I want that. I want to be loved the way she loves this bastard.
She walks right over, drapes an arm around his neck, and takes a seat on his lap like it’s the most natural thing in the world. He leans back in his chair, winding his free arm around her waist. “Are you ready for bed?”
Mia shakes her head, leaning in to brush her lips against his. “Not just yet.” Nodding at the glass in his hand, she points out, “You haven’t even finished your drink yet.”
He lifts the glass toward her. “Want a taste?”
Wrinkling up her nose, she shakes her head. “Gross. I only like the taste of your nasty alcohol if it’s leftover on your lips.”
“Mm, good answer,” he says, catching her around the back of her neck and pulling her in for a deeper kiss.
Sighing, I grab my glass and waste some more alcohol. Fucking happily married assholes.
I miss Virginia.
I’m pissed off at Virginia, but I fucking miss her.
Fuck.
When Mia and Mateo manage to separate, she clears her throat and addresses me. “Are you okay over there? You look… not completely okay.”
I’m in the mood to be an asshole, so I pat my empty thigh. “Why don’t you come have a seat over here and make me all better?”
Leveling me an unimpressed look, she says, “I don’t think so.”
“Not in the market for a third husband, huh?” I murmur, eyeing up my drink, then tipping it back and gulping it down.
“I’m not sure I can manage a whole harem of gangster husbands. Sorry,” she says dryly.
I shrug. “Worth a shot.”
“I have a significantly better idea though,” she tells me.
“What’s that?” I inquire.
Nodding toward the door of my study, she says, “You should go upstairs and let Virginia make you feel better.”
“Virginia betrayed me,” I murmur.
“No, she didn’t,” Mia says. “She could have, but she didn’t. She made a mistake keeping it a secret, that’s all. Sometimes people make mistakes, Rafe. Her heart was in the right place, and that’s what matters. Virginia never wanted to hurt you. That woman loves you. If anything, the fact that she turned her back on something she worked for so much of her life for you should prove that.”
“Now she says she turned her back on it,” I state. “Of course she says that now, Mia. I caught her red-handed. What else is she going to say?”
“Well, I believe her,” she insists.
“Of course you do. You think I’m a good man. You have questionable judgment.”
“I think you have it in you to be a good man, and I think you can prove it right now,” she tells me. “Virginia loves you, and if you love her back, you need to prove it. Do you know what she just spent our whole visit doing? Telling me how damn wonderful you are. You, the man she thinks is going to kill her for something that’s not even her fault. She can’t help if she remembers things. She can’t help if you were careless enough to say shit in front of her that you shouldn’t have. If she really had betrayed you, I would understand. I would. I’ve watched a woman I trusted stand over my husband with a gun pointed at his head, so yes, I get that sometimes you have to do the unpleasant thing, but this isn’t one of those times.”
Mateo leans forward and puts his drink down, gently caressing Mia’s face and turning her back in his direction. “Sweetheart, what did I say about intervening in business matters?”
Her tone is much softer, much less bossy when aimed at him than it was when she was just telling me off. “Mateo, he’s making a mistake. She’s not a rat. Can’t he test her like you tested me? I mean, not the same way. But surely there’s something less drastic that can be done.”
“Rafe doesn’t administer tests, he solves problems, and it’s not your business,” he informs her, tugging her down for a kiss to take out any sting his words might have caused.
“He might not find someone like her again,” Mia insists, looking back at me. “You’re hurt right now, so maybe you’re not thinking clearly. But so is she, and you’re not even giving her a chance. Love is a two-way street, Rafe. Sometimes circumstances arise that test that love, and it’s up to us to decide whether it lives or dies. You can choose hatred, and you can assume she would have betrayed you, and you can kill her. That won’t make you happy.”
“This isn’t about chasing happiness, Mia. It’s a matter of safety. Of security.”