The Twelve Vitali Ch 06

Authors note: Hello everyone. Thank you everyone for the positive feedback and comments they mean the world to me and have brightened my days. I hope you enjoy this series despite its differences to the original story. Thank you once again to Paul who continues to be my second set of eyes. ~ellie.

*****

"So, you had questions?" Matteo asked, taking coffee from her and sitting on the comfortable couch in her apartment after driving her home.

"I did. I mean, I do. I guess I have even more questions after tonight," Cat sighed.

"Why the big sigh? You look beautiful, you mingled with a very elite crowd, and no one even questioned if you belonged there, and to deal with my brother, keeping him at arm's length without seeming too distressed, except that one moment," he commented. "I would call that a successful night for both of us."

"Both of us?" she frowned.

"That moment gave me an opportunity to test out any concerns you might still have about Ricco finding out we were dating," he said, and seeing doubt flicker over her face he continued. "You also told me you were awkward and felt you didn't fit into that sort of social gathering. That obviously isn't true and will save some time in preparing for the roles we must play," he said simply. "Maybe it was the dress," he conceded. "I don't think any of the men could take their eyes off your cleavage long enough to actually have a proper conversation with you!"

"You don't seem to be having any trouble talking to me," she tilted her head.

"Oh, trust me, I'm having problems, I just hide it better. I'm only human, Cat, and you are a very beautiful woman when you are not hiding behind those baggy clothes and long fringe," Matteo admitted. "It's taking some willpower to keep my eyes above your neckline. So, distract me with your questions."

"This commission is going to be a big project and could take me anywhere between six months to a year to complete. I don't know what your time frame is or what you expect from this partnership time-wise," Cat said tentatively. "I don't want to put my entire life on hold for you. At least not until we are sure that things will work out, and, if I am honest, I really want this commission."

"That's fair," he agreed. "Dante's asked me to consult on a project here that could keep me busy for a while, and flying in and out of here rather than Melbourne wouldn't be an issue. I travel a lot anyway, so it's better if you have your own work commitments. We could probably negotiate a few short-term trips to Melbourne to visit your brother and attend family functions while people get used to seeing us together as a dating couple," he seemed to think through the situation as he spoke. "Six months is certainly a reasonable time for busy people like myself to be dating before becoming serious and getting engaged."

"So, we'd work out a timeline and date for a few months, move in together and be seen in the right places, for a year while I'm here in Brisbane?" she asked, following his logic.

"If you finish the commission we can return to Melbourne earlier. The timeline won't be too onerous, as I said, I travel a lot, you will have as much space as you need or want from me," he reassured her. "Does this mean you will accept the partnership proposal I am offering?"

"I need to know that it won't be an issue between you and Ricco, first. He seemed strained tonight before you pulled that stunt kissing me like that in front of him as if claiming your territory. I'm not a property you can just lay claim to, Matteo!" she sighed again and sank into the corner of the couch opposite him. "While I don't want to renew that relationship with Ricco, I can't be the cause of tension in your family. It matters to me a great deal that this partnership won't cause problems for you or him," she knew she sounded conceited saying that, but Ricco's appearance and words tonight had thrown her more than she thought seeing him again would.

"You said you split up amicably." he reminded her. "He told me himself that he wished us well. Where's the problem?"

"We did, but rubbing it in his face isn't good for anyone," she paused and looked up at him. "The truth, tell the truth and it can never come back to bite you," she said, lecturing herself and making him raise an eyebrow. "I overheard a conversation I probably shouldn't have a little while before Ricco and I broke up." She went on to tell him what she had overheard between father and son and the subsequent conversation with Roberto.

"I suspected as much. That just makes Ricco an idiot who deserves to lose you forever, but I understand what you are saying and will be more considerate of his feelings and yours," Matteo assured her. "Anything else?"

"That story reminded me to tell you that you need a new sales manager at the Wattle Estate you just built, the estate for low-income earners. If my brother hadn't had his heart set on the gated community there I would have walked away from that awful, sleazy salesman and never come back," she told him. "He can't possibly be doing you any favours there."

