Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“Okay. When I got back here and had recovered physically, I was still a mess. I didn’t really talk. I didn’t leave the house. I wasn’t really living. My heart was beating, but that was it.”
“God, Carter, I did that to you.”
“No, the situation did it to us.”
“How can you forgive me?”
“Would you if our roles were reversed?”
I started to speak, but he laid a finger on my lips. “Think about it first.”
I did, but my answer didn’t change. “Yes, absolutely yes.”
The timer dinged, and I rose to get the pizza from the oven. Carter slapped my ass as I walked away. “Mmm, too much of that, and you won’t get food after all.” I glanced at him once I’d pulled the pizza from the oven. “Do we need plates? Civilized people use plates.”
“Just bring the pizza. Civilized people don’t always have time to do dishes.”
“Because they’re too busy doing the man they’re obsessed with?”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
22
CARTER
Iwatched Matteo as he took the pizza from the oven and found a spatula in one of the drawers. He’d obviously explored the kitchen when I’d left him alone. He’d probably wondered if there was any food or if he was going to have to go forage in the woods for something. A man as big as he was didn’t willingly go too long without eating. I should know. I wasn’t much smaller.
He brought the pizza and some napkins to the table. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, even though I was starving.
“Like what you see?” he asked.
“I always have, and you’ve only gotten hotter.”
“Yeah, at least I was able to keep my body looking good while I was stuck with those assholes.”
“True, and the longer hair and the beard are nice touches.”
“You like it?”
I had to keep myself from fucking sighing. “I think I’d like you just about any way, but yeah.”
Matteo grinned. “Things are not looking good for us having time to finish this pizza.”
Clearly I needed to change the subject. “You said you wanted to know how I was doing after I recovered? What should I tell you?”
“Have you been happy?”
“That is such a loaded question.”
“Really, Carter.”
“I have been. Yeah. I’ve got good friends and a good job. There’s been a lot of shit going down in the last year, but it’s given me something to do and enemies to focus on.”
“And now that I’m back?” Matteo asked. “Now that you know what really happened?”
I smiled. “Now I think I could be much happier.”
“Good.”
Could it last, though? “What if we…?”
“What?” Matteo asked.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “What if we can’t exist together day-to-day, like some kind of normal couple?”
“We’re never going to be a normal couple, Carter.”
“I know, but what if the sex is all there is between us.”
He reached across the table and gripped my chin, squeezing me tight.
“Do you think that’s all there is? Are you telling me your feelings don’t go beyond that?”
I shook my head. “I was dead inside when I lost you. I didn’t even know if I wanted to make it back to camp, but obsession can’t sustain a person day after day.”
“Why don’t we see if we can get rid of our enemies before we worry about how to be a nice, domesticated little couple?”
I snorted. “How could we ever be that?”
“We won’t be. Do you think that’s what Miles and Ben are?”
I couldn’t hold back a smile. “They do try sometimes, but no.”
“I can try. I can learn to cook, or you can, I can take you out on dates, go to dinner, see a movie.”
I frowned. “I’m not sure you can sit still long enough to watch a movie in a theater.”
“We’ll sit in the back so I’ll have something—someone—to play with.”
I contemplated that while I polished off my first piece of pizza. Could we be more than an explosive combination of anger, hate, and lust? Could we survive long enough to find out?
I picked up a second piece of pizza but ended up holding it as I stared at Matteo, watching as he took a bite, then lifted his beer to take a sip. My eyes went to his throat as his Adam’s apple worked up and down.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Carter?”
“I still can’t believe you’re here. That you…that I was so wrong.”
He laid his hand over mine. “Baby, there was no way you could have known what I was doing.”
“It seemed so wrong. I knew you like no one else did, and I couldn’t understand how I’d been so taken in.”
“You weren’t. Nothing I said to you back then was a lie.”
I set the pizza I was holding back on the pan. “I lied to you back then. I told you I hated you. I said I didn’t want you, but I did from the first time I saw you.”