AMELIA
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When we arrived from the landing strip, Lucian basically pulled me into his office. It's been three hours (that would make it 8pm) and I still sat across from Lucian, bored and angry, while he dealt with errands he refused to tell me about. I hated not knowing things but one thing worse than that was not knowing things and being ignored. I know he could hear me, too, because his lips would curl up in amusement at my huffs.
It was only when I moved across the room and sat in a giant bean bag chair that he finally looked at me. Why was there a bean bag chair? I had Xavier buy one that could fit at least four people so I could nap on it.
"Baby, I'm very busy right now," he murmured, looking up from his computer.
"Then why did you tell me to keep you company if you're not going to accept my attention?" I grumbled back, watching his lips purse.
"Because I like you being around me," he replied.
"Well, I'm mad at you for ignoring me so I'm leaving," I retorted and stood up from my bean bag chair with difficulty. "And I'm dividing the bed with the pillows because screw you."
I heard his amused snort in response. "You're joking."
I stuck my tongue out at him and walked out of the room, closing the door and going to our bedroom. I decided to have a quick shower before stealing one of Lucian's giant hoodies and some plaid pyjama pants, shuffling to the bed. With December a mere week away, the temperature dropped like crazy, so I had to switch from just a giant shirt and panties to this cozy fit to sleep.
Just as I began to divide the bed with the giant pillows, the door opened and revealed Lucian slipping through. He chuckled when he saw my actions, taking his shirt off and walking towards the bed.
"C'mon, Mia," he mused, grabbing my ankle. I pulled it away and narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm sorry."
"You said we would do something," I grumbled. "Liar."
"I said tomorrow, love," he responded with a laugh. "What about the cuddles?"
"Shove your cuddles up your ass."
He chuckled again and attempted to pull the pillows away but I only added more.
"Why in the hell do you have so many pillows?" He asked, baffled.
"For moments like these," I responded. "Go back to your work. You seemed much more interested in it than your own awesome, loving, sexy, caring, sexy—"
"I get it, Mia," Lucian chuckled, then handed me the pillows. "Fine. We can sleep with the pillows tonight."
I pursed my lips when silence followed. I knew he was still awake though because he always turns his lamp off before he goes to bed and he had yet to do so.
"So you're not even going to fight for me?" I asked, hearing him snort. His head popped up from behind the pillows. "You're just going to let the pillows win?"
"Am I going to fight against a bunch of pillows you keep randomly pulling out of nowhere?" He asked, grinning. "No. It's clear my love for you isn't enough to not make you divide what our relationship is with some pillows so I'm going to cry myself to sleep knowing my girlfriend chose the pillows over me."
I glared at him. "You think I'd wanna cuddle a pillow—fuck a pillow?"
He shrugged. "It could get the job done. Who knows?"
I glanced at the cylinder pillow he stole a glance at when he said that and my face turned hotter by the minute. Lucian laughed loudly and fell back, causing a few pillows to fall. I looked over the giant wall and saw him fiddling with something, making me purse my lips.
"What are you—Lucian D'Angelo!"
I smacked his hand when he punched a hole into the wall, trying to move it down my pants not-so-sneakily. Lucian chuckled and moved on his elbow so his eyes and nose were just peeking over.
"Yes?" He slowly spoke.
"You can't just try to-to do something like that after I obviously established a wall between us!" I stammered. "I'm lucky I wore these pants otherwise I would have lost to your wicked schemes!"
"Wicked schemes?" Lucian repeated with a snort. His lips curled. "You smell nice."
"Well, yeah, I showered." I rolled my eyes, pointing to my wet hair. "Stop changing the subject."
Lucian chuckled and before I knew it, the wall was destroyed and Lucian was on my side of the giant bed, pulling me to his chest gently. I wanted to struggle but I knew it could hurt his ribs, so I sat there with a grunt, my arms limp beside me.
"Cuddle me back, you bully," he grumbled.
"No."
He pursed his lips and remained silent. When he didn't speak for more than a few minutes, I looked up and saw his attention trained on the necklace wrapped around my neck—the one he gave me.
"You never take it off," he noted aloud.
I felt my cheeks warm up. "Of course not. You gave it to me as a gift so it's very precious to me."
Lucian smiled, playing with the tiny rose at the end of it. When he looked back up at me, he moved closer to kiss me. I moved my hand in front of my mouth last second and he kissed that instead.
"What the hell?" He grunted.
"I'm still mad at you," I said childishly, pouting.
"I was only planning what I want us to do tomorrow," he explained, meeting my gaze. "We've been stuck in this house since we both got here so I thought doing something fun would make up for it."
I felt my lips turn into a frown. "Oh..."
Lucian sat up and pulled me on his lap, smiling up at me. I was hesitant before I returned it, then pecked his lips.
"I want to bake cookies," he mumbled. He bit his lip. "Can we bake cookies?"
