Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 662 -

*Caterina*

His smile was like a cat that had finally conned the mouse into the trap he had laid out and I only realized at that moment as Elio took my lips, pushing me down onto the bed until my hair was laid out like a halo and I was pinned beneath his muscular body, that I had been tricked.

But like a canary in a cage who still sang for her master, I was more than willing to overlook the iron bars that kept me within his arms.

I kissed him back, a feverish heat growing along my skin as his hand curved around the dip of my hip. Fire erupted along every part he touched, sending a cascade of heat that burned from the inside out.

I gripped him tightly, wanting nothing more than to lose myself in his flames, absorbed into the passion and love he showed me, but another nagging thought pushed its way to the forefront of my mind. "Wait," I gasped out, pulling from his kiss.

Elio immediately halted, giving me a concerned look as he lifted himself off me, supporting his large body with just his forearms. I breathed out to calm myself before meeting his eyes.

I smiled reassuringly and then flicked my eyes to the boxes piled in our closet. "We still have some unpacking to do, and I want to see the apartment properly. We didn't have much time before. We can finish this later, right?" He rolled his eyes, a little pout on his lips, but he nodded nonetheless, giving me a quick kiss on the lips before he rolled off me.

I was slower in getting off but no less excited as I grabbed my phone and we headed to the living room. We knelt on the floor, and I grabbed the nearest box as I surveyed the empty shelves. We'd sorted mostly everything into the right room but had yet to put up our knick-knacks and more hobby-related items.

"Do you really need all this?" I asked skeptically as I pulled out a very dirty baseball and a pretty hefty rock. "What's the point of keeping this? It's just a rock."

"Roccia!" Elio grinned, grabbing it. He glared at me, holding the rock protectively in his arms like I might snatch it away. "He's not just a rock. He's a very good pet."

"You have a pet rock?" I couldn't help but laugh, and he stuck up his nose, ignoring my teasing look as he petted his rock like it was something precious. "Of all things, why a pet rock? Your family is rich. You could've gotten any kind of animal as a pet."

"Well, I did," Elio admitted, an ashamed look. "I got a fish, but I forgot about it, so it died. I got a hamster, but it escaped into the walls after I forgot to feed it. I got a bird, but it was so afraid of me it kept slamming itself head-first into the cage and developed brain damage, so we gave it away. Mom said the only thing I could keep alive was a rock, so Dad got it for me. I didn't get another animal because I was so bad with them, but Roccia was a good pet and still is."

I went from amused to horrified and then smiling at the sweet story so fast, I was afraid I might get whiplash. "And the baseball?" I offered it to him with a grin.

"Ah, Dad took me to the World Series for my ninth birthday," Elio beamed as he took the baseball into his hand. "Dad lifted me up so I could catch the foul ball, and I managed to get it signed by every member of the team."

He brushed off the dust, leaning close to show me all the different signatures with a proud twinkle in his eye. I smiled as he explained to me every member and their position on the team, even some fun facts about them, though I didn't know a single thing about baseball.

Fully excited and invested now in unpacking, Elio took out item after item from the box, explaining the story and memory connected to each one.

He found a magic kit he had asked for when he was a kid, even showing me how to do a few of the tricks he remembered. The coin one was pretty good. I couldn't lie. There was a dartboard with darts, and he told me how he and his dad bet that if he learned how to hit the bullseye all seven times in a row, he would teach him how to shoot a gun.

He even put it up, managing to hit every bullseye perfectly even after so many years. He took the time to show me too, but I never even came close to it, though I did put a few holes into the wall. I was horrified, but Elio just laughed. There was a chessboard and model planes, from when he was a kid, and a gorgeous dream-catcher full of high-quality feathers and stones.

We lounged on the floor, cuddled up together as Elio explained he'd been kidnapped as a child and suffered from nightmares. To help him out, his mom had helped him make a dreamcatcher, telling him it would catch the nightmares so he would only have good dreams.

