Page 16 of Dare To Free Us

“I know the risk, Luca, but it’s the only way I can come up with.” I sprang up in bed to see Matteo sitting at the edge, with a phone pressed to his ear. “I need you to get it done as fast as possible.” There was a long pause. “Thanks, brother.”

He often called Luca brother.

“Matteo?”

He turned and my face fell at the look on his, half covered in shadow by what little light shone through the windows. Something was not sitting well with him and my heart started to pound.

“Arianna, we have to talk.”

Oh no.Fear froze me like a statue as the dark closed in around my heart.

“Easy Beautiful,” Matteo said, bracing a hand on the bed as he turned to fully face me, “it’s nothing like that. But I’m going to need you to trust me.”

“Ok,” I said warily.

“I have a plan on how to convince my father to change his mind. It’s not as simple as saying I want you. I disobeyed a direct order, you are still off limits. I have to show a reason. It might take some time, but I’ll come for you. Until then, we can have no contact.”

“What? Are you kidding me? After what we just did? You want me to go back to pretending nothing happened?” Anger flashed and my cheeks heated. Did he have any idea what he was asking? How much it hurt? “Why?” I asked, holding back tears.

“Because my father has to think you don’t mean anything real to me,” Matteo rumbled, his upper lip curling into a snarl. “If I have to prove to him that I wasn’t chasing after you, having contact between us will be a big red flag. He’ll say no for that reason alone.”

“That sounds so fucking stupid,” I growled. But it did make sense knowing what I did about Lorenzo. Didn’t change the fact it was fucking ridiculous though.

“I need you to trust me,” he growled, and I could tell his authority was pressing to the surface. Matteo was no less the leader sitting there naked with me then he was in a room full of his men. Being questioned pushed all his wrong buttons. I knew that it wasn’t meant to hurt me, I could see that in the way he tensed when the pain in my voice mixed with the anger. “Do you trust me, Arianna?”

“Yes, I trust you.” I didn’t really have a choice even if the answer was no.

“Good girl. Remember, no contact.”

“Ok, no contact.” My heart sank.

“Come here,” Matteo whispered as he crawled up the bed and pulled me into his arms. I sank into his embrace, feeling the heat of him chasing away the chill that was clinging to my skin.

I didn’t want to go without contact. I didn’t want to say goodbye in the morning knowing we would have to hide what happened. I didn’t want to leave not knowing when and where we could see each other again. It was almost enough to make what happened earlier seem like a cruel joke, like what happened was nothing more than a superficial hookup that didn’t contain anything more than surface level lust.

It had meant everything to me. Now that glow I felt when falling asleep in his arms was flickering frantically, trying to stay bright. But it was hard to keep it so when all I felt was worry and a lot of hurt that he would ask such a thing of me.He knows what he’s doing.I had to believe that.

“Hey,” he said when I snuggled my face harder against his chest, the cold feeling seeping deeper beneath my skin.

I looked up to meet his gaze in the near dark but his eyes were bright. Matteo kissed the end of my nose and I breathed in a sigh of comfort from that gentle touch. “I will come for you, Arianna.”

“I know,” I told him as he leaned in to kiss my lips. I threaded my hand into his hair as he rolled me onto my back, deepening the kiss. My body burned for him as his weight settled over me, pressing me into the mattress. Matteo kissed me deep and slow, cupping my face with one hand and threading his fingers with mine in his other. I could feel his arousal growing against my leg. I shifted under him moving so our bodies were in the perfect position to come together, but Matteo didn’t make a move to take me just yet.

He kissed me like we had all the time in the world. Like tomorrow morning wasn’t going to arrive in a couple of hours and the idea of it being our last moments together wasn’t in any way possible.

But if that was the case why did it feel like I was losing him all over again?

2

MATTEO

“You sure about this Matteo?” Luca asked gravely from the driver’s seat as he maneuvered our SUV through the busy Boston streets.

“Yes,” I answered without much emotion, because I wished there was another way. One where I could just claim Arianna as my own instead of risking my fathers wrath coming down on my head. But my concern for Luca far outweighed my own.

“You don’t have to do this you know. Father will be furious. Maybe you shouldn’t have come.” As much as I loved him being at my side, as always, I didn’t want to think about the punishment he could face for not reporting this to Lorenzo and playing a part in my disobedience.

“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to punch you more than in this moment right now,” he growled as we turned off the main road into an older part of town. An area that consisted of buildings that had seen much better days. As trash blew across the road to pile along the sidewalk the filth made me thankful I’d grown up far from this sad end of town. I wondered if driving through places like this made Luca shudder at the memories of his childhood. “I’m your brother,” Luca reprimanded. “You couldn’t keep me away. Whatever happens, I’m here for you.”

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