Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
When I was finished with her hair, she stood up so I could get the full effect of her outfit. As always, she was stunning. She wore a multi-colored sequined dress that would have looked gaudy on someone else, but on her it complimented her sun-kissed skin beautifully. She completed the outfit with a pair of shoes in the same pink as her lipstick. I loved that our outfits perfectly matched our personalities–hers bold and outgoing, and mine simple but lovely.
“Alright, you ready?” she asked, once again filled with excitement now that we had managed to get her hair under control.
“Definitely!” We linked arms and wandered out to the kitchen, looking for Tallon and Alessandro.
Alessandro was in the middle of talking to Giovani when we walked out. I wondered if I would ever feel comfortable to see the two of them interacting. There was just so much bad history between the two of them at this point. It was hard to imagine we could ever go back to all being friends.
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep them safe,” Alessandro had been saying when we walked up.
“Oh, I know you will,” Gio responded, sounding a little irritated. “There’s no other option.”
“My team’s going to shadow us all night, and you know they’re the best.” Alessandro seemed to be ignoring Giovani’s irritable attitude. I hoped that was a good sign for how the evening was going to go.
“They better be. We certainly pay them enough.” Gio turned toward me and Dahlia. His eyes lingered on me, but only for a moment. He was keeping up the facade even though Dahlia was the only one in the room who didn’t know about us. I didn’t understand why he was so determined to keep us a secret, but I supposed I had to respect his wishes. After all, he had put up with a lot of shit from Alessandro just because I had wanted to keep things quiet about us.
“You girls look beautiful,” Gio said, then looked at me meaningfully.
I smiled back at him, hoping he’d come visit me later.
“You really do,” Alessandro added.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but I forced myself not to. It wouldn’t be a fun night if Alessandro and I were at each other’s throats the whole time. For Dahlia’s sake, I could play nice.
Alessandro walked toward me and held out the crook of his arm, encouraging me to unlink myself from Dahlia and grab his arm instead. Now the asshole was pushing it. I clenched my jaw, then forced a smile back onto my face and took his arm. ‘This is for Dahlia,’ I reminded myself.
We said our goodbyes to Giovani, then Tallon and Alessandro escorted Dahlia and me to the black SUV that was waiting for us in the driveway. Alessandro drove and his team of men followed behind us in another SUV. I knew that the protection detail should have made me feel safer, but instead, it just reminded me that it really was dangerous for us to be going out.
We arrived at a small restaurant with lights strung up around a courtyard. There was a small fountain in the middle of the tables and a string quartet played in the corner. I was enchanted by the whole scene. This was exactly the kind of place I had envisioned having dinners with Dahlia when we had been planning our big move to Italy.
The owner of the restaurant had been expecting us and came out to greet us and lead us to our table. I felt like royalty as he helped us to our seats then asked Alessandro what wine we’d like to start with. Alessandro looked around the table expectantly, but we were all content to drink whatever the owner thought would taste the best. He ended up bringing out a bottle of cabernet that I was sure had a shocking price tag. After giving Alessandro a taste, he poured a glass for all of us.
“Remember that time we broke into Mom’s wine cellar and drank like two thousand dollars worth of wine?” Alessandro said before taking a small sip.
Dahlia chuckled at the memory. “The worst part was we didn’t even like how it tasted,” she laughed. “What teenagers want to drink red wine?”
“I can’t believe you two,” Tallon chastised them mockingly.
“Yeah right. You just can’t believe they didn’t invite you along,” I said.
Tallon grinned. “Well, that’s true, but I remember when they got in trouble for that, and I can say that I’m very glad I didn’t get involved.”
“What did she do?” I asked. I was surprised I didn’t know this story. I had been around for so much of their childhood, it often felt like I had been a part of their household.
“Let’s just say, that wine cellar had never been so clean,” Dahlia said.
“She made us clean the dust off of every single bottle with nothing more than a couple of toothbrushes!” Alessandro said, “It took us hours!”
“Hm, that sounds like a small price to pay,” I laughed. I knew how wild they had been as teenagers.
“You don’t know how bad that wine tasted! It got us drunk, but it was NOT worth hours of manual labor, let me tell you that!” Dahlia exclaimed.
We all cracked up at that. I’d had a few sips of wine and could feel my entire body relaxing into the evening. We ordered, and then I glanced over at Dahlia seeing that her cheeks were turning pink, and I realized that she had already downed her entire glass of wine. Our waiter materialized and poured her a fresh glass as if he had just been standing in the shadows waiting. I supposed that probably was exactly what he had been doing. One thing I had learned from my mom was that when wealthy people pay you to do something, you do that thing exceptionally well.