Elio swore it worked, and I grinned, laying my head on his shoulder as we went through his childhood memories. He showed me his old soccer ball. He had played every summer in a small league. He boasted about how he was the best goalie in the whole city.

In return though, I showed him the box of knick-knacks I'd collected, including a stained-glass ornament I'd made in high school art class, which Elio liked so much he immediately hung it up in the window, where the light could catch it and sprinkle mosaic rainbows across our skin.

I showed him the snow globe collection I had, one from every city I'd ever been in, which wasn't much since Mom wasn't much for traveling. Elio kissed the rainbow reflections on my hands, promising it would be bigger.

We carefully placed each one on the mantle as I explained the story about each city and why I went, including the first one I ever got from Florence with my dad.

We hung my plants in every corner, and though Elio was wary about killing them just from being around them, I was more than happy to see how gentle he was when touching their leaves and petals.

We went room by room, slowly filling our apartment with memories of our lives, sharing them, and creating new ones-his collection of coffee mugs in the kitchen and the electric guitar he hung on the wall in the bedroom, something he'd inherited from his "Grandfather James," an honorary title as James was actually Elio's great uncle on his dad's side, but Elio's mother was like a daughter to James.

My filled sketchbooks went into the office where they could be displayed properly, even though I told Elio he didn't have to. I even found the old journals he'd kept from middle school, filled with handwritten poetry.

He'd blushed and tried his hardest to catch me as I raced around the kitchen island reading them aloud. Eventually, though he caught me around the middle, hoisting me onto the counter as he kissed me. The poetry was forgotten.

As we worked through the boxes, we each decided there were things we didn't exactly need to keep holding onto.

The magic kit and soccer ball were tucked away in the boxes, where he teasingly told me he would bring them out if we had a child. In return, I packed up most of the stuffed animals and toys I had kept through all these years, sliding those boxes into the living room closet right next to his.

I didn't know if we would ever have kids, or if we would even get married, but it wasn't hard to imagine a little girl or boy with Elio's hair and my eyes running away doing coin tricks and a stuffed rabbit under their arm.

But some things were too precious to tuck away.

Elio's dreamcatcher was hung beside the shelf, right next to the jar of paper stars I had made in high school. Elio had asked about that one, but I didn't tell him.

I couldn't tell him how every night I looked out my window, wanting to wish on the stars above for my father to come back, for my mother to be okay. I couldn't tell him how I wrote those wishes on a piece of paper and folded them into a paper star, putting it in the jar so I wouldn't say them aloud.

I couldn't tell him how the girl back then never could've imagined any of those wishes coming true... and now, I was living one.

Some stories just weren't meant to be told.

As night fell, we lounged on the couch, cuddling together so tightly I couldn't tell where he started and I began, focused only on the rise of his chest and the beat of his heart. The wine on the coffee had been opened and fully emptied. The city lights outside of the open bay windows were like twinkling stars in the night sky, the only kind that existed in the bright city of LA.

The light breeze was a nice contrast with the heat of Elio's body, and I felt so comfortable I didn't want to move an inch. I couldn't deny that I loved being here. I loved this apartment, all our things mixed together, and that my mom was just downstairs, being taken care of twenty-four-seven.

But most importantly, I loved being here with Elio.

My musing was interrupted by the sound of a text message and Elio shuffled around, pulling his phone from his pocket. I waited patiently until he passed me the phone, showing the text from Leo to me.

'I've got scouts assigned to each location. If anyone sneezes, we'll know about it.'

I smiled, putting the thought out of my mind for now as I snuggled into his chest. The sign of trust he had just shown me was more than enough to send my heart soaring. I was glad we were working together, living together, finally starting our lives together.

And now that we had everything completed, I could focus on the one thing that remained. A sly smirk crossed my lips as I leaned up, straddling him by the waist and I kissed him like my life depended on it.

"I love you," I whispered and before he could say it back, I bit his bottom lip, teasing him to come play with me.

Elio's eyes lit up and he enthusiastically took the bait, hands immediately crawling up my shirt, palms flat against my bare skin.

The night had just begun.