The Twelve Vitali Ch. 22

"I've never checked out his butt, honestly. Speaking of the big guy, where is he?" Arlo asked.

"Flying back as we speak, I hope," Ricco said. "It's a full-time job trying to keep all you cousins from stealing Cat away."

"I better go see the old guys, and you," he looked at Cat, "Can check out my cute butt as I go," he laughed again and stood to wriggle his butt at her before walking toward Roberto and Stefano.

"What is it with you Vitali men?" she whispered to Ricco.

"We have a type, and you're it," he chuckled.

"If I can have everyone's attention!" Roberto stood, clinking his knife lightly on his glass to get their attention. "As advertised, the hunt teams will be drawn this afternoon now that the last of my brothers have arrived. They will be posted by dinner tonight, you have approximately thirty minutes, if that, to get your name into the drawing. Those who do not, or have not let us know their intentions by other means will not be competing." Everyone focused on him as he explained the rules for this year's hunt and how the teams would be drawn. Teams of three would compete, and there would be no changes allowed in teams once the draw had been posted. His smile had appeared toward the end of his speech and widened when Cat let out a squeal of delight as Matteo lifted her from her chair and kissed her.

"Sorry, Papa, I couldn't wait," he looked sheepish. "We'll just take our reunion somewhere else," he grinned, took a key card from Ricco, who had held it up slightly between two fingers, and hoisted Cat over his shoulder before walking out of the restaurant to much laughter and cheering. He carried her to the elevator before placing her on her feet and kissing her again.

"Hi, I missed you," he said with a grin.

"I, and the rest of your family, might have noticed that," she giggled girlishly and wrapped her hands around his neck. "Welcome home," she said softly, and kissed him as he pulled her into the elevator.

To her surprise, they didn't rise to the penthouse, but only a short distance, and, holding her in a tight embrace, he picked her up off her feet and walked awkwardly, still kissing her, to a small single room. Ricco had organised the key and booking for him for this afternoon and promised to distract the rest of the family for at least an hour before people sought him out.

When he set her back on her feet after entering the room, she released her arms around his neck just enough to be able to look up into his eyes. They stared at each other for a moment before he wrapped a hand around her hair, gently tilted her head back and kissed her, slowly, deeply, passionately. They both poured all the passion, longing and need from the past few days into the kiss. Her nails scraped over his shoulders as she pressed closer. Their bodies melded together. He wasn't the only one home. She was back at home in his arms.

She practically whimpered when he broke the kiss. He tugged her head back a bit more and waited for her eyes to flutter back open and focus on his. Then he tilted her head and his mouth moved to her ear. His lips, teeth and tongue nibbled and kissed his way from there down her neck. He tightened his hand around her waist as he felt her squirm and her knees begin to buckle. He knew what this did to her, and, listening to her heated purrs, he lifted his head to see the heat in her vibrant blue eyes.

"I have missed my purring Kitten!" he growled. He backed her up against the wall, holding her there with the weight of his body against hers. He couldn't help but moan as she began to roll her hips, pushing against him.

His hands slid along her arms, pulling them from around his own neck until he was able to press them over her head against the wall. He held her wrists together above her with one hand. He used his other hand to grasp a nipple through the fabric of her dress. She inhaled sharply and arched toward his hand.

"Open your eyes, Kitten," He murmured and watched her focus on him again, her beautiful blue eyes, overly bright now. "I have dreamed of those eyes, this mouth," he kissed her, briefly causing her to arch toward him, when he pulled away, wanting more. Letting go of her hands, he took advantage of her raised hips and bent, sliding his hands up her legs under the skirt of her dress to hook into the sidebands of her panties and whisk them down her legs.

Matt stood, kissing her hard again as he loosened his belt and pushed his pants and underwear down his legs. He needed her, needed the release so badly. He pushed her skirt up again and pulled her legs over his hips and felt her hands drop to his shoulders for support. He entered her roughly, revelling in the feel, sound and taste of her. He fucked her like a man possessed, promising that later he would fuck her properly. For now, he just needed her and this release from all the pent-up frustration of the last five days.

