CHAPTER 14

jamie

T here really was something to be said for the millionaire lifestyle. Even the morning started more gently here, the sun rising softly in the dawn sky, shedding its golden beams through the open windows and over the sleeping form of Mateo where he lay tangled up with me. Making him look like one of the ancient gods instead of the mortal I still held out hope for. His skin was glistening in the most mesmerising way and that was without the aid of that magic glittery powder he'd been dusted in yesterday.

Yeah, pretty sure I could get used to this very fast.

Last night had been pretty near perfect, almost a little too intense with the benefit of a clearer head the morning after. Mateo intoxicated me as always, there was nothing new in that notion. But last night he'd connected with me in a way that was new and different, like a merging of our souls along with our bodies.

Maybe I was just being a hopeless romantic and seeing more than was really there. It wouldn't be the first time for me. I also knew I had to tread carefully with Mateo. I had a strong feeling he would be running for the hills if I verbalised any of these thoughts I had been thinking.

It may also have been a result of this environment up here in Sydney where Mateo so obviously felt freer to be himself. Honestly, it was actually really refreshing and beautiful to see.

I hadn't even realised my fingers had been tracing his side but he eventually stirred to wakefulness and I stopped my wandering hands. Didn't want him to think I'd been taking advantage while he slept.

"Morning," he mumbled, still under the effects of sleep.

"Morning. You know, this is the first time we've actually woken up together," I mulled.

"Yeah I'm used to you running away at the first crack of dawn," he muttered, eyes still closed.

"I was running for work," I reminded him to which he just huffed. "You're not really a morning person, are you?"

"What gave me away?"

"Oh maybe just the adorable grumps," I teased.

"I am neither adorable nor grumpy," he grumped back.

"I beg to differ," I grinned, leaning down to kiss his neck. He grumbled and gave me a half-hearted push away but he didn't stop me as I traced a line of kisses up to the side of his mouth, inhaling that delicious scent that was all him. His eyes were open when I got there, dark and decadent and making me melt into a puddle of lust.

"What time is Glen coming?" I asked.

"Ten I think. If you think I'm not a morning person wait until you cross paths with Glen before coffee."

I glanced over my shoulder to the very inviting bathroom that we had not ventured into last night. Not after Mateo had all but collapsed after sex and I had followed behind not long after.

"Reckon we've got time for a spa then?" I asked, tracing my finger up his spine and relishing the trembles I extracted from him.

"I could squeeze a spa in," he replied, eyes impossibly darkening.

"Come then," I grinned, holding my hand out to him. He took it and I hauled him up with me, liking that answering smile on his face.

My fingers were as wrinkly as an eighty year old by the time Mateo and I climbed out of the spa. We had spent the whole time in the water with Mateo leaning against my chest between my legs, his eyes softly closed as my fingers traced his body. I hadn't touched him anywhere particularly sexual but it had still felt like the most sensual moment of my life. I had been reluctant for it to end. So had he by the looks he was giving me as we stepped out of the water.

We also only had moments left until Glen was due to arrive so we both towelled off and dressed in the same clothes we'd worn yesterday. Well at least the clothes I had worn all day yesterday. Mateo had spent the day mostly naked which was something that would not be easily forgotten by me when I thought back on this weekend.

Glen arrived in the apartment in a loud blizzard, arms stacked with coffees and bags filled with pastries and croissants.

"How is my number one client?" he effused when Mateo and I joined him in the expansive open living area. He kissed Mateo on both cheeks again, obviously his standard greeting and then gestured for us to sit around his long dining table.

"I wasn't sure how you took your coffee so I ordered one of every kind," Glen continued, pointing at the six coffee cups in the cardboard container where the lids had been marked with descriptors. "Espresso for you, my sweet," he added, handing the short black to Mateo.

"Thank you, Glen," I said, reaching for the cup marked flat white and wondering what he would do with the rest. Pretty sure I could help out with at least one more. Wouldn't want all that lovely coffee to go to waste.

"Now, Mateo, as I was telling your very lovely friend, Jamie, yesterday, I have a long and growing list of increasingly rabid clients coming out of my wazoo absolutely gagging to work with you. I show them the portfolios of all my prettiest boys and they all come back to you. I'm getting desperate here, Mateo. Desperate ," Glen said, leaning forward and looking at Mateo with a sternness that was entirely diluted by fondness.

"You'll have to explain to me what a wazoo is," Mateo said, hiding his grin. "You know English is not my first language."

"Out of my ass, darling. Out of. My ass," Glen affirmed.

"That must be uncomfortable for you," Mateo returned in a way which had me laughing.

"It is frightfully painful. And what am I going to do about them, gorgeous? I'm breaking hearts left, right and centre."

"I hear you. But isn't there also a risk of overexposure at some point? If I'm suddenly the face of everything," Mateo pointed out.

"There certainly is but we are so far away from overexposure that we are in very real danger of underexposure. I neeeeed you, Mateo. The world neeeeeds you. We all need more of you and that pretty face," Glen pleaded. "Jamie agrees with me, don't you?"

"I agree with some of that sentiment," I nodded, feeling Mateo's eyes flick my way.

"You think I should do more modelling work?" he asked me. Like, legitimately asked me for my opinion on his career. I was a little gobsmacked that he cared enough for my views but I gathered my thoughts together quickly before responding.

"You seem very at home and very at peace here in this world," I told him. "Maybe it would be good for you."

"Listen to the handsome man," Glen cut in. "Actually, that jawline of yours would look really good –"

"Nope. Not even for a second," I said, holding back my laugh.

"If you say so. Always worth a shot," Glen shrugged before his focus returned to Mateo. "Listen, beautiful. These are the job offers I have currently on the table," he continued, pulling out a thick wad of documents in a folder. "Take these home with you and have a think. I've put the ones I think would work best for you at the top of the pile including some of those edgy clients who like to push boundaries I know you like working with."

"Okay. I'll think about it," Mateo said, taking the folder from Glen which had him beaming.

"Excellent. Now, let's talk Sydney Fashion Week and then I'll let your lovely Jamie take you home."

I dropped Mateo off out the front of his little beach house late Sunday afternoon. His conversation with Glen about the fashion shows he wanted Mateo to walk in had taken a lot longer than I had expected and my mind had wandered before the meeting abruptly ended. I'd drunk three of the coffees and eaten most of the food that Glen had brought too, Mateo barely nibbling on a piece of croissant while I tried to push food his way.

He was quiet again as I pulled up at his house and opened his car door for him. He let me do so without his usual complaints and I walked him to his door.

I left it to him about what happened next and he paused at the bottom of the step, turning to face me.

"Thank you for this weekend," he said, expression a little closed. "I would have been in huge trouble if you hadn't come to my rescue."

"You're welcome," I replied. "It was actually fun."

A grin tilted up his lips. "I told you you'd enjoy it."

"I'll believe you next time," I dropped, hoping he'd comment on when that next time might be. He didn't, offering me a short smile before he turned and walked up to that pink front door. I waited until it was closed behind him before I was back on the road to Sorrento.

I was feeling restless as I sat in my empty house later that evening, this feeling of needing something or rather, some one , keeping my mind from its usual state of peace.

I'd crossed some line with Mateo this weekend, some line that was making it difficult to dismiss this as nothing but a sequence of casual hookups, the way I knew Mateo saw things between us. I knew I was always too quick to fall, too quick to see things that maybe weren't there. And I had a growing feeling Mateo was going to have me falling hard and deep this time.

Question was, would I be able to pick myself back up when I did indeed inevitably fall? Or was I there already? In which case, was it already too late for me?