Desiderium

27| The Lake

A R A B E L L A

Jaxon and I have been spending lots of time together. I have introduced him to my entire family and I could easily say that they love him. It was hard not to love him.

And I was happy to see that the tension between Lucas and Marco has been fading more and more as each day passes. And they have spent time together unlike in the past few months I had been with them. Sometimes I won't how I did notice something so big that was right under my nose. I was usually so observant. But my love for these people has been distracting me. Maybe I wanted to believe that this family was perfect when we all knew it was far from it.

Since Jax couldn't hang out today, I decided to stay in bed and watch Netflix all day. But that was until Nathaniel phoned me suggesting to work a bit on our project so we could finish it as soon as possible. He said he would come over in a bit and we take our bikes so we could go on a ride. Honestly, I was quite nervous about this. It would be the first time I went on a bike ride with someone other than Noah.

I tried to ignore the guilt and sorrow as I put on a pair of grey shorts and a white crop top. The weather was hot today. I joined my family downstairs and I simply grabbed an apple and put it on while I watch them eat breakfast peacefully.

"Hello, Bella. Where are you going?" Papa asked as he sips from his cup of coffee.

"Out." I simply replied then took another bite of my green juicy apple.

"No shit Sherlock. He meant where and with who." Marco rolled his eyes.

"I'm going out with Nathaniel but I am not sure where yet."

"Why the fuck are you going out with my best friend?" Marco growled as he looked more shocked than the others.

"Chill, grumpy bear. We are just going to meet to work on our project."

"Mmh, okay." Leo nodded. "By the way, we are hosting a ball in your honor this weekend so our business partners can meet the Romano princess."

The fuck. Romano princess, really?

And yeah, sure. Let me just rephrase that a bit. What my dear eldest brother meant to say was: We are hosting a mafia ball in the honor of your return. This way our allies could meet the Italian-American mafia princess.

Yeah. That was definitely what he meant.

"Okay. No problem." I said then checked my phone after it vibrated.  Nathaniel had texted me saying he was outside. "Well, I gotta go. Bye lovely family."

"Hello, tigresa." Nathaniel greeted me as soon as I hopped on my bike who was parked next to him.

"Salut, chérie"

"Chérie? So that's my new nickname?"

"Yeah, apparently for as long as you keep calling me those cheesy nicknames."

I started my bike and went ahead ignoring the smile that had formed on my lips after hearing the faint sound of his laugh coming from behind me.

• • •

"So are you still not gonna tell me where are we going?"

"Have you ever heard of the term patience, tigresa? Because from the way you have been asking the same question non-stop, it doesn't seem so."

"I mean can you blame me? How can I be sure that you aren't luring me into a trap to murder me."

"I am pretty sure Marco and Xavier would rip my heart out before I could harm you. As not to mention the history our families share. I am not gonna kill you. Relax."