Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“Yeah, I can tell. He wouldn’t put up with this shit from Alessandro for just anyone. And he’s been in a really good mood these past few weeks. I was wondering why, and now that I know about you two, that explains it.”
At a loss for words, I just reached out and hugged Tallon again.
“Thank you, Tallon. This means more than I could ever explain.”
He patted my back and let me squeeze him for as long as I wanted. I had a feeling he could sense just how much I had needed a friend’s approval over my relationship. I realized that a part of me had been feeling dirty about being with Gio because I had been so focused on hiding it. Now that Tallon knew about us and approved, I felt like we were one step closer to being a regular couple, and that’s all I wanted.
I pulled away from Tallon as I heard Dahlia calling for me from her room. Tallon laughed. We had both noticed that she really enjoyed being able to sit in her room and yell for help. And because we were just happy she was safe and healthy, everyone had been accommodating her.
“You better go see what the principessa wants,” he said, then patted me on the shoulder before going on his way.
I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders as I walked toward Dahlia’s room. Tallon’s acceptance of me and Gio made me wonder if I should just tell Dahlia about us. At this point, she was really the only one left who didn’t know, and it sure would make Alessandro less annoying if he couldn’t pull his blackmail shit anymore.
When I walked into Dahlia’s room, she was sitting on her butt on the floor with a pile of colorful bikinis thrown all around her. She had obviously been in the middle of undressing when she started to look for the bikini she wanted, because her shirt was pulled up over one shoulder as if she had started to take it off and then got distracted. It was a hilarious sight to see.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She turned toward me, looking frustrated. “I want to go out to the hot tub, but I can’t find my swimsuit.”
“It looks like you’ve found dozens of swimsuits,” I laughed.
“No, I’m looking for my strapless top. I don’t want tan lines. And then I have a certain pair of bottoms that tie so they’re easy to get on.”
I just smiled and kneeled down beside her to help her search. It was no use arguing with her when she got like this; it was easier to just go along. After a few minutes of digging, I found the top she was looking for.
“Yay!” she clapped her hands together. “Well, at least I won’t have tan lines. I guess I can just wear these bottoms. I have no idea what happened to the other ones. Do you want to come out with me?”
“Definitely, I could use a bit of relaxation. Let me go get my swimsuit,” I told her. A morning in the hot tub sounded heavenly after the stressful past few days we’d been having.
“Oh don’t be silly, just grab one of these. We’re the same size anyway.”
I looked around at the skimpy bikinis scattered across the floor and raised my eyebrows. Dahlia and I might have similar fashion sense, but she was far more daring when it came to revealing skin than I was. At first, I thought about insisting on running to get my own suit, but then I thought, ‘Fuck it. Who’s going to see anyway?’ I supposed that was the beauty of living in the compound. We had a lot more privacy than most people were used to having. Without worrying about it too much, I grabbed the top and bottoms nearest me and went to Dahlia’s bathroom to put them on.
The top was definitely showing WAY more cleavage than I normally would, and the bottoms were nearly nonexistent, but I had to be honest, I looked pretty hot. The Italian sunshine had been doing wonders for my complexion, and all the croissants and gelato had given my ass a little more shape than it usually had. A little thrill went through me as I wondered if we would run into Gio on the way to the hot tub. If he saw me in this, he would definitely be thinking about me for the rest of the day. I made a mental note to buy a skimpy swimsuit like this for myself. Maybe one day Gio and I would be able to take a trip to the beach, just the two of us.
I left the bathroom to find Dahlia in a suit just as revealing as the one she had given me, and we made our way to the hot tub. She hissed as she lowered herself into the water, and I worried that it was hurting her. It was a much cooler day than usual for it being summer, but I didn’t want her to overheat.
“Are you alright?” I asked, ready to help her back out if needed.
“Yeah, this feels amazing actually. My ribs have been acting up all day, but this helps a lot.”
She sank further into the water and laid her head back on the side. I got in carefully so I wouldn’t splash her. The water really wasn’t that warm at all. But she was right; the movement of the water did feel amazing. I followed her lead and laid my head back too, closing my eyes and just taking in the calming warmth of the water.
