BXBX NOVEL Chapter 17 - Awkward
When dinner time came around, Samuel had to force himself to come down and out of his room to join everyone else. Not only were his feet still sore, but he still felt uncomfortable about the idea of facing both the siblings.
He had tried to think about what Leo said in order to tell if the other had just been giving him a hard time or not, but he still couldn\'t come to the conclusion if it was a joke or something serious.
Lena was the whole reason that his feet were still so sore. If it hadn\'t been for her rough way of handling the situation where he was learning the waltz, he might\'ve actually been able to enjoy himself.
Samuel had nothing against the rest of the family. As of yet though he kept reminding himself. Zane was the only person he had seen much of aside from his two children. The rest of the family appeared to be scarce except for when it came time for dinner. He supposed that was probably not abnormal considering how large the territory the family controlled was. They most likely had a lot of their own work to do in order to make sure that everything stayed in order.
Once he was met with the pleasant smell of food and saw the spread that was set on the table, he became slightly less uncomfortable as his stomach reminded him how hungry he was after all the dancing he had done and with it having been quite a few hours since lunch.
This time when he went to sit down, he remembered what Zane had told him and made sure to sit on the right side of Lena who only offered him a bored glance when he took his seat. Leo offered him a smile once he was sitting down which he did his best to return but the other didn\'t say anything before turning his attention to the food.
Samuel again couldn\'t get over how good the food tasted. Despite how rich it was, he couldn\'t stop himself from eating more than he had the night before. He tried his best to keep up with the conversation that was going on at the table, but similar to how it was at lunch, it was focused around asking Leo what it was like being in England, his studies, and what he else he managed to accomplish while he was there. Lena was the only who didn\'t seem that engaged most likely because she had heard it all earlier herself from him.
"What type of hobbies do you enjoy?" Samuel felt a little bit nervous asking the question, but he knew that he was going to have to get used to speaking with her like this at some point in time
"Hm?" She asked glancing at him with a raised eyebrow as she took another bite of the food on her plate.
"You mentioned earlier that dancing wasn\'t one of the top things that you enjoyed doing, so I was just wondering what you enjoyed doing more." He explained, trying to make the question seem as natural as possible while she fixed him with bored intense gaze.
"I have a preference for things more in the field of learning self-defense when it comes to skills I am expected to learn. Hand-to-hand, shooting, stealth or areas that require intellect to handle. Outside of that, I prefer activities that are more thrilling though I rarely have time to engage in anything outside of the family business." Was the reply he got. He had to admit it was a more intense then he was expected. He had hoped that there might\'ve been something in there he could relate with her own, but her response did mean that she perhaps wouldn\'t shot down his idea. "Were you looking for a different answer?" She asked when she noticed the way that he was still looking at her instead of returning to eating.
"Not at all. I wasn\'t sure what to expect honestly, I was just kind of curious to know." Was the reply he gave before turning back to his meal. The little queen wasn\'t quite convinced by his response however. Zane was the only other person who was half paying attention to the conversation that was going on between the two, everyone else was too focused on what Leo was telling them about.
"What about yourself then, little chickadee? I can\'t imagine that you would be into such heavy hobbies as me." Lena was smirking slightly as she asked this question while waiting to see what his reply would.
"That\'s not entirely true. While I was never in a situation where I needed to know those type of skills and because of the risk, my family would never let me me touch a real gun but I often played paintball when I was younger with my friends and that can be a bit intense at times. Especially when you\'re able to reserve the right space to do it in. Otherwise most of my hobbies were boring. I did learn a bit of cooking from my mom and I had always wanted to learn the piano but it was much harder than I expected it to be. Everything else was things my friends enjoyed doing like bowling and stuff."
"Paintball." Lena repeated the word but he couldn\'t tell by the way she said it if she was musing over it or expected him to tell her more about it. It didn\'t seem yet like it was something that would fall outside of her field of interests.
"Have you ever played it before?" Samuel inquired after she had gone back to eating again. He didn\'t quite want the conversation to end yet as he wanted to collect more information before he asked her about going with some of his friends to try it out. He knew though that he was probably also going to have to ask Zane\'s permission since it was quite a bit of a drive from here to the paintball field that he and his friends used to go to.
"Never. I know what it is, but there has never been a reason for me to do such a thing." She shrugged back as she stayed focused on her food.