Cat was surprised at the speed and force with which he took her, but she felt exactly the same way. She needed to reconnect with him on this physical level, and she met his thrusts, rocking her hips into him as she matched his need with her own. This was the man she wanted and needed, the man she was going to marry in just over a weeks' time.

Matteo came with a roar, and even though Cat sought her own release she didn't quite get there. She felt the connection with him, however, and gripping her tightly, he carried her to the bed, pulling her down on top of him.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into her shoulder, kissing the bare skin around her collarbone.

"I'm not," she smiled softly and smoothed her hand over his cheek. "I missed you just as much," Cat leaned down and kissed him. "Tell me everything, I want to know it all."

*****

Cat and Matteo made it back to the restaurant and took their seats as Stefano stood to make a speech. He called Kalum and Cat to the front table where the current Vitali table sat with their wives.

"These two young people have both been challenged by the harshest of trials and have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are worthy of bearing the name Vitali," Stefano intoned. "What they lack, however, is experience in the Gathering and knowledge of our greater family. As they have both decided to join the hunt this year, my brothers and I have decided they will compete as one entity with two other team members. Do we have any challenges to that rule?" There was a low murmur, but no one spoke up.

"This should be fun," Cat looked up at Kalum and grinned. "I heard it's going to be an old school one, not much tech involved, which is good, right?"

"Truthfully? Mia told me I had to do it. I don't even know what I've signed up for," he said with a whispered chuckle.

"It'll be fun, Kalum, I promise," she grinned.

"Excellent," Stefano spoke again. "Cat, can you come and draw a number, please?" he indicated a bag with small white balls in it that Anna held open for her. Cat drew one and passed it to Frank, who had held his hand out for it. "If those of you who have signed up for the hunt would like to choose a number, feel free, for those who don't, you will be assigned a team in random order to fill in the blank spots. Once you have done that, hunters and huntresses can make their way to the conference room on the third level to find their team and the all-important list if you wish to get a head start on your competitors. The room will remain available to hunters throughout the two-week period."

"I guess I'm going to the conference room for the afternoon," Cat said as she came to sit down between Matteo and Ricco.

"That's probably a good thing," Matteo murmured. "I have duties I can't get out of for this gathering, and I really need to talk to that clown about a few things. After dinner, though, I promise, it will be just the three of us."

"It's a good thing I don't have to feel bad about abandoning you?" she laughed, "Or you don't have to feel bad about leaving me all alone again?"

"Look around you, Kitten, in this family you can never be alone," he chuckled. "Besides, from what I hear you've only met a couple of my cousins, and they have all asked you to elope with them. What's that about?"

"Ricco says you Vitali men have a type, and I'm it," she said with a perfectly straight face and a small nonchalant shrug, making him laugh loudly.

"He could be right about that. Why don't you go find Kalum and Mia, and I will come find you later?" he suggested.

"Okay. But tonight, the three of us, alone, in our new home?" she questioned carefully.

"That sounds amazing," he grinned and kissed her. "You ready to go, Ric?"

"Yeah, alright," he bent to kiss Cat's cheek, wishing he could kiss her in public the way Matt just had, but it wasn't the right time or place to even be thinking like that, so he took a moment to squeeze her hand under the table and smile softly. "Tonight," he whispered in her ear, and was pleased when he caught a soft shiver from her.

Cat made her way over to Kalum, who leaned back and smiled at her, offering her the recently vacated seat beside him.

"I never asked what our number was," he said as she sat.

"The answer to life, the universe, and everything," she answered.

"I didn't know you were a sci-fi nerd," he chuckled.

"I don't know that I'd go that far, but I've read a bit," she laughed with him. "I wonder how many teams there'll be. I mean, there's a lot of people playing if our number is that high."

"It's a big family and a big gathering, from what Mia has said. Let's hope we get a family member who knows everything about everyone. Like Mia," he chuckled.

"I guess we'll soon find out," she smiled. "Are you coming up to get the list?"

"As soon as Mia gets her number," he nodded. "You may as well wait for us. I take it Matt isn't playing?"

"No, he said he and Ricco had other duties they had to perform this week. I'm worried that with the wedding coming up that I won't be much help either. I feel a bit sorry for whoever gets stuck with us. Still, it should be fun," she smiled.

