Billionaires: The Playboy

She just didn’t feel nervous around him. It was during times apart that she did.

‘Matteo?’ Abby checked because he really was behaving oddly. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘No,’ he admitted and came over to her. ‘This is how I wanted to say hello.’ He put his arms around her and it was the nicest place to be and he kissed her, a slow gentle kiss, the type that chased the day away. ‘I’ve missed you.’

‘You could have called.’

‘I thought you said that you wanted a hands-off sponsor.’

He was very hands on now—they were resting on her waist and she could feel the weight of them and the heat of his palms.

‘You don’t just have to call about the team.’

‘I know that,’ Matteo said, ‘but then I’m not really big on the “how was your day” type of phone call.’ He was as honest as he could be about something he didn’t really understand, because he’d never really felt the need to be in touch with another, for no reason other than to be in touch. ‘And then if I call one week and then don’t the next...’ He gave a tense shrug. ‘I don’t do all that.’

And therein was the difference, Abby thought. Matteo was struggling to commit to a call a week! Their heads were in completely different spaces. The way Abby felt, a call an hour would barely do.

‘You’ve got oil on your face now,’ Abby said and they peeled apart enough to see the mess she had made of his shirt.

‘Have a bath,’ he said, because hell, he wasn’t letting that bastard change how he spoke to her or the things that he did. ‘Either go down and have one, or have one here, but I’m wrecked and I’m having dinner in bed, or rather on top of it, and you’re not getting on covered in oil.’

‘Didn’t you sleep on the plane?’

‘No,’ Matteo said. ‘I had some work to catch up on.’

He let her go and picked up the menu and read through it.

‘Sometimes all you need is a good steak,’ Matteo said.

‘Sounds great,’ Abby said. ‘I’ll have mine well done.’

‘Philistine.’

He rang and ordered as Abby headed off to the bathroom and, yes, it was so nice to peel off filthy clothes and step into a deep, fragrant bath and know that dinner was on the way and that Matteo was here.

Abby lay there, eyes closed, just enjoying the sensation of the water and the low sound of Matteo chatting on the phone on the other side of the door.

Then she heard a knock on the door to his suite and from the sound of it dinner had arrived. Abby hauled herself out of the bath.

It had done its magic.

She was clean and scented and all the tension of the day seemed to have gone, Abby thought as she pulled on a robe and opened up one of the hotel combs and ran it through her hair.

She came out of the bathroom and saw that he wasn’t in the lounge but it didn’t take long to find him. There was Matteo lying on the top of the bed with a large silver trolley by its side and he’d taken his shirt off.

‘It had oil on it,’ Matteo said as she tried not to look at his naked top half. ‘And,’ he added, ‘I have to sleep in this bed tonight—you don’t.’

‘I’m very used to the smell of oil,’ Abby said and, as he’d more or less told her that it would be closing time in the Di Sione suite soon, she relaxed. Dinner smelled amazing and she handed him his rare steak and she couldn’t help but look at his chest. He was slender but muscular and her eyes were drawn to his ribcage and she saw an old yellowing bruise there, she presumed from the fight the other night.

God, that body took a battering.

‘How’s the shoulder?’ Abby asked.

‘I have near-full range of movement,’ Matteo said.

Even that sounded suggestive as she took her plate to the other side of the bed and climbed on.

‘I love having dinner in bed,’ Matteo said, showering his steak in pepper.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever had it.’ Abby thought for a moment. ‘Well, unless I’ve been sick.’

‘You know that full feeling when you just want to lie down?’ he asked. ‘I was going to open a restaurant once, just beds. Dante and Dario talked me out of it.’

‘Your brothers?’ Abby checked.

‘They’re far more savvy than me. They started Libertine?’

‘The app for the wealthy?’ Abby had heard of it. His family really was everywhere!

‘Yes, it provides anything for anyone, just so long as you can afford it. Anyway, I accepted their advice that my bedside restaurant chain wasn’t the best idea, though I still think it could work.’

‘Nobody would ever leave.’ Abby smiled.

She didn’t want to leave.

‘What about...’ Matteo had been about to ask about her sister but he kept having to remind himself of what Abby had told him and what her father had. ‘What about you?’ he asked instead. ‘Any brothers or sisters?’

