Arranged Marriage To The Princess Of The Red Scorpions

By the time they had gotten back to the estate, they had somehow managed to make it before they would be late for dance practice. Samuel wasn't sure if she had been wrong when she had said it would take them longer to get back the route they went or if the horses were just that much faster heading back.

Either way, Samuel was happy to be back, his back was hurting worse and he had begun to get rather hot towards the end of the trip back. It was a reminder to him that even though the mornings were still comfortable, the horrible summer was indeed on it's way in.

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As the princess had forewarned him however, he did not get a break from dance practice as much as he had wanted one. She didn't even care of him to change his outfit before dragging him to get ready for the dance practice. The only good was that Santi had followed through with his promise and brought him a pair of dance shoes that were custom-made for him.

It was a bit of a trail to put them on with how bad his back was, but they felt more sturdy and comfortable than the ones he had been asked to wear last time. At the back of his mind though he felt awkward wearing them because they didn't match the casual riding wear he had on. The only part that made it less uncomfortable was that Lena was dressed similar to him and didn't seem to care about the mismatch between the shoes and the rest of the outfit on herself.

Samuel wasn't sure if it was because of the shoes or Lena was actually being considerate of the fact that he had hurt himself earlier, but the second dance practice wasn't as rough as the first one. Verbally, she still criticized him for mistakes that he had and forced him to redo certain steps multiple times until she was pleased with his progress but the physical abuse was far less to his feet.

Still, he was happy when it was all done and over. He felt hot and gross along with being in pain and was looking forward to taking a hot shower to take care of some of that problem. He would've taken a bath if it was earlier in the day and he thought he would have more time, but he didn't want to risk taking too long.

The shower helped even though it wasn't his first choice. The hot water soothed his back and he appreciated the soothing vanilla and bourbon smell of the body wash and shampoo he used. At some point in time, he was going to have to ask if his family told Lena's family such things before he was supposed to spend the week with them or if getting all of the right scents and brands were part of the process of getting ready for his stay.

Samuel felt like he was going to have a heart attack when he stopped out of the bathroom after his shower and saw that Lena was sitting cross legged on the middle of his bed looking as though she was quite comfortable in his room.

She had changed out of her riding outfit and was now wearing a white shirt with 'the queen' printed across the front of it in purple fancy font and a pair of dark blue sweats. The white shirt also caused her hair red hair to stand out more. Unlike with the darker clothes she usually wore, the white made showed off more of the ruby shades in it. It was probably the most normal outfit that he had seen her dressed in since he got there, but that was beside the point right now.

"What the hell are you doing in my room? I just got out of the shower and could've been naked for all you know!" He couldn't hide the frustration and agitated surprise that came out in his response and he hardly stopped himself from yelling at the other.

The little queen only met his response with a wicked smirk that matched the amused look in her eyes.

"Oh come now Sammy boy, we both know that you're too much of a self conscious child to actually step one foot into your room without having gotten redressed first." She had made a very true point, however..

"That isn't the point right now." Samuel retorted as he ran a hand through his still damp hair as he tried to calm his heart rate down.

"Isn't it though? That was the excuse you just gave me for why I shouldn't have come into your room unannounced." He swore that the smirk on her face was getting closer to the mischievous grin the Chesire cat wore on it's face when it was feeling particularly amused or pleased about something.

"It was my reason, but my point for saying that was you that it's an invasion of privacy to enter someone else's room unannounced like this. Just because you think that you know I wouldn't step out into my room naked, doesn't mean that gives you the right to enter my room just based on that assumption." Samuel tried his best to explain calmly. A small part at the back of his mind told him however that it was probably pointless to explain such things to her.

"Privacy isn't something that is going to be existing between us for much longer Sammy boy. At some point in time once we are officially engaged and before we are married, we'll probably be sharing the same room anyways." She had again made a good point, but Samuel didn't want to her about that right now.

"I didn't come here to talk about that though. Clive got some help and brought out the board games. I figured if I didn't come fetch you, you might end up staying in here." Lena told him as she got off his head and started to head towards the door.

It took a few seconds for it to sink for Samuel that she had mentioned Clive needed help getting board games, was it because he didn't know where they were located or did they have more than he thought. Shaking off his agitation he followed after the princess to see which it was.

Clive had set up everything in the sunroom for them, Samuel was starting to get the feeling that it was one of Lena's favorite rooms to be in since it was the room she had so far chosen most often when the choice was.

Seeing the table stacked high with an assortment of board and similar games, Samuel had his answer as to why Clive needed help. He couldn't think of a time when he had seen so many board games in one place before. The range of games didn't disappoint either he noticed as he came over to look at them. Lena had taken a seat on the sofa and had tucked her legs up next to her as she also surveyed the board games. It had been years since she had last seen them so even she had forgotten some of them.

"It's your choice to pick what we play. Just try not to pick something for the first game." She told him as she turned her attention to him as she waited for him to decide. The fact that she had said 'first game' hadn't passed him by.

"How about Jenga then?" He as he spotted the game off to the side on the floor where some of the games that weren't flat had been placed. He thought that perhaps it might be less boring to her.

"Fine with me." She replied with a shrug. Without getting up, she helped him clear stuff of the table and put on the floor to the side where in a somewhat less precarious stack so that it wouldn't end up falling over and creating a mess. The game seemed pretty straight forward to her so she didn't think it could be too hard to manage as long as she was carefully where she pulled the blocks out from.