Chapter 149

At Luca’s house, the company is really the thing that shines. His cousins and family are just so funny – they’re also a little bit mean to each other, in a teasing, familial way, but every insult is lined with love and is so damn funny that I’m laughing until my sides ache.

And of course, my sides aching makes it difficult to get down all of the food that’s pressed in my hands. But considering how delicious it is, I definitely prevail in my quest to eat absolutely everything. God, I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten so much or so well. There’s plate after plate of pasta, and meat, and seafood – and then the sweets! Cookies, and little slices of coffee-soaked pastries, and gran’s coffee cake, served with coffee – which is a good addition, considering how many tiny glasses of clear liquor I’ve been passed and drank. I’ve never had it before, but it’s delicious, and tastes like licorice.

“Ugh, how are you not fat,” I groan, leaning against Luca on the couch as one of his cousins takes what is probably my ninth plate away. Luca grins and slips an arm around my shoulders.

“I know, it’s the greatest disappointment of Gran’s life that she can’t fatten me up,” he murmurs, smiling around the room at the family he so clearly loves, who shout and joke and play with each other. “If it were up to her I’d be like…a little beachball, unable to get up off this couch, just hers to keep and pet and love and feed, as she likes to do.”

My eyes drift to the little fat dog that sits on the back of the couch behind Luca in what is clearly his habitual spot, his tongue lolling happily out of his mouth and his legs sticking out comfortably from his belly. “You mean like Valentino, over there?” I point at the adorable old pup and Luca bursts into laugher.

“Yes,” he says, nodding and tightening his arm around me, “just like Valentino, her favorite son.”

I smile up at Luca, buzzing with happiness, completely charmed by all of this. “I like your family,” I whisper. “They’re really great.”

“Your family now too,” he murmurs, dropping his head a bit to press a kiss to my mouth. “The girls are all really excited. They want me to leave you alone with them so they can have a good gossip with you – but I told them not tonight.”

“I can do that tonight!” I say, sitting up, eager, and looking around. “I miss girlfriends. Where are they all? I’ll go now.”

Luca just laughs and lifts his chin towards the clock on the wall. “Little late for that, Princess,” he says with a sigh. “It’s midnight.”

“It is?” I gasp, my eyes going wide as I follow his gaze. I shake my head, awed, because I can’t believe it’s that late. And then I gasp again, spinning back to Luca. “Oh no, you should go to bed! Luca!” I put my hands on his chest, desperately sorry to have kept him up – he has a huge day tomorrow! He should already be asleep!

“Don’t,” Luca whispers, smiling and shaking his head, bringing his face close enough that our noses nearly brush. “This was way better than sleep. I loved having you here, Ariel, it was so important to me.” He lifts a hand to brush his knuckles down the length of my cheek and I can’t help leaning forward to kiss him. I do my best to keep it chaste – I’m in his family’s house after all – but…well, it’s difficult, isn’t it?

Luca – he’s just so amazing, and confident and handsome and sweet. I can’t get enough.

He kisses me back for a long moment and then sighs as he breaks it, slipping his hand into mine.

“I should go,” I whisper.

“Want me to come back to the palace with you?” he asks quietly, a little hesitant – and as he asks I realize that part of Luca very much wants me to ask him to come back, even if it’s not what would be best for his fight tomorrow.

“No, sweetheart,” I say, shaking my head with a smile as I push back a little of the hair that’s fallen into his face. “You let your Gran tuck you in tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have more fun, after you win.”

Luca bursts into a grin at my confidence, and then he nods, because he knows that I’m right. But as he stands, offering a hand to pull me up with him, I know in my heart that if I did ask him to come to the palace with me tonight…he would have done it. And I’m not really sure what to do with that level of power over the nation’s champion.

We walk slowly to the front porch, murmuring our plans for tomorrow. His family lets me go with a few calls of goodbye, but without much fuss. I’m warmed by this – by the casual goodbye of family members who know they’ll see you soon, and so don’t need to make a big deal out of it. As we step onto the front porch though, Luca’s grandmother calls him back, saying something in swift Itablio.

Luca sighs, hesitating but stepping away from me. “She wants you to take a slice of cake to Rafe - is that all right? I know it’s ridiculous, but –“

“Of course I will,” I say, laughing and pushing him towards her. “I’ll call Captain Conner – you get the cake.” Luca nods, smiling his dazzling smile at me, and then he steps back into the house with his Gran. I make a quick call to Conner, who let’s me know he’s just around the corner and will bring the car up.

I sigh happily, looking down the dark street, but I jump slightly when a shadow detaches itself from the corner of the porch and steps forward towards me. “Did you enjoy yourself tonight, miss Ariel?”

I press a hand to my heart, laughing a little at how skittish I am when I see that it’s just Luca’s uncle, who was out here enjoying a quiet cigarette. “Yes,” I say, nodding when I get some of my equanimity back. “Your family is lovely – thank you so much for making me feel so warm and welcome.”

“You are very welcome here,” Bruce says, nodding evenly to me, and I can tell that he means it by the serious way he says it. “You’re family now, and I’m glad we’ve let you know that. Even if I didn’t think the party was a good idea.”

My face falls a little. “You didn’t?”

Bruce glances at me for a moment, perhaps takes in my crestfallen expression. “It’s nothing about you, miss – you’ve been nothing but a lady tonight, and I’m grateful for it. Some of the girls that boy brought home,” he shakes his head contemplatively here, “…they were a mess. But you did very well. Still – I told him to hold off introducing you until after the fight – to just concentrate on what needed to be done. But he insisted.” Bruce shrugs, like Luca’s a problem he can’t quite solve and has resigned himself to that fate. “And his mother and his gran indulged him, like they always do.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, shaking my head and feeling guilty – because as lovely as tonight was, perhaps Bruce is right. Luca should already be in bed, he should be thinking about the fight tomorrow, not me. It is a big deal to be boxing against the Atalaxian champion and…well. This party could have waited, couldn’t it?

“I should have thought of that,” I murmur, dropping my head to look at the wood of the porch.

“Well, perhaps you should have,” Bruce murmurs, and I raise my head to look at him, my eyebrows raised. Because I meant it – I should have thought of Luca’s responsibilities, should have encouraged him to delay the party. But…I didn’t really expect Bruce to agree with me.

He looks at me evenly now, assessing me, his mouth pressed to a thin line.

“Do you mind, miss?” he says quietly, seriously. “If I say something true to you, that you might not want to hear?”

Anxious, but wanting to know, I nod.

Bruce nods quickly and then looks away into the dark. “Luca is a talented boy – ambitious, hardworking, and he’s got a left hook like I’ve never seen. But his emotions run high – and he lets them. He’s got a temper, which I’m sure you’ve seen –“

He glances at me and I eagerly nod my confirmation, which makes him smirk fondly and shake his head.

“The temper’s just the start of it, though. He lets his emotions run him, sometimes, gets his damn heart into something and can’t quit it even when it’s not good for him. Or he quits something good because he got his feelings hurt. That’s why I say he’s been a damned fool with women – dates them all, loves some who treat him like crap, breaks up with others over the pettiest nonsense. But he lets it run him, lets it wreck him. He likes the intensity of it, I think – and that love for thrill and passion makes him a good boxer but…” he sighs, shaking his head, lost a bit in his thoughts. “It’s not always wonderful for his career.”

I turn my head to the side, suddenly confused because…

Is Luca’s uncle suggesting, right now, that him being mated to me is bad for Luca’s career!?