"I'm pretty competitive, by the way. I don't like to lose," he warned her. "I reckon we find our team, make an action plan and schedule a few regular meetings to touch base and adjust our plan of attack."

"It's a game, not a military exercise, Kalum!" she laughed delightedly. Despite her words, she really wanted to do well in her first family hunt.

"Doesn't matter, if you're going to do something you should strive to excel, or why bother?" he asked.

"I guess we could be the quiet achievers that nobody thinks is a threat, and right at the end go... wham, here we are, thank you very much for playing," she laughed.

"Now that sounds like a plan I can work with," he agreed easily as Mia came back to join them.

"How did you go, sweetheart?" he asked.

"Twenty-seven?" she asked hopefully.

"Not even close, I'm afraid," he sighed. "Depending on who's on your team we might be able to work out a deal though. Because, let's face it, Cat and I are a definite handicap to the poor suckers who got stuck on our team, I'm not helping any of your brother's win though," he warned her.

"Competitive much?" she laughed and leaned in to kiss him. "Besides, you're the one with the handicap. I think you need my help more than I need yours."

"Maybe, maybe not. We haven't seen the list yet. Maybe it calls for more brawn than brains. Cat's got muscles, babe, you should see her work out," he said with a smirk.

"Come on then, let's see who we got," she laughed and shook her head.

In the conference room, there were small tables numbered from one to seventy. As people went in, they found their number and sat looking at the list and equipment left on their table. Kalum put his hand on Cat's arm and held her back near the door, watching. Mia wandered off towards her table to greet what Cat assumed was a cousin already sitting there, and Kalum pulled her back outside.

"I know you probably haven't noticed, but there is a lot of interest in you at this gathering thing. Matteo is very well loved by his family, and everyone was so worried when he withdrew from the social scene for so long. I know all of his brothers are watching which team you are going to have, as well as some of the cousins. I imagine there will even be some manoeuvring to try and switch teams, even though it's against the rules. Let's make it interesting for everyone. Let's wait until both our teammates have arrived, then I will go and have a social chat with a few of the tables and let our guys know we are going to meet," he paused and seemed to consider the where.

"Aren't they going to post the teams somewhere?" She asked.

"Hmm, I bet you could ask them not to and just give out teams to those who are latecomers. Those old men love a bit of intrigue and gamesmanship, and, for you, they may just change their mind about posting the teams. Especially because there's always some manoeuvring happening. You go and see Roberto and I will find our teammates and get them to meet us down in that little bar next to the restaurant," he encouraged.

"Alright," she said dubiously. "I don't like my chances though."

"Try anyway, it's a good plan," he grinned, enjoying himself. This thing might be fun after all with Cat on his team. She was smart, funny, and most of Matteo's brothers wanted to help her, or even be on her team for the hunt. He could definitely use that to his advantage.

Cat went back down to the restaurant, she wasn't really sure about the advantage of people not knowing who was on her team, but if Kalum had some sort of plan she was happy to go along with it. She understood that driving need to prove that they would be a valuable member of this family. She approached Roberto as numbers were still being drawn and asked if she could speak to him quietly and gave him a concerned look.

"What seems to be the problem, Catriona?" Roberto asked, guiding her away from the group of people to an empty table.

"I don't want to complain, but I want this hunt to be very fair and not like I have an advantage with a team of four and who might be on that team. Kalum and I had some concerns that there was an overabundance of interest in which team we were on and that quite a few people were waiting so they could possibly manoeuvre around your rule about team changes before you posted the teams tonight," she said as honestly as she could.

"Kalum and I were wondering that if we kept our team number secret, at least for the first few days, that it might stop the manoeuvring and make it a fairer playing field. He's watching the people who sit at that table, and we thought we could touch base with them another time when there wasn't so much interest in where we were sitting and what we were doing," she kept talking without coming to her point.

"What exactly are you asking me?" Roberto frowned at her.

"I was wondering if maybe you wouldn't post the list of teams anywhere and the latecomers could come and check in with someone, maybe someone trusted at reception, to find out which team they had been assigned," she asked. "I feel like I'm under the microscope more than a little bit, and I just want to have fun with this without all the..." she lost the word she was going to use.

