Carbon: Devil's Rose #8

Chapter 26: Roman Grant

Gabriella's lipstick stains the edge of the wine glass as she pulls it away from her. I observe her from the corner of my eye, taking in every bit of her. I clear my throat while I choke on my own glasses of wine as she glances at me with her seductive brown eyes. She grins at me and licks her bottom lip, a glint of mischief in her eyes. 

She's just begging to be fucked. 

But, we don't have time for that. 

I can't tell her because she'll freak the fuck out, but we were supposed to be meeting my family at the restaurant for dinner about twenty minutes ago. She was just sitting there looking absolutely fucking stunning, and I couldn't bring myself to get her all worried again. 

I guess we should go though. The restaurant is only twenty minutes away, but by the time we get there, we'll be about an hour late which will cause Gabby to have another panic attack. However, I can guarantee that my parents haven't even shown up to the dinner that they coordinated. 

Camilla and her husband, Lorenzo, probably showed up at the restaurant five minutes ago and Julian and his fianceé, Elena, are the only two that got to the restaurant when we said we would all get there. Felix and his boyfriend, Kai, are most likely on their way because they tried to be fashionably late except they overshot it. 

But, I know we have to go.

"Gabriella, it's time to go. We've got to get to the restaurant."

She picks up her phone, checks the time, and immediately realizes that we're late. I see the panic return.

"Don't worry. Deep breaths. We're fine."

I take her hand and guide her out of the gardens of the winery back to our car. Her leg bounces up and down as I drive, but I place my hand on her thigh to try and calm her. I'm not nervous about her meeting them at all.

 She's the exact same amazing person that my family met over the phone. It's different for her, so I'm empathic and she's allowed to feel what she's feeling right now, but I don't think she needs to stress out this much. 

They already think so highly of her regardless of the time she spilled tomato sauce over herself and my kitchen floor when she was making pasta while face timing my mothers'. She's nervous about embarrassing herself in front of my family, but in full honesty, she's already done that about twenty times over the past two months. 

That hasn't stopped them from liking her.

When I pull into the parking lot of the restaurant, I see Camilla and Lorenzo getting out of their car. The moment Camilla sees Gabby, she comes barreling toward her, wrapping my girl up into a tight hug. 

We're all a very huggy family, but I've never Camilla so willing to hug someone. Lorenzo and I hug one another, but I don't even get a chance to greet Camilla because she and Gabby are already headed into the restaurant. I knew it. 

They are more excited to see Gabby than they are to see me. One day, I'm going to get the attention I deserve. Middle child shit. I mean, Felix sort of knows how it feels, but he's on the upper end of middle-child things, so we have a different experience in life growing up as the middle children. 

I had my little sister, and the only girl in the sibling group, as competition. It never ended well for me. 

"How's the fashion business, Enzo?" I ask my brother-in-law.

He's a photographer for a lot of different fashion companies around Spain.

"Good enough. I got your sister to model for me which is a feat all in its own, so I'm hoping she'll stick with that. For someone who usually loves being the center of attention, she hates what being the center of attention means."