breasts. Modest, she was not, but nervous? Hell fucking yeah.
"Relax," he whispered, his body covering hers as he pushed himself between her thighs, spreading her legs. His lips lightly found her jawline, peppering kisses along her face. "It's just me."
Was that supposed to comfort her? She wasn't sure, but it somehow did. She relaxed, wrapping her arms around him as she closed her eyes, anticipating.
The first thrust again took her breath away. This time she caught it, inhaling sharply, as he pulled back out. Her eyes opened, immediately meeting his in the dark room, seeing the cocky grin lifting his lips. His strokes were deep and hard, but he moved agonizingly slow, taking his time between thrusts and savoring the moment. His hands were planted on the bed beside her, propping himself up.
"Feels different, doesn't it?" he asked.
"It does," she agreed, suddenly queasy as she admitted it out loud. "I feel kind of like Julia Roberts."
"Pretty Woman?"
"Sleeping with the Enemy."
He let out a light laugh, gazing down at her. "Ah, it's not that bad."
"No?"
"If anything, I'd go with 'I Love Trouble'. Because you, princess, are undoubtedly trouble."
"And what? You love me?"
The moment she said it, her vision blurred, her stupid heart skipping a beat at the notion. She expected mocking laughter, but he merely smiled as he shifted position, pushing her knees further up to thrust even deeper, more of his weight pressing upon her. Gasping as he filled her, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her f
ingers trailing down his spine, caressing his back.
It went on for forever and a day, yet it ended much too soon. Genna and Matty lay in bed together, nothing but a flimsy sheet covering them. Neither said a word, their hands speaking volumes for them both as they lightly caressed sweaty skin. Genna ran her hand down his chest as she lay in his arms, her head near his heart, while his fingertips lightly drew patterns on her back, tickling her. She fought off a laugh, squirming slightly from his touch as tingles engulfed her entire body.
"You wanna watch a movie or something?" Matty asked, his voice soft but seeming magnified in the quiet room. "I don't have much here, but there are some DVDs in the living room. No Julia Roberts, though."
"Ah, no Notting Hill?"
He laughed. "No. Got Silent Hill, though."
She cringed. A horror movie? "I'll pass."
He continued to caress her back, making no move to get up, and said nothing more. Peacefulness settled over Genna as her eyes slowly drifted closed.
Sleep took her away.
Something jolted her awake much later. Darkness still shrouded the space around her, deep and all consuming. There was no light in the room, no clock, but she could tell it was the middle of the night, well past midnight, creeping near dawn, with the way the blackness seemed to cling to everything, unyielding and cold. Genna sat up in bed, wrapping the sheet around her as she looked around.
She was alone.
Standing up, she found her panties and pulled them on before grabbing Matty's white button down shirt and slipping it on, buttoning it up enough to cover her. The rest of his clothes were gone, she noticed.
Slowly, she walked to the doorway when she heard his voice off in the house, firm with a hard edge to it, although he spoke low, as if not wanting to be overheard. Peeking out, she saw him sitting at a table with a dim lamp lit up around him.
"No, no… I got it… I'm working on it as we speak."
Genna's chest constricted. Working on what?
"Yeah, I'm sure… don't worry, it's handled."
Genna took a step backward, back into the shadows of the bedroom, straining her ears to listen to him.
"Yeah, it'll be done tonight. I'll let you know when I'm finished."
Tonight? Finished with what?
Matty let out an annoyed groan. "Yeah, I'm with her now… don't even start, En. I told you—I'm not talking to you about what I do with my dick, so don't even ask for details."
Genna inhaled sharply. Oh God.
"Look, I gotta go. I'll be in touch."
Matty let out a deep sigh and quietly muttered to himself before he raised his voice once more. "You can come out now, princess. I know you're awake."
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm her frantic heart, Genna stepped out of the bedroom but didn't make any move to approach him. He didn't look at her, his attention on a small notebook in front of him as he tapped a pencil against the table.
When she didn't come any closer, he cut his eyes at her, raising an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
"You're, uh…" Her voice shook, despite her attempts to steady it. "Are you working?"
"Yeah."
Her stomach lurched. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," he said again, tossing his pencil down so hard it bounced off the table and hit the floor. "Trying to, anyway. Just not into it tonight."
"What's it?"
He gazed at her for a moment, his expression softening. "How much did you hear, Genna?"
"Enough. You told your brother you'd have it handled tonight, then you mentioned me… that you were with me."
"That's what you think you heard?"
"No, that's exactly what I heard."
"Wrong," he said, reaching down to snatch up his pencil again, using it to point at her. "I never said your name. He knows I'm with a girl, my girl, but he doesn't have a clue who she is."
"He doesn't?"
"Nope," he said. "Kills him, too, not knowing who I'm dating."
"Dating?" Genna said. "Is that what we're doing?"
"You got another word for it?"
No, she didn't, although they hadn't really dated. They couldn't, really. Could they?
