Arranged Marriage To The Princess Of The Red Scorpions

Lena didn't say anything else as she gave Samuel a chance to process what she had just told him. It was a rather heavy thing to tell someone about. Somehow she wasn't all that surprised that talking about it didn't make her feel much better. She wasn't sure that the memories that haunted her would ever go away no matter how many years passed.

"Is that why you reacted so strongly when you found out what Jovani did to me, because we're also family but not that familiar with each other?" Samuel asked finally breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"Yes." The princess replied, not sure what else to say. It was the only reason why she had reacted so strongly to Jovani. She didn't want the same thing to happen again.

"I should apologize more than I thought. Truth is, I've been talking to him a while before all this happened and before I actually knew who he really was." The look on her face told him that she wasn't all that surprised to hear it from him.

"I know, Jovani already texted me not long after we got back. It's I suppose what he believed would be some type of apologize though rather weak in my opinion." She told him as she tossed him her phone so that he could look at the message his cousin had sent her.

"I would advise against doing anything that foolish again though, or at least bring it up to me until you are able to better figure out who to trust and not." She told him as he scrolled through the text message Jovani had sent her.

"I don't think he's a bad person." Samuel admitted as he handed her back her phone after reading through the message twice. She gave him a look that said she didn't agree with that assessment.

"He hurt you. That's more than enough reason to not like him even if he wasn't the one who directly did it, his stupid actions resulted in it happening." He could tell by her tone of voice that she wasn't going to change her mind any time soon about him.

"Are you still planning on having us meeting with him again?" Samuel asked out of curiosity. Lena sighed in response to this question.

"If I could get away with it, the answer would be no. However, since you're part of the Vedova Nera family and we're going to be getting engaged with the intent to marry- we need to so that I can figure out how to get a meeting with the head of the family in order to get his approval for the marriage since it's going to also result in an alliance now." Lena replied, it was a headache she didn't want to have to deal with still.

"I asked my mother about that, but she didn't seem to know who the head of the family would be."

"No surprise considering she hasn't been around them for the last twenty years. A lot can happen in that amount of time." The princess replied as she laid back down. Her mind was still reeling after everything she told Samuel and she was thankful that the conversation had taken a different direction rather than him asking more questions about what happened.

"Is getting approval that hard?" Samuel asked as he stared down at the other who had closed her eyes again.

"It depends. Technically because the alliance would be oddly in both of our favors, it shouldn't be that hard to whoever it is to agree. Though on occasion sometimes there will be a rejection if they don't approve of either party or have a grudge against them. Nothing in particular sticks out in my mind about the Vedova Nera though in terms of our relationship with them from the past since we control different sides of the state." She replied, her voice sounding a touch off as though she was getting tired.

"Well since there's isn't anything that we can do about that right now, why don't we focus on eating something?" Samuel asked as he reached out to brush Lena' hair out of her face, a small gesture he thought would be harmless but to try and keep her away if she was falling asleep.

He didn't expect her to grab his hand however as she opened her eyes. Samuel expected her to tell him not to touch her again, but he was surprised when she pulled his hand closer and kissed his palm. It was a soft fluttering feeling and only last briefly second before she let it go. He wasn't quite sure what to make of her action until he rubbed his palm with his fingers and remembered he had a scrape there for the scuttle he had with Russo and whoever the other two men were.

He was inclined to tell her that it didn't hurt anymore so she didn't need to worry about it, but he stopped himself from saying that knowing that he would break whatever moment they were having by causing her to feel either offended or flustered that he actually commented on what she was doing.

"I still don't feel much like eating." She admitted as she stared up at the ceiling. The light was still a touch too bright for her and was causing her to have a headache.

"Do you think that maybe it's just because you haven't eaten anything for the last three days so your appetite has naturally disappeared over time?" He suggested with a slight tilt of his head. It was the reason that made the most sense to him since the stress had been over for a while now.

"Even if it is, I still don't feel all that much like eating." The princess replied. She didn't honestly feel like doing much of anything, but she knew after laying around for three days she would have to at least consider changing clothes and taking a shower. That might help her to feel more human again.

"How about I feed you then, would that make you more incline to eat." Lena stopped staring at the ceiling to give him a look as though he was crazy.

"Do I look like someone who would enjoy being fed?" she asked with an incredulous edge to her voice.

"No, but I'm starting to find out you don't look like a person who would be a lot of things, but yet you still do them." He replied as he grabbed her hand, returning the gesture she had done moments ago by kissing her palm.

"Wait.." He pause for a second being caught off guard by the expression her face.

"Is it possible that even the princess is capable of being caught off guard and blushing?" Samuel didn't quite know why he felt such a sense of accomplishment when he noticed the light tin of pink that was on Lena's cheek as she didn't meet his gaze.

"Don't even." She warned still refusing to look straight him. While she appreciated his company, it wasn't beyond her to kick him out of her room if he only intended to try and tease her despite her current mood. There was only so much she could handle.

The small gentle gesture had caught her off guard though. She wasn't used to such touches. They were small yet seemed to be weighed rather intimately to her. They weren't something that she was quite certain how to react to either. It was one thing when she did them and another when Samuel did it.

"Alright, how about I let it be if you agree to it?" He tried to bargain, a small smile on his face almost as though he knew that he had put her in a annoying position.

"There you go again with the difficult stubbornness." Lena sighed though only half annoyed by it as she rolled over so that she was laying on her back.

"Stubbornness only because you need to take care of yourself." Samuel told as he stood up to go and grab the tray of food. He hoped that she would be less likely to refuse to eat if he brought the food to her rather than expecting her to move in order to eat.

"I take care of myself just fine." She argued, refusing to sit up even after seeing him bring the tray of food over.

"I'm just not in the mood to eat." She explained again.

"Why don't you just at least try to eat something? If you don't still feel like eating after taking a few bites I'll take the food away and stop bothering you about?" Samuel was somehow was beginning to get very good at negotiating with her.

"Fine, but only because I know you won't let me sleep until I eat." She told him with a sigh as she forced herself to sit up. Samuel only offered her a smile in return as he put the tray of food on her lap.