Coming Home (Morelli Family 6)

Good girl.

I love it when she’s easy.

Maybe this won’t be as taxing as I expect it to be.

“We’re going to sleep for a few hours,” I tell her. “Then we’re getting back on the road.”

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“My house.”

I drive over to park in front of the room I booked. I’m glad there’s no one around, that makes it easier. I didn’t pick a common check-in or check-out time, just to lessen those odds, but there are still people inside a few of the rooms. I don’t know if they’d hear her, or if they’d even care if they did, but I want to avoid as many annoyances as possible.

“Listen,” I begin, before I open the car door. “I know you’re desperate to get away from me right now, and you might have stupid fucking ideas flying through your head to try to get away. Let me save us both some time. They won’t work, and if you get anyone else involved, they’re going to get hurt.” Pointing out the window at the minivan parked a few doors down, I say, “See the car seat in there? Someone’s here with their kids. Some nice little family. Maybe you could sneak out, maybe you could scream, maybe you could get their attention, but you know what’s going to happen if you do?”

She doesn’t speak, but I can see the dread in her eyes. I can practically see her remembering how she met me.

“Some other little girl’s gonna lose a parent,” I tell her, simply. “So behave yourself, okay?”

Her blue eyes narrow and she glares at me. “Fuck you, Vince.”

I shrug, like it doesn’t matter to me. “It’s your call. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Just giving you a heads-up.”

She may curse at me, but when I unlock her cuffs, she follows me into the hotel room without making a sound, so it works. I figured it would. Mia would’ve had to change a whole hell of a lot to take me by surprise in this regard. She’s always been easy to threaten. It annoyed me when Mateo was the one exploiting her, but it works to my advantage when I’m the threat. Now Mateo’s gone. Now it’s only me. Now it’ll be an advantage.

Just one of the many things I love about this beautiful pain in my ass.

As long as I can keep from killing her during this adjustment period, we’ll be all set.

I’m feeling a little warm toward her now. I haven’t since she woke up today—she’s been doing nothing but pissing me off, but I’m starting to come down. I’m starting to remember why I’m doing all this, how much I missed her, how many of her bizarre qualities I can’t find in anyone else.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s cute as hell when she’s pissed off.

I close the hotel room door and lock it behind me. Mia is lingering nearby, still pissed at me. She casts a longing glance out the window and her hair falls over her shoulder, drawing my attention as it settles over her breasts. She’s wearing jeans and a thin striped sweater—so thin, I can see the outline of her bra underneath. A little pulse of arousal goes straight to my crotch, and she tempts me to do something impulsive, something I didn’t plan on doing yet. I wanted to give her more time than this, but she’s just standing there pouting and glaring at me, and she’s as harmless as a pissed off kitten. It’s so goddamn adorable.

“Why are you smiling?” she demands, all grumpy and fucking cute.

I smile wider, grabbing her arm and pulling her close. She gasps, caught off-guard. I plant her against the door, trapping her with my arms, and I kiss her. She doesn’t kiss me back, but that doesn’t infuriate me the way it does Mateo. Beth used to do that shit to him, made him sensitive. She withdrew like it was a fucking sport.

Mia responds like it’s a sport. Even now, even half-hating me, even wanting to scratch my face off, she goes soft as I kiss her. She’s so sexual. I doubt she thinks of herself that way, but she is. She’s a little scared right now, and Mia fucking loves to be scared. I smile against her mouth, then bite lightly on her lower lip. A little gasp slips out of her and I bring a hand up to cup her face. I can feel her irregular breaths, feel her struggling. She doesn’t want to give anything back. She doesn’t want to respond. She doesn’t want to cheat, but she will anyway. She’s Mia. She fucking will.

I’m just going to have to lock her up and not let her out. That’s the only way I can trust her. There are dangerous men where we’re going, too—I don’t need to finally get rid of Mateo and win her back over, and then she comes across some new dark asshole with danger in his eyes.