"Sales have been slow," he acknowledged. "I'll look into it, thanks."

"While we're on the subject of property," she continued. "I'd rather have a gallery at Princetown and live at the house on the hill, if you wouldn't mind me redecorating and maybe renovating a room or two. Ricco said you were thinking of selling, but that would be such a shame, it's so beautiful there. Ricco taught me to ride. Horses aren't nearly as scary as I thought they would be."

"Did he?" His head came up in surprise, and he tried to school his voice and features. He felt a little pissed that Ricco had taken her to his house to teach her to ride. His brothers were always welcome there, but this somehow felt like a violation, especially with Cat sitting on the couch with him looking so tempting. He imagined her on horseback and found the vision more than appealing. At that moment he wanted to lean across and... He shook himself, no, this was going to be a friend and business partner, he couldn't think of her that way. Could he?

"We can discuss that when you return to Melbourne," he said more abruptly than he had meant to and saw her eyes flash at him. In other circumstances he would enjoy subduing Cat. The only thing he missed about Nik now was the constant battle that was their sex life, and he imagined that the woman sitting across from him would challenge him in the same way. He felt his cock stiffen at the thought and fought to drag his thoughts and his eyes back to her face and their discussion.

Cat considered him for a long moment after he had abruptly shut down any further questions about the house on the hill. He seemed lost in thought and slightly uncomfortable, and she wondered about who had lived there with him. Was it Nik? She wondered. It was none of her business, of course, but, still, if they were to be friends and partners shouldn't she be able to ask and expect an honest answer? That was the premise he had sold her last night, total honesty between them. She noted that his eyes dropped to her breasts more than once during the prolonged silence, and she steeled herself for the big question she needed to get through.

"So, we'd be friends, best friends even, and business partners?" she asked carefully, wrapping her head around this idea of a mutually beneficial albeit loveless marriage.

"Yes," he said warily, sensing something more behind the question.

"What about intimacy? Do you expect intimacy, or would that be blurring the lines of the relationship too much? Would you expect me to live like a nun? Would you be expecting to be able to keep a mistress or a hooker somewhere on the side, and would I be able to do the same? As you said earlier, we're only human, and while in theory this partnership could work, I am just trying to work out the kinks. I'm sure your family would notice if we never touched or kissed each other," Cat said, and despite her best efforts she felt the heat of a deep flush colour her face.

Matteo gaped at her, his mind whirling. He had expected to be able to keep a Kept discreetly to service his needs, but he had not honestly considered her physical needs in that way. What had he expected? He knew that the idea of her using a Kept or having a clandestine affair was repugnant to him, and he stared at her in silence as his mind worked over the problem.

"Were you expecting to schedule conjugal visits so I could produce an heir for your family to fawn over?" she said, her voice hardening as his silence continued. "Do you expect a friend with benefits? You have to have something to cover this in that plan of yours."

"Intimacy is something we would need to negotiate," he said finally. "Yes, there would need to be public displays of affection while we are dating, and even engaged, but beyond that is something we will need to negotiate once we have determined the timeline. I'm sure we are both capable of satisfying our own baser urges until we reach that point."

"Explain precisely what your version of public displays of affection are," Cat prompted him further. "Do you plan to claim me as your property like you did tonight every time we see Ricco, or, god forbid, someone makes a pass at me?"

"You're right, you're not property, but this is a business partnership I am proposing here, and for all intents and purposes we are both offering ourselves as viable commodities for what we can bring to this partnership," he said in obvious frustration with this line of questioning. "Hand holding, embraces, the occasional kiss, nothing too deep or intimate, but enough that people believe we are a couple in love," he let out a long breath.

"Would you say tonight's kiss was not too deep or intimate?" she asked, tilting her head.

"No, but that kiss had a purpose," He admitted.