‘An older sister,’ Abby said. ‘Annabel. We’ve never really got on.’

‘Because?’

‘Because I make things complicated apparently. She’s married to my father.’ Abby rolled her eyes. ‘Well, not my father exactly but...’

‘I get the picture.’

‘She’s pregnant,’ Abby said. ‘With her first. At the end of October I’ll be an aunt and I haven’t seen my sister in years.’

‘At all?’

Abby shook her head. ‘We talk on the phone at Christmas and things but I haven’t been home for a long time.’

‘Years?’

She nodded but didn’t elaborate.

Abby didn’t want to spoil this night with people who weren’t them.

It was just so nice to eat and then to lie there side by side and to talk.

And because it was so nice and they were both so relaxed Matteo tried to tell her some of what was on his mind.

The Origins of Them, as he called it.

‘Hey, you know your necklace...’

‘It’s not actually mine,’ Abby said. ‘It’s my father’s.’

‘Yes, but...’ He hesitated for a beat too long and Abby continued speaking.

‘My mother left it to him. He’s got a big do in July and has told me that he wants me there, looking presentable and wearing the necklace.’

Matteo swallowed.

‘I’m not going to go though.’

He breathed out a sigh of relief. ‘How come?’

‘We don’t really talk. Well, not since...’ She didn’t want to discuss it again and so she changed the subject a little. ‘There’s a huge party in LA on the same night. Anyone who placed in the Henley Cup will be there and so now I’ve got a legitimate reason not to go to my father’s function.’ She looked at him. ‘You should come.’

‘Why?’

‘You’re our sponsor...’

‘And?’

The relief that she wasn’t going to her father’s function, just the little rush of being let off the hook, had Matteo stop worrying about the problems that beset them, and he moved a little closer and started playing with the tie to her robe.

Yes, Matteo decided, he’d tell her about her father and the necklace but at a better time.

After the race, maybe?

‘Have you thought about what I said about us two?’

‘I have.’ Abby answered him as casually as she could—as if she hadn’t spent way too many hours poring over his words. Now was the time to say no, that it was perhaps the most stupid of ideas, yet, side-on facing each other, his fingers found the swell of her nipple, even through the thick robe, and he stroked it, just not enough for Abby.

‘And?’ Matteo asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Abby admitted.

‘Better than a no,’ Matteo said. ‘At least it’s something to work on.’

Which he was. She could feel his fingers at the very tip of her breast but as his lips found hers, Matteo’s hand flattened and the pressure of his warm palm was divine. It was a different kiss to the one they’d shared earlier; this was a sexy kiss and his naked torso she now explored beneath her hands and he let her. Odd that at twenty-seven it was more than she’d done with a man. His leg came over hers and then Matteo’s fingers were at the tie of her robe, but he held back from peeling it open.

Abby wanted him to.

God, she loathed that she tied double knots.

His lips moved from her mouth and to her neck and Abby’s hands drifted down, feeling his toned stomach right to the edge of his belt, and she wanted so much to move her hand farther down but resisted.

Matteo had endless patience but that didn’t make him blind to need and if she so much as moved to halt him, then he would, but instead they just carried on kissing as he made light work of her robe.

Now he peeled it open and so their chests were naked and touching, just enough to ensure it was not enough.

‘Don’t rush me,’ Abby said, which was contrary to how she felt.

‘I’m kicking you out in five minutes,’ Matteo said and then he took her hand and placed it where she wanted it to be. His tongue caressed hers and she explored him through the fabric, hard and straining, and she ached to set him free but opened her eyes and met his gaze.

Oh, she wanted.

But she wanted more too.

More than Matteo would ever give.

‘I don’t want to lead you on,’ Abby said, ‘if I don’t...’

‘You can lead me on any time.’

‘I’m going to go down,’ Abby said, her hand still on him and his smile made her smile. ‘I meant to my room.’

‘I know,’ Matteo said. ‘A guy can dream.’

He made her feel sexy, so much so that she wanted to do just what the suggestive air called.

