19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Matías Moreno

T he moment I see my girl hit the ground and pain transforms her beautiful face, I immediately take my phone out and look up what girls do when they have their period. A bunch of blogs immediately pop up, and after checking a couple of them, I know exactly what I need to do before heading back to Cattleya's place. As much as I wanted to wait for her and go home together, we couldn't be seen together. I know she wants to wait until we're certain we're it for each other but, with every day that goes by, I love her more. Not to mention I don't want to put my job in jeopardy. Building a soccer stadium is an amazing accomplishment to improve my already good resume. The fact that I'm involved in building the stadium where Cattleya will play is something I wasn't counting on but brings me great pride.

My girl is sweet and loving and so fucking fierce, she makes me want to be better so that I can match her grandness. If I didn't know her and spend every night with her, I would never believe she's only twenty-two. She's self-driven, has a clear vision of what she wants out of life, and she goes for it. Every time I read Bleacher's Pulse spewing lies about her, my blood boils, and I want to call them out on their bullshit. But Cattleya trains harder and continues to build a bond with her team, instead of letting those words get her down. She was born for this, and she won't let anyone stop her.

The moment she closes the door behind her, she collapses on the ground, and a deep sob comes from her. I immediately hold her in my arms, and she hugs me tight.

"I'm so tired, bae. Today's game was a bitch." I chuckle at her and give her a gentle kiss on the top of her hair.

"Well, babe. You killed it, you looked so fucking hot on the pitch being a badass. But I noticed you wince in pain when you landed on the football," I say in a low voice.

"Ugh, don't remind me. It was awful," she whines. She's so fucking cute.

"I know, but that's why I went to the store and got you a few essentials." She lifts her head from my chest and gives me a puzzled look. "Yeah, I know the reason for your pains is because you have your period. Remember you told me about your cramps a couple of days ago?" She bows her head, and instead of answering, she takes a deep breath. "Anyway, I read online about some of the things women do during their days, so I got you stuff. Come on, beautiful. Let me take care of you." I stand up first, and then help her up, taking her to her bed where I motion for her to lie down.

"What's all this?" she asks with a beautiful smile on her tired face.

"Well, you're named after the most beautiful flower, so I got you a pink orchid since that color looks great on you. Then I got you a candle with your favorite scent—sandalwood and tobacco.

"How do you know that's my favorite scent?" I chuckle at her as I grab the extra fluffy blanket I got her and wrap it around her.

"Babe, if the way you sniff at me in the mornings when you think I'm still asleep isn't a dead giveaway, then I don't know what is."

She jumps from the bed and starts tickling me. "Ugh, you're so full of it. I just like checking to see if you have bad BO." She rolls her eyes.

I cackle at her bullshit response. "Yeah, right. Babe, you like the way I smell. Love it, even. Lucky for you, the place where I get my cologne also sells scented candles."

She huffs, defeated. "Fine, you got me. I better go buy their entire inventory because I can't get enough of it."

She places her arms around my shoulders, pulling me down until she can sniff my neck. The tingling sensation of her nose on my skin sends very dirty thoughts to my brain, and my dick jerks in response. I take a deep breath; now is not the time for this.

I need to take care of her .

I reach for her lips. I nibble at her upper lip, then her lower one, passing my tongue gently above them asking for entrance, and she parts them for me. I take my time with this kiss, showing her how much she means to me. Slowly, I lay her down again in bed, and she grabs the blanket I got for her, her face finally looking more relaxed .

"For the last part, I need the help of a certain furball."

She chuckles as I disappear into the living room looking for Tinta. As soon as we go back to the bedroom, Tinta jumps from my arms into the bed. She snuggles with Cattleya, taking residence above her stomach. Perfect. I get the remote to put something on the TV as Cattleya sits up.

"You got me ice cream?" She perks up at the sight of a huge tub on my tray of goodies. I simply grin in response as I place it on the bed. There's a bowl of whipped cream for the ice cream, another bowl with fruit, and a few chocolate candies that I know she loves. "Ugh, bae. This is so incredibly thoughtful. You're going to make me cry."

I take off my clothes, leaving only my boxers on, and join her and Tinta in bed, putting the tray on my lap. I kiss her eyelids and get a spoonful of Dulce de leche ice cream to feed her.

"It's okay, mi ángel . I know these days of the month tend to be extra emotional. We can watch a movie and cry together, or we can find something that'll make us laugh. Whatever you want. Just know, I'm so incredibly proud of you. Even though you were in so much pain, you never complained, and even scored a badass goal. I don't know how you did it. All I could think of was about those male soccer players that are always faking injuries to get a fault call."

Cattleya starts laugh-crying, and I join in. "So true, bae. There's some players who just fake it, a few actually come to mind." Her amber eyes shine with mirth. "Thank you for seeing me," she adds, and I kiss her. I'll never tire of praising this woman.

Now that we are getting close to being done with the groundbreaking at the construction site, we're ready to start pouring the foundation and building the columns. I need to approve the order for the cement and steel before we send it to our providers, so I decided to run the numbers one more time to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.

I notice the order says we need 32,250 bags of cement a week for the next six weeks. Hmm, I read and reread what's in front of me. I could have sworn I had written 35,000 bags of cement per week. Fuck, I can't make mistakes like this. The entire stadium could collapse and potentially kill thousands of people. I couldn't live with that on my conscience. Maybe I thought about writing it, but wrote it wrong? I know it's only a five percent difference, but it's strange. I'm usually so good with numbers and double checking things before sending for approval to Luciano. An idea forms in my head, but I shake it off. It can't be, I mean, why would he do that? Curious, I check the file to see who last modified it, and the name Luciano Colucci shows up.

My eyebrows form a straight line, confusion fogging my brain. "Why would Luciano modify the numbers?" When I check the master spreadsheet, the numbers remain at 35,000 bags of cement per week. What the fuck is going on? Before letting my thoughts reach conclusions that might be far from reality, I make my way to Luciano's office, printed pages of both numbers in hand.

I knock on his door with my knuckles, and I immediately hear him say, "Come in." He smiles at me as he motions for me to take a seat. "Hey, Matías. Did you have a good weekend?" I smile at the thought of how I spent yesterday afternoon wrapped around Cattleya and Tinta .

"Yeah, I did. Thanks for asking." I smile back as I place the pieces of paper on his desk. "I was just double-checking the order for the stadium construction site when I noticed a small inconsistency." I point at the two different numbers on the papers, and Luciano's face goes blank. It shocks me that he's not surprised or confused by this, but I don't let it show.

"Interesting, I'm sure it was an honest mistake. Good thing you caught it." He hands the papers back and dismisses me when his phone rings. I give him a nod and head back to my desk. If it was an honest mistake, why wasn't he surprised about it? I need to keep an eye open. If anything goes wrong, I'll be the first to blame since it's me who's signing the orders.