Caught In Her Vengeance - Book 2

44

Chapter 44

Catalina

Grabbing a pair of my most comfortable cotton underwear, I threw them on before crawling into my king-sized mattress. The hotel-style robe I'd put on in the bathroom was so plush and warm that I decided to stay in it.

I burrowed my small self into the two oversized comforters on my bed and brought my knees to my chest, curling my body into a small ball. So warm. I hugged my arms around myself, allowing my eyes to fall closed. I sighed in contentment. I needed this.

Thankfully I'd managed to talk one of Nic's lovely housekeepers into snagging me an extra comforter and four more of the softest pillows I'd ever slept on in my life. There was something about being engulfed in a sea of these lush blankets and cushions that made me feel safe.

Nic enjoyed luxury, and it showed. Not that I was complaining. I guess I never did, did I? Maybe that's why I was blinded by who he...they really were. Looking back on it now, maybe I didn't want to see what was right in front of me. Enough with the maybe's.

I sighed through my nose—eyes still closed to fight the sting of unshed tears burning at them. Maybe it was better this way... but at what cost?

Enough. I had to stop, or I'd get myself all worked up again. I was beyond exhausted, and the major war my body was having with my uterine walls wasn't helping.

Oh...and yeah, I was a killer, or I've killed people, rather? I groaned again, wrapping my arms tighter around myself. I wasn't exactly sure how the terminology went.

Honestly, did it really matter? This is what I came here for... Right? I should've been thrilled. I wasn't.

The sound of something dropping onto the hardwood floor made me jump out of my thoughts. I wasn't expecting him to actually come back.

Liam loathed being around me during my time of the month. He said I was too needy and that my pain couldn't be as bad as I said it was—boyfriend of the year. I know. But I wasn't exaggerating. After the miscarriage, my periods became damn near unbearable. And my doctor refused to listen and just told me the pain was normal. There was nothing normal about it.

"Shit." I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand before popping my head up from beneath the blankets. Nic was struggling to retrieve a bag of chips that had fallen with one of his massive tattooed hands while balancing a tower of other goodies and a heating pad in the other. "Goddamn it." I snorted a laugh when he dropped a few more items.

That caught his attention. He rolled his deep blue eyes upward to look at me, a sexy smirk playing on his full pink lips, and my breath hitched. It still amazed me how he could invariably do that to me with just one look.

"You think this is funny, do you?" He asked, licking them, and I felt a warm sensation blooming in my abdomen. There was more than just sexual attraction stirring. No one had ever taken care of me when I felt like this. Only Lo, but this was different. He was so careful with me in the bathroom, tending to my wounds. I could feel the walls I'd put up beginning to crack, and it terrified the shit out of me.

Immediately pushing that feeling away, I nodded. "I do," I said as I got off the bed to help him. As much as I appreciated watching him struggle. The junk food in his hands was calling my name, bending down to pick up the pack of my favorite Oreos.

We both reached for the package of milk's favorite cookies at the same time. Our fingers brushed up against each other, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Heat shuddered through my body, but I cleared my throat and pulled my hand away.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he set the remaining items down on the corner of the bed. I eyed him curiously as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of extra-strength Tylenol. This man is a godsend.

"You really thought of everything, huh?" I asked, crawling on my knees back onto the plush mattress. Grabbing one of the bottles of water he brought into the room, I popped two of the painkillers. Then I tucked myself back into my warm den of blankets.

Nic shook his head and held his hands up and mock surrender. "I had a little help," he said with a sly grin before turning his attention to the footsteps entering my room. "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear."

Matteo, of course.

"I'm sorry, the devil?" I snorted in amusement, tilting my head to the side. "I don't see Lorenzo anywhere around here, do you? Matteo's an angel." I winked at him, and he rolled his silver eyes exaggeratedly, making me laugh.

I couldn't help but notice as they stood side-by-side how absolutely absurd the size difference was between them. One was holding a massive pizza box that nearly swallowed him up, while the other was just massive. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until the doughy, tomato-y, cheesy goodness penetrated my nostrils. My stomach growled loud enough to make each of them laugh.

"Sooo, buddy, what you got there in the box?" From the familiar logo, I already knew. It was from our regular spot.

Of the four of them, Matteo did know me best. We practically spent every damn day together for weeks after I found out about Olivia. "Extra large extra hot extra cheesy pizza, and oh yeah, extra cheese to go on your extra cheese," he announced proudly.

And I immediately was reminded of the night I bribed him with two cheese pizzas and a six-pack of beer to help paint my bedroom. That night changed everything between us. I wondered if he was thinking the same.

As much as I hated to admit it. I missed him so much more than I'd allowed myself to accept.

"Ouuu, Gimme! Gimme!" I sat up in the bed and flung my arms forward, wiggling my fingers to get him to fork over the greasy goods.

The left corner of Matteo's lips tipped upward, and so did one of his thick black eyebrows. "Say, please."

Thankfully the pills I'd taken were starting to kick in. Or I'd be kicking his ass and taking that NY Style Pizza from him my-damn-self. "So you're just going to starve me?" I pulled my brows together, biting back the smile threatening to splay my lips. And I wrapped my arms around my stomach to play it up—as though I was having hunger pains.

"Not if you ask nicely," Matteo countered with a mischievous glint in his gray gaze, making Nic snicker. My eyes widened a bit, taken aback by the surprisingly saucy nature of his response.

Hmm, it seemed I wasn't the only one who changed during our six-month... Let's just call it a sabbatical.

Okay, if that's the way he wanted it.

"Excuse me," I questioned, deliberately dropping my voice an octave or two as I dislodged myself from the comfort of the nest of blankets and pillows I was wrapped in. "And here I thought we were friends, Matty."