"I'll admit, there have been more than a few inquiries before and after the draw about your team, and volunteers who said they would take the disadvantage of guiding the new family members through the hunt," Roberto nodded. "I'll talk to my brothers about your request," he said. "I don't see how it will matter at all, but I can understand your reticence to be accused of cheating or manoeuvring around the game. This is Stefano's show this year, so the final word on it will be his."

"Thank you, Papa," she smiled. "I'm sorry to be a pain so early on in the game, I promise I won't say another thing."

"Not at all, it's best to get these things sorted out early," he nodded and stood, walking back to his table where the balls were still being drawn. With over two hundred family members playing this year, it was not going to be an easy feat to arbitrate the points system.

Cat walked from the restaurant to the tiny bar almost hidden at the far side of the restaurant facing the street. Only two other people, a young man and woman, seemed to be in the bar, and she couldn't see Kalum, so she ordered a drink, unsure of what else to do.

"Cat, I'm Tate," the young woman approached her. "I think you met my brother, Chase, already, but I was away and missed your engagement party, sorry."

"Hi," Cat said with relief that she didn't have to sit here alone. "Did you see Kalum upstairs?"

"We did," she nodded. "That's Logan, take no notice of him, he's permanently grumpy."

"I heard that!" Logan grumbled,

"See what I mean," Tate rolled her eyes. "Kalum is still upstairs socialising to throw people off the scent. He says he has some sort of plan."

"He's competitive and hates to lose, I'm afraid. I hope you're both up for this, because I have a feeling it's going to be tougher than a boot camp," she laughed, taking a seat with them both. "So, Chase's sister, which means your dad, is Cosimo?"

"Correct," Tate said. "There are tons of us though, so no one expects you to know everyone straight away. Logan is..."

"No, let me guess," Cat considered him as he looked up. He had the same dark colouring that they all did, but there was something about the curve of his mouth that reminded her of Sebastian. "I think your Dad might be Salvatore?" she asked.

"Correct again!" Tate clapped. "You're good. How did you guess that?" she asked.

"He looks a little like his brother, Sebastian. I've met him a few times now," she confessed.

"Sebastian is playing this year, and I thought I was finally going to be able to beat him, with this being old school, but then I drew this team of newbies," he grumbled.

"We aren't just going to beat him," Kalum said, coming to sit with them. "We are going to beat everyone, because we have two distinct advantages. No one expects us to, and we have Cat. The first rule is never telling anyone our number. You can say we're on your team if you absolutely have to get an advantage, but never ever what our number is."

"Why not?" Tate frowned.

"This is low tech, which means, from what I got from the other teams already, is that there will be progressive scores every couple of days with just the team number, no names, I hope," he looked at Cat for confirmation.

"Roberto seemed okay with it, but he said it was Stefano's decision. I guess we'll find out tonight if they post the teams with all the names," she explained that she had done what she could.

"You went to Roberto about a rule change?" Logan sat back and looked at her.

"Was that wrong? How would I know, I'm such a newb," she laughed and tilted her head at him.

"Cat- one, Logan- zero!" Tate chirped happily.

"Okay, let's see what we have to work with here," Kalum said, taking the backpack Logan had shoved everything into from under the table. He rifled around and drew out the lists after being satisfied he knew what all of the equipment was. They took some time going through the different sections of the excessively long list. Discussing the merits of doing or ignoring the easy items which were worth fewer points than the moderate or hard items. Group challenges came after that and were worth a variety of points becoming more substantial with the time required to complete them. Then there were the hard and impossible items and tasks, and this was an area that both Cat and Kalum needed guidance to understand. The impossible items and tasks seemed, to an outsider, doable until you discovered what they would entail and that most of the clues were cryptic in some way.

"Alright," Kalum said after they'd been through the list. "The hardest things to coordinate will be the team challenges, mainly because the bride-to-be will be super busy this week and we have the gathering events, so let's schedule as many as we can in around all of those things. Our advantage here is that there are a few team challenges that only three of us have to complete, because that's all they allow for. I say we all take a section of the easy and moderate items each, because every point counts. If we lose by one point because we didn't get a napkin from," he checked the list, "Heidi's Bavarian patisserie, then I will be gutted."