Authors note: Hello everyone. Thank you to everyone who has voted and left comments I appreciate every one of you. Thank you once again to Paul who continues to be my second set of eyes. ~ellie.
*****
"No," Cat laughed. "It's one thing knowing what I would have to do and a totally different thing agreeing to do it." The truth was that she still wasn't sure he was asking her for the right reasons.
"Why do you have to continually do this to me?" Matteo complained. "Just once can't you do what I ask without arguing with me?"
"As I remember, I did everything you asked last night," she giggled.
"True, and I would like to get used to that happening all the time," he grinned and took her in his arms, kissing her deeply. "Just say yes, and we can worry about the details later!"
"You know that would kill you. You don't do anything without thinking about it from all angles to manage the risk because you are a self-confessed control freak," Cat reached up and smoothed his hair back from his face. "You know I'm right. You need those details in place and secure more than I do. Besides, we still haven't come to a decision about whether it's even possible for me to work remotely from Melbourne."
"You know if you married me you wouldn't have to work," he groaned and rolled to his back.
"How did that argument go for you last time you made it?" she laughed, swinging her feet from the bed and standing up.
Matteo propped himself up on a pillow and watched her. He loved that she was so comfortable in her own skin. Most women he had been with had always covered up with a robe or a sheet in the morning as if he hadn't already seen and explored their naked body. It had been several days since they had discussed a future together and restarted their relationship without any talk of contracts. In his heart of hearts he knew he loved her, but they were both being careful with the word. He knew he wasn't the only one who had been let down by a mother or past lover, and they had talked in depth about both.
He had been surprised to find that it was Ned's threats against David that scared her more than anything he had done or would do to her. The fact had startled him so much he had asked her more about the relationship. He had read between the lines, so to speak, and contacted Frankie as well and had been even more surprised to find that his assumptions about her early life, her relationships with both David and Ned, as well as the court case, were not entirely correct.
She'd grown up virtually motherless, and when her grandmother had died she had to pick up the slack. She had no one to love her and an ungrateful little boy virtually dependant on her from a very young age. When her mother died, and they became homeless, Ned had stepped in, and for the first time in her life someone had wanted to take care of her. He'd always been aggressive and abusive toward her and, similarly, David, who became a surly young man prone to getting into brawls and trouble with the police until he met Frankie, and had not been kind to her.
Through it all she'd worked hard and been loyally supportive of both David and Ned, who continued to treat her badly until David finally started to get a clue and got a job so he could move in with his football friends in one of Frankie's many houses. Having nowhere else to go herself, Cat had stayed with Ned in an on and off again relationship until she finally tried to break up with him for good.
The attack wasn't the dreadful rape portrayed in court. She admitted he had done worse to her in the past. She'd said no and meant it, and she'd been hurt by him during the rape, but she only pressed charges because he had threatened David, not because he had ruined her art or forced her into having sex with him again. It wasn't the first time she had said no and he had forced her into a vulnerable position, and she knew it was easier to go along with what he wanted than fight it.
The whole idea of her acceptance that her life was meant to be that bleak at that time made him feel sick, and he could see how she had assumed Ricco's reticence to be seen with her in public was confirmation of the dreadful things Ned had always told her about being worthless and a whore. The problem was that Roberto and Ricco both had made her see that she didn't have to accept her fate and she had fought against being viewed as being Ricco's dirty little secret. She had no idea how beautiful she was or how talented she was, though that seemed to be changing thanks to her work for Vanessa and Peri. Now he wanted nothing more than to make sure her life was better on all levels and a wonderful adventure they could share together. He smiled as she came back toward him, walking carefully with two full mugs of coffee.
"Okay, you have my absolute attention for the whole day. What would you like to do first?" she asked, putting her mug down on the bedside table and leaning down to kiss him.
"The obvious answer is you, but since I already did that, I'll settle for a shower and breakfast," he grinned, rolling her to her back and pinning her arms above her head and kissing her passionately.
She'd been working hard for the last few days with Roz and Peri, who wanted to make a bigger deal out of the unveiling of the family portrait than Cat was comfortable with. Because of this she had spent quite a lot of time in at the gallery, as well as in her small studio, painting while Matteo was busy with work. They'd talked continuously about everything and anything now, their open and honest communication allowing them to ask what would have otherwise been confronting and unorthodox questions that they may not have asked in a regular relationship that hadn't started with the same unusual intensity. Every day he asked her to marry him, and every day she declined, citing many reasons but holding just one close to her chest.
Just over an hour later she cleaned up the kitchen as he spoke to Ricco on his phone. Cat felt for Ricco. Jacobi and Maryanne were in Europe, and it seemed they might extend their time over there as Jacobi helped his Uncle, who was the family Ambassador. She understood now how much of his life he had been willing to give up for his twin, who seemed to have abandoned him for the time being. Matteo, too, while still in the same country, was busy with his own life, leaving Ricco to pick up the slack in Melbourne.
"Ready to go?" he asked as he ended his call.
"I'm ready. You're the slowpoke," she teased. "It wouldn't hurt to give me a clue about what we're doing today, you know."
"We're going shopping," he shrugged. "It's no big secret or anything."
