Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 700 -

*Caterina*

I woke up to the sound of Elio's phone going off. His arm was still wrapped around my waist, and he made sure to squeeze me once before slowly rolling over and grabbing his phone.

Neither of us was ready to wake up, and all I really wanted was to snuggle closer into his arms and spend another few hours sleeping, but I assumed that anyone trying to get in touch with him would have a good reason for it.

I turned to look at him as I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes. I could tell that Elio felt the same as me; after all, he was the reason why I'd stayed up so late last night. Both of us were only half-dressed now. Elio's chest was bare, and he wore nothing but his boxers, while I only had on one of his T-shirts. I reached over and put my hand on his chest, tracing my fingers in swirls.

Suddenly, Elio sat up straight. "Oh, fuck," he said.

"What?" I asked, my heart beating faster.

I pulled my hand away and leaned up on my elbow, trying to read the text on his phone.

"Alessandro is downstairs right now. He needs me to come down and let him in." He glanced over at me, taking in the fact that I was completely naked from the waist down. "You better go ahead and get dressed. I'll tell him I'll be down in a few minutes."

"I thought he would meet us somewhere else," I muttered. "Why didn't he tell us he wanted to come here?"

I tried to remember if I had picked up the living room last night before we went to bed. We weren't particularly messy people, but I definitely had a habit of leaving pillows and blankets in random places.

Elio hopped out of the bed and raced to pull on his clothes. It was impressive to see how quickly he could get dressed in a suit. I got out of bed myself and went to our closet, trying to replace something that would be easy to pull on and wouldn't scream, "I just woke up because I stayed up half the night fucking my boyfriend."

I decided on a plain black dress that fell just below my knees. It was comfortable without looking overly casual. I knew that Alessandro would be dressed impeccably as always, and I didn't want to stand out. Thankfully, Elio and my mother had always kept my wardrobe full of nice clothes.

Elio dropped a kiss on my cheek before rushing to the elevator and down to the ground floor. While he was gone, I went to the bathroom to try and get my hair into a semblance of a style. I ran my brush through it, flinching at the rats' nest that had formed at the nape of my neck. I really needed to invest in a silk pillowcase so this would stop happening every time we had sex.

Unwilling to take the time to deal with the tangled mess, I twisted it all into a chignon that would cover up the tangled bits until I had the time to deal with them later. I looked in the mirror at my reflection, impressed with how quickly I had managed to go from a sleepy mess to something presentable. I even had time to swipe on a bit of blush and mascara. Alessandro would have no idea that I had just woken up.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened as I was walking out of our bedroom. My stomach tangled up with nerves as I saw Alessandro. I really hadn't expected him to come to our penthouse, and I glanced around to make sure that there wasn't a mess anywhere.

There were a few couch pillows on the floor, but other than that, everything was where it belonged. I sighed with relief. I wasn't sure why his presence made me feel so nervous, but I wanted to impress him.

He walked in and kissed me on the cheeks. "Good morning, Caterina. It's good to see you again," he smiled.

"It's good to see you too," I smiled back. "Please, make yourself at home."

The words felt strange and overly formal coming out of my mouth, but I knew it was the right thing to say. I gestured to the couch.

Alessandro walked over and sat down, sinking into the thick cushions that I loved. Elio had tried to bring his modern angular monstrosity with us when we moved in here, but I had refused and demanded that we invest in a plush couch that swallowed you right up. It was my favorite place in the whole penthouse to sit and read.

"I'll make us all some coffee," Elio said, walking out of the room and leaving me with Alessandro.

My nerves intensified as I sat across from the older man. He reminded me so much of my father, and I supposed that was why I was so desperate to impress him.

I wanted him to know that I would always work to make my father proud. He had known a side of my dad that I never had, and that also made me hungry to get to know Alessandro better. What memories did he have that he might someday share with me? It would be amazing to replace out, I thought.

"How have you been, Caterina?" he asked.

"Um, I've been doing well," I mumbled. "Well, actually, yesterday was a shock, if I'm being honest."

