"I swear I booked a room with two beds." Is the sentence Aria has been saying the past 5 minutes. No joke.

"Aria," I start, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to me, "I said it's fine, I'll take the couch."

Aria glances at the small couch, then back to me, "That couch wouldn't even fit me. The answer is no." I roll my eyes. So stubborn

"Hey!" I look back at her, "Don't roll your eyes at me. You need a good night's sleep if you want enough energy when meeting my family. My mom told the whole family that you were coming. My phone's been blowing up since." I laugh at her short rant. To be honest, I'm glad her family is excited to see me.

Panic rushes to my head, will her family like me? God, I really hope they do.

"Aria-"

She cuts me off, "No. No. And did I mention? No," I resist the urge to smirk at her, "You'll sleep in the bed." My eyes widened. I mean, yeah, we've slept in the same bed before, but I feel like I made her uncomfortable.

My silence seems to concern her because she places a hand on one of mine that's on her shoulders, "It's okay. I'm fine with it. Just...stay on your side."

My face drops and I pout my lips in playfulness, "No cuddling this time?" Her cheeks darken. I have to hold back the smile threatening to spread on my face once again .

"I mean if it happens while we sleep...there's nothing to do about it, right?" That was not what I was expecting. All I manage to do is nod.

The things this girl does to me.

"I'm going to shower, then you can after." She says, but then adds, "Is that okay?" She's so cute, oh my god.

"Of course belle fille." She shakes her head with a smile as she collects her shower items.

I watch her as she walks into the bathroom. I grin at her when she turns around to close the door. In response, she lightly blushes and shuts the door slowly.

When I hear the shower start to run, I pull out my phone and call Brett. He told me to call him the moment we got to the hotel.

After a few rings, he answers, "Leo! How's it going with your pretty lady?"

I laugh, "Good. She's taking a shower. I met her mom, her brother, and her brother's fiancé. They're a sweet family."

I can almost imagine the smile on his face when he says, "Already meeting the family after knowing her for a few weeks. You're starting early." I rolled my eyes in response, even if he couldn't see.

"We're just friends, man." Brett scoffs loudly.

"Friends my ass. Friends don't stalk each other on social media. Friends don't skate into the boards at practice because one is admiring the other. Not to mention, everytime you see her, you can't look away. Even if she isn't looking back."

He got me there.

"Brett, I..." I'm falling for her and I'm terrified.

In the few weeks I've known her, I haven't been with any other girls. Not because I haven't had time, but because they're not the ones I'm interested in.

It's something I haven't been able to do ever since her.

"I can tell you're thinking about her." I forgot Brett was still on the phone.

"Maybe you're right...but it isn't like she's interested in me, okay?"

"Down tiger, down," I rolled my eyes once again, "I'm just saying. Even if you think she isn't interested, you don't know until you find out. Try...making a move maybe. Subtle moves." He has a point...but she's just. I don't think she'd go for a guy like me.

A guy with the history I have. She's too good for me.

"Okay, maybe I will. I don't know," This is all too much at once. The feelings, "I'm going to go. I'll talk to you later." Brett says his goodbye and I hang up.

After a few minutes of aimlessly looking through TikTok, Aria walks out of the bathroom. Her hair is tied up in a bun, a few strands left out to frame her face. She's wearing her glasses along with a pair of tiny shorts and an oversized sweater.

She looks beautiful this way.

I can't help but smile as I walk into the bathroom. Even in such a casual outfit she still looked jaw dropping.

-

I finish washing my face after my shower and I open the door to exit the bathroom. The first thing I see is Aria curled up in the blankets of ou-the-bed. She's now on her phone but her eyes are keep opening and closing.

"Okay time for bed sleepy head." I tell her as I climb into the bed. She yawns and nods her head, plugging her phone in. I do the same on my side and turn the lamp on my side, off. A click sound is heard and the last bit of room light has vanished. The only subtle light left was the faint moonlight peeking through the curtains.

I close my eyes, though, I'm not all too tired. I feel the bed shift and I turn my head to see Aria is now facing me, but I can tell her eyes are closed. Interesting.

As I close my eyes, I feel something cold make contact on my abdomen. I lift my head slightly and see the tiny, delicate, hand that belonged to Aria, spread across my stomach. The hand slowly made its way around my body, settling all the way across my waist.

I turn my head once again and Aria's eyes are still closed, but her lips are parted now. Fucking hell. She's unreal.