Before we could get too hungry, our food arrived. It smelled heavenly and looked even better. I dug in as soon as everyone had been served, not caring whether or not I looked ladylike as I shoveled pasta into my mouth. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way as the table fell into silence, and only the sound of scraping silverware filled the air.
“I think this is the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life,” Tallon interrupted the silence.
He slurred the ‘S’ in pasta, and I giggled when I realized he was drunk. His cheeks were pink, and his eyes were slightly glazed over. I turned to Dahlia to laugh about how drunk Tallon already was, then realized that she looked just as trashed.
“It really is,” she responded to Tallon enthusiastically, nodding her head so wildly that one of her bobby pins fell out, and a few strands of hair shook loose.
I turned to Alessandro and realized that he was just as amused as I was over their drunken states. We shared knowing grins, and I half expected him to say something snarky, but he didn’t. He just smiled and looked back down at his food.
It was such a relief to see this side of Alessandro again, the side of him that I had known growing up. I wondered if maybe he would get back to his old self now that he realized that I was totally off the market. I looked up and smiled at him again.
“It’s been a nice night,” he said, and I could tell he was being genuine.
“Yeah, it really has,” I responded. Happiness warmed me from the inside out.
“Oh, just kiss already,” Dahlia slurred.
I saw Alessandro’s shoulders stiffen at her words, but Tallon just clapped a hand over his mouth and began laughing so hard he nearly fell out of his chair. His laughter kept me from taking what Dahlia had said too seriously, and before long, I found myself laughing too. Alessandro relaxed a bit, and I could see he wanted to just ignore what Dahlia had said, but he managed to let out a chuckle.
It was almost a perfect night. The only thing that would have made it better would be to have Gio at my side. I wondered if we would ever be able to openly go on dates.
I really hoped so.
*Giovani*
I kept subconsciously flexing my hands into fists and then forcing myself to relax them. My jaw was sore from how much I had been clenching it. I was pretty sure that on the nights when I didn’t sleep with Olivia, I was grinding my teeth from all the stress I had been under lately. Gabriele stared at me; he knew me well enough to know that I would talk when I was ready.
“He’s killing me,” I said in a low voice. “I know I need to let it go and focus on the organization, but it’s fucking killing me to deal with him.”
Gabriele nodded, sensing that I needed to talk this out more than I needed to hear his advice.
I kept talking. “I just don’t know what to do with him. He’s too inexperienced for me to give him the responsibilities that he wants. And he’s willing to rip our organization apart if it means he gets some kind of glory. I don’t think he has any idea just how serious all of this is. It’s like some kind of sick fucking game to him. And to make it all worse, the way he talks about Olivia… it’s disgusting, Gabriele, truly disgusting. He acts like she’s not even a person. He treats her like a pawn on a chess board, just a piece for him to move around so he can get what he wants.”
“He’s not like us, Gio,” Gabriele finally decided to say. “You’ve got to remember that. He was raised differently. He’s not going to think about things the same way we do. We’d sacrifice everything for the family business because we’ve been trained to feel that way.”
“I know,” I sighed. “But does he have to be so goddamn selfish? I’m not asking anyone to get themselves killed for me, I just don’t want him to get ME killed.”
“You’re going to have to figure out how to rein him in. This is part of being a good Don. There’s a reason why you were chosen for this job. You’ll figure it out. But you’ve got to keep a level head. Don’t let him get you so worked up, especially over Olivia. You know a big part of that is just an act. They’ve known each other for years. He doesn’t really think she’s just a pawn in his game.”
Gabriele was right, but it was easier to say I wouldn’t let Alessandro bother me than it was to actually do it once the little shit was in my face. Right now was a great example. In theory, I wanted to let Alessandro take Olivia out to dinner and pretend like that didn’t bother me at all, but in reality it was killing me to know that she was out having an amazing time with anyone other than me. The fact that she had looked fucking gorgeous and had been angry with me before leaving just made it worse.
As if our conversation had summoned him, Alessandro came sauntering into the warehouse looking like he owned the world. A huge grin was plastered on his face, and as he got closer, I could faintly smell Olivia’s perfume clinging to him. I ground my teeth together, determined not to let him set me off.
“What are you so happy about?” I asked him, hating that I already knew his answer.
“I had a good night. Taking a beautiful woman to dinner can have that effect on a man,” he said suggestively.
My entire body flexed instinctively. I wanted to grab him by the throat. I wanted to pummel his face. I wanted to hurt him so fucking badly he would never dare talk to me like that again. Gabriele looked at me sharply. He knew exactly what I was thinking. He shook his head slightly, and I swallowed my rage back down. I forced myself to compartmentalize and focus.
‘This is about business. Just focus on business,’ I thought to myself as I breathed in through my nostrils and out through my mouth.
