Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 364 -

*Olivia*

Inside the limo, Dahlia straightened up from where she had been lounging across three seats. "Olive!"

I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed next to her. "Dolly, pretty please tell me about the spoon thing?"

Dahlia's eyes lit up, and she talked the rest of the way back to the compound. I relaxed into her chatter, pretending for a moment that we were only a couple of college girls. By the time we pulled up outside, I had even laughed at one of her jokes.

The limo rolled to a smooth stop, and I reached for the door handle, but she grabbed my arm.

"You seem different than you were at lunch. Did something happen?" Her eyebrows knitted in concern, and for a moment, I considered spilling my guts, just breaking down in the back of the car. Then, the door to the house swung open to reveal Gio standing just inside.

My breath caught in my throat. Even through the tinted windows, his expression seemed off. I thought somebody else might have been taken, but the anxious fury I'd seen on his face after Gabriele reported Alessandro missing wasn't there. He was just tired, I told myself. I couldn't keep thinking something was wrong all the time.

And, as my heartbeat calmed for the umpteenth time that day, I realized I was tired, too.

I looked at Dahlia, trying to force enough brightness into my smile to convince her. "I'm all good, really. I just started stressing about something, but I think it's a much smaller problem than I thought."

She pursed her lips. I knew she didn't believe me, but she released my arm, and I opened the door just before Dom could.

No matter what else was going on, no matter how angry and tired we were, my heart sang at the smile that lit Gio's face when he saw me get out. I crossed the drive to him quickly, and he swept me up in a crushing hug. I pressed my face into his neck, inhaling the scent I'd grown so used to over the past few months.

"I missed you, carina," he murmured. "Even when you're only gone for a few hours, I feel empty."

I leaned out of his neck and stared into his dark eyes. The exhaustion was still there but overpowering that was a deep and profound love.

He was worth fighting for, I reminded myself. We could figure this out somehow.

"I missed you, too." I pressed my lips to his, drinking him in.

Dahlia cleared her throat behind us. "Don't get me wrong. I'm glad everything is fine with you two, but some people would like to walk inside the house instead of watching a live sex show on the front steps."

I broke away from Gio, my face flaming. I'd totally forgotten about her in my rush to be in Gio's arms. But even as I tried to step away, he refused to let go of my waist. I blushed even brighter as I felt the effect that restraint had between my legs.

Focus, Olivia, I thought-communication problems now, sex after.

Dahlia swept past us with a laugh, and Gio led me inside.

"Do they feed you at that school, carina? Do you need something before dinner?" he asked.

"Are you offering to cook?" I answered with a smile.

He laughed. "Maybe someday, but I do have to get back to work soon enough."

I pouted dramatically. "I'll just have Maria make me something."

We meandered toward the kitchen, his arm still around my waist. Maria was already in there, clearly making some food for Dahlia. The smell of cooking meat reached my nose, and what had been kind of a joke about eating something became a definite reality. Maria was working on her loaded nachos, and I couldn't turn those down to save my life.

I fumbled through asking for some, and Gio sat down with me at the dining room table.

"Do you really have more work to do?" I asked. I didn't want to have a big conversation if he was going to be pulled away on mafia business at any moment.

He grimaced. "Unfortunately, yes. I wanted to carve out a little time to see you after school, but my schedule doesn't have a lot of room for carving."

He seemed busier than usual. "Making progress on the Dmitri front, then?"

A deep and abiding rage crossed his face, which he clearly struggled to hide behind his neutral business expression. "Yes. We've gotten some valuable leads."

I wrinkled my eyebrows. He'd been angry about Dmitri for a while now, but this anger seemed worse.

"Anything I should know?" I asked.

Gio began to say something, but Maria came out with a plate of steaming nachos, and I dug in. She was basically a goddess in the kitchen. When I looked back up, the rage was gone, replaced by amusement.

"I wanted to ask how school was going," he said.

I swallowed a bite and debated whether to push him for more details. That rage I sensed in him worried me, but I didn't want to have another fight right before he left to do more work.

I could wait until this evening to tell him what I wanted. That didn't make me a coward; I was just biding my time, waiting for the right moment.