He could actually feel her reluctance as Abby got off the bed and it felt like a win to Matteo. He’d never really got the saying “it’s worth the wait.” Matteo waited for no one, impulse never lasted that long and he went with them at whim.

She would be worth the wait though.

As Abby went into the en suite to retrieve her clothes Matteo called her back.

‘You can’t put those back on.’

‘Well, I’m not going down in my robe.’

‘Send the butler to get you a change of clothes, then,’ Matteo said and went to reach for the phone but Abby halted him.

‘No, he’ll think...’

‘Who cares what he thinks?’

‘I care.’

‘God, you’re a prude,’ Matteo said but not nastily. ‘I’ll go and get something for you to wear.’ He really was nice like that, Abby thought as he got out of bed and put on a fresh shirt. ‘I can have a little rummage through your underwear drawer while I’m there!’

She handed over her room card and Matteo headed out to the elevators.

He wanted her to stay, yet he didn’t want to push, Matteo thought as he pressed the button for the tenth floor.

And then, as the elevator stopped at the eighteenth floor and Hunter stepped in, Matteo changed his mind.

He wanted Abby in his room and the thought that she might be here, in this elevator dressed in her robe and alone with Hunter right now, had Matteo holding his breath.

He leaned back on the brass rail of the elevator as Hunter stared ahead and Matteo’s eyes never left his face.

Yes, Hunter knew who he was, Matteo knew, because he could see a muscle flickering in his cheek and the tension was near boiling point.

He could take him here now, Matteo thought.

Wipe him out of any chance of racing tomorrow, but Abby would hate that, he knew.

She wanted to beat him herself, in her own way.

The elevator stopped at the tenth floor, only Matteo didn’t get out; he didn’t want Hunter to even have a hint that this was Abby’s floor.

The doors closed again and it was then that Hunter spoke.

‘Problem?’ Hunter asked because Matteo’s stare could blister paint.

‘Just the smell,’ Matteo answered and then, as the elevator opened, when Matteo knew he should just let Hunter go, instead he offered a very choice word.

Hunter stiffened but he didn’t turn around; instead he carried on walking but there was a dangerous, unchecked energy between them and Matteo could feel his heart thumping as he pressed floors five through to twelve and the elevator started moving again.

Matteo got to Abby’s room.

The turn-down service had been and there was a chocolate on her pillow and it was all calm but his heart still thumped in his chest and so he poured a glass of water and took a drink.

Abby had told him that they always stayed at different hotels.

He closed his eyes and tried to tell himself to calm down. They were in the same profession, Matteo said to himself. Of course their paths would cross.

The self-talk didn’t reassure.

Matteo went to the wardrobe and pulled out a top and a skirt and then he went to her underwear drawer. Next he went over to the bed and wrote a silly note and left it on her pillow, then back up to his suite he went.

One look at his face and Abby knew something was wrong.

‘Here.’ He handed her her clothes; he was about to suggest that she get changed and then he would walk her down, or maybe that it wasn’t such a good idea for her to be staying at this hotel and that they could switch, but the long sentence sort of shrunk into three words.

‘Stay here tonight.’

‘Matteo?’

‘Hunter’s here.’

‘There was a problem with security and so they...’

‘No, no...’ Matteo wasn’t buying it for a moment. ‘Did you really think he was just going to let you take him down without a fight, Abby? Did you think, when you were hatching your master plan, that Hunter was just going to sit back and let you beat him?’

‘It’s not going to happen again,’ Abby said.

‘I’m not saying that it is,’ Matteo said. ‘But you’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest and he’s angry.’

‘Did you say anything?’ Abby demanded.

‘He knows that I know what happened.’

‘What did you say to him?’ Abby shouted. ‘Matteo, you didn’t do...’

‘I didn’t do anything,’ he snapped. ‘He already thought I knew at the press conference. I just let him know tonight that I did. Abby, that guy swaggers around... I swear that he’s going to do whatever it takes to mess with your head.’

‘He’s already messed with Pedro’s,’ she admitted.

Matteo was right, Abby realised—it was no accident that Hunter was here.

‘Stay,’ Matteo said. ‘I’m not going to try anything.’ And then he shouted, nicely if that was possible, ‘I just want you in my bed with me!’