"Anyway, since I neglected work earlier, I had to get out of bed and try to handle it… it, being the books," he said, motioning toward his notebook.
Hesitantly, Genna approached him, seeing the elaborate math problems worked out in the margins of the pages, answers circled while others were scribbled out. She paused right beside his chair, gazing down at it. The books. He was a bookie? "This is what you do?"
"Yes." He sighed, gazing down at the notebook, scribbling a few more things down before tearing out a page filled with names and numbers. "I spend my days doing mathematical statistics."
"So, you're kinda like a geeky gangster, then."
He laughed, grabbing her around the waist. She yelped as he pulled her down onto his lap. Leaning toward her, he kissed the exposed skin of her chest near the peak of her breasts. "You could say that."
"Huh," she said. "Fascinating. Where does the communications degree come in?"
"Hmm, well… I have decent, uh, oral skills."
Genna blushed at that. "I wouldn't know."
"You wouldn't, would you?" he said. "I'll have to remember to show you next time."
"Next time?"
"Yeah. I'd show you now, but, well…" He held up the paper he had torn from the notebook. "My brother's waiting for this, and it's better I go to him than for him to try to find me."
"Understood," she said standing up from his lap, mourning the loss of his touch the moment she was away from him. Man, she had it bad. "I'll get dressed."
She pulled her clothes on quickly, meeting him back in the living room as she slipped on her shoes. Matty grabbed his keys, and the two of them set out for his car.
"I can drop you off at your house on my way," he said, looking in the rearview mirror as the garage door opened.
She looked at him incredulously. "Are you crazy?"
"Possibly," he said, smirking as he backed up, pausing to close the garage door again, before taking off down the street. "Crazy about you, anyway."
"Yeah, well, you have to be certifiable to even think about going to my house," she said. "My father would kill you."
"Your father's out of town," he said. "He's up in Connecticut. And your brother, well… word is he has a girl down in Little Italy he's going to be spending the weekend with."
She gaped at him. "How do you…?"
"Give me some credit here, Genna," he replied. "I know what I'm getting myself into."
Shaking her head, she looked away from him and glanced at the clock on the dash. It was almost three in the morning. "You're not as good as you think you are. My brother saw you."
"In East Harlem?"
"Yeah."
"I figured," Matty muttered. "I saw him standing there so I kept on going. I didn't even think to check where he was before I swung by. It was a rough day."
"Your mom was in the hospital," Genna said quietly, recalling the conversation Dante had with their father.
"How do you…?" he started, laughing dryly as he cut off, shaking his head. "I guess we're not the only ones who keep tabs on the other side."
"Of course not. You seem to baffle them, though."
"Why?"
She hesitated, silence enveloping the car. The radio was turned off, the air so quiet that Genna could hear every one of her shaky breaths. "They can't figure out why you're here."
"You didn't tell them why?"
She scoffed. "I'd never."
"Because you don't want them to know about us?"
She gazed at him in the darkness, surprised by his earnest tone. "I just don't want to give my father a reason to kill you."
He laughed dryly. "Your father doesn't need a reason. He'd try to kill me just for existing."
"He wouldn't."
"He has," Matty said, a hard edge to his voice. "He's already tried, princess. It's certainly nothing n
ew."
His mocking tone made the hair on her nape bristle. "When?"
He shook his head, casting a glance at her. "Not now."
"Then when?"
"Just… some other time," he said. "I'd rather not get into it right now. But trust me when I say I'm not afraid of your father. There's nothing he could do to me that he hasn't already tried to do to me… tried, and failed. And always will fail."
Genna looked away from him, gazing out of the window, and said nothing else as they drove back through Manhattan. Matty drove straight to Westchester County, right to her house without her having to offer an address or any sort of directions. She wasn't surprised, not really, but it still unnerved her that they knew exactly where to find her at all times.
He pulled straight up to her front door and put the car in park, grabbing her arm to stop her when she tried to get out. He pulled her toward him and softly kissed her lips.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
"For?"
"For trusting me, even if you don't trust me."
She hesitated, glancing from him to her house then back to him again. "You got me home safe."
"Yeah."
"You said you would."
"I did."
"Guess that means I have no reason not to trust you now."
He smiled softly, letting go of her arm. "Does this mean you decided you want me? Because you still haven't called me like I told you to."
She rolled her eyes. "That's because I deleted your number."
"Seriously?"
She pulled out her phone, laughing to herself. "Yep."
Wordlessly, Matty reached over and grabbed the phone, once more plugging his number into it, before handing it back to her. "Don't delete it this time."
She smiled playfully, waving the phone toward him as she got out of the car. "I make no promises."
La Traviata. The drinking song.
The music echoed through the dining room, so soft the others didn't seem to notice it, but it was all Matty could hear. Over and over, again and again.
It was his father's favorite song.
His father's favorite opera.
It grated on Matty's every nerve.
He sat at the table, pushing the food around on his plate, not hungry in the least. He wasn't sure why he'd agreed to this charade of a family dinner.