A/N: Mass release will be coming next week.
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They didn't spend more than an hour at the hospital as they didn't want to cause too much excitement or stress for Jeff since he had long way to recover. The biggest reason why Lena had wanted to come along and talk with him was to let him know herself that everything was fine. She had been the one to assign him to Samuel after all and even though she was certain of the fact that Samuel likely had told him everything was okay, she knew he would worry if she didn't talk to him herself.
Also, she wanted to see how he was doing for herself. There was a small part of her that didn't trust doctors enough to know what they were talking about or be honest about situations if they thought there was a chance for repercussions if they were too bluntly honest about the expected outcome.
Seeing Jeff for herself, it didn't seem like he was fairly that badly though he did still look sick and exhausted. Once he was out of the hospital, it was likely he would need another month to recover before he could go back to his normal work schedule.
"Who should be assign to come along for security to the engagement party beyond those who are obvious?" Lena asked on the way back to the estate.
"I have been working on a list that I think would be an effective group." Zane replied. They had already both agreed prior to this to make sure that things were more secured than they had originally intended for them to be since they knew there would be a different set of threats to worry about considering the second announcement that the would be making.
"Does it have to be a lot of people?" Samuel asked. With it being his first time attending such an event and one that was mafia centered, he wasn't exactly sure what to expect or what kind of concerns there would be. Somehow though he felt like it probably wasn't as much sunshine and roses as typical engagement parties were where the worst one might have to worry about was having that obnoxious family member who tried to make everything about themselves or ruin the occasion because they were jealous.
"Yes, because even though the risk of something happening is relatively low. The larger the crowd that is gathered, the higher risk that something might occur that needs immediate action." Zane replied. Although he never had to deal with such a thing when he got engaged and married, an assassination attempt had been tried against his father during his engagement ceremony.
"Everyone will of course be double checked before they are allowed to enter and I'm sure that Jovani will be bringing his own set of people to make sure that everything is secure as well." Lena added on.
"Generally when it's a engagement between two different families occurring, protection is provided from both sides since the group that will be attending is a mixed bunch that both families know but the other might not be aware is a threat." She elaborated.
"Though, outside of immediate family and such, the number of people who are attending will probably be capped at around eighty just to be safe."
"That still sounds like a lot of people." Thinking about this made Samuel realize that he didn't even know where the engagement party was going to be taking place. He doubted that it would be happening at the estate since he couldn't think of a space that would be large enough to hold that many people.
"Where will it be taking place anyways?" He asked figuring that there was no reason why he wouldn't get a reply since he thought of it as something that hadn't come up rather than being kept a secret.
"A venue has been rented out for it." Zane replied to this question as they approached the estate.
"Another one of the acquaintances that owes my father for something that he did to help them out." The princess added. She was happy to be back to at the estate again as there was other things that she could now focus on. The only thing that would've made her happier was if Jovani was already gone so that she didn't have to deal with him for a few days Things would feel a little bit normal if that happened.
The conversation here now that they were back. Zane still had a number of things that he had to take care of and since there wasn't anything important that he needed to answer, he knew that he could leave the rest of the questions that Samuel might have for his daughter to answer.
Eventually, his time wouldn't be so packed and he could enjoy things a little more like he used to before everything had started to change.
Samuel made sure he remembered to grab his ring before he got to follow after Lena who was waiting on him to head back inside. Clive would follow later after he had parked the car in the garage since they wouldn't need that specific one for the next few days.
"Sleeping arrangement the same before?" Samuel asked once they were inside causing the princess to stop before she turned to look at him with slight glare. She was quiet for a minute before she replied.
"No." was the only response that she offered in response to his question. She wasn't ready to deal with that again. She still needed her space in order to sort her feelings out before he occupied her space at night again.
"Wouldn't that be better for you though since I have been gone for the past three days?" Samuel tried to insist but Lena wasn't very swayed by what he was saying. Perhaps because it was him who really enjoyed it more than she had and wanted to keep things to the new shift that had taken place.
"Only after the engagement is finalized and you stop asking me about." The princess told him finally when her fiancé continued to try and reason with him on the matter. She wasn't going to change her mind about this matter.
"But don't you enjoy my company at night?" He asked trying a different tactic in hopes that it might get her to change her mind.
"I enjoy my space and peace when I'm trying to sleep that doesn't include people who aren't able to keep their hands to themselves." She replied not even turning to look back at the other as she made her way to the sunroom.
It was almost time for dinner but she wanted someplace away from people to breathe for a while before it was time to eat. Considering the fact that she hadn't seen Jovani anywhere, she presumed that either meant that Julius and Leo were back and getting caught up on what was taking place or he was busy doing his own thing. Either way she was happy to see that he wasn't around.
"What if I don't do anything except for share the space with you then and nothing else?" He asked standing near by as the princess sat down on the futon, she gave him an unimpressed look.
"That doesn't sound like something very convincing consider what happened the other night and how unwilling you were to listen when I said I needed space."
"That was only because I was enjoying the reaction you had in response to what I was doing." Samuel defended. It was true, it was probably one of the few times that Lena's reaction to something he had done was so soft and genuine that he wanted to soak up as much of her reaction as he possible could.
"You've never been like that before and it's actually quite adorable when you're caught off guard by unexpected things and give such a raw reaction." Lena missed much of what else Samuel had said following him saying that something she did was adorable.
Adorable wasn't a word that the princess was often associated. Fierce, scary, intimidating, rough, brusk, hard. Those were the words she was used to hearing. Certainly she hand been called beautiful on a number of different, but that didn't feel the same as being called adorable. How was she supposed to react to that?
"It's exactly like that. I can't help but want to draw out that reaction more every time you look surprised and flustered or like right now when you blush. Can you blame me for that?" Samuel gave her his best charming look when he asked this question.
"Yes I do blame you and no matter what you try and say my answer isn't going to change." She replied when she averted her gaze and shifted her position so that she was no longer looking at him.
"My answer is still no and you can wait until after the engagement party is over and maybe longer before that will happen again." She was going to have to learn how to better control her reaction to things that Samuel said and did that surprised her if she didn't want to deal with him continuing to react in the current manner.
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