unconditional

chapter twelve

It felt so safe, being in his arms. I haven't felt so safe in a long time. We felt like a couple, a real one. As the movie credits started rolling, I sit up to look at him. He immediately started wiping a single tear away, I laughed as I watched him.

"Wow" he said, in awe.

"Best movie ever." I respond, wiping his tear with my thumb.

"I agree" he says, smiling at me.

We look into each other's eyes for a few seconds, before he leans in and kisses me gently, softly. A perfect kiss. We keep kissing for a few more seconds before I hear a door creek open. We both slowly turn our heads to the door, our faces still close together. Victoria comes out of room and mouths 'I'm sorry' to me. I smile and roll my eyes.

"Hi Charles" she says with a big smile on her face.

"Hi, Victoria right? Nice to meet you, officially" he replies.

"Congratulations on qualifying, Ella told me all about it" she said whilst looking at me with a smirk.

I roll my eyes and look back at Charles who was smiling.

"Ohhh, did she? I knew she was a Ferrari fan after all" he responds, placing his hand on my thigh.

"Nope. Die hard Mclaren fan, I'm sorry" I say with a shrug.

"Not for long" he snaps back which makes me let out a giggle.

"I'm going to head out, not sure when i'll be back or if i'll be back tonight. Bye Ell, love you' she says as she comes to kiss my cheek, "Goodbye, Charles. Good luck tomorrow"

"Thank you" he says with a nod.

"Make sure he wears protection!" I shout as she heads out the door, I could hear her loud sigh as she shut the door.

Charles laughs, "Daniel, i'm guessing?"

I shrug, "I hope not!" I say jokingly.

"So, time to make some food?" He says, as he stands up.

"Sounds good to me" I respond, he places his hands out for me to hold to get up.

We head to the kitchen and decide on making homemade pizzas. Mine looked dreadful, you couldn't even tell if it was pizza or not. Charles' of course looked amazing, is there anything he isn't good at? He couldn't keep his hands off of me in the kitchen, he had his arms around my waist whenever he got the opportunity to.

He laughed at my pizza as we started eating.

"So, are you definitely okay from today? I swear if there weren't any cameras I would've killed him" He said, starting to get a little worked up.

I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "Charles, I promise I'm fine. My head still hurts a little but I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow"

He moves a thick strand of my hair away from my face to reveal my bruise. He sighs, "Ella, it's bruising badly."

I grab his hand and move it onto my leg, holding it. "It'll be fine. I feel fine" I assure him.

He nods and says, "So, Ellasandra."

"So, Charles?" I snap back, imitating him.

"I haven't seen your bedroom yet." he claims with his arms crossed.

I tilt my head, "Is this your way of getting me into bed?" I ask.

He laughs and comes close to my ear, "Maybe."

I could feel myself blushing as I felt his breath on me. I stand up off of the stool and grab his hand leading him to my bedroom.

He looks around, looking at all my decorations, posters, pictures. He pointed at my vintage Mclaren poster and laughed, "That needs to go!" he proclaimed.

He sits down onto my bed and looks at a picture that was placed on my night stand. He picks it up and smiles, "I'm guessing this is your dad."

I nod and sit down next to him. It was a picture of my dad and young me in a little go kart, my hair was all messy and I had a missing front tooth. For a second, I had a flashback of me racing and I could hear my dad's voice cheering me on, 'Amazing Ella, you're doing so good sweetie'.

I start to frown as my eyes water. I look down, hoping that Charles doesn't notice. But then I feel his hand on my chin as he lifts my face up to look at him. He looked concerned, "What's wrong? You okay?" he asks as he wipes the tears that were now trickling down my face.

"I'm fine" I respond trying to put on a fake smile.

"Was it something I said? I'm sorry." he said.

"No. no. It's just. My dad. He passed away two years ago from a heart attack. Just that picture, I can't even get myself to look at it most of the time." I explained, trying to keep my composure.

"I understand. It gets easier. Eventually. It just takes time" he says as he comforts me. I look at him to see that he was starting to feel emotional.

"My dad, he um passed away too quite a few years ago now. It hurt so much at the start. But, I've realised that he wouldn't want me to wallow in sadness. He'd want me to live happily." he explained, calming himself down.

I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing, I just hugged him tightly. We stayed like that for a while, just holding one another. I never talk about my dad, not even with Victoria. If i'm upset about it, I just don't talk to her or anyone about it. I wallow in sadness. But with Charles, it was like I was perfectly okay with being vulnerable with him. I think he felt the same way too.

"Do you want to stay over?" I ask, "Only if you want to! I know the race is tomorrow so I completely understand if you ca-"

"I would love to, Ella" he said with a smile. I kiss him again, this time it was quick and almost effortless.

We start to get ready for bed as the clock started to near midnight. We brushed our teeth together, which felt funny but also adorable. I got into a matching pyjama set and retied my hair into a low pony tail. Charles slept in nothing but his boxers, which I definitely wasn't going to complain about. I hadn't seen him shirtless since, that night in the hotel. He was perfection.

We got into bed and kissed each other gently, like a thousand times. I felt myself getting really tired, and was ready to sleep in his arms. He had his hands around my waist tightly and kissed my cheek, "Goodnight, mi amor. I'm never going to let anyone ever hurt you again" he said, thinking I was already fast asleep. I smile to myself and started to drift off to sleep.