I smiled brightly. I didn't want him distracted by worrying about me when he needed to be taking care of himself and his people. "I love my classes. I took Biology as my general science, but I like it so much I might switch majors. The professor is incredible. I've got to at least minor in it so I can take more of his stuff."

A slow, matching smile spread across Gio's face. "Yes? You wouldn't miss the art stuff?"

The interaction with Caterina came back to me suddenly. If I transferred majors, I could get away from her. But that was scared mafia-girlfriend Olivia talking, and I wanted to be cool college-in-Italy Olivia right now.

I took a deep breath and shrugged. "I probably would, but I could minor in that, instead, I think."

He nodded. His eyes always lit up when I was excited about something, and that made me want to say more, just to see him happy for these brief moments.

"I might've even made a friend today!" I volunteered before I could stop myself. I immediately looked down at my plate of nachos, nearly half gone. I didn't want to see my fear play out in his eyes, or worse, not see it. "That's wonderful," he said slowly. "I'm sure everyone loves you there like they do here."

I nodded, and a tense silence fell over the dining room. Did he think Caterina was a risk, too? Or did he think I was crazy for being so hesitant? I didn't know which answer I'd like less, so I couldn't bring myself to ask. Giovani broke the silence. "I have to get back to work, but you have a break from school next week, yes?"

I nodded. He stood. "Why don't you and I go on a trip somewhere, just the two of us?"

I looked at him now. Tension chased every line of his body, but he smiled at me like I was the most beautiful thing in the world. "Really?" He nodded. "Wherever you want-France, for the art, Ireland, for the history. We can fly to the most beautiful beaches on this planet." Excitement fizzed in my veins, and I leaped out of my chair to race around the table and throw my arms around him. "Yes, yes, yes!"

He chuckled, low and dangerous, and wound his arms around me as well. "I can't wait to see what we get up to in a place where no one knows our faces."

Suddenly, he dropped his hands lower, grabbing my ass, and he yanked me off the ground into a searing kiss. His tongue pressed into my mouth insistently, and I opened for him with a quiet moan as I wrapped my legs around his waist. I nearly lost myself in the moment and forgot we were in the very public dining room of his very crowded complex, until he pulled back.

"I can't take you on this table, carina, but I am certain I can replace somewhere I can," he whispered in my ear. Shivers raced down my spine as he slowly lowered me to the ground, his hands lingering on my body as long as possible. "Now, I really must get back to work. You tell me what you want, or I'll surprise you." With a wink, Gio turned and strode out of the room.

I spun in a happy circle once I had the dining room to myself. I might not have stood up for myself and told him what I needed, but I got something I hadn't even known I wanted. A trip, a whole week of just the two of us, was exactly what the doctor ordered. We could see somewhere beautiful, and talk, and I didn't doubt Gio would fulfill the promise he'd just made.

I danced all the way up the stairs to the room we shared, bringing the rest of my nachos along with me. Did I want to go to the beach? Life in Florida made the beach almost boring, but I hadn't been since I moved to Italy, and I missed it. My mouth curved up at the thought of convincing him to take me to one of those topless beaches and watching him grow more and more jealous until we simply had to go home so he could remind me who my breasts really belonged to. Or-I blushed as I opened the door to our room-perhaps not even making it back to wherever we were staying.

But maybe I did want to go somewhere more historical and drag him around to all the sights while he whispered sweet nothings and threats of what he was going to do to me when we got back. Or maybe even somewhere more exotic, like South America, to see what the wet jungle heat did to us.

Regardless, I couldn't stop imagining what the anonymity of vacation would allow us to get up to.

I flopped onto our bed, careful not to spill my nachos, and noticed someone had brought my backpack up for me already. My Art History notebook peeked out of the top where I'd shoved it messily in to flee Caterina, and I realized another benefit of going where nobody knew our faces-I could spend a week actually relaxing, not just looking over my shoulder for a knife or a gun.

The knowledge washed over me like a cool breeze. I could actually be a fun college girl instead of just pretending to be one. I could enjoy the place we went, instead of searching it for threats.

For the first time since Dahlia got taken, I could really, actually sleep at night.

As I rolled over to begin my homework, I decided I didn't care where we went. I'd be perfectly happy anywhere safe.