CHAPTER 28

mateo

I t was official. I was hopelessly in love and deeply in lust with this amazing man as he pinned me to his bed, both of us naked and desperate for each other as I tried to grind up against him for some blessed relief.

Jamie was having none of it though, using the time to torture me to death with his mouth and hands while I writhed underneath him.

"Is this some kind of romance torture?" I asked, shifting my hips up in vain.

"No, my darling," he replied, blue eyes all innocence as he looked down at me. "This is me loving you and worshiping your amazing body the way you deserve."

"Can you hurry up with the worshiping?" I begged, desperate and leaking and mindless with want. He grinned at me, the expression slightly unhinged as he leant down and pressed a kiss to my already swollen lips. It was not exactly what I wanted but I couldn't deny how much I loved kissing Jamie as his tongue tangled with mine and his hips finally, finally lowered to where our dicks could touch each other.

He let me grind against him for a few blessed moments before he broke the kiss, expression darkening as he shifted between my very willing and overly prepped thighs. He held my eyes, blue colliding with black as he pressed forward and finally pushed his cock inside me.

It was almost like he was trying to savour every single millimetre of me as he pushed in so deliberately slowly, my mind blanking out with how absolutely incredible he felt like this, how incredible he had always felt when he was in me like this, and answering all those unspoken questions that had been circling in the back of my mind, the ones which suddenly seemed important to voice.

"No," I let out just as his hips pressed up to mine as he sank fully inside. He stilled, eyes filling with worry as he looked down at me.

"No what, gorgeous?" he asked which was fair. I hadn't given him much of a hint at what I was talking about.

"No I don't want to top you," I explained, feeling his breath of relief as he exhaled.

"And you thought now was a good time to tell me that?" he asked, amusement on his handsome face. "You thought now was the time to yell out no ?"

"Well, it was just sort of top of mind in the moment," I shrugged guiltily. "Pun not intended."

"Okay," he said, smiling indulgently down at me.

"It's just, I feel like I'm made for this," I tried to explain. "Like I'm made to take you and fit your body with mine just like this."

A soft smile took over his face as he looked down at me, so much fondness in his eyes. "I agree. We are made to fit each other."

"Plus, it would be a waste of your beautiful thick cock if you weren't putting it to work like this," I added.

"You have a beautiful cock too," Jamie replied.

"Oh I know. But this kind of goes along with our personalities too," I continued. "You like finding what makes me tick on the inside. I like being on display. This way we both get what we want."

He grinned, those blue eyes tracing down my body and landing on my hard dick which pulsed at his attention.

"And you know how much I like looking at you," he said.

"And you know how much I like you looking."

He smiled, leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. I wasn't used to gestures like that, gestures so full of affection and love. But I was finding I liked it quite a bit, well, as long as it came from the guy currently holding his weight so gently above me.

"As long as you know you are not just your body," he added because of course he did.

"You love my body."

"I do," he agreed. "But that's not the only thing I love about you. Not even close."

I sighed dramatically. "I know I am not just my body. But also, I kind of am just about my body right now with your dick inside my ass. You gotta move, Jamie, or I'm going to go insane."

He laughed, the sound worming its way right inside my heart and taking up residence there. To stay. Hopefully for a very long time. "I'll move for you, gorgeous, but let's not forget you're the one who decided he wanted this little chat right now."

"Guilty as charged but please don't make me beg," I said, tipping my head back on the pillow and trying to shift my hips to make him move.

"Never," he replied. "Well, at least not right now because I'm about to lose control too."

And with that he started moving inside me, his movements fluid yet forceful as he let me get a feel for him, like poetry in motion as he found all those parts in me that made me sing. Those parts that soon had me moaning and pleading and panting, my body given up to him completely to pluck me apart.