I wrap around my right leg. Aria's leg is so cold when it makes contact with mine, almost causing me to jolt, but I don't. I can feel her body slowly heat up to longer it's tangled with mine.

Is that a good sign?

"Sleep well, angel." I whisper as I close my eyes.

-

I wake up to my body being cuddled in a bear hug. Yeah.

Aria is spread across on top of me, her head in the crook of my neck and her thighs laying across my lower abdomen. And my dick. Which happens to love this because I'm hard right now.

She stirs a little, which does nothing to help my situation. She slowly lifts her head from my neck, causing me to sigh at the loss of warmth and looks at me with droopy eyes.

"What happened to 'stay on your side', huh?" I tease, tightening my grip on her waist, that I totally didn't know I had. Her cheeks turn red and she buries her face in my chest.

"I was cold, okay?" She mumbles. I laugh and give her ass a light squeeze.

She gasps at the gesture, "Friends don't do that, Leo!"

"Friends don't cuddle and give the other a hard-on either, yeah?" She goes quiet but sits up to straddle my thighs and looks down. Her eyes widen and she goes to get up, but I grab her waist and slide her back to me. She lets out a quiet gasp at the sudden action.

"Let's forget about this friendship for a moment." She whispers so quietly that I thought I heard her wrong.

That sentence shot straight to my dick, which she is currently sitting on.

I watch her in awe as she places her hands on my stomach, rubbing her hands up and down on my abs. They clench the lower she gets. She finally rests them on my lower abdomen.

She looks up at me as she starts moving her hips back and forth on my fucking dick, "Oh fuck, Aria." I moan. Did I just fucking moan because a girl is on top of me?

We are both fully clothed and yet I am the hardest, most turned on I have ever been.

Aria smirks at me as she picks up speed, causing her to breathe heavier. A loud ringing noise causes Aria to jump up, and run to her phone. I sit up and watch as she talks to, what I'm guessing is a family member because she's speaking in Italian.

I can't help but think that maybe what we just did could've scared her.

I'm scared now. Not because I didn't want to do it, but because she might be.

We did technically break the rules of friendship, but she doesn't seem like the type to do this with other guys.

Jealousy spreads through my body at the thought of her with other guys.

I have a weird sense of wanting to protect her, keep her to myself.

"Okay, bye." She hangs up the phone with a sigh. She turns back around and looks at me, her cheeks beginning to turn to a darker shade.

"Are we friends again?" I ask quietly. Never in my fucking life had I been more confused than right now. Yeah, I want her. But I also want to get to know her before anything happens. She doesn't deserve a one-and-done, which has been the only thing I've been doing the past 2 years.

"Uhm, y-yeah," she stutters. I nod my head, "I'm going to shower, so yeah." She runs off into the bathroom with her suitcase.

What the hell am I doing?

-

Aria finally finishes her shower and tells me that we have to leave in 10 minutes.

"Aria, You gave me no time to get ready!" I yell jokingly.

"I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you..." She replies, guilt evident in her voice.

"Sweetheart it's fine, I'm joking." She sighs in relief. I get up from the bed and stride towards her. She slowly looks up at me, confusion written all over her pretty little face.

"Do you need something, Leo?" She questions, her voice barely a whisper.

Am I feeling bold today? Yes.

I lean down to her ear, her breath hot against my neck, "Nothing belle." Before I pull back, I leave a light kiss on the tattoo I just noticed behind her ear. It was small, but it was of a beautiful purple butterfly.

Mental note to ask her about that later.

When I pull back and stand to my full height, the angel in front of me says, "W-What was t-that for?" All I do is laugh quietly and turn around to grab clothes from my suitcase.

I began to strip my clothes off, knowing that Aria was still in the room and that my back was facing her. When I pull on a pair of black dress pants, I hear faint footsteps grow louder and louder the closer they get to me.

I suck in a breath when I feel something touch my back. I turn my head and see Aria's finger is tracing the tattoo I had along my shoulder blades.

"Why do you have so many tattoos?" She whispers, still tracing the one on my back.

"They all have a meaning." I reply, my voice weirdly out of breath. She's going to be the death of me.

"What do they mean?" I turn to face her, her delicate hand not moving. Her hand is now fully planted in between my two pecs.

"That's for a different day, chérie." She pouts but nonetheless steps away to change in the bathroom.

-

things are heating up!!

i hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! i started school so idk how active i can be, but i will try my best!

make sure to vote for this chapter :)

love you all