He pulled off the highway, approaching the turn he'd need to take to go toward the Estate. "Sadie isn't just a job for me. She's mine."
His grip tightened on the wheel. "I told you not to go there with her. She'll never be okay with being a Bellandi wife, and the whole thing will explode in my face when the two of you can't be in the same room. I won't have Ivory and Luna suffering because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants," he said through gritted teeth.
"And if Ivory had said no, would you have taken that at face value? Oh, wait," I murmured. "She said no, and you took her and married her, anyway. The same way I'll do with Sadie."
"It's one thing to take and push a woman you know wants you, but doing that to a woman who genuinely doesn't want to be with you goes against our code. She has to be willing, beneath all her hesitance to commit. She has to at least want you beneath that stubborn shit about us not being good for them."
I didn't think Matteo realized just how much like a predator he sounded. Most rapists brushed off the woman's response as being a game, as being something that she wanted but wouldn't admit.
The phrase "she begged me for it," automatically came to mind, but I'd also been there to see the results of his marriage with Ivory. The same for Lino and Samara and Ryker and Calla. There was something there. Something different, and we never raped our women.
"That's not a problem," I answered with a chuckle. "She's made it clear she wants me."
Matteo sighed, pissed off energy sparking within the car. "You already fucked her? When I specifically ordered you not to?"
"You don't get to determine where I put my dick, especially not when it comes to Sadie. There's not much that I'll fight you over, Matteo. But Sadie is it. I'll walk away for her."
Silence filled the car as he thought over my words, and eventually he pulled into the Estate. Anxiety pulled at me, making me feel desperate with the need to fill the silence. But I wouldn't be the one to crack. He shifted into park, turning a sly smile my way. “Fine,” he growled, dissatisfaction in his voice. “Maybe it's punishment enough that I'll get to sit back and enjoy watching you try to tame that," he said pointedly. Sadie stood in the front door, blocked by Scar's body as he kept her within the house. With a hand on her hips, she stared him down and poked him in the chest.
Matteo and I got out of the car, and I sighed as Scar turned his eyes our way and stepped out of Sadie's path. As soon as her eyes found mine, they narrowed into a glare before she turned on her heel and went back into the house. "Escaping?" Matteo called.
"She phoned a friend when I took a piss. Seemed to think she could just slip out and climb the gate or some shit. Who the fuck knows with Sadie?" Scar's words were harsh, but there was an indulgent smile on his face as he turned and followed her back inside. Matteo and I followed, listening to Scar mumble to himself about stubborn ass women.
Sadie sat at the kitchen island, nursing a drink that Ivory’d slid in front of her. She eyed Matteo, and I watched the gears turn in her head. The internal debate about whether she should try to inform Matteo of our relationship. I suspected that wasn't the word Sadie would use to describe us, but I didn't care one bit as I strode up behind her. Burying my hand in her hair, I pulled back sharply until her honey eyes met mine, wide with shock. "Hey, Baby Girl," I murmured, leaning forward and capturing her mouth with mine in a brutal claim.
Samara and Calla catcalled beside us, but the only thing that mattered was the feel of her lips moving against mine. While Sadie's words and stubbornness might protest her attraction to me, her body couldn't deny that the same irrational desire claimed her the moment we were together. She was breathless by the time I pulled back.
“Did you know about this?” Matteo growled, and I turned to watch him glare at Ivory.
She fiddled with her hands, brushing him off as he stepped up to her side and swept her chestnut hair over her shoulder slowly. “I don’t have to tell you everything,” she said with a hollow laugh.
“Oh yes you do, Angel,” Matteo said, his voice dropping low as Ivory swallowed from the look he gave her. “Lino and Ryker will be here soon,” he said. “I want you in my office as soon as they’re gone.”
Sadie bit her lip, smart enough to stay out of the marital situation unfolding before her eyes. What Matteo and Ivory had might not work for most people, but it was them to the core.
Taking that as my cue to get Sadie out of there before she got involved, I wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her until I draped her body over my shoulder. She didn't bother to fight the motion, just hung there limply with a groan. "Fucking twat waffle. Would you put me down? If I hadn't seen your dick, I'd think you’re compensating for being an epic disappointment." I chuckled, content in the size of my cock.
"Come on, Rebel," I called, patting my leg. The dog rose from her sleeping place in the living room, rushing to nudge her face into my hand. "Oh, might want to call your brother," I said to Samara with a grin.
Matteo turned back from Ivory and whatever warning I felt certain he’d given her to dissuade her from disobeying his order, her focus entirely on the scene of her best friend being carted toward the foyer.
"Why?" Samara asked, her brow furrowed despite the smile on her face.
"Because he just got engaged," Matteo said with a grin, chuckling as he made his way toward his office with a shake of his head.
"He what?!" Samara shouted, throwing her body off her stool and moving to the purse sitting on the coffee table so that she could snatch up her phone. I suspected both Yavin and Lino were in for an ear full.
It almost made me sorry I had to miss it.
I carried Rebel’s new deluxe doggy bed into my house through the garage after turning off the security system. “That thing sounds like a robotic sex doll,” Sadie said. “Welcome home, Enzo,” she added, dropping her voice lower and enhancing the raspy quality to it.
I chuckled to myself. “Maybe that’s why I like it.?
?
“Touche,” Sadie admitted. “If I was a man who lived alone, I’d probably want my own virtual porn star too.” Rebel’s pretty collar that Sadie had just had to have sparkled against her grey fur, her white toes looking delicate against the dark hardwood floors of my main floor as they followed me into the house.
I dropped the bed in the corner closest the fireplace, hauling her bag of specialized dry food the vet had suggested to the walk-in pantry. The bag crinkled as I slung it off my shoulder, but Sadie’s attention was demanded entirely by adjusting the bed in the corner and making sure the lines matched up with the walls as perfectly as possible.