“I do know that.”
“Pretty much anything that involves you holding me is something I enjoy,” I add.
“And they say you’re a hard woman to please,” he teases.
I roll my eyes playfully. “No stealing my lines, Morelli.”
“Hey, half your shit’s mine now,” he tells me, stealing yet another of my lines. “That goes both ways, doesn’t it?”
“You have way more shit than I have. You’re just being greedy if you want half of mine, too.”
“I’m a greedy man,” he states. He’s teasing, but he’s also not, because he is a greedy damn man. A greedy man I love, but a greedy man all the same.
“Well, I’m not as greedy as you are, but I’m not without needs, either. I think you should spend the night with me tonight.”
“I was planning to.” He misses a beat, then he asks, “Does it bother you that I’ve been with Mia for a couple nights?”
I want to correct him. A couple is two. He has been gone from our bed for three nights. But that would be like admitting that it has, and I’m still confident this is just an adjustment period and things will level out.
So I keep my cool and say, “No. You have a new toy; I understand. Just don’t forget which bed’s yours,” I add, lightly.
Mateo grins to himself, looking over my head instead of at me.
“What?” I ask, cautiously.
“You’re jealous.”
My eyes widen like he just insulted me. “I am not jealous.”
“You are. You swore to me I couldn’t make you jealous.”
I will not allow him this victory. “I am not jealous. A jealous woman would’ve never agreed to this in the first place. I was totally on board, but she isn’t sharing.”
“She has a new toy,” he teases.
I roll my eyes at him. “An old toy. She’s played with the damn thing before; she should let someone else have a turn.”
The bastard is delighted by my jealousy. He holds me closer, amusement dancing in his brown eyes. “You’ll get all the turns you want. There’s enough of me to go around.”
I let it drop for a minute, swaying in his arms, enjoying the feeling. Then I ask, “Is it weird, being back with her? Is it like it was before me, or is it different now?”
“It’s a lot different,” he says. “She wasn’t in love with me before.”
Of course I knew she loved him. I guess I even knew he knew she loved him. But since they’ve spent three days in a sex cave together, it makes me feel a little wonky to hear him say it. “Did she tell you she loves you?” I ask, before I can think better of it.
He eyes me warily. “Should we talk about that?”
“Openness is probably best,” I say, even though I’m not sure.
“If it doesn’t piss you off, I agree, but it seems like it might.”
“This is the baby’s fault,” I state, mildly aggravated. “My stupid pregnancy hormones. I’m not jealous. I just don’t want to be left out, that’s all. I can do this if I know I’m in the loop, but I don’t want to start feeling like a third wheel. Or like there’s some secret between us. I didn’t agree to an affair, I agreed to a relationship, and maybe this won’t be as easy as we all thought it would be.”
“This can be as easy or as hard as we make it,” he tells me, seriously. “If you’re going to get jealous, it will be hard. If you remember that Mia is your friend and not your competition, it will be fine.”
“I don’t like when it feels like you’re defending her against me,” I tell him.
“Then don’t make me defend her,” he says, easily. “I’d defend you if she was the one getting catty, too.”
I wrinkle my nose up, annoyed. “I am not catty.”
He gently catches my chin and tilts my head up so I’m looking at him. Then he drops a gentle kiss on my lips. “Play nice,” he says, lightly. “I like when my girls play nice.”
“I will,” I assure him. “Maybe we should have a sleepover in our room. Not tonight, but maybe tomorrow after dinner. We can all snuggle up again and sleep together.”
“We could probably do that,” he says.
“Have you asked her about the threesome yet?”
He smiles, like this amuses him. “I don’t ask Mia for things.”
I was joking, but he clearly isn’t. If he wants Mia to have a threesome, she’ll show up, whether she’s comfortable with it or not. “She’s a lot softer than me, isn’t she?”
Nodding, he says, “In a lot of ways, yeah.”
“Do you like that better?”
“I like it with her,” he says, clearly. “I like you just the way you are.”
“Good,” I say, satisfied.
“I told you this wasn’t about you,” he says, watching me. “Didn’t you believe me?”
“How could anyone not believe you?” I tease.