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Clara sighs, shaking her head as she turns to Luca. “So you’re planning to go out like that then?”
Luca looks down at his light purple button-up and gray dress pants, then back up at her with a confused expression. “Yes?”
She sighs again and gestures to the bruising around each of his eyes. “I mean this.”
“Well, what exactly do you want me to do about it, Mom, it’s my face.” He stares back at her, waiting for her answer, but all she does is sigh again and turn away from him.
“Well, we’ll get to that later.” She then slaps her smile back on and looks around at everyone. “Are we ready to go then?”
Anger starts to creep in as I take in this interaction, and I bite my tongue to keep from saying anything. They bust in here unannounced, despite what Luca wanted, and now she’s making shitty comments about his face without even acknowledging that those injuries are from winning a brutal fucking fight and getting one step closer to his dream?
It’s a good fucking thing I’m not going tonight.
“You’re not joining us?” David says, looking at me and letting his eyes fall to my sweatpants and hoodie.
“Uh, no,” I say, shaking my head and bringing my eyes to Luca so I don’t have to look at this asshole. “I’m going to the gym–”
“Nonsense,” David says, “you’ll come. Who doesn’t like a good meal out on the town? Good thing we’re early then so you can change. We’ll wait.”
David puts his hands in his pockets and watches me, like he’s just waiting for me to protest. And if I didn’t know exactly what kind of manipulative dick he is, I might be intimidated. But I’m not, and I just stare back at him as an intense urge rises within me to knock him down a few fucking pegs.
But Luca steps forward and presses a hand to my chest, pushing me backwards towards the bedroom. “Give us a sec,” he says to them over his shoulder, then closes the bedroom door behind us.
He immediately goes to the closet and starts rummaging around in it.
“I’m not fucking going, am I?” I ask, positive that would be a very bad idea.
Luca turns to face me. “Trust me, neither of us want that. But it’s happening.” Then he holds a shirt out for me.
And I know he’s right. I can’t say no, because then it would just be worse for Luca. He does want to work it out with them, so I can’t be a complete ass the first time I meet them. But I also can’t help but wonder why they’d invite me out to a dinner that was planned for them to discuss their issues. Unless they don’t actually plan on doing that, and having me there is a way for them to avoid hearing Luca out.
My eyes drop to the baby blue button-up he’s holding out for me, and I immediately shake my head. “No.”
He looks down at the shirt, then shrugs. “Would you rather pink?”
I look behind him at the rainbow of fucking pastel colors in his closet and sigh, yanking the shirt out of his hand. “This is fucking embarrassing.”
“It’s blue, you’ll live,” Luca says. “Do you even have a nice shirt?” He moves to the other side of the closet where my clothes are hanging and starts rifling around.
“Yeah, but it’s at my place,” I say as I pull the shirt on and almost wince in pain from the brightness of it.
Luca throws a pair of dress pants on the bed, and I’m surprised to see they’re actually black. “Well…” he says, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “You should bring it here.” He watches me as I finish buttoning the shirt. “You should bring all of your stuff here.”
I look up at him and he smiles softly at me. “Tigers may be solitary creatures who roam across large areas… but they do coexist with other predators.”
I cock an eyebrow at him. “And what kind of predator are you?”
He chuckles and shrugs one shoulder. “I caught and tamed you, so I’m the strongest of them all.”
I huff out a breath of laughter and grab the dress pants from the bed. But before I pull them on, I look into his soft hazel eyes and give him a small nod. “I can bring my stuff here.”
Luca smiles widely, but then suddenly holds out a hand with wide eyes. “Wait.”
I pause just as I’m about to step into the pants. “What?”
He turns around, pulls a drawer open and starts rooting around in it. Then he turns back to me with a smile, holding the tiger boxers and his unicorn socks. He kicks his shoes off, and tosses the boxers at me.
“Put those on. We’re going to need all the strength we can get.”
