LITMIR.BIZ

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far more savvy than me. They started Libertine?’

      ‘The app for the wealthy?’ Abby had heard of it. His family really was everywhere!

      ‘Yes, it provides anything for anyone, just so long as you can afford it. Anyway, I accepted their advice that my bedside restaurant chain wasn’t the best idea, though I still think it could work.’

      ‘Nobody would ever leave.’ Abby smiled.

      She didn’t want to leave.

      ‘What about...’ Matteo had been about to ask about her sister but he kept having to remind himself of what Abby had told him and what her father had. ‘What about you?’ he asked instead. ‘Any brothers or sisters?’

      ‘An older sister,’ Abby said. ‘Annabel. We’ve never really got on.’

      ‘Because?’

      ‘Because I make things complicated apparently. She’s married to my father.’ Abby rolled her eyes. ‘Well, not my father exactly but...’

      ‘I get the picture.’

      ‘She’s pregnant,’ Abby said. ‘With her first. At the end of October I’ll be an aunt and I haven’t seen my sister in years.’

      ‘At all?’

      Abby shook her head. ‘We talk on the phone at Christmas and things but I haven’t been home for a long time.’

      ‘Years?’

      She nodded but didn’t elaborate.

      Abby didn’t want to spoil this night with people who weren’t them.

      It was just so nice to eat and then to lie there side by side and to talk.

      And because it was so nice and they were both so relaxed Matteo tried to tell her some of what was on his mind.

      The Origins of Them, as he called it.

      ‘Hey, you know your necklace...’

      ‘It’s not actually mine,’ Abby said. ‘It’s my father’s.’

      ‘Yes, but...’ He hesitated for a beat too long and Abby continued speaking.

      ‘My mother left it to him. He’s got a big do in July and has told me that he wants me there, looking presentable and wearing the necklace.’

      Matteo swallowed.

      ‘I’m not going to go though.’

      He breathed out a sigh of relief. ‘How come?’

      ‘We don’t really talk. Well, not since...’ She didn’t want to discuss it again and so she changed the subject a little. ‘There’s a huge party in LA on the same night. Anyone who placed in the Henley Cup will be there and so now I’ve got a legitimate reason not to go to my father’s function.’ She looked at him. ‘You should come.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘You’re our sponsor...’

      ‘And?’

      The relief that she wasn’t going to her father’s function, just the little rush of being let off the hook, had Matteo stop worrying about the problems that beset them, and he moved a little closer and started playing with the tie to her robe.

      Yes, Matteo decided, he’d tell her about her father and the necklace but at a better time.

      After the race, maybe?

      ‘Have you thought about what I said about us two?’

      ‘I have.’ Abby answered him as casually as she could—as if she hadn’t spent way too many hours poring over his words. Now was the time to say no, that it was perhaps the most stupid of ideas, yet, side-on facing each other, his fingers found the swell of her nipple, even through the thick robe, and he stroked it, just not enough for Abby.

      ‘And?’ Matteo asked.

      ‘I don’t know,’ Abby admitted.

      ‘Better than a no,’ Matteo said. ‘At least it’s something to work on.’

      Which he was. She could feel his fingers at the very tip of her breast but as his lips found hers, Matteo’s hand flattened and the pressure of his warm palm was divine. It was a different kiss to the one they’d shared earlier; this was a sexy kiss and his naked torso she now explored beneath her hands and he let her. Odd that at twenty-seven it was more than she’d done with a man. His leg came over hers and then Matteo’s fingers were at the tie of her robe, but he held back from peeling it open.

      Abby wanted him to.

      God, she loathed that she tied double knots.

      His lips moved from her mouth and to her neck and Abby’s hands drifted down, feeling his toned stomach right to the edge of his belt, and she wanted so much to move her hand farther down but resisted.

      Matteo had endless patience but that didn’t make him blind to need and if she so much as moved to halt him, then he would, but instead they just carried on kissing as he made light work of her robe.

      Now he peeled it open and so their chests were naked and touching, just enough to ensure it was not enough.

      ‘Don’t rush me,’ Abby said, which was contrary to how she felt.

      ‘I’m kicking you out in five minutes,’ Matteo said and then he took her hand and placed it where she wanted it to be. His tongue caressed hers and she explored him through the fabric, hard and straining, and she ached to set him free but opened her eyes and met his gaze.

      Oh, she wanted.

      But she wanted more too.

      More than Matteo would ever give.

      ‘I don’t want to lead you on,’ Abby said, ‘if I don’t...’

      ‘You can lead me on any time.’

      ‘I’m going to go down,’ Abby said, her hand still on him and his smile made her smile. ‘I meant to my room.’

      ‘I know,’ Matteo said. ‘A guy can dream.’

      He made her feel sexy, so much so that she wanted to do just what the suggestive air called.

      He could actually feel her reluctance as Abby got off the bed and it felt like a win to Matteo. He’d never really got the saying “it’s worth the wait.” Matteo waited for no one, impulse never lasted that long and he went with them at whim.

      She would be worth the wait though.

      As Abby went into the en suite to retrieve her clothes Matteo called her back.

      ‘You can’t put those back on.’

      ‘Well, I’m not going down in my robe.’

      ‘Send the butler to get you a change of clothes, then,’ Matteo said and went to reach for the phone but Abby halted him.

      ‘No, he’ll think...’

      ‘Who cares what he thinks?’

      ‘I care.’

      ‘God, you’re a prude,’ Matteo said but not nastily. ‘I’ll go and get something for you to wear.’ He really was nice like that, Abby thought as he got out of bed and put on a fresh shirt. ‘I can have a little rummage through your underwear drawer while I’m there!’

      She handed over her room card and Matteo headed out to the elevators.

      He wanted her to stay, yet he didn’t want to push, Matteo thought as he pressed the button for the tenth floor.

      And then, as the elevator stopped at the eighteenth floor and Hunter stepped in, Matteo changed his mind.

      He wanted Abby in his room and the thought that she might be here, in this elevator dressed in her robe and alone with Hunter right now, had Matteo

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