I felt like an idiot, but it was true. It had been an unbelievable day from start to finish.

He chuckled darkly. "Yes, I suspect it was. It went well, though. I'm glad you were there to provide your help."

Elio walked back in with two coffee mugs and handed one to Alessandro and the other to me. I took an appreciative sip, hoping the caffeine would hit me quickly.

"Actually, have you eaten yet, Alessandro?" I asked, desperate to give myself something to do so I wouldn't have to just sit here.

"I haven't, but I don't want to impose."

"No, it's not a problem at all, neither have we. Let me fix something for us." I hopped up and headed to the kitchen.

Both men followed behind me and settled themselves at the bar so that we could all continue talking. I was grateful that they wanted to make sure that I was included. I was still so used to having to fight to be a part of everything, it surprised me when they didn't act like that.

I began heating a pan and grabbed the eggs out from the refrigerator, deciding to keep it simple with fried eggs and buttered toast. I knew from my time in Italy that Alessandro was used to eating delicious Italian pastries every morning, and I couldn't even begin to compete with that, so I didn't bother trying.

"I told Elio this last night, Caterina, but I wanted to say to you that I heard Elio handed himself very professionally yesterday. Franky also told me that he was quite impressed with you as well," Alessandro said as I waited for the pan to heat up. My mouth popped open involuntarily at his words and I turned around to face them. Franky had been impressed by me? Surely Alessandro was lying just to make me feel better. There was no way Franky had ever complimented me. "I thought Franky hated me," I said.

Alessandro threw his head back and laughed. "Nah, he doesn't hate anybody. He's just cranky and hard to get along with. He told me about five different times how calm you are under pressure and how you have no problem standing up for yourself. I actually think he was pretty shocked by you."

I glanced at Elio, who was smiling at me, pride written all over his face. A smile broke out on my own face as well. Who knew that my feisty-ass attitude would eventually get an old mafia man like Franky to be impressed with me? I definitely never suspected that someday people would appreciate me being the way that I was.

I turned back to my cooking and cracked a few eggs into the pan before putting three slices of bread into the toaster. I took a sip of my coffee as I kept an eye on the eggs. Maybe they really would see me as more than just Elio's annoying girlfriend. Maybe they'd finally start viewing me as Vinny's smart daughter. That was who I'd wanted them to see all along.

"So, Elio, I hope you've given thought to what I said last night. Do you want to be a bigger part of this family and really get into the business? Caterina, I'm sure you have a say in this decision as well."

I turned around and saw that Alessandro was looking between the two of us.

I looked at Elio. He already knew what I thought. I wanted him to take this. I wanted the two of us to lead the family into a new era.

"Antonio chose to take this conflict global, and with everything that happened, it's more obvious to me than ever before that we need to have a more official presence in the States again," Alessandro continued. "We've had some solid deals in the real estate business here thanks to you, Elio, and it's clear to me that we could make good money here as well. It's a win-win situation. We can make money and ensure that we don't lose the control that we've fought so hard for. To be honest, I've thought about reviving our presence in the States in the past, but I never had someone I trusted enough to head it until now. So, what do you say, Elio? Do you want to be the head of the Valentino mafia family in the United States?"

Holy shit, I couldn't believe this was finally happening. Everything Elio and I had been working for, hoping for, it was all finally going to come true.

I had never expected it to happen so soon. Elio looked at me, giving me the opportunity to have the final say. He'd made it clear last night that he wouldn't do it if I didn't want him to. Luckily for him, this was exactly what I wanted for both of

us.

I nodded at him, smiling encouragingly. We were ready for this, and Alessandro wouldn't have offered it if he didn't think we could handle it.

Elio nodded back, his face serious with the weight of the decision we were making. He turned back to Alessandro.

"Alright, let's do this," he said with a wide grin.

He reached out to shake Alessandro's hand, but Alessandro pulled him into a bear hug.

"Hell yeah!" Alessandro exclaimed. "Welcome to the family, kid."