Accardi (Genevieve and Matteo) by Allison Franklin novel Chapter 69

Chapter Sixty–Nine

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Gen strode down the back hallway of the restaurant looking for a private place to talk. She saw a utility closet and held the door open.

Matteo brushed past her and she fought the urge to inhale his scent. She stepped in after him and closed the door. She turned with her

arms crossed to face him. The closet was much too small, and he was much too big. He stared down at her with his hands in his pockets

as if he wished he could be anywhere else.

“What are you doing here?” Gen asked.

He smirked slightly, reminding her that he’d given the other woman his best while continuing to give her scraps. He pulled his cigarette

carton from his jacket pocket and pulled a cigarette out with his lips.

“It’s a restaurant. I’m eating dinner,” he said before lighting his cigarette.

“Eating dinner with some random girl?”

“She’s not random.”

Gen fumed. So he was here on a date. “How dare you.”

Matteo rolled his eyes as he took his first drag. “What exactly is the problem here?”

“You!”

“Me?”

“Yes!” Gen huffed. She pulled the cigarette from his mouth before stomping it on the ground. She poked him in the chest. “You are the

problem. I got kidnapped. I was beaten and used as a pawn and you… you just…act like it’s nothing? Now a week later you don’t say a

single word to me all day at work and I learn you’ve moved on to not only the slut next door but some other woman too?”

Matteo’s eyes darkened and his jaw ticked, “I did as you asked. You were terrified of me. I left you alone to have space like you wanted.”

“I was traumatized! I was hurt! I was in fight or flight mode and you were holding a huge gun with several more strapped to your chest! I

needed time to adjust.”

“And I gave it to you,” he said, sounding frustrated. “You think I want to be sitting there watching another man put his hand on your thigh? You think I enjoy watching him touch you?”

“So, what? You’re tired of waiting for me to be ready but you don’t want anyone else to have me? Or is it just that you’re like every other

man who thinks he can have…”

Something snapped in him. One moment he was looking down at her, listening intently, the next his hand was around her throat and he shoved her against the door. Gen choked, caught off guard. Her hands flew to the arm holding her pinned to the door. His fingers

loosened as his eyes leveled with hers.

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“You know what I want? I want you safe. That means either having you by my side forever or on the opposite end of the continent,” he

hissed in a voice low, clogged with emotion. “Everything that happened is because of your connection to me. None of it would have

happened to you if I hadn’t made it clear to everyone with eyes how I felt about you. What happened to you? It was nothing. You know nothing of my world. We are lucky it was just some spoiled wannabe punk that took you. If it was someone on my level…” Matteo didn’t finish. He pressed her more firmly against the door and brought his mouth to her ear.

“Do you know what being my woman would entail? Do you know what I would do with you? Listen closely, Weakness and I’ll tell you. I

would lock you in my apartment. I wouldn’t let you leave unless it was by my side. If I wasn’t there, I’d have two of my most trusted men

tied to your ankles ready to kill anyone who even glanced in your direction. You would interact with no one I hadn’t personally vetted.

You certainly wouldn’t be allowed to get dinner with some fucking asshole like Paul. You’d be trained to protect yourself with and without

a gun. You’d quit your job at the firm because I sure as hell would never let you move back to Boston. If you ever tried to leave me, I’d

have you within thirty minutes because of the tracker I’ll have inserted under your skin.”

Gen’s breath was coming in short halting gasps. He stepped impossibly closer to her, pressing her back flat to the door and crushing her

chest with his. His voice remained low.

“You would be mine, Genevieve. In every sense of the word. There would be no other man for you. That’s why I’ve nearly destroyed myself

by staying away from you when all I’ve wanted was to climb through the window in that tiny bedroom of yours in Boston and pin you

beneath me until you were so consumed with pleasure that you couldn’t remember your own name let alone another man’s. I. Would.

Own. You…” His fist flexed against the soft skin of her throat while his nose trailed over her shoulder. He inhaled and his breath came out

in a stuttering sound of desperation. He stepped away from her, allowing her to take in a full breath. “That’s not what you want.”

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Gen continued to use the door for support as she stared up at him. The space was far too small. She was overcome with his scent, his

proximity. She itched to reach out and grab his jacket. The notion that he stayed away for her own good only heightened her resolve.

Tears shimmered in her eyes as for the first time, he let his mask down and she glimpsed the turmoil behind his golden stare.

“At least I’d have you,” she whispered.

Matteo’s eyes widened. “What?”

She licked her dry lips and his gaze tracked the movement. She stepped away from the door and he stepped back, trying to keep distance

between them.

