21. ~Emilio~
21
~Emilio~
Well, this explained a lot.
Certainly Stover’s actions regarding Caterina and definitely his re actions outside a few moments ago.
I mean, no father wanted to overhear his daughter being talked dirty to. Especially not being told she was going to be fucked like an animal by Nico. Damn.
I wasn’t sure that was the way to go anyway, so I was glad, in a way, that the whole thing had been interrupted. I’d rather it have been interrupted by Levi, and not the antagonistic dickhead that was Joseph Stover, but it was what it was.
I knew Nico was on edge and extremely worked up, especially sexually. He hadn’t had any relief in that respect since she’d been gone, either. And I also happened to know that he didn’t take matters into his own hands, so it was even worse for him. While he did let Julian handle him once in a while, like when the four of us were in the throes of some epic fucking, and he had enjoyed playing voyeur where Julian and I were concerned before, that was about as far as it went with him. He wouldn’t let it go all the way. It just wasn’t his thing. It didn’t do it for him.
In fact, no one had really done it for him in all the years that I’d known him.
Until Caterina Leone had come along.
She’d changed everything.
Finally having that, then having it taken away, essentially ripped from him lately, had been a hell of a thing to take.
And now she was suddenly back here, I could see Nico struggling with his intense possessiveness when it came to her, see him needing desperately to re-claim her as ours. It was why he’d come on so strong the moment he’d seen her. He could barely keep it in check.
No wonder he’d been knocking back the Johnny Walker Black since we’d ventured in here from the patio.
Well, trying to. Julian had already snatched the bottle from him after he’d already downed two glasses. Taking the edge off was one thing, but anything more and he wouldn’t be in any state to have that much-needed reunion with Caterina that we were all craving.
A reunion that I really didn’t think should be rough, hard, and dirty.
Not this time with her.
Yes, she’d assured us that she was physically fine, but that was only part of it. She’d been through a lot. There was also a shitload we needed to discuss that Nico and Caterina both clearly weren’t willing to tonight.
I understood wanting to bypass all the complications and just be together again. So long as that was the extent of it and they didn’t try to go beyond tonight with it. But anything more and we’d have some major problems on our hands with our relationship. None of it could be simply brushed under the carpet.
As for tonight itself, I would approach Julian at the first opportunity about going the more gentle route with Caterina tonight, easing her back into being with us physically. He and Nico fed off each other when we got carnal, so if he was on that track, it could work to mellow Nico, too. Also, Julian was the best person to bring this up to Nico. The two of them operated from a dominant headspace and saw things in a very similar way sexually.
I really believed, based off what I’d observed of Caterina tonight as Julian and I had been relaxing with her on the patio, that she needed to feel loved and safe tonight, not like she was our sexual prey to be devoured and overwhelmed by us.
While Julian was merely sipping at the half-full glass of vodka he’d poured himself when the five of us had convened in the kitchen, I was doing the same with my glass of brandy as I listened to both Stover and Caterina conveying all the details concerning the former being her real father, including them showing us incontrovertible proof.
“This is why you took her away,” Nico grunted, still with the hostility.
I didn’t really blame him with the way Stover had come off earlier.
Not to mention the manipulative shit he’d been involved in regarding the whole marriage situation.
Stover had basically challenged Nico and tried to lay down the law in his own house.
Yeah, that wasn’t something Nico would ever stand for.
Not to mention, he’d had enough of that to last a lifetime from Marco and Leo.
“Wanting to get to know Caterina as my daughter was one of the reasons, yes,” Stover admitted. “Away from other influences.”
I grimaced. There it was again from him.
“Joe,” Caterina admonished.
He held up a hand in apology.
But it clearly wasn’t going to be the end of it.
He didn’t like us with her.
Whether it was personal, or perhaps because it was a foursome situation, or he was simply pissed at having to compete for her attention at this dicey stage of him finally revealing the truth to her, I didn’t know. But it was detrimental, regardless. Especially with him staying here under the same roof as us.
Which he would absolutely be doing now. I had no doubt in my mind there.
Because I knew Nico.
He wouldn’t kick him out now.
Knowing that Stover was Caterina’s true father with that slamming up against her awful relationship with Santino, he’d want her to find some peace with it all. He wouldn’t push Stover away from her. He wouldn’t do anything to deny her this.
“Other influences, hmm?” Nico said. “You mean, those in us who’ve been there with her, all the while you were busy living up to the Absentee Father of the Last Quarter Century mantle?”
Stover’s eyes narrowed. “Things were more complicated than you can possibly imagine. I did what was best for Caterina.”
“Yes. Leaving her to suffer under a madman sure sounds like what was best for her. And now, here you are playing hero.”
“How dare you?” Stover bit back.
Nico stepped up to him. “You see? So keep that in mind before you come at us, before you judge us. And before you dare to lay down the law in our home.”
Good. He wasn’t actually intending to escalate things, as it had initially seemed. He was just making a point and putting him in his place, something that needed to happen in order for this new living arrangement to have any chance of working out. Even temporarily.
Stover studied him curiously. “Is it close?”
“Is what close?”
“Your feral state, as Caterina terms it?”
Nico eyed her. “You told him about that?”
Before she could answer, Stover said, “No. I’ve been watching you for a long while. Ever since you started playing with my daughter.”
Nico folded his arms across his chest. “It’s nowhere close at the moment. And if you’re asking because you’re worried for Caterina’s safety—”
“I’m not.”
