𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐞?
~𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭~
𝐋𝐢𝐚
"Would you excuse us to talk to the kids, please?"
"Without us?" My mother raised an eyebrow, surprise etched on her face. You could tell she was daring my father to push and stock up what she thought was transgression for having not told her of my relationship.
"It's business, cara." his gently spoken response has her eyes softening, conceding to grant him his wish. We watch them leave, and uncle Rom signals Luc to close the door.
He does, and they stare at us long enough to make is feel like we are under a microscope.
"So, why now." uncle Bruno lifts his brows, he now has his legs up at the corner of the desk where my father is perched.
Luc clears his throat awkwardly, and I wish I'm seated instead of standing in front of three pairs of exquisite eyes.
"I recently remembered something you said when I first moved to Italy."
His father nods, his eyes intensely on Luc so much so that I want to squirm because I know my turn is coming. Why did I think this would be easy? Like, tell them, hear excitement or felicitation and leave, easy-peasy. But noo, not on their watch.
"What did I say?" Okay, that question tells me we are going to be here for a while. They will probably be late for the meeting uncle Rom mentioned earlier, but they don't seem like they're in a hurry.
"Something about some of us loving once."
He nods again. He still has his eyes on Luc. "And do you think you're one of those?"
This is an inquisition. If I knew this before hand, I could have convinced Luc to postpone it.
"I guess."
Guess? I repeat it in my brain at the same time the three of them say the word like it's a curse—a forbidden word.
I'm lost in my thoughts, planning ways to skin Luc alive, kill him slowly, tortuously.
"You're not sure?" His father's jaw tightens, his green eyes turn cold, glaring down at him.
"I am" this time, he sounds sure, certain, confident. "Wrong choice of words." He corrects quickly, matching his father's stare.
"Good. Lia. How did you know we know or did Luc tell you?"
It's my time to be grilled, and though I should be prepared having watched Luc go through it, I'm not. I don't cower, though, I fix my gaze right at uncle Bruno and say, "Seb said there is no way in hell you didn't know."
They grin. All of them. They are impressed by Seb.
"Smart boy," my father says. "There is nothing that happens under this roof that we don't know about."
I flush. So deeply I know my face is as crimson as my hair. How could I not? I know exactly what he means.
Thankfully, they don't say anything, or react to my embarrassment. I can't look at Luc to find out whether he is as embarrassed as I am.
"Why didn't you ever say anything?" Luc asks, his voice normal and I wonder how he could still sound normal when our fathers have just revealed they know everything.
Like our first time having sex, they know. Oh Lord, why do embarrassing things happen to fairly good people?
"You left. " his father says as if that was reason enough.
"And we didn't think the midnight snack visits were dangerous until you closed the line," My father adds.
How do they know these things? Do they have cameras inside our rooms that we know nothing about?
"No, sweetheart, there are no cameras in any of your rooms." my father smiles—a tiny, apologetic grin.
Okay, does he read minds too?
"We found out by accident. You chose one of the days we scheduled security checks. It was by coincident."
"Bad luck," I whisper, and I'm surprised that I can form words.
"Bad luck," he repeats.
"We are not going to ask whether you love each other, " he continues, moving his eyes between Luc and me," it might put you in an uncomfortable position, however, we require you to be honest with each other. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because of your roles in this family."
We nod. Something we've been doing a lot in this meeting.
"It's imperative that you always remember that one wrong or scorned move can be detrimental to either of you or members of this family. Do you understand that?"
"Yes," we both say.
"Good. Lia," he calls my name the way he use to when I was young. Like an endearment, lovingly, softly.
"Yes."
"Luc was asked whether he is among those who can only love once... Are you?"
I wanted to say I guess just like Luc had said. I was still irked by his response.
I did not reply immediately, however, I took a few seconds, not out of spite but because I realized even though he had said they won't ask whether we loved each other it was exactly what this question was about.
And they knew it.
"Yes, I am."
He grinned. All of them did, seeming satisfied.
"Great. We have a meeting to attend, so you may leave."
Luc and I both turn to leave, my heart is in my stomach I swear it feels as if it will drop at my feet any time now.
When I close the door behind us, I lean on the wall for support, exhaling loudly in relief, my hands are shaking though I have enough energy to pull Luc into my arms.
He comes to me readily, quickly as if he was waiting for it. His body leans into mine, fitting perfectly on mine that I can feel every contour like it was carved into me.
"I love you," He says to my temple. I think my heart stops beating for a second, my feet feel languid and I'm glad his body is anchoring me otherwise I would have dropped on the floor and dissolved like snow.
"I love you too." I tell him in a quivering voice. We are older and wiser and we understand fully what falling in love is like or how it should feel.
I wrap my arms around his neck breathing in his heady ocean scent. I can't move, we can't move but we need to before the patriarchs find us on their way to their meeting.