I knew I was lucky to have a guy like Jamie love me. I knew I wasn't the easiest person to love, that it took a hell of a lot of work to get me to open up. Nobody had ever wanted that from me before and nobody had ever put in the work or the effort like Jamie. And I had a feeling, now that those walls I had barricaded myself behind for so long had finally crumbled, I was going to love him back so hard and so fully that he would never want to let me go.

Jamie kept it as slow and steady as he could for as long as he was able, his eyes never leaving mine. I felt the love in his eyes. I returned it with all the love I had for him in my own heart.

But I also knew this man. As loving and gentle as he was trying to make this moment, I also knew how he would search out and find that spot inside me that had me moaning and seeing stars and I knew that it would spur him on. I knew because we had done this enough times now to know each other back to front, or top to bottom as it were, and we both knew what made each other tick.

I felt him everywhere, in my body where we connected, deep inside me where he forced me all the way up the bed with his thrusts, and in my head and in my heart. I'd opened that heart up to only a few very select people but he was now top of that list, where he was always meant to be.

And as I stilled, back arching with a cry of his name as I spilled between us, him following along not far behind, I had a feeling that the way we worked so beautifully here was a pretty good indication of how good we would be in real life too. I didn't think I'd ever had anyone better than what Jamie always gave me and if the way he was looking down at me now, eyes still a little wild and searching and so very full of that deepest kind of love that he had for me and that I had for him, I had a feeling he might say the same about me.

Jamie held my hand tightly in his as we stood on the front porch of Dante and Giulia's house and knocked. It was lucky I loved them so much because I had not particularly wanted to leave Jamie's bed any more than was entirely necessary. But I sure did love these two and that was why I was standing here tonight, boyfriend in tow and looking forward to another home cooked meal of the best kind.

"Mateo!" Giulia gushed, engulfing me into her large bosom. "And Jamie!" she continued, pulling him in to her other bosom. It was fine though, there was enough love to go around in this house, even with Jamie's broad shoulders, and I certainly didn't mind being smooshed up next to them.

"Come in, come in," Giulia pressed, pushing the two of us up the hallway and to the kitchen where Dante was standing at the stove.

"My boys," he welcomed, waiting for us to approach before he gave us one of his more manly back pat hugs while pressing kisses to each cheeks.

"How was your meeting with Lucille?" I asked.

" Bene , bene ," Dante replied. "I'll tell you all about it at the dinner table."

"How about you boys go talk and I'll finish up here," Giulia said, taking Dante's spot at the stove and shooing us out of the kitchen.

"Thank you, caro ," Dante said, pressing a kiss to his wife's head. Jamie shared a soft smile with me over the gesture while I had to admit I'd always loved the open way Dante loved his wife. Jamie was like that with me too and something about all this love in this kitchen made me want to try and be more open about how I felt for him too.

Which might have explained why I slipped my arm around his waist as Dante poured us a glass of wine, sharing a glance as Jamie looked down at me with a surprised smile on his face. I scrunched my nose at him and his smile broadened until it was positively glowing and that warm, happy buzz hit me in the stomach. I liked making him smile at me like that.

Really liked it in fact.

We sat at the dining table, yes the fancy one again, with fresh bread and olive oil while Giulia finished up in the kitchen. Jamie wound his arm across the back of my chair and I found myself leaning in to him as Dante told me about his meeting with Lucille, the architect who had come to see the business last week.

"Lucille made an offer for the firm today," Dante told me.

"That's great," I said, sitting up higher in my seat.

"It is. She is a great fit for the business and I think she would work very well with me. She's ecstatic about keeping me on as a consultant," Dante continued. "And she's more than happy to write your position into the terms of the contract too."

I bit into my lower lip, nodding at Dante's news.

"But before I sign everything over to her," he continued, "I want to make absolutely certain that this is acceptable to you, Mateo."

"Last chance offer?" I chuffed and Dante nodded. I felt Jamie at my side, his presence a steady assurance as he squeezed my shoulder. I glanced up at him, seeing the support in his eyes as I looked back at my uncle.