‘Matteo, you’re not always going to be around,’ Abby pointed out.

But he was the master of instant fixes. ‘Let’s just get through tonight.’

Matteo was shaken, in a way that he never had been about another.

Sex really was the last thing on his mind tonight.

It wasn’t anything to do with that.

In fact, for Matteo, it was more concerning than that, because when he stripped off and got into bed, he just needed her skin beside his.

Abby stood there as Matteo stripped off.

Completely.

She guessed it wouldn’t enter his head to get into bed any other way.

She could ask for pillows between them, or get into bed, her robe tied and her reluctance evident, only she wasn’t reluctant.

It was her feelings for Matteo that scared her.

Not him.

She took off her robe and got in beside him and he switched off the light and just rolled into her.

He kissed her shoulder, the back of her hair and he ran a hand the length of her thigh and to her waist and then the thump, thump of his heart slowed and Abby lay there, listening to him sleeping with his hand resting on her stomach.

Abby slowly acclimatised to the feeling of sharing a bed with someone. She kept waiting for his hand to move, or for Matteo to change his mind about not trying anything. But Matteo was sleeping the sleep of the dead and so she found out what it was like to be held naked through the night with no expectation.

It was possibly the nicest gift of all and in that moment her world was the nicest place.

In the dark, next to him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

AT FIRST ABBY thought that she had jolted awake but then realised that the movement had come from Matteo.

He was still asleep but Matteo just had the familiar sensation of falling.

Only it wasn’t him falling from a tree this time.

He was standing at the door to an elevator and watching the carriage drop down with Hunter and Abby in it and grabbing out for the cable and missing.

Yes, he jolted but then in that same instant felt her warm next to him and knew it was a dream and straight back into deep sleep he went.

Abby lay there, not thinking of the race ahead today but instead the man next to her now, and she didn’t want the alarm to go off.

Of course it did.

Matteo groaned at the intrusion and pulled her closer into him.

Their temperatures matched, their muscles were loose and relaxed and she felt him slowly harden and the nudge of him at the back of her thigh, which seemed to Abby to be at odds with his regular breathing.

Her breathing wasn’t in the least regular. She could feel his hand on her stomach and she lay locked in private thoughts and aching with want. She lay in a body that was finally ready to commit, next to a man who never would.

Abby turned over to face Matteo and his arms, even in sleep, moved to accept her.

He really was asleep.

All the tension from last night had left and his mouth was just a little open and she was so close to leaning over and kissing him awake, just giving in to and exploring the want that hummed through her now.

The snooze alarm went off and she watched his face screw up and his hand reached for a pillow, pulling it over his head and, in that moment, Hunter left every equation.

There were no more thoughts of revenge, no past to overcome, just the quiet of morning and a feeling of peace as she lay next to a man who plucked the strings of her heart.

Just that.

Abby rolled over and turned off the alarm and he pulled her back to his side. ‘Matteo, I’ve got to go.’

He fought to wake and the events of last night started to filter in. ‘I’ll walk you down,’ he mumbled and moved to sit up.

‘Stop it,’ she said. ‘I don’t need a bodyguard.’

She just needed him; yet Abby knew Matteo had checked out on love.

‘Go back to sleep.’

She went and had a quick shower and dressed in the clothes that he had fetched for her last night and then came back into the bedroom, where he lay awake now, looking at her. He looked sulky and angry and she knew why—Hunter was around.

‘You’re going tomorrow, Matteo. I’m here for a few more days, dismantling the car and then straight on to Monte Carlo, so it seems a bit stupid to be walking me to my room today.’

He said nothing.

Matteo didn’t know what to say.

Abby was right—tomorrow at six in the morning he’d be gone and, more to the point, he had never been another’s shadow.

Silence hung between them.

It wasn’t a row; it was Check.

His heart was under threat of capture and Matteo didn’t like that feeling in the least.

‘Good luck today,’ Matteo said but it came out in a rather forced voice.

So, too, was hers. ‘Thanks.’

He lay there when she had gone. Yes, tomorrow he would be back in Manhattan and, Matteo decided, he was going to go and get laid.

It had been...

