Chapter 7
As soon as James came out of his office, Lily bombarded him with questions.
"Dad, how can you do this? You cannot just ground us for three days. I mean three whole days! Do you know how long that is? Plus it's not like we committed a sin or something!" Lily continued her ramble while Rose chose to have her breakfast instead of listening to her sister blabbering. James joined them at the breakfast table.
"First of all, I grounded only you because I know Rose was not involved in the stunt if it wasn't for you. Secondly, remember to knock before you barge into my office." James sighed at the earlier situation.
"Dad, it's not the first time I have done that. By the way, who were they anyway?" Lily asked curiously, remembering those grey eyes. This question caught Rose's attention as well and she looked up from her bowl of cereal, waiting for her dad to reply.
"They were my best friend’s sons," James replied after sipping his tea.
"You mean David? Didn't you work for him?" Rose asked, now getting a little suspicious of the whole situation.
James nodded, "Yeah I did."
"Is everything alright? Why would they come here?" Lily raised her eyebrow. She knew her father wouldn't invite anyone over unless it was extremely important.
"They just came to pay a visit. Nothing serious," James lied. He didn't want his daughters to worry about anything. Both of them seemed suspicious but nodded anyway.
"Are you interested in accompanying me to a party?" James asked all of a sudden. He was invited by Vincenzo and Dante, along with his daughters, because those men were getting impatient to see the girls again.
"You want us to go as your date?" Lily laughed hysterically.
"I thought it could be considered as an outing for you both. Also, since someone continuously blames me for not letting her go out that often," he gave a pointed look at Lily.
"Why sure! We would love to be your date dad," Lily spoke with a fake English accent.
All the while, Rose was aware there was something more to this outing. Something her father was hiding from them again, to protect them, but she did not like that.
"When is it?" Rose asked with a serious face.
"Tomorrow at 8."
It was finally the time to leave for the party. Rose and Lily wore beautiful gowns. It was the same design except the colours were different. Rose's gown was a soft pink while Lily's was a metallic grey with floral work running on their necklines and a slit on the right side running from the mid thighs down to their ankles. They both looked ethereal.
Silence enveloped everyone the moment they both were on the top of the stairs that led down to the hall where the whole party was taking place. People were too busy looking at the two beautiful ladies standing at the top of the staircase. Men were looking at them with their jaws dropped whereas the women were giving them envious looks because of their beauty.
Dante was roaming in the hall waiting for a certain someone to make her entrance, but it was taking longer than he expected. His eyes would fall on his watch to check time at short intervals and he admitted he was getting impatient. He saw James was already in the hall and his eyes searched in hopes of finding Rose, but failed. He then decided to walk up to James and start a short conversation with him.
On the other hand, Vincenzo had taken extra time to get ready for this party and ran his eyes over the mirror thrice before leaving. He wanted to make sure that he looked the best today.
The party was going great. Everyone was having a good time chatting around when all of a sudden the whole room went quiet. This immediately had Vincenzo and Dante's heads snap towards the staircase and they stopped breathing at the sight in front of them. The beauties stood in their glory and once again managed to steal everyone's attention with just a single glance.
The girls carefully descended the stairs, paying no head to the attention they were getting. They both smiled when they saw their father approaching them and looped their arms with him as soon as they were at the bottom of the staircase.
James lightly kissed his daughters' cheeks before whispering, "You both look beautiful."
Rose giggled before whispering a thank you along with Lily. They continued to make their way to the center of the hall. Lily praised the people who decorated the hall, while Rose was busy looking for the area from where she could smell the delicious aroma of scrumptious treats that wafted into her nostrils and were waiting to be drowned by her.
Her mouth watered when her eyes were successful in finding the corner, a goofy smile graced her lips. She excused herself from her family and immediately made her way towards those treats. This action did not go unnoticed by Dante and a smile found its way to his lips as well.
James was asking Lily what took them so long to reach when someone cleared their throat. It was Vincenzo who could not wait any longer to be near her.
"Care to introduce us, James?" Vincenzo asked in his husky voice and that made something turn in Lily's stomach, but she ignored it.
"Of course, Lily, this is Vincenzo, David's older son, and this is my beautiful daughter Lily, as you already know," James replied shortly.
