Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 773 : Family Time

*Cat*

“It’s Mama!” I burst with a grin, revealing my face from behind my hands. Emilia burst into giggles at the game of peek-a-boo, wide-eyed and curious as always. I laughed, tucking my hair behind my ear as I leaned over her as she lay on her play mat on the floor.

Her cute little bunny onesie was adorable, especially as she pulled her socked foot up to her mouth, sucking on the little fake toe beans. My pride and joy, she shocked me every day by how quickly she was growing.

Her hair had grown out little by little, changing from a light golden brown to a deeper chocolate, the same color as her daddy’s curls. It was still too short to say if she had his naturally curly hair, but I had seen plenty of baby photos of Elio and how he’d been born with a near-perfect head of curls, so most likely not.

“Oh, you’re gonna break some hearts when you grow up, Mama knows it,” I assured her even as she stared back at me cluelessly, the little rabbit ears on her onesie splayed out across the floor.

I chuckled, leaning back to kneel on my feet as her attention returned to the brightly colored cartoon whose main character was also a bunny. There was a ding from my phone from a text, and I glanced at Emilia.

With how fascinated she was by the movement of the cartoon, I knew I had a little bit of free time.

I got to my feet, groaning from the pull of the stitches in my belly. It was getting better but not quick enough for me. I had a curious little daughter to keep up with after all. I sat on the couch, breathing out as the stitches settled once more, and grabbed my phone.

It was a text from Elio, much to my surprise.

‘On my way home.’

Well, that was unexpected, I thought. I was happy of course that he would be coming home to us sooner than he said, but a part of my mind wondered anxiously about why he would.

Did something else happen?

But as soon as I asked myself that question, I saw headlights pull into the driveway, his signature black car unmistakable.

“Daddy’s home.” I turned to Emilia brightly.

It didn’t take long at all until the front door opened and Elio rounded the corner with a tired smile.

“I thought you would be gone all night.” I chuckled.

I saw the way his shoulders fully slumped in relief like he was a soldier long at war and I was his sweet safe haven. He came to my side, leaning over me and I gently accepted the long kiss he offered.

“I missed you,” he murmured as a way of explanation between kisses, not letting me go until we both heard Emilia’s small whine and pulled back to glance at her.

Her little arms were flailing in the air, an unhappy pout on her lips as she struggled to move them.

“So did Emilia and I.” I laughed at her antics, grinning as Elio chuckled and moved to pick up our little girl. She clung to him willingly, immediately tugging on his curls as he held her up on his shoulder.

“I missed my little princess, too.” He kissed her forehead, taking a seat next to me.

Emilia curled into his shoulder, holding one of his curls firmly in her hand, which obviously ended up in her mouth after a minute.

“Is everything okay?” I asked Elio.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Things are just... more complicated now. Ignacio called. He’s not going to give up.”

I sighed, gently brushing my hand over my daughter’s cheek, her curious eyes filled with so much innocence that it broke my heart all over again that she was born into this crazy world we lived in. I loved her so much and just wanted to protect her.

“Why don’t we take a break from everything for the rest of tonight? Tomorrow, too. Maybe we can do something together as a family, like a picnic or something.”

“A picnic?” He snorted.

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes, slapping his arm playfully. “It was the first thing I came up with.”

“A picnic sounds lovely,” Elio chuckled, fully relaxing against the couch cushions with Emilia tucked safely in one arm and I gently pulled myself up, cuddling into his embrace. “I have to call Al and let him know everything that happened, including Ignacio’s new threats but after that, I’m all yours. Whatever you want.”

“Well, you get that out of the way while I feed Emilia her dinner,” I told him happily.

I was excited to have a day just for our little family. Elio pouted but relinquished his daughter reluctantly. He headed to another room to give Al a call and I absentmindedly watched the cartoon playing as Emilia fed.

Our lives have changed so much since we were as small as Emilia, but in some ways, they hadn’t. We were still being chased by a madman, still tied to the mafia we were born into, and I was still hiding away like my father had done to me.

The thought of Ignacio loomed over our heads, especially now when Emilia and I were still vulnerable. I knew how much stress Elio was under, worrying about us and the mafia family he was in charge of.

A lot of lives were laid on his shoulders, and there was only so much I could do to take what little of that burden I could. I wanted Ignacio to go away. Whether that meant killing him or making sure to cripple him so he could never rise again, it didn’t matter to me as long as he was out of our lives for good and he could never hurt anyone ever again.

