She wanted to be greedy, to think about all of the things that she could buy now, but that wasn’t what had drawn her to Matteo. It was his eyes, the way he’d treated her. Would that change now?
Thoughts spun around in her brain so fast that they made her head pound. She didn’t want to think about money, she didn’t want to think that her only interest in Matteo had ever been about the poverty he could take her away from. It was sensible though, he had money, he’d never hidden that fact. His ability to lift her out of the life of abuse she’d endured had appealed, more than his money, however.
Where her mother had only offered her misery and hate, Matteo had offered her love, friendship, and joy. He’d brought light to her dark world. So, no, it wasn’t all about his money. It was more about the fact that he made her feel human.
She poured milk into a mug filled with the fresh coffee and sat back down at the table. She looked at the stack of bills before she looked away. She didn’t have to worry about those anymore. Matteo would take care of them. She didn’t have to worry about anything really, other than meeting his witch of an aunt.
That she didn’t want to do. Marie knew the meeting would be tense, after all, Marie was the product of the woman’s husband’s infidelity. She was proof that he hadn’t really loved her. How could it go right?
No, she’d marry him, and later, after the bills were paid and the house was hers, she could divorce him. If she wanted to. Maybe he’d be a good husband, maybe this wasn’t all some game he was playing with his aunt. Why would he want to marry her otherwise, really? She was a nobody, she didn’t bring him anything but debt, so perhaps there was a part of him that really did want to marry her? How else could she explain it?
That’s what she’d do then, she’d marry him and get on with her life. After the divorce, she could do whatever she wanted: travel, find out who she really was after all these years of living with her mother’s torture. She’d learned over the last few days that waking up with the knowledge that her mother was no longer around to tell her how terrible she was, what a burden she was, how the world would be better without her, was really… nice.
She felt another pang of guilt, but she was coming to live with those. Her mother had been horrible to her for her entire life, Marie was perfectly aware of that. She’d become used to it, even if it got to her some days. Now, though, she had a chance at so much more than just existing. She had a chance to live, to live a life she’d never dreamed of, and she’d take that chance. It wasn’t like she had any other options.
6
Matteo walked back into his office as he heard her drive away and sat down at his computer. She’d left angry, hurt, and on the verge of tears. He knew that, yet he couldn’t, wouldn’t, do anything to make it stop. He wanted her, had to have her, and with his aunt in the way, this was the only way he could do it.
His aunt was not one that he would normally fuck around with. That was before he met Marie, before he felt… something. Emotions weren’t his normal playing ground, he didn’t have them, not really, but from the moment he’d seen Marie in that parking lot, he knew he had to have her.
Now, after a long tormenting wait, when he thought he’d go mad wanting her, he’d had her. That should have got her out of his system, but it didn’t. It made him want her even more. He wanted to own those sighs of hers, the way she arched her back and twisted her hips. He wanted all of that, all of her, to be his. The problem was… his aunt.
The only way he could think of to get around that problem was to marry her. He’d made the offer to Marie, an offer he knew she’d have to accept, knowing that it would hurt her. The fact that he had to tell her his aunt wanted what was owed to her would hurt her anyway, he figured he’d soften