“What if… after everything you just said, I still want you?”

He scoffed. “Bullshit.

“Matteo, I want you,” she admitted.

“I wasn’t being facetious, Gen. I meant every word I just said. Life with me is barely a life. There are men who want me dead. They will

use you to get to me. Even the Feds and Police will want a piece of you. I can’t be selfish with you anymore. You would need to know everything. All of the parts of me that make me unable to sleep at night. I have to listen to those not blinded by emotion. So many people depend on me. I have to focus on the life my family built. I can’t keep chasing you.”

“You won’t have to. I’m done running.”

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His hazel eyes bounced between her own, trying to find the lie or fear she did not feel. The door suddenly opened behind them and Gen jumped back. Matteo gripped her arms and his fingers singed her skin.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” the busboy apologized while his face flamed.

“Excuse me,” Gen said, rushing from the room.

She felt, more than heard, Matteo behind her. Before they entered the main dining area, he roughly caught her arm and shoved her

against the wall. Before she could make a sound of surprise, his lips were covering hers in a violent, demanding kiss of possession. His

fingers dug into her waist, leaving bruises. Her hands wrapped around the lapels of his jacket. She moaned as he pushed further into her.

Then he pulled away.

His breathing was as harsh as hers. “You have to be certain. Think about what you really want. I’ll be at my apartment tonight if you

decide I’m worth risking your life for. Tonight or never,” His hand returned to her throat. “If he touches you again, though, just know my

firing him will be the least painful thing he experiences. Understood?”

Gen nodded, unable to formulate any kind of response after that kiss. He smirked and pulled her bottom lip down with his thumb. She

thought about warning him that her lipstick covered his mouth but then decided she liked the idea of showing the hot brunette waiting at

his table who he really belonged to. Matteo pushed away from her and entered the dining area. Gen ran into the girl’s bathroom and

quickly straightened her dress, fluffled her ruffled hair and tried her best to fix her smeared lipstick. There was nothing she could do

about her flushed face, her wide eyes, or the wrinkled creases in her waist.

When she walked back out, she immediately looked at Matteo who didn’t even glance her way. He seemed calm and collected while she

could barely make it to her table with how wobbly her knees felt. Her father stood up when he saw her. His eyes moved to the man across

the dining area who she had left the room with but had come back before her.

“Are you okay?” he asked. She sidestepped Paul’s hand as he tried to help her sit down.

“Much better, thank you.”

She sat down and started inhaling the fried chicken and collard greens on her plate. Both men at her table were rigid. She glanced up to find Paul chugging his beer and her father continuing to glare across the room. Gerome looked back at her, his eyes filled with rare

disapproval.

“Genevieve, tell me what it is you are doing with that man,” he demanded.

Gen felt the even rarer emotion of anger toward her father. She set her utensils down and crossed her arms. “Why don’t you tell me how

you know who that man is?” she challenged.

Her father’s jaw ticked and his narrowed eyes looked once more at Matteo before shaking his head. He picked up his knife and started cutting into his country–fried steak. “So, Paul, tell me, when will you hear about this new job and possibly move back to New York?”

By the time she, Paul and her father finished dinner, Matteo and the woman with him were already gone. Outside of the restaurant, the trio waited for a taxi. She hugged her father and stumbled back a step when the effects of her careless drinking started to take hold. Paul

caught her by the elbow and smiled down at her, recognizing the signs of her drunken state.

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“Gen, let Paul take you home,” her father suggested, his eyes creased with worry.

“I’m fine,” she hissed, angered at the hiccup that came at the most inopportune time.

“I got her Gerome, you go on ahead,” Paul assured him, ushering her father toward the waiting taxi.

Gen, sensing his intent, turned on her heel and started walking down the street. A moment later though she felt his hand on her elbow

again. She yanked her arm free only to stumble and nearly fall. His chuckle echoed across the darkened street.

“Don’t touch me,” she growled as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

Ignoring her demand, he wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her close. She barred his chest with her hand, trying and failing to

push him away.

“Come on, Baby. We had fun tonight, didn’t we? Both of us finding each other again… it was fate. Your dad loves me, we are good together, stop fighting this,” he said, pulling her closer rather than letting her pull free.

Gen glared up at him. Movement over his shoulder caught her eye. She squinted into the darkness and spotted Thomas, waiting to see if he needed to intervene. Suddenly a dangerous, deadly idea came to her whiskey–soaked brain. She smiled up at Paul. Clearly caught off guard by her sudden mood change, his eyes widened and his smile faltered.

“You know what, Paul? You’re right…” She smoothed her hand down his chest. “Take me home, hm?”

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