"It isn\'t something that you really need a reason to go do. It\'s just supposed to be for fun." He tried to reason, but the look that she gave him when he mentioned fun made him think that \'fun\' was a word that wasn\'t much a part of her dictionary.
"What\'s fun about a game where you don\'t actually eliminate your targets and there\'s no real bullets involved? Certainly you take away tactical skills, work on aim and stealth, but those are all skills I get from using a real gun." Samuel found himself to be at a bit of a loss for words as he response. It really did seem like she didn\'t do the whole having fun thing all that much. Everything she did was probably towards a specific end goal and maybe she didn\'t have much of an opportunity to do anything just for fun and relaxation.
"I used to enjoy the adrenalin rush from it." He replied back a low voice, felling slightly defeated that he conversation hadn\'t ended up going in the direction he was hoping it would.
"If you like an adrenalin rush, I can take you with me latter this week when I will be at the shooting range. I can tell you will get far more of a rush of that situation than you ever could from handling a gun that isn\'t real." He wasn\'t sure how to respond to this offer. He felt like it meant she was opening up to the idea of being around him more, but at the same time he didn\'t want to get caught up in a similar situation to the one that he had been with the dance practice. Real guns were a totally different thing and he didn\'t want to worry about getting accidentally shot or a concussion because he messed up and she felt she needed to be rough to correct his mistakes.
"Would I just be watching you?" He clarified. Lena gave a slight nod of her head, waiting to reply until her mouth was empty.
"Unless you wanted to get your parents permission and then my father approved of it and we had some else accompany us, you wouldn\'t be allowed to handle the guns." The smirk returned to her face before she continued speaking "Besides, you\'re still a little chickadee, there\'s a lot of other things that you need to get through before you should even considering thinking you\'re ready to handle guns." Samuel did his best to not frown at her comment. He knew that she was most likely making a reference to what had happened earlier in the day. He decided that that was probably a good cue to drop the conversation and focus on eating before they began bickering about what had happened. Lena didn\'t seem interested in pursuing the matter, but the amusement in her eyes over his response didn\'t disappear for the rest of the meal.
Dinner went on for longer than it had the previous night as this time dessert had been served, most likely as a sort of celebration response to Leo\'s return. Samuel could only assume by the look of it that was it was some type of flan. Thinking back to what he had been told by Ryan about Lena\'s love for sweets, he didn\'t miss the way her eyes light up at the sight of the sweets nor how she was the only who took two servings and didn\'t even seem bothered by the fact. Maybe he really would need to bake her some sweets to help her warm up to him. It might make her think he was more of a valuable asset to her if he could make her something like that any time she wanted.
Due to dinner running later, he had hoped it would mean that he could escape to his room for the night before Lena stopped like she had done the night before, but he found that he had no such luck.
"Is Sammy-boy really trying to runaway without giving his fiancé a kiss good night." She asked, standing in front of him with her arms crossed.
"Not running away, my feet are sore and I would like to get back to being able to rest them." He replied. She was blocking the way to his room so he didn\'t really have much of a choice but to deal with what she wanted before he could disappear for the night.
"If you were better at learning to dance quicker, you wouldn\'t be having that problem." She replied "Now, are you going to be good tonight and come over here or am I going to have to force you like I did last night?" He really wanted to say neither and that he was just going to bed, but knew that she wouldn\'t accept such an answer from him.
"Why not worry about this stuff after marriage?" Lena took a step towards him as she replied.
"Because as I explained to you before, I want to make sure you\'re fit for the role before we get that far and you\'re already one day down. Kissing and all that other affectionate stuff is part of that process."
"Fine. I get it." Samuel replied as he pursued his lips. He got the message that he would just be better off doing what she wanted than arguing with him.
He walked over to her but took a few seconds to stare at her awkwardly as he wasn\'t certain what to do. The height difference made it uncomfortable for him, but he guessed he was going to have to let his guard down enough to lean down to kiss her.
Bracing himself for it, he began to lean over to give her a kiss on the cheek, but when he was only half way towards her face, he felt two cold hands placed on both sides of his face pull him down quicker than he was ready for. Before he had time to register what had happened, Lena had already pressed her lips against his. The kiss was firm and quick but still caused him to be flustered.
"Such a good boy. See that wasn\'t so hard. With a more work you might be able to sharpen your skills yet." Lena replied with a smirk as she kept her hold on his face for a few seconds longer than necessary before removing her hands and leaving him once again flustered outside as she went to her own for the night.