I playfully eyed the two men perched at the end of my bed as I crawled toward where they were standing. "You know?" I came up onto my knees in front of them, and I hadn't missed the tangible way the air shifted around the three of us. It only fueled my efforts. It also meant my little game of 'seduce the man with the pizza' was working. "After the day I've had...I'm prepared to fight for it."

I brought my hands up and gently placed them on each corner of the opposite end of the box Matteo was holding. "Is that what you want?" I asked, my seductive gaze flickering back and forth between the two. Nic clenched his jaw, his deep blue eyes ran down the length of my body, while the Adam's apple in the middle of Matteo's throat slowly bobbed up and down as he swallowed. "To fight me for it."

Matteo looked as though he were ready to concede, but instead, he leaned forward and narrowed those piercing silver eyes at me. The top half of his body hovered over the top of the cardboard square, and he towered over the bed. "You do remember how that went last time for you, don't you?" Oh, he had been thinking about it too.

"Oh, come on, Matteo, I'm dying here," I told him over exaggeratedly, but he didn't budge on the box. Curling my fingers into the cardboard, I snapped to Nic. "And you're just gonna let him do me like this?" Which earned me another laugh and an impartial shrug of his shoulder. Assholes.

"The magic word, friend?"

"Seriously," I looked back at Matteo. He was enjoying this way too much. But he did kind of forgive me easily for the Salvatore situation. So I guess this was his way of making me pay—withholding one of my favorite foods. "And there I was, just calling you an angel, but I think Nic was right. You are the devil, or its spawn, at least... Because you're just being mean now."

Instead of responding, he just stared at me, his hold still firm on the pizza box. And I knew I'd be the one conceding. Damn him.

"I really hate you right now."

"No, you don't," He responded matter-of-factly, and he was right. I didn't. How could I?

"Please, please, please, unhand the precious merch." It really was the best pizza in Miami for me to be begging like this. I held my hands up, folded in front of me, sarcasm dripping from each word. "I implore you, kind sir."

"Hm, Sir, I like the sound of that," he snorted arrogantly and I just gaped at him. "Now, say I'm the best, and you couldn't have taken those assholes out without me."

Oh, he was playing dirty.

"Well, I wouldn't have needed you to take out the last two if you weren't fishtailing it all over the road. I couldn't get a steady shot," I bit back, grabbing the box again and pulling to no avail.

"I could've." Nic snickered with a shrug, and I rolled my eyes.

"True," Matteo nonchalantly agreed.

"Oh, sorry, I'm not as seasoned as this veteran at his prehistoric age." I threw a thumb in Nic's direction, earning a false wounded look from him. He was only ten years my senior, but I thoroughly enjoyed fucking with him about it. I turned my glare back to Matteo. "In case you two assholes don't recall, this was, in fact, my first rodeo."

"Say I'm the best," Matteo spoke slowly and leaned closer to me. The heat radiating from him doused the small flames that began to build inside me and sent them ablaze. "And that you couldn't have taken them out without me." It appeared he was done with the back-and-forth and left me no room to argue.

"Fine," I snarled under my breath, feigning anger when I was actually aroused out of my mind. "But if you two tell anybody about this, it'll be your heads on a platter I'll be eating for dinner next." I snapped a finger towards each of them, gaining a pair of matching smug grins.

"You're the best, and I couldn't have taken those fuckers out without you or whatever." I deadpanned with an eye roll.

"Mm, I love it when she does what she is told, don't you?" Matteo asked Nic without breaking eye contact, and I shuddered involuntarily. Who was this man, and what did he do with my once timid friend?

"I really do. Though I could do without the brattiness," Nic answered him, eyes devouring me as well.

"I agree." Matteo held my gaze, and I unconsciously pressed my thighs together. "Again."

"You can't be serious," I said, a bit more breathy than I intended, and I hoped neither of them caught it. But who was I kidding?

"As a heart attack." Holy Fuck. Why did I like him putting me in my place so badly?

"Matteo Ricci." I let his name play on my tongue for a bit before continuing to submit. Not something I'm used to. I wet my lips, letting my robe slip from my right shoulder and exposing my bare tan skin to him. They both groaned, and I paused, letting the tension build—no one ever said I'd submit easily.

"Yes..." he pressed me to keep going, and I did.

"You are the best, and I couldn't have taken those assholes out without you," I purred like the kitten he once called me.

"Hm, good girl, that wasn't so hard was it?" Matteo asked me, finally setting the box down on the bed, and your girl was too stunned to speak.

Well fuck me, I wasn't certain if he was aware, but at the moment, he sounded more like his brother than he even realized. And I wasn't even sure that I was hungry anymore. But when Nic lifted the top of the box, I was hit with a gust of the yummy greasy goodness, and my stomach did cartwheels.

Scratch that. I was starving.

I hummed in excitement, my mouth watering, watching the cheese pull from the slice he handed me. "So fucking good," I moaned, taking an enormous bite. "I've missed this."

"Thank you," I said to them, genuinely grateful. They nodded, both their mouths full of pizza.

"I'm gonna go grab some paper towels," Nic announced, dropping his oily slice back into the box. We both nodded as he walked out.

"On a serious note, how are you feeling?" I knew he was talking about the things that Massimo said out there in the shed.

"I'm fine." I lied.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope, as I said, I'm fine," I shook my head and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I wasn't the least bit interested in rehashing all that bullshit right now.

"Cat, you need tal–"

"I talk to my therapist just fine," I cut him off a bit more harsher than I should. "Do you want to chat about the weird tension between you and Lorenzo?"

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