"So, when it suits you or the situation we can discard the rules we set up?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Intimacy isn't something we have to decide on right now, is it? We both have needs; you have made that very clear. It's getting to know each other's wants and needs and keeping them within the boundaries of the partnership," he said, painfully aware of his attraction to her. Maybe this was a mistake after all. Finding a girl who appeared to have given up on love as much as he had seemed too good to be true last night, and now as he watched her he wondered what he had been thinking asking a girl he had known for an hour or two to accept a proposal like this.

This side of the partnership was not something he'd given a lot of thought to, but it was obvious that she had. He wondered what kind of woman she was in the bedroom. He had read the complete background check on her, including the attack and rape she had gone through, and he wondered how she was still functioning and asking these types of questions. Surely being intimate with another man becoming vulnerable to another person again would be as hard for her as it was for him. His mind settled on his brother who had broken down any walls she had up after the attack and then hurt her in his own way. Maybe there was more to the attack than he could know just from reading the report. He considered how to ask that question tactfully.

"We can take it all as slowly as we need to as long as we are on the right track, together," Matteo reached over, took her hand and looked into her crystal blue eyes. He suddenly felt protective of her and wanted to take the look of panicked worry and concern from her eyes. "You can do this, Cat. We can do this, together," he squeezed her hand. "We can count this as a first date."

They lapsed into silence again as they finished their coffee. He knew he needed to slow down, weigh everything carefully, come to terms with his attraction toward her, but the more time he spent with Cat, the surer he became that she was the perfect partner for him. She had proven tonight that she could not only look the part but act the part within his social circle. Through it all, though, she had remained herself; straight talking and honest, the qualities he liked best about her, despite the fact that his eyes landed on her breasts yet again and the bulge in his pants was threatening to become an embarrassing size.

"Maybe you should change into something more comfortable before we talk any more about intimacy. Maybe I should remind you that I'm only human, Cat," he said, admitting that he felt an attraction toward her again. The dress was having too big of an effect on him, and he needed her to cover up now that they were alone so he could concentrate on the contract.

No other woman since his breakup with Nik had affected him quite so much, and the feeling confused him. Perhaps having the closure from finding out the real story about the woman who had destroyed his ideas about love had finally helped him to start healing. That didn't mean he would ever put his heart on the line again and be vulnerable, but it certainly made him appreciate the benefits of having Cat in his life as his pretend girlfriend, and eventually fiancé and wife.

"Yeah, honestly, I've been dying to get out of this dress since I put it on. I won't be a moment," Cat gathered some yoga pants and a sweatshirt from a drawer near the bed and walked into the bathroom, the only separate room with walls in the vast space.

He resisted the urge to offer to help her. He remembered the first night when she had gone to have a shower, and he had almost offered to help her then too. His attraction to Cat had always been there from the moment she had taken off the paint that had marred her pretty face and he had looked into her crystal blue eyes. Maybe intimacy should be a bigger part of the deal, he considered. Intimacy didn't automatically lead to love or putting his heart on the line. He'd had multiple affairs over the years, and they meant nothing to him, it was a purely physical and chemical attraction. He didn't make love to women, he fucked them, and he did it his way. He chuckled, knowing he was kidding himself. As friends and partners they would grow to care about each other, and it would be difficult to separate those feelings from any intimacy they shared. No, he had to have rules around intimacy to protect himself and his heart. He had almost convinced himself that his weakening resolve around sex with Cat was just a momentary aberration until she walked out of the bathroom.

Cat had scrubbed the make-up from her face and had pulled her hair into a long messy ponytail. She wore a light sweatshirt and yoga pants, and to Matteo she looked just as beautiful as she had before she had changed. He seemed to be in a constant battle with his libido tonight and, distracting himself, he stood and took his cup to the kitchen.

"I... umm... Do you want to sleep on the couch? We'll have to be awake in a couple of hours anyway," she offered.

"No, I'll need to shower and change, I'm not going riding in a tux," he chuckled and reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "You're just as beautiful like this as you were at the party tonight," he said softly. "We need to think about and talk about the intimacy thing carefully. Not because I'm not attracted to you, but because I don't do romance. I don't make love. I fuck, and I have very particular tastes when I fuck. I know we could be great together, but that sort of intimacy could also mess things up if we aren't totally honest about what we want and need in all the other areas of our life together first," he confessed his true feelings on the matter.

