Accardi (Genevieve and Matteo) by Allison Franklin novel Chapter 84

Chapter Eighty–Four

Gen’s smile wobbled as she watched Matteo hand his suitcase over to a tarmac worker. She tightened it just in time for him to turn back to face ber. His eyes, more green than brown in the light from the morning sun, saw straight through her act.

“Come here,” he whispered, holding his hand out. Gen took his hand and let him reel her into his chest. “It’s only two days.”

Genevieve sighed and stepped back. “Believe it or not, I’ve gotten used to having you around.”

Matteo brushed his thumb across her cheek and smiled. “I’m happy to hear that. I plan to be around for a while yet. What’s two days?”

“Yo! Pilot says to hurry your ass!” Frankie called, strutting out the plane as if it were his.

Matteo rolled his eyes. “Jeffrey has manners. He would never tell me that,” he assured Gen.

“Maybe not,” Frankie said, walking past them to the car he had waiting. “But it’s cold as balls and I don’t want to sit here on the tarmac for half an hour while you two make out and cry.”

Matteo’s glare looked hot enough to keep Fankie plenty warm.

“Why are you leaving me with him?” she teased in a whisper.

Matteo chuckled. “Leo isn’t fully recovered. It’s better to have him with me than here. If something were to happen to you, I need my best guy.”

“Yeah, not to worry, Donna. I’ll be right there with you. I promise you won’t get lonely.”

“You’re not staying with me,” Gen said, turning in Matteo’s arms to send a glare of her own.

Frankie held out his hand and started picking at his nails. “Nah, I’ll stay next door like I have in the past.”

“No, you won’t,” Matteo informed him.

Frankie looked up in surprise. “What am I supposed to do? Curl up on your doormat like a fucking dog?”

Gen glanced back at Matteo. “Yeah, why can’t he stay at the old apartment? I’ve cleared most of my stuff out of there anyway.”

Matteo’s jaw ticked as his glare moved from Frankie. His eyes softened as he looked down at her. He stepped closer so his mouth was at her ear. His hands glided down her upper arms as he whispered, “Do you remember how I told you the walls were thin, Weakness?” Immediately Genevieve’s face burned. “Frankie has made some comments that make me distrust he’d be as gentlemanly as I have in the past. He might actually listen to you fantasize about me

while I’m gone.”

“Oh.”

“Mhmm.” His lips grazed her forehead before he placed a kiss there. “You sure you still want to have him next door?”

She looked up into his eyes and smiled before giving him a playful shrug. “I’ll just fantasize about you in the shower.”

Matteo groaned… as did Frankie, for a different reason.

“I tell you what,” Frankie started. Matteo sighed and dropped his hands from Gen’s arms. “Why don’t I go get some breakfast and you two bang one out in

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Chapter Eighty–Four

the jet’s bedroom and we can all be happy 7

“Shut R, Frankie!” Gen yelled at him.

His eyes widened and his hands went up in surrender. “Yeesh, I’ll just wait in the car. Damn.”

As Frankie hopped into the driver seat, another SUV pulled up beside them. Leo got out and his eyes swiveled between Frankie’s car and the couple glaring

at it.

“Ready, Boss?” Leo asked.

Matteo sighed. “I suppose I have to go. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

Gen chuckled. “No, I’ll be good. I already have two weeks of backlog work, anyway. I’m happy to get some time alone. I just want to buckle down in the office, no distractions, no obligations, and catch up.”

Gen noticed Matteo’s eyes flick over her shoulder toward Leo. His eyes looked nervous, he squinted and shook his head. Gen swiveled in time to catch Leo

returning a nod.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Matteo was quick to answer.

“Nothing?”

“Nope.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Tell me.”

“It’s nothing. I just had a surprise planned but since you just want to work, I’ll cancel it,” he said with a nonchalant shrug.

“What surprise?” When Matteo didn’t answer, she turned to Leo. “Leo?”

Leo opened his mouth but something behind her made it snap shut. She turned quickly and caught Matteo’s warning glare.

“Matteo Accardi.”

“Geneveive Sinclair.”

Geneveive decided to take a different tactic. She relaxed her expression and took a step closer to him. His right eye narrowed in suspicion at her sudden mood swing. Gen reached up and grabbed his tie, running the silky fabric between her fingers.

“Matteo, do you remember last night when you were begging me to give you what you wanted?” Matteo’s entire body locked up, clearly recalling how she’d had him tied up, making him physically incapable of taking what he wanted unless she gave it to him. “Remember how you said you would do anything if I just let you…” Matteo’s hand gripped her waist in a punishing grip before she could say anything else in front of Leo. “I gave it to you, didn’t I? Without asking for anything in return?”

