AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How good Mateo is in bed.” I roll my eyes. “For the millionth time. Are you sure divorce is what you’re after at this point?”
“Just because he’s a good fuck doesn’t mean I’ll step on my pride for him. I don’t go catching feelings for dicks, Aspen. Come on, that’s like the first rule in the girl honor book.”
I swirl my coffee and pull up the strap of my cotton dress that’s fallen off my shoulder. “That’s good and all, but my neck is still on the line.”
“Don’t worry. I told Mateo you’re like my sister from another mister. He’s an asshole, but he’s honorable enough and has stupid codes he abides by—that don’t include cheatingobviously. He won’t touch you.”
“Nicolo would.”
“Not if we get divorced. That’s been the snake’s aim since the beginning.”
I slide to the edge of the chair. “Listen. Are you sure he cheated? He denied it in front of me and again in front of you the other day when you had an epic fight. In my apartment, mind you.”
Her cheeks flush a deep shape of red. “I saw him sleeping with a woman sprawled all over his chest in a hotel. What more proof do I need?”
“And how did you happen to go to that hotel? To that specific room?”
She stares at the loud characters on TV, tears shining in her eyes. “I found the hotel’s business card and the reservation receipt in his jacket pocket. The hotel manager let me into his room with the master keycard once I told him I’m a Luciano, and then I found Mateo with a side piece. Ayoungside piece, who looked barely in her twenties. I know we’ve been having issues trying for a baby and shit, and he’s not exactly the affectionate type, but he’s also well aware that putting his dick in New York’s available holes is a hard limit for me. Sometimes, I can’t believe he’d do that to me. Other times, I remember the hard evidence.”
I tap my bottom lip. “That hard evidence is suspicious.”
Caroline looks at me from beneath her wet lashes. “Suspicious how?”
“The day you had a fight, Mateo said his memories are hazy about that night. He went to see a business associate and had a drink, yet he’s well aware he slept alone and didn’t touch another woman.”
“Mateo would say anything to deceive me.”
“He doesn’t seem like the type who sugarcoats anything, Callie. If he’d cheated, he would’ve flat out said it and used force to make you go back to him. But he’s been visiting like a reserved Victorian era duke who’s courting a lady. Not to mention his goons’ black cars that keep following you everywhere so that no scum like Della Roma can put his hands on you.”
She purses her lips. “Bitch. Are you on my side or his?”
“Yours. It’s clear you’re suffering, considering all the sugary things you keep consuming to an unhealthy level and how you get emotional out of nowhere.”
She winces, licking the cake that’s stuck to her fingers. “You noticed that?”
“Of course I did. So how about you see to the end of this instead of torturing yourself and him?”
“I thought your boss Nicolo ordered you to get us divorced. He’d be after your head if he finds out you’re playing marriage counselor.”
“Nicolo doesn’t matter.”
She grins girlishly, like when we used to exchange Christmas presents, because the only gifts our families gave us were traumas. “And I do?”
I clear my throat and continue drinking from my coffee.
“Oh my God, look at our little hellion catching feelings for me.”
“Don’t push it, Callie.”
She laughs and jumps up from the sofa to snuggle into my side, on a freaking chair. It barely fits us, but she wraps herself around me like a koala. As if that isn’t enough, her dogs also join in the sappy family hug. We had a rocky start, but Cain and Lucifer have taken a liking to me.
Caroline hugs my waist like a needy toddler and I sigh. “I’m trying to drink my coffee.”
“Just call it tequila already. Also, it’s not good to drink coffee in the evening. You’ll have trouble sleeping.”
I have trouble sleeping anyway, but instead of admitting that, I say, “I have to review some drafts before going to sleep.”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a workaholic?”