"Lily," Vincenzo whispered with a light nod before taking her hand in his and kissing her knuckles ever so softly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Lily could not believe that the piece of hunk was now standing so close to her and giving her that intense look that made her stomach churn with excitement. James excused himself from the two to give them some time to talk. He was well aware of what was going through Vincenzo's heart and didn't have anything against him because he trusted that man with his daughter.
"You look gorgeous Lily. I haven't seen a beauty like you before in my life," Vincenzo was shocked at himself after what he said. He had never said that to any girl before.
"Thank you," Lily replied shortly, not looking in his eyes as she was surely intimidated by him. She had been with men before, but something about him made her feel different. However, she ignored it. Or at least tried to. She didn't feel like standing in his presence anymore because he was making her damn nervous and Lily wasn't the one to get nervous. She roamed her eyes all over the room trying to look for a distraction, but it went in vain when Vincenzo asked her, "Would you like to have a dance?"
She peered at him through her eyelashes, wanting to decline because she knew her feet wouldn't function being so close to him. But before she could say anything, Vincenzo had already grabbed her hand and was leading her to the dance floor. He was a man that wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
A soft melody was playing in the background. Lily sucked in a deep breath, as soon as Vincenzo wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his chest. Why the hell was she feeling like a teenager with raging hormones with him? She thought. She has done more than this with a few other boys. It was not a big deal, right?
They lightly swayed to the music while Vincenzo twirled and dipped her at intervals. "You dance very gracefully," Vincenzo whispered, looking mesmerized by her eyes.
Lily wanted to act a bit sassy so she couldn’t stop herself from saying "I know. I get that a lot."
That immediately had Vincenzo frowning. Does she mean to say that she has been with boys before? The thought did not settle well with him and he was confused as to why he was acting this way in a very short period of time with her. Surely this had to be just an attraction, right? He decided to push the feeling aside just for the moment and enjoy her being close to him.
Rose had her eyes on her sister all this time and was inwardly smirking at her and the situation. She giggled witnessing Lily look constipated at that dominating man's presence. The thought crossed her as she nibbled on the chocolate éclair.
"Mhmmm," she moaned at its taste. She was not aware of someone standing just behind her and was trying hard to control his excitement after that sexy moan.
Dante took a deep breath and moved closer behind her. He brought his lips closer to Rose's ear, lightly brushing them against her skin. That made Rose shiver and become aware of the fact that someone was very close behind her.
"Hello angel," he whispered sensually.
Rose whipped her face quickly to meet the similar emerald eyes she had been thinking about a lot in the past two days. Her face was so close to him that she could feel his light breath on her face.
She raised one of her brow and finally spoke, “how may I help you?"
"Dante," Introducing himself, Dante immediately offered his hand for her to shake, "but you can call me whatever you want," he continued.
Rose looked at him skeptically for a moment before finally giving her hand in his for a firm hand shake. This was the first time for Rose to be so close to a man. She had never been with anyone before. Never had a boyfriend before. Not that she wasn't asked. She was asked a million times but always broke the poor men's hearts by rejecting them each time. She was a hopeless romantic person and loved reading romance novels. But when it came to her love life, she knew that love was just temporary and eventually people got over each other.
The reason for her being so distant from love was that she was scared of heartbreak, unlike Lily who used to have a new boyfriend, not every week or month, but you can say at least every six or seven months. To the most, a year. But Rose didn't want temporary flings. She wanted something deeper and real. That would last a lifetime.
She busied herself with the food again while Dante remained in his place, admiring her. He wanted to talk to her and just wanted to get in her good books already. This was the first time Dante would be making a move on a girl. To say he was nervous was an understatement. How ironic it would be to say that an assassin who could easily make anyone else helpless in front of him was himself helpless for the beauty who had managed to spark his interest.
"I see you like food," Dante muttered as he saw Rose getting busy with the delicious treats. He saw how softly she wrapped her lips around the éclair and took a bite. Delicious. How much he wanted to be that éclair at the moment.
"I like everything that has, or is chocolate." She replied softly, licking off the remaining chocolate on her bottom lip. How much Dante was dying to do that for her, she had no idea. He made a mental note that his angel loved chocolate.
He was happily watching her take another bite, when his expression changed to a grim one. The one that assassin Dante De Connor wears when he is on missions........