Cat looked up at him, curiously searching his eyes, and unable to resist her any longer he lowered his head and kissed her softly without the depth and urgency of their earlier kiss just after midnight.

"Goodnight, Cat," he said in a soft voice, and walked to the door, turning back to look at her before stepping through it and closing it behind him.

"Goodnight, Matt," she whispered at the closed door, feeling confused and more than a little unsettled by his words.

*****

Cat woke up with a fright. There was someone in the apartment. She sat up, and seeing Matteo relaxed slightly and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"So you have a key," she said, wondering why she was surprised about the fact.

"Well, this week is a trial, and I believe you still have a key to the apartment I am staying in," He countered easily and smiled, walking toward her with a fresh cup of coffee. "Good morning," he said, and sat beside her on the bed. He hadn't slept, he'd stayed awake all night going over his plans and considering what the biggest hurdles were for her, as well as how to show her that she could trust him to be true to his word. It came down to honesty and trust; they would need both in absolute measures.

He waited until she took a sip of the brew and seemed to relax, moving to sit cross-legged and look at him. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly, his lips barely grazing over hers.

"We'll have to get going soon, but first, just to show you that I understand there are history and issues between you and Ricco," he took out his phone and placed it between them with Ricco's contact details showing on the screen. He hit the call button and put it on speaker. He had most of his conversations on speaker while he was multitasking, so he knew Ricco would think nothing of it.

"Hey, Matt, what's up?" Ricco answered the phone straight away.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" Matt spoke easily with the relaxed familiarity of talking to his brother.

"Saved me, Maryanne and her brother, Ben, are tripping down memory lane, and Cobi is eating it up," he said distastefully, making Matteo chuckle.

"Speaking of women like Maryanne, I got the feeling you still had a thing for Catriona Leone last night," Matteo's casual tone belied his interest. "You planning on going there again? I don't want to get in your way if it's the real deal, you know."

"Cat's not like Maryanne," Ricco chuckled, "She's amazing on a whole different level."

"So, you're planning on seeing her again, renewing the relationship, or what?" Matteo asked.

"You're the one who said he had a date with her," Ricco said stiltedly. "Why the interest?"

"After seeing you with her last night I just didn't want to have any weirdness about us being brothers," he said, remembering the look on their faces as they spoke in the garden.

"Geez, I dunno what to say, Matt," Ricco said into the silence. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me, it does. It wouldn't matter who she dated. It would bother me on some level, but, I suppose, at least I know you're a good guy and wouldn't be an asshole to her."

"So, if you care so much why'd you let her go?" Matteo asked curiously. "You know I'll cancel the date if you think you still have a future," he offered.

"No, it's over, I was an asshole, let's just leave it at that," he sighed. "Enjoy your date, Cat's an amazing woman," Ricco said. "I'm good with it, if that's what you needed to hear."

"Yeah, I love you man," Matteo said, hearing the pain in Ricco's voice. "Don't let Cobi mess your life up too much, you know nothing is absolute, right? Even for a second son?"

"You're one to talk," Ricco chuckled. "Don't worry about me. It is what it is, and it's too late to go back and undo the damage. Have fun, I mean that sincerely. I'll catch up with you when you get home and have time for a beer."

"All right, catch you later," Matteo said, and waited until Ricco had ended the call before turning off his phone and putting it back in his pocket.

"You good with that?" Matteo asked, looking at her carefully and noting her glassy eyes.

"Mmhmm," she nodded, unable to trust her voice. Matteo had done that for her benefit alone; knowing his bond with his brother was strong enough to withstand anything. She was grateful to him that he had shared it with her. Ricco still cared, as she did about him, but, as he said, the damage was done and their circumstances hadn't changed, it could never work between them. "I needed to hear that, thank you," she whispered and pulled herself up straighter. "I guess it will take some time to work out the kinks in this partnership agreement. How long are you in town for?"