I started to daydream about going to the beach with Giovani and lying next to him on the sand. His olive-toned skin would look amazing with the sun shining down on him. I imagined how it would feel to have him rub sunscreen all over me and thought about how much I would enjoy rubbing sunscreen onto his muscled back, feeling it flex beneath my hands.
“Hey, Olive,” Dahlia said, pulling me out of my meditative state.
I blinked and forced myself back to reality, looking at her. She had a strange expression on her face and my stomach sank, worried about what she was going to say. Had Tallon told her before I got the chance to? I didn’t think he would lie to me like that.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Do you have a thing for Alessandro?”
I was so surprised by what she was asking that I just sat there staring at her. Why in the world would she think I had a thing for Alessandro? Of all the people in the house, he was the one I was most annoyed with lately and had been trying to actively avoid.
“Alessandro?” I laughed, the thought so absurd that I couldn’t take it seriously. “No, not at all. Not in a million years. Why are you asking?”
“I just… I’ve noticed the way he looks at you. And you’ve been acting kind of weird around him lately.”
She narrowed her eyes at me as if she was trying to read my mind. I held her eye contact so she would know I wasn’t lying to her.
“No, there’s nothing between me and Alessandro. Honestly, I kind of just think of him as family,” I told her, and it was the truth. Family that was currently annoying the absolute shit out of me–but she didn’t need to hear that.
“Well, I wanted to let you know that it wouldn’t bother me, if, you know, if you two wanted to get together. I know some people think that’s weird, their friend dating their brother. But I don’t. If you liked him, I wouldn’t mind.”
Her words resonated with me more than she realized. It wasn’t a relationship with Alessandro that I was afraid she’d be angry about, but maybe what she was saying indicated that she would be okay with me and Giovanni too. I wondered if now was the time to come clean about us. She was relaxed, she was thinking about me dating her family members… maybe this was the perfect time.
“Dahlia, I’m not into Alessandro at all, but…” I trailed off, losing my courage.
“But what?” she asked, clearly curious about what I had been planning to say next.
“But I do really appreciate you being okay with it, if that was a thing. It means a lot to me that you’d understand.”
I had chickened out. I didn’t want to ruin our perfect morning by bringing up my relationship with Gio. But I had the feeling that the time to tell Dahlia the truth was coming soon.
*Giovani*
I led Gabriele and Alessandro into my studio, shutting the door quietly behind them. I ignored both of their presences as I calmly headed for the liquor cabinet. To get through this conversation without exploding, I definitely needed a drink.
I grabbed my strongest bottle of brandy since the whiskey was missing. I poured three glasses of amber liquid and turned to Alessandro and Gabriele, offering the glasses.
Gabriele took his but Alessandro only stared at me judgmentally. I shrugged and downed the glass meant for him before grabbing my own. I rounded my desk and settled into my chair, finally ready for this.
“What did you find?” I asked, as calm as I could be.
“There was a small cat tattoo on his hand,” Gabriele started, “identical to the one we found on the others.”
“So he’s one of Dmitri’s men?” I asked, gripping my glass tightly.
“Yes,” Gabriele responded easily. “We did manage to find out that Dmitri is, in fact, the new head of the family. We got news from one of our men in Russia who managed to slip into their ranks. Apparently, Dmitri and the majority of his men are already in Italy.”
“Of course,” I sighed. “Anything else?”
“Unfortunately,” Gabriele glanced at me, a bit hesitant like I was a bomb that might explode. But sighed as he said, “We’ve also been monitoring the Russo branch here in Italy. We thought they might make contact and fortunately, we were in luck.”
Gabriele nodded to the folder already sitting on my desk, and I wondered briefly when he had gotten it to me before opening it up.
There was a photo–probably taken from security footage–of a man I would recognize anywhere, the man who had stared right into the camera, who had taunted us as he killed our men at the shipping yard attack. His smirk as he put a bullet through Lain’s head was still fresh in my mind. I would never forget this bastard.
Any attempts to remain calm flew out of the window. My blood pumped as my fury rose, and I clenched my teeth together, the photo crumbling around the edges as I gripped it too tightly.
“Who is he?” I growled, staring at Gabriele demandingly.
“You are looking at Dmitri Zaytsev,” Gabriele replied calmly.