“It sure sounded like it,” Julian piped up. “And to be clear, it’s a part of him that’s not going away. So you’re gonna have to make peace with it. He’d never hurt Cat. Never. Not in that state or any other. She’s everything to him. She’s everything to all three of us.”
Stover eyed him. “Living my life the way I have, I tend to come across aggressively. I’m difficult to deal with at the best of times. I also give very little ground in any situation.” He looked at Caterina for a moment, his eyes softening, before he addressed the three of us again. “As I’m sure you can all imagine, this life isn’t what I want for my daughter. This brutal existence, the world of the mob and so many other dangerous elements. When I took Caterina with me, I’ll admit that I did hope that I could pull her away from it, to offer her a better life. But, as she’s made clear to me in no uncertain terms, it was what I deemed a better life, not her. And she’s hellbent on staying with the three of you, that you’re it for her, here to remain in her life.” He sighed heavily, actually showing some sentiment too, as he went on, “My chance to give Caterina a different life died a long time ago, through decisions that me and her mother made. All I can do now is support what she’s built here for herself.” He rubbed his jaw. “Coming from that op earlier, then walking in on what I did out on the patio, it set me off. And I’m sorry. I’ll work on it, on toning down my harsher… edges.”
While Caterina smiled out at him, clearly proud he’d been able to put that out there, me, Nico, and Julian eyed one another, more than a little taken aback.
“Then why ask about my feral state?”
“Caterina informed me that she experiences a similar thing. It’s something I believe I can help her with. Having you there sharing that could assist and possibly even help you to better control it too.”
Nico looked out at Caterina. “Is that what you want, principessa?”
“I’m going to try to work on it, but I don’t want you pushed into anything.”
“Would it make you feel better?”
She nodded.
He turned back to Stover. “We’ll talk then.”
“Good.”
“But not tonight. No more of anything tonight. The four of us need some time together as I’m sure you can imagine given that we’ve been apart from the woman we love for weeks. I have no doubt that you need to get some rest, too.”
“I set him up in the room a few doors down from Milo’s,” Caterina spoke. “I hope that’s okay that I—”
“It’s absolutely fine,” Nico told her.
Now he’d calmed down quite a bit, it was clear he’d recognized what I had when it came to Caterina. What she needed right now, that she was a little off, a little overwhelmed, that there was a lot that was unspoken that she hadn’t yet voiced. That she needed care, understanding, and love, not a fucking ravaging.
“I’m just going to help him to get settled, show him where some key things are around this massive place,” she told us.
“No problem,” I said.
“No rush, Cat.”
“We’ll be upstairs making sure you have everything you need in your room, make sure everything’s good now you’re back,” Nico told her.
“Thanks,” she said, although she looked a little confused.
No wonder. There wasn’t anything to do other than change the sheets, seeing as though the same set had been on the bed since she’d been gone.
As we watched her leave the kitchen and lead Joe out, Nico waited until she was out of earshot, then told us, “What should we do about the nursery?”
“You mean, either lock it up, or leave it be so she can venture inside?” I asked.
He nodded, then admitted with a rare vulnerability that I’d only ever seen with him when it came to a dicey Caterina matter, “I don’t know the best way to approach it, what will be the best way for her.”
“We shouldn’t hide it,” Julian stated. “If she does try to cut you out, it’s not through lack of care or love on her part. It’s pain. A lot of fucking pain.” He eyed Nico. “You told us that’s what Lev said to you, right?”
“Part of it, yes.”
“That she might try to shut down,” I mused. “Part of her agreeing to go with Stover was her doing that.”
“Exactly. We need to try to prevent her from slipping back into that now she’s here with us again,” Julian said. “We’re obviously direct reminders of the baby, what’s been lost.”
“Maybe fucking tonight isn’t the way to go either,” Nico uttered, the strain of him even voicing that possibility obvious.
“She needs to decide that,” Julian told us. “Let her guide it. But we shouldn’t hide the room. It could actually be a place that helps her to process her grief, that helps all four of us to do it together.”
“If it does happen tonight, we need to take it easy,” I pointed out.
“He’s right,” Julian said, looking at Nico.
“Take the lead.”
Julian cocked an eyebrow. “What?”
“I’m too worked up. And being loving and easygoing when it comes to fucking isn’t exactly my strong suit, is it?”
Julian and I grinned at each other.
“What?” Nico asked.
“You’re serious, N?”
Nico frowned. “Of course.”
I shook my head at him. “Nico, we’ve never seen you as loving and easygoing as you have been since Caterina came into our lives.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “All I want to do right now is unleash all fucking over her, fuck her for hours on end, be balls deep inside her as she breaks apart in ecstasy for us, to fuck her until I can’t fucking move anymore.”
“And you can do that,” Julian told him. “Just as worshipping her, instead of as a predatory claiming, which was obviously your original go-to.”
I laid my hand on his shoulder. “You underestimate yourself when it comes to the softer moments needed at times in our relationship with her. But you’re definitely capable of it. You’ve shown it before several times. You’re just second-guessing yourself because of what’s happened lately, then her being taken away, then Stover coming at you.”
“Stover… fuck,” he grunted.
“You handled that well,” Julian told him.
“I didn’t want to.”
“But you did it for her,” I said. “See?”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “I do.”
Julian grasped our shoulders, essentially forming a huddle of sorts. “She’s back. She’s actually back here with us.”
We stared out at one another as we finally had a few moments to take in the weight of it.
“There’s no fucking way we’re letting her go again. Not for any amount of time,” Nico ground out.
“Never,” Julian agreed. “Things don’t feel right anymore without her.”
They sure as fuck didn’t. “She’s ours. Here to damn well stay.”