He had made a deadly mistake threatening our daughter, and I would stop anyone from hurting Emilia, no matter what it took.

Even if I had to put a bullet in him myself.

Emilia was already sleepy by the time Elio came back and we lounged together on the couch, entertaining our daughter, and Elio of course spoiled her as much as you could spoil a month old baby.

All the servants had left so it was just us three, and Elio even ordered food delivered for the two of us, though we had quite a time trying to prevent Emilia from stealing her daddy’s kung-pao chicken. Her grip on his fork was monstrous, though it didn’t help that Elio was weak to her innocent pleading eyes.

Once she started crying, I had to keep the food away from both of them before we had a huge mess on our hands.

Once Emilia had fallen into a deep sleep, we headed to our room and Elio gently and carefully put her into the bassinet, pulling his hair from her grip and replacing it with her favorite plushie and the rattle we had been sent anonymously. She stirred for a minute but fell back asleep.

Elio and I climbed into bed and I curled into his warm eyes, sighing as we had time alone for what seemed like the first time in forever. I felt the curl of his grin as he kissed me, holding me like he would never let me go again.

I moaned as his tongue dominated my own, his hands drawing a flame across my skin as it wandered under my shirt and around my waist.

“Elio,” I breathed warningly, my voice barely a whisper as he had stolen all of the breath in my lungs.

“I know,” he murmured, his lips diving to my neck where he teased the soft point behind my ear he knew I couldn’t resist, sucking to draw the blood and bruising the skin there in a mark of ownership.

I panted, my desire rising in time with his and I moaned as his hand made its way to my swollen and tender breasts. I was embarrassed a bit but Elio had a mischievous gleam in his eye as he lifted up my shirt to expose me, unhooking my bra at the same time.

“Elio, we can’t.” I reminded him of the doctor’s orders, though it killed me as the callous on his fingers flicked against the hard red nub that had quickly stood to attention. Despite the impatient look in his eyes and the desire I could feel pressing against my thigh, Elio sighed in defeat.

He pressed his face into my neck, just holding me as I gently pulled my shirt down. I kissed the side of his cheek, just as disappointed as he was but knowing that I wasn’t ready.

“I can’t have sex, but that doesn’t mean I can’t please you,” I whispered in his ear mischievously, drawing my hand over where his swollen member was pressing through his pants against me. There were always other ways I could satisfy his needs.

But Elio just chuckled, pulling my hand to his lips and laying a kiss on my knuckles. “No,” he said, kind and patient as always. “I can wait until we can both be satisfied. You’re worth it.”

Touched, the feelings of love and warmth cradled me, and unable to control it, I jumped forward to kiss him, smiling and beaming at how lucky I was to have such an understanding and patient fiance.

He was always putting me first, and I loved that about him so much, even if it drove me crazy sometimes.

As our kiss drew heated again, both of us barely restraining ourselves from saying screw it and ignoring the doctor’s orders, a loud cry jolted us from each other. Fast as light, we both held our hands away like kids caught by their mom, and we whirled to check on the culprit.

Inside her bassinet, Emilia waved her little arms frantically, crying out loudly, and as the panic and shock passed, we both looked at one another and then burst into giggles.

“Wouldn’t have happened anyway, it seems,” Elio teased, rolling off of me to get to our baby.

“She’s probably hungry again,” I said, finding it convenient now that I could just shrug my loose bra off my shoulders.

Elio picked up our daughter, hushing her as he swayed just like my mom had taught him, making his way to me.

I held my arms out as I sat up in bed, beaming as Emilia cuddled into my arms. She wasted no time latching on to feed. We were both clumsy in the beginning, but our bond had deepened the more time we spent together.

Elio kissed my forehead once she was done, taking her from me to burp her. It always took a while but I settled into bed, watching my fiance with a smile as he coaxed our daughter back to sleep and then gently laid her back down.

She’d be up in a few hours and I knew Elio would do the exact same thing, trying to give me any kind of break he could. And I loved him for it.

I whispered as much as he came back to me, pulling me into his embrace and cuddling together in warmth. He whispered those words back to me, brushing my hair away from my face as we drifted off to get some sleep.

For tonight and for every night after, I wished it would always be like this.