Adrian turns to look back at me. “What about you?”
“Where do I go? What do I do?”
“I’d go to your old room,” Adrian suggests. “You can see if Ju’s awake—she has Roman for the night. Didn’t want to wake him up with all this shit. He does not sleep at night, so she might be happy to see you.”
I’m torn between amusement and sympathy at the mental image of Adrian coming to help Mia with the baby since Mateo probably stayed in bed. He wasn’t much of a helper with Rosalie. It didn’t matter so much since we had a nanny and a housekeeper, but he certainly wasn’t the, “You sleep, I’ll get this one” type of dad.
Adrian adds, “I’m sure he’ll come to talk to you, so I wouldn’t get too comfortable.”
“So… I don’t need a guard anymore?”
Adrian raises an eyebrow. “Do you think you need a guard?”
“No,” I answer quickly, shaking my head. “Nope, I don’t. No interest in misbehaving. None whatsoever.”
“Good.”
“So… killing me is definitely off? That’s not happening, just so we’re clear?”
“Seems that way. Unless you pull a Meg, jump the gun, and fuck something else up.”
I grimace. “Must we refer to doing a dumb thing prematurely as pulling a Meg?”
“I like it,” Rafe states. “Has a nice ring to it.”
Something just occurred to me. When I didn’t fire at Mateo but tried to shoot Dante instead, everyone gave their money to Rafe.
“Hey.” I narrow my eyes suspiciously. “You bet on me.”
“Don’t read too much into it,” he advises me. “No one else would, so I took one for the team. I figured it was going to lose me fifty bucks, but… well, I can afford to lose fifty bucks. Couldn’t make the bet at all if someone didn’t take the long shot.”
“Yeah, seems like you’re developing a real knack for drawing that short straw,” I say, lightly.
Rafe shrugs his shoulders, then follows after Adrian as they head for the study to wait for Mateo.
Rafe’s words that first night after family dinner suddenly return to me. At the time, I took it as him being an asshole, but if he’s been playing a part, acting out a role in one of Mateo’s productions, maybe he wasn’t being an asshole when he said certain asshole things to me. Maybe he was trying to warn me.
Maybe Alec and Adrian are right about Rafe.
Maybe he interfered.
Chapter Twenty
Mateo
“No, not yet. Don’t go yet.”
I smile faintly, peppering Mia’s face with kisses. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
She pouts adorably as I lift my hips, pulling out of her sweet little pussy. I have to kiss her again. It’s a physical compulsion. It’s an accomplishment in self-control every time I manage to leave my bed when the alternative is staying here with Mia.
I barely make it onto my back and she rolls over, pulling herself snugly against my body and resting her head on my chest. She’s needier than usual tonight. That’s understandable. It’s a pleasant aftereffect of fucking with her head.
“Stay,” she murmurs, pressing her lips to my right pectoral.
“I have to go take care of some business first. Then I’ll come back.”
“It’s the middle of the night. Can’t business wait?”
“Everyone is waiting for me.”
“Let them wait,” she says, trailing a finger down my chest. “I need my husband.”
“Mm, that’s hard to say no to.”
She climbs on top of me, grinding her pussy against me. “Then don’t say no.”
I grip her hips and roll her back over before the little minx gets me going again. She wrinkles her nose up in disapproval, but it fades as I move to hover over her. Now she smiles pleasantly, looping her arms around my neck and pulling me in for a kiss.
“I promise I’ll wear you out when I come back,” I offer.
“Mm hmm. You also promised you weren’t going to put me through an emotional hurricane again and that clearly wasn’t true.”
“Hey, I tried.”
“A for effort,” she tells me.
I lean down and drop a kiss on her lips to take the sting out of the reprimand that’s about to follow. “I need you to understand, tonight could have been real. Every bit of it.”
Her gaze drops to my chest and she nods. “I know. I get it. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize… I don’t think that way.”
“I know. But I do, so when I say things have to be a certain way, I’m not being an asshole. I’m looking out for you. I’m looking out for the people I love. I’m doing what’s best for us. You can’t save everyone. You give people the rules they need to survive, and if they can’t abide them, that’s their problem. People can’t be pardoned for every fuck-up. Then people start fucking up a lot more.”
“I’ll only protect you from now on,” she swears. “And Adrian. And the kids. Everyone else can go suck an egg.”