Page 99 of Matteo
I was going to be a father.
Instinctively, I pulled Rain against my body, my hand drifting down to her stomach.
“You’re mine now, Stizzy,” you know that. “You belong to us.”
“We’ll talk about it,” she whispered but I knew she’d given in a long time ago.
The version of her I’d met a year ago never would have risked her neck trying to save me. This version of her, the mother of my unborn child, had willingly walked into the fire for me.
“I think,” I whispered teasingly into her ear, sure that my brothers could hear me with their sensitive hearing. “I think you loveeee meeee.”
She jabbed a finger into my chest. “And what if I do, huh? Are you gonna get kidnapped again by your weirdo mama again?”
I couldn’t help it. “Stizzy and Matty forever sounds good, I think.”
She rolled her eyes and eased up on her tiptoes as the boat sped away from the dock. “We have a lot to talk about, Matteo.”
Chapter 28
Rain
Laying in my bed, I could see Rain pelting against the window. I’d been replaying the scene over and over again.
Matteo snapping his double's neck.
Everything from that moment to getting off the boat where Nora had been waiting for us had been a blur.
“Are you asleep?” Matteo sighed from the other side of the bed.
“No,” I mumbled, watching as a raindrop raced another down the window.
He hadn’t left my side since the entire thing. It was as if we’d become fused into one person the last week.
I liked it.
I more than liked it.
It was so fucking domestic and I loved it.
He pulled me over to be closer to him, and I rolled so that we could stare into each other’s eyes.
“What are you thinking about Stizzy?” He grinned teasingly.
He could get under my skin like no one else. “How you’re not really a Boy Scout…”
Slowly, Matteo eased in. “I’m really not, Rain. I will become a beast to protect you. I love you.”
His words made me so uncomfortable and we both knew it.
I’d never been the girl who believed in love. I’d only said it a handful of times to a few men, and it’d never gone anywhere.
His words hung so heavily in the air and I knew he wanted to hear it back.
“Matteo…I…”I trailed off and rolled away from him as the silence threatened to strangle me. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
“Okay, Stizzy, but I’m gonna be here when you get back…no more running from me, Rain.”
Hurrying from the room, I entered the bathroom and closed the door right behind me. Leaning against it, my heart started to thunder in my chest heavily and my hands went to my belly. There had been just enough change that I had a small bump now, a reminder of the child growing there.