"We have to go," I mumbled into his neck. He doesn't say anything, instead, he kisses my jaw, then straightened his body off me before taking my hand in his.
My body is vibrating, I can't help it. I will deal with his love declaration later when I'm not occupied by another forthcoming grilling from our mothers.
"They should have done it together," I tell Luc, pulling my hand from him when we hear their voices come to a halt. They can hear our footsteps, they are waiting for us.
"No way would they have them when
admitting they knew we had sex at fourteen," Luc says with a reluctant smile.
"That would mean internal war," I reply under my breath as we enter the kitchen.
As expected, they are waiting for us. My mom and Luc's mom are marinating a chicken while aunt Mia is seated drinking chocolate milk.
"What did they tell you?" They almost ask at the same time.
We had not agreed on what to say in case this question was asked, so I knew we needed to whip something up.
"About Loyalty and stuff," I say, sitting next to aunt Mia.
"Is that all?" my mom moves her eyes between Luc and me.
"No. There was also how we should never allow our relationship to come between what was right for the family," Luc adds.
That was true at least.
She nods, then they all grin mischievously, aunt Mia excitedly rubbing her palms together, , "tell us how it began.
No thank you! I thought. But damn Luc, he went for it.
"Midnight snacks. We use to have midnight snacks in Lia's bedroom ."
They smiled, encouraging him to say more. They were all seated now, their eyes sparkling with interest.
"Did you...?"
We knew what she was asking.
"No, we were too young for that." I rush in before Luc could say anything.
They nod with relief, "so when did you—"
"Mom!" I gasp.
"What. We need to know."
"No you do not," I tell her, embarrassed, and I throw a warning look at this boy who loves me.
"Do they know?" She asked stiffly.
"No, they don't."
Luc and I say at the same time.
The women don't ask much just a few questions to satisfy their curiosity—their romantic notion of our relationship, it's a wonder they don't get down to planning our wedding immediately, perhaps they are afraid to jinx it.
Once we are done, we leave the kitchen toward the billiard room. It's time to tell our siblings through two of them already know.
Luc pulls me to him before we enter, pushing me to the wall again. He doesn't kiss me, he instead puts his forehead on mine, his breathing is erratic and I wonder whether it's because of me or the last hour or so.
I palm his cheeks, my other hand cupping his neck. I love him, so, so much. I think as I caress his cheek with the back of my hand, breathing him in as if he is the air I breathe.
"I love you," his voice is deep, rumbly but soft.
My heart is ratcheting again. I can hear the voices inside, but I can't seem to drag myself out of his arms.
"From now on, every time you have me against the wall, I need to hear those three words." I peer at him, and he gives me a slow wicked smile, his eyes closed.
"Yeah?" he asked in a flirty tone, kissing the corner of my lips. A simmering thrill rolls through my entire being as if it was the first time he'd done this.
He kisses me again at the same place, teasingly, playfully.
"Luc," a shiver of helpless excitement almost rips me apart when he cupped my breast.
My body should be used to this already. Why does it take me by surprise every single time he touches me?
"Unless you want them to catch us like this, we better go inside," I say in a breathy voice.
Although he doesn't draw back immediately, he does, but first, he kisses me, softly, possessively.
I take a few minutes to right myself, touching my lips and praying no one notices the swelling or my eyes because I know they are glowing with sexual thrill.
Luc enters first. "What happened?" I can hear Nic's impatience. I can imagine how he feels considering how much he loathes staying still
He is so energetic or maybe it's because he is a teenager.
"We have news," Luc says. I'm standing beside him, looking at the faces of my siblings. Their interest piqued even Serena and Zion who already knows what we are about to tell them.
"We were just with the parents," he starts, moving his eyes across their faces, just like I was doing. Impatience, and curiosity written in all of them.
"To tell them Lia and I are dating."
"What did they say?" Serena ask with enthusiasm coated in her tone.
Zion just looks at us. He is waiting for us tell them exactly what happened, I could tell from his demeanour.
"Is that what this was about?" Nic is disappointed.
Luc and I stare at him with surprise, then move our gaze to Sienna and Alessa's bored expressions.
"You knew?" We both ask in absolute shock.
"Really?" Nic sounds almost insulted, "how stupid do you think we are?"
My mouth is wide open, I can't get through the shock. "When did you know?"
Nic narrows his eyes at me.
"When you guys didn't spend as much time together when Luc was home." Sienna provided.
"But that could have meant we had a falling out, which was what moms thought. " I argue passionately.
Ten years. Ten years of thinking we were slick with hiding our relationship. Turns out it was open all along.
"But you did have a falling out. Except it was more than a simple falling out. " Alessa chips in.
I steal a look a Serena wondering whether the others know about her and Zion.
"May I also add that Luc is always looking at you almost the same way Alessa looks at freshly baked bundt cakes." Nic mumbles. He is disappointed, and he scowls at me before he walks out.