Page 33 of All I Desire

Chapter Nine

NATALIA

The phone’son the coffee table, emitting a bubbly pop tune. It cuts into our crackling sensuality and halts our kiss. It’s as if a horde of tweens are doing a flash mob in the middle of an adult film. We pause, our lips hovering next to one another’s.

“You have an Arianna Grande song as your ringtone?” I ask, stifling a laugh.

Matthew stops kissing me, putting his forehead to mine. He groans.

“Yeah. My daughter set that. She said I couldn’t have a boring ring, so she did something to my cell. I don’t know how to change it.”

I giggle. That’s pretty adorable. “You should get that call.”

“I know.” He brushes a quick kiss across my lips and sits up, half straddling me. He splays his right hand on my bare stomach.

“Hello?”

I study his rugged form. He’s not jacked, but deliciously muscular around the shoulders and arms. The whole shirtless while wearing jeans thing is working well for him. If this is what dad bods look like, I’m a fan.

I run my finger around the dark, downy line of hair near his bellybutton. He grins at me then licks his bottom lip.

His dark brows furrow together. I snap out of my sexy reverie.

“What? Yvette? They did what?”

My stomach tightens at his shocked tone. Yvette. That’s his ex-wife’s name. Uh-oh.

“Can I talk with her? Or is she not calming down?” He swallows.

From the hard, worried look on his face, I can tell that something’s definitely wrong.

He takes a deep breath. “Okay. Is she calm enough to go to sleep? I’ll call her to say goodnight in a bit. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah. Okay. Bye.”

Even after he sets the phone on the coffee table, he remains sitting up, straddling me. Because of that, it feels right to reach for my tank top and slip it on. He moves to a sitting position, and I do, too.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, Natalia. That was my ex.” He brushes my hair away from my face.

My stomach plummets. Does his ex call him often? That’s awkward and weird. Maybe he’s not as perfect as I thought. “No apologies. Is something wrong?”

His lips are pressed together in a hard line. “It’s my daughter. All last year in school, she was bullied by a group of kids. Tonight, she went to the community pool and some of those kids were there. My ex said she was inconsolable when she got home.”

My mouth goes dry. “Oh no. That sounds awful.”

“Yeah. It’s this one boy in particular, one little asshole. The kind of kid who will grow up to be a lobbyist for foreign dictators or something. He’s just relentless. When it first happened, my ex and I told Chloe that he was doing it because he liked her.” He pauses. “But that’s the wrong thing to say, we later found out.”

My heart’s suddenly beating fast, for a whole different reason than earlier. That’s how things had started with Chad and me, actually. He’d picked on me in middle school. Then in high school, the bullying turned to affection. We dated, and then things took a dark turn.

“Correct. Because you shouldn’t teach a kid that love equals abuse.”

Matthew glances at me. “We’re hoping that this move here to Paradise Beach will help her in every way.”

I nod slowly. “Hasn’t the school year already started? I heard some people at work talking about it.”

“Yeah. We actually pulled her out to homeschool her last spring, things got so bad. Well, my ex did. I wasn’t entirely in favor of it, but agreed to try. Then Yvette got a promotion at work and we agreed it was best I bring Chloe to Paradise Beach.”

“I see.”

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