Page 19 of Forbidden Lord
She heard footsteps but kept her eyes closed as she sprawled across the bed, snug beneath a soft sheet.
She was in heaven and she didn’t want to leave.
Until today, with Matteo, she’d thought, mistakenly, that married people sex would be boring.
Clearly she operated in her own delusional world.
Matteo slipped his hand under the sheet and massaged her still tingly naked backside. “It’s time to get up.”
“Don’t get up. Ever. Let’s stay in bed.” She refused to open her eyes.
Right here, right now, she was living in glory. She curved her body toward his wonderful touch and motioned with her head, but he said, “No. We need to get up, Sheena.”
This time she glanced at him and he stopped moving. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed like he judged her as she asked, “What’s going on?”
“Relax, Sheena. Don’t look at me funny. I’m just hungry.”
“Oh.” Drat. The bubble around her burst, allowing doubts to cascade in. She opened her eyes and sat, pushing her blonde hair out of her face. “I’m now nervous around you.”
“Why?” He rested one of his legs on the bed and lowered his brows. “I thought… this afternoon was amazing.”
“Yes. That’s true.” She curled her legs under her, still covered by the sheets. “It was.”
He eyed her. “So what’s made you nervous?”
His hand brushed lightly against her arm.
This was too much. Her hair stood on end and she let out a small sigh. “The last time I had a relationship based on great sex, I ended up alone. It took memonthsto convince myself I hadn’t made a huge mistake. I’m still not sure I was completely okay with what happened—I thought when I married you, I’d get some stability.”
The words just flew out of her mouth but Charles’s memory hit hard. She’d felt so…used. Matteo was better in bed, by far, but she couldn’t forget how awful she’d felt the morning she’d checked out of the hotel alone and made her way home.
Matteo pressed his shoulder to hers and said, “You have that.”
What? Oh stability. She sighed. They were married. Somehow this had happened, though she didn’t feel married or that she belonged here with Matteo. Charles had cheated on her and Matteo, despite all his words, wasn’t raised to be… faithful. And the stories about him through the years weren’t exactly pious, even if his ‘goal’ to raise balanced children sounded genuine. She scooted into his arms and needed to clear her head. “But now that we… connect… in bed? I’m nervous. We need to go and do something.”
“What do you have in mind?”
In school, he’d disappeared fast on his board, and she’d not see him again. It was how he ran. She met his gaze and asked, “Teach me to skateboard?”
He laughed, not expecting that answer. “Sure. I have my own park out back.”
She put her feet on the ground to get up as she said, “I’m not surprised.”
Sheena was about to drop the sheets when Matteo asked, “So, what happened with this Charles? You said he was unpredictable, and I assume he was who you meant about the hotel… and being left alone.”
She held the sheets tight and made her way toward the bathroom, refusing to look back. “I’m way too open sometimes.”
“It’s easier when you can talk about it,” he called in through the bathroom door.
She quickly cleaned herself up and changed. Luckily she’d packed jeans so she’d be fine skating now that she slipped into her old clothes, including her favorite green shirt that went over one shoulder and had a huge daisy she’d painted on it.
She left the bathroom and tossed the sheets on the bed. “I thought Charles was absolutely wonderful. Like you, he could go through a crowd, laugh and schmooze people to get what he wanted.”
Matteo offered her sneakers that were lying near the door as he said, “That doesn’t make him a bad choice, or me a good choice.”
Matteo had been honest with her from the beginning. Charles had made her believe he’d wanted her, but in the end, that wasn’t true. Honesty was better.
She didn’t say that, not wanting to give Matteo any reason to be cocky, like he’d been in high school. “Charles wanted my art connections more than me. You wanted me as your wife, knowing my father owned a restaurant and that we aren’t in any way noble.”