He didn’t really want to do the math. Matteo didn’t want to admit that since their first dinner in Dubai, he’d lost interest in that half of the world population that had once been his playground.

No, he wouldn’t be getting laid any time soon.

Matteo knew he was lying to himself. Instead the next couple of weeks were going to be spent stressing at the thought of her in Monte Carlo with that animal around.

He reached for the hotel phone.

* * *

Abby stepped into her hotel room to change into her lovely bottle-green outfit. She opened the chocolate that was on her pillow and as she popped it into her mouth she picked up the note that was beside it.

Dear Abby,

You need new underwear. Shall I take you shopping or can I choose?

Matteo

And then her phone rang.

‘Did you get my note?’ Matteo asked.

She knew he was ringing to check that she’d got back okay, but it was nice that he didn’t have to admit it.

‘I did.’ Abby smiled. ‘You can choose.’ And then she was serious. ‘Nothing’s going to happen today, Matteo. All anyone is thinking about is the race.’

‘I know and I meant what I said, even if I didn’t say it very well—good luck today.’

‘Thanks.’

Matteo had quite a morning in a very lavish boutique.

A few women nudged and laughed but he cared not and amassed quite a collection, which he asked to all be wrapped and then sent up to her room. Then Matteo had lunch and finally he took himself trackside.

The streets were packed and lined with spectators and when he finally made it to the Boucher sheds he, as always, stayed back, though Pedro stopped playing video games and came over and they chatted for a few moments.

Abby saw Pedro was smiling at something Matteo had said, and whatever her personal feelings were towards Matteo, she was very glad to have him as their sponsor. He was very good with Pedro, unlike the sponsor they had had last year who had demanded far too much, especially before a race.

But then, as the race commenced, there were no thoughts of Matteo, nor revenge—all Hunter was, was the car that was ahead of them.

As were eight others.

For the next two hours the team worked intently, working out the best refuel times. Matteo watched Abby relaying instructions and giving Pedro some insights as to the cars ahead of him.

The Italian crowd were even more vocal than in Dubai and it was a loud, exciting couple of hours and by the last three laps Pedro had inched the car into fifth place.

Hunter’s experience on the course showed, yet Evan pushed him hard and suddenly a roar went up as Pedro overtook into fourth.

Matteo found that he was chewing his nails.

And then it was into the final lap.

He looked over to Abby, whose face was pale but she was talking very calmly to Pedro through her mouthpiece, even though she must be feeling frantic. Hunter was well ahead of Pedro, Evan was in close second; it was a battle for third and, holy smoke, Matteo thought as Pedro accelerated out of the turn, he was going to get there.

Abby was right; this kid was a genius. The pale, sickly faced twenty-one-year-old that had climbed into the car, sure he would place last, got out a triumphant third, as the Boucher team cheered and embraced.

And no, Matteo wasn’t on her mind right now because Abby nearly broke her neck just to get over to a jubilant Pedro.

‘What the hell!’ she screamed at him, her face split in a shocked smile.

‘She flew!’ Pedro roared back, simply elated. ‘She just took off.’

And they were back to talking about the car as if she were a person. This third was even sweeter than placing first.

The press conference was very different to last time. Abby and Matteo were out and stood hand in hand as Hunter droned on and on about his experience. Evan, a man of few words, just shrugged when asked his predictions for the final race.

They were neck and neck—it could be any one of the three.

Pedro sat with a satisfied grin.

‘We’ll just have to wait for Monte Carlo,’ was not just the gist but practically all Pedro said.

Yes, it was a different type of celebration tonight.

The Boucher team filled a gorgeous restaurant. Abby didn’t have time to change but no-one cared. She had the best squid pasta she had ever tasted and Pedro made a speech and said that she, the car, was perfection.

It was wonderful; the party was moving on now to wild and Abby and Matteo decided to head back to the hotel but, before they did, Matteo pulled Pedro aside and had a word.

‘Another shopping spree?’ Abby checked but Matteo just shrugged.

Oh, he’d been speaking with Pedro but about something rather more serious than shopping, not that he’d tell Abby that.

Yes, things felt different tonight and as Abby and Matteo got out of the elevator at the tenth floor Matteo reminded her of their deal.