"You should sell to Lucille," I told him. "And you don't need to make the sale contingent on me. I'm going to leave and focus on modelling."

" Bene ," Dante replied, a soft smile on his lips. "That's all I ever wanted, Mateo. For you to follow your dreams."

"I know, zietto ," I said, a hitch in my throat.

"And you will be magnificent," he added, sitting back in his seat. "Won't he, Jamie?"

"That he will," Jamie agreed, another squeeze but this time on my thigh. I shared another smile with him, liking that softness in his gaze.

Giulia bustled into the room then, platters in her arms which Jamie rushed to help her with which I knew would ingratiate him in her heart forevermore. Giulia sure loved it when ‘her boys' pitched in to help.

We were soon dishing up our plates, my mouth watering at the prospect of Giulia's spaghetti a la carbonara with guanciale, egg, pecorino cheese and black pepper. She'd also made arancini balls and a Caprese salad which I knew was made with tomatoes and basil fresh from their garden.

"Oh I am definitely marrying into this family one day," Jamie enthused as he took a bite of arancini.

"I should hope so," Giulia replied. "We can't wait for grandkids and Mateo deserves to be made an honest man of."

" Zia ," I groaned, watching as the three of them all smiled at me.

"Where do you think you would like to be married?" Giulia continued as though she was completely oblivious to my discomfort. I had literally just outed myself to the world. Marriage was not on the cards for at least the foreseeable future. Decades at least.

"That would be up to Mateo," Jamie answered smoothly, ignoring my heavy sighs. "I'll marry him wherever he wants."

"I know a wonderful wedding venue just up the coast in – "

"Stop," I said. "Stop with the wedding talk please. Jamie and I literally just became boyfriend official. There will be no more talk of weddings."

"It's in Ives Inlet," Giulia added in a whispered undertone to Jamie. "I'll give you the pamphlet later."

"Deal," Jamie whispered back and I just had to laugh while simultaneously rolling my eyes as I caught a very happy glimpse into my future.

"I met with your parents yesterday," Dante suddenly stated, the mood in the room plummeting.

"Did you?" I asked, throat suddenly dry.

"I did," Dante grumped and I knew whatever had been said was not good for me. "I told them they were a pair of obstinate fools for letting you walk out of their life and that they would die sad, lonely deaths."

"Wow. You don't mince your words, uncle," I said, squirming in my seat. Jamie's hand had landed back on my thigh and I appreciated knowing I had his support even when I hadn't asked for it.

"I won't where your wellbeing is concerned, tesoro ," he stated. "I told them what a wonderful person you are and that anyone who loves you would be proud of the man you have become. And now you've found yourself a wonderful man to share your life with. I am so very, very pleased that you have been able to accept yourself, Mateo. I confess I don't know what is going to become of your stubborn parents but I wouldn't lose hope for them entirely."

I said nothing, Dante's words lifting me more than the negativity my parents' views brought into the equation. And that was more telling than anything else.

"You of all people know how hard it has been for me to get to this point in my life, Dante," I replied. "A lot of that struggle for personal acceptance has been down to the views I've heard from my parents my whole life. I think I've come to accept that those divergent views will never be bridged and I'm going to have to be okay with it. Because somewhere along the line I managed to build my own family. I have found all the love and acceptance I need from you both and I think that makes me one of the lucky ones."

"We're very proud of you," Giulia said, tears sparkling in her eyes.

"I know. And I think I'd rather just live with that kind of love and acceptance rather than spend my energy convincing my parents that there is nothing wrong with me. So I don't want you to waste your time on them either. I'm happy with who I am and the people I have around me."

Jamie squeezed my thigh before he leant across and kissed my temple, the motion so loving I felt my heart squeeze in my chest. I looked across at Dante and Giulia, seeing so much love in their eyes and a shared happiness that I had found my place in the world, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't mind so much if Giulia did happen to share those pamphlets with Jamie.

Not that I would be telling either of them that any time soon.