His stern expression cracked as he smirked down at her. “Requests don’t carry over to the next day, Genevieve. You untied me.” His voice lowered. “I already got exactly what I wanted.”

“I know, I know,” she said, biting her lip as she continued to fiddle with his tie. “But I wasn’t talking about that favor. I was only thinking about how you

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Chapter Eighty–Four

would be gone for two days and then, when you get home…” She shrugged, knowing the implication was clear enough.

Matteo’s hand touched her chin and urged her eyes upward. His smile was pure predator, pure challenge. “Remember those walls, Gen? I know just how

much you need me too.”

“You don’t think I can hold out?”

“I know you can’t. Especially without your little friend to help. You still haven’t found him, remember?”

Gen tried to keep from smiling. The absolute control it took to not flash him a thousand–watt smile in triumph was damn near impossible. His smug smile started to twitch down at the edges. Gen pulled on his tie until his face was close. She stood on her toes so she could whisper in his ear for once.

“Hidden drawer behind your black dress socks, sitting beside a rolled up joint and three Playboys from the 90s. Your first, I’m guessing? I never thought you

to be so nostalgic, Matteo.”

Gen released him and he staggered back a step. She understood his shocked expression and the sliver of fear that raced across his expression before he could smother it. She knew it wasn’t the Playboys or the weed that made him nervous. No, it was the fourth object she’d found tucked in the drawer he clearly never expected her to discover. The fourth object that had sent her into a tailspin of nerves and giddiness. The fourth object was what made his eyes dart back and forth between hers and his mouth to gape open and closed like a fish out of water while he tried to gauge her reaction to finding it.

“If you’re not willing to tell me about my surprise, I guess me and my purple friend will have plenty of time to catch up,” she said, with a wiggle of her eyebrows. She turned to leave, feeling more powerful than Aphrodite.

“I called Abigail!” he called after her. “Fuck!”

Gen stilled. She watched Leo’s face turn to one of disappointment while he shook his head at Matteo’s inability to remain firm. She turned, her smug expression shattered to be replaced with shock.

“You what? Why?”

Matteo scrubbed his face, still recovering from her revelation. “Leo told me about your call with your roommates the other day. He said it sounded like you really missed them.” He took a few steps toward her. “I found Abigail’s number in your phone and called her. She and the others will be arriving on a plane this evening so you can spend the night together. I wanted it to be a surprise but then you said that thing about wanting to work and I thought…”

Matteo grunted as Genevieve threw herself into his arms. She wrapped her arms tightly about his neck and buried her face into the crook of his shoulder. Matteo sighed and held the back of her head in the palm of his hand.

“I can’t believe you’d do that for me,” Gen said, her voice muffled by his suit jacket.

“I didn’t want you to get lonely,” he whispered.

Gen pulled back and he let her. He wiped the tears of happiness from her cheeks.

“Sir!” someone called from the plane. Matteo continued to hold Gen in his arms as he turned to face the pilot. “Sorry to do this to you but we’ve been asked by the tower to clear the tarmac.”

Matteo sighed and set Gen down. “I have to go, Weakness.”

“I know, it’s okay.”

“You’ll be good. Stay with Frankie. Enjoy the time with your friends. Don’t do anything stupid,” he listed out with a stern expression that brokered no

argument.

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“I’ll be good,” she assured him.

Matteo bent, clasped her face in his hands and kissed her. He pulled away and placed his forehead against hers. She gripped his foresems, keeping her eyes closed as she breathed him in one last time.

“I have to go.” he repeated.

Matteo started to pull away when her grip tightened. “The plane could go

Matteo jerked. “What?! Why on Earth would you tell me that, when I’m…”

“I just…” Gen reached out for him. “I want to tell you something.”

down.”

“What?” he asked with a dubious brow raised. “Want to explain how a bird can get caught in the engine and we can plummet 30,000 feet to…”

“I love you,” she whispered. Matteo stilled completely. “Before you get on the plane I just wanted you to know that. I love you, Matteo.”

His shocked expression morphed. His dimple came out full force before he bent once again and claimed her mouth with his. By the time he pulled away, they were both gasping for breath. He shook his head with a larger–than–life smile splitting his cheeks.

“You’ve never told me that, Genevieve. Only implied

“I know. I wanted to be certain first.”

“And you are?” he asked, his eyes closed, relishing the moment he’d waited so long for her to reach.

“I love you,” she repeated.

He kissed her one last time. “And I love you, Genevieve. I’ll never be able to

stop.”