Page 83 of Bound to You

“I didn’t want to cut your studio time short!”

“But now I look like this,” she gestures to herself, overly dramatic and it’s adorable. “And I only have half an hour to fix it!”

“You look beautiful, sweetheart.” I still can’t get over how she looks in my clothes. I reach for her waist, but she slides out of reach. She uses all her willpower to hold back the smile tugging at her lips at my compliment.

“You,” she points at me accusingly, shaking her head.

I look back at my watch. “Twenty-nine minutes.” And I don’t hold back my own smile as Isla goes running into my bedroom yelling. “What the hell am I going to wear?”

Isla’s handis clammy in mine as we stand at the front door of Vanessa and Luca’s home. I ring the doorbell, and not a second later Vanessa swings the bright orange door open.

“Isla, it’s so good to see you!” She wraps her in a hug, throwing me a knowing look over Isla’s shoulder.

“Don’t you look beautiful,” she admires Isla. “Doesn’t she look beautiful Caio?”

Real subtle Vanessa.

“She does indeed.”

Isla has another one of those pretty little sundresses on. I wonder if she knows that they’re my favorite.

Home.

The hotel has always felt like my home since the first night I spent on a cheap mattress on the lobby floor. But now with Isla there it just feels…different.

Better.

I press a kiss to her head and press another to Vanessa’s cheek before I follow them into the house.

“Ah, Caio!” Luca is standing in the kitchen, he’s got a purple floral apron on that I suspect is his wife’s, with a tea towel thrown over his shoulder as he stands at the stove, cooking something that fills the house with that homemade dinner smell.

“Come taste the ravioli for me.”

I walk into the kitchen and try the ravioli he’s cooking up for dinner.

“It’s delicious, Luca.”

“No, what does it need?”

“Uhh, I’m not sure, salt?” I have no clue, cooking has never been my specialty, but it tastes amazing to me.

He tsks his tongue behind his teeth. “You’re useless, Go entertain my wife before she comes in here and tries to take over, go, go.” He shoos me away with the towel over his shoulder.

“So…what have you two been up to lately?” Vanessa is the definition of obvious as I take a seat beside Isla on the couch opposite her, it feels a bit too much like an interrogation for my comfort.

“Oh, nothing really,” Isla looks over to me. “Just working with Marina, going to the beach…just the regular. Speaking of, where is Marina?” Isla’s knee is jiggling up and down as she looks around the small living room for where Marina might be hiding.

I slide my hand over her knee, and she immediately stops her twitching, instead all of her focus homes in on me. A hint of nervousness in her deep eyes that are staring back at me.

I brush my thumb back and forth over her knee, in a soothing motion.

Vanessa hums an approving sound from across the room. “Very nice.” Her eyebrows are raised to her hairline. I ignore her while she surveys us as I thread my fingers through Isla’s, her eyes haven’t left mine.

A clanging comes from the kitchen, the sound of a utensil hitting the floor.

“Luca, what are you doing in there?” Vanessa gets up from her seat, leaving us in the living room as she goes to inspect her husband’s cooking.

Vanessa is without a doubt the best in town at making sweet and delicious goods. She’s an amazing pastry chef and makes the best desserts, but Luca grew up with Italian recipes and learnt to cook from his mother, so he can hold his own in the kitchen. But that doesn’t stop Vanessa from hovering in the kitchen when he’s making a meal.

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