I laughed. "You want to bake cookies... why?"
Lucian nodded with a wide grin, smacking my hips lightly. "I don't know. I'm in a goofy mood thanks to you. Let's go."
***
"Try this: biscotti con gocce di cioccolato."
My nose scrunched in dislike and Lucian chuckled, opening the oven door and taking the two pans out. I took a sip of the hot chocolate I made for the two of us .
"Cookies... chip... chocolate... chocolate chip cookies!" I smirked. "You can't beat me! I've mastered your language."
"Oh yeah?" He challenged.
"Yeah."
Lucian glanced at me, then shook his head to himself with a smile. He put the pans on the stove and turned the oven off, then carefully added the cookies to one giant plate with a pair of tongs.
"Why'd you suddenly want to make cookies?" I asked, watching him.
Lucian shrugged. "I've been having these dreams—or memories, should I call them—of things that happened between us when we were kids. I had one during a nap on the plane of when you used to always ask me when we were younger but I always said no because I was so caught in with school. I just wanted to finally do it with you."
My cheeks warmed up and I smiled widely, cupping his cheeks and kissing him gently. Lucian returned the kiss almost immediately and put the tongs down so he could pull me closer. He traced up my side and gripped my neck with one hand, tilting my head back for him to reach my lips better.
"Don't kiss me like that," I whispered breathlessly.
"Like what?"
"Like you're about to bend me over the counter." He chuckled but obliged, pulling away. "Grab your mug."
After I grabbed the plate and my mug, we decided to sit on the couch in front of the fireplace while he taught me more Italian. I would be honest, I was getting better at understanding it. However, there were still some sentences that made my brain feel like it lost every brain cell it had from how weird it was. Lucian was patient though and helped—he's a great teacher.
Lucian would give me small sentences or words and if I didn't know what it meant, he would hand it to me on a small slip of paper he made up. It would get harder and harder the more I got right into there was no paper left.
"Alright," I said, sipping my drink and setting it beside me. "Give me another sentence."
Lucian thought for a while before turning his attention completely to me. "Alright. You ready?"
I grinned, nodding.
Lucian smiled back and leaned in closer to me. "Sposami."
"Sposami?" I repeated, watching his smile widen. "I've never heard that one before." I paused, trying to think of what it could be. "I give up. What does it mean?"
Lucian handed me the small folded slip of paper and I opened it up.
Marry me.
My eyes grew twice their original size and I looked up to find Lucian already on his knee in front of me, a closed velvet box in his hand. I could see through the glow of the fireplace his forehead beginning to sweat, and he smiled nervously up at me.
"I... um..." he breathed out slowly and rubbed his sweaty hand against his sweatpants. "I, uh, bought this two years ago after you refused to see me in hopes that one day, when I saw you again and showed you that I've changed, that you'd eventually take me back.
"You remember how, when we were kids—maybe 12 and 14—, you would always ask to play pretend?" When I nodded, still in shock from what's happening, Lucian continued. "Well... I remember when you wanted me to pretend that-that we were getting married. You didn't want something big and flashy like most women; you've always enjoyed the simple things that held a lot more meaning than its price.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this," he laughed nervously, making me smile widely through the tears I could feel gathering in my eyes. "You're the only woman for me, Amelia Black. The only one I'll ever need. You make me a better person and I know I don't deserve the amount of love you have in your heart but I'd be a fucking idiot if I ever let you give that love to another man..."
Lucian trailed off and looked down at the box in his shaking hand, clearing his throat. "This is the worst time of our lives for me to be asking this question but I've waited years to ask this and... I've never been good with doing things at the right time but hell if I care because I've been ready to ask you this since we were kids."
When Lucian opened the box, I covered my mouth almost like seeing the ring was proof that this wasn't a dream—this was real. The ring didn't have large diamonds and jewels on it; it was a simple design that held tiny diamonds along the entire ring. At the top there were three slightly larger diamonds but they weren't so obnoxious and in-your-face—everything about it was perfect
"Oh my God..." I choked out, covering my mouth. I hiccuped, hearing myself laugh before I realized.
"Amelia Harper Giovanni-Black," Lucian said slowly, his lips curling up in amusement when I already began nodding my head. "Will you marry me?"
I nodded my head faster than I already had it moving, watching the nervous smile on his lips grow until it stretched across his entire face. He grabbed my left hand and slipped the ring on my finger effortlessly, kissing it. Lucian looked back up at me and smiled, getting up and kissing me slowly. I had to force myself not to start bawling my eyes out as I returned it immediately, cupping his cheeks as the cold unfamiliarity of the ring pressed to my flesh.
"I'm the luckiest fucking man on the planet to have you," he whispered, pressing his forehead to mine. "I love you so fucking much."
I choked out a laugh and kissed him again, then wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "I love you more. Always."
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WORD COUNT: 2089