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“Why I never! I haven’t done anything wrong…tonight.”
“Sure, you haven’t done anything in plain sight. Let’s keep it that way for your sake. Have a good night,” he said, ending the conversation and leaving Calvin and Andrew alone.
Though immersed in the conversation, Calvin still managed to watch Delilah walk away from Luca as expected when they finished their first and final dance. He discreetly observed as she walked towards the exit, and he looked to the other side of the room to see his son Archer “coincidentally” going in the same direction, keeping his distance.
The two men walked back to their table, and Andrew spoke.
“I notice how you managed to direct their attention away from Delilah and Luca for their entire dance. Care to share why?”
Calvin took a sip of his champagne. “Everything happens for a reason. You need to determine whether or not what happens plays in your favor. Delilah doesn’t favor Luca. Therefore, their dance would not have lasted long. Her best friend is occupied, and her parents are in a conversation that she would very much not like to be in. So what is the solution? Leaving to clear her mind so she can mentally prepare herself for the rest of thenight. And it just so happens that another person watching her tonight noticed when she left and went after her.”
“And you got all of that by just watching their interaction?” Andrew asked as Calvin took another sip.
“Of course. I shuffled the cards. They just played it out for me, perfectly, I should say.”
“And how do you know that it played out the way you wanted?”
Calvin looked over to the entrance, and as if on cue, Delilah walked into the ballroom looking shaken, flushed, and in a slight daze. She went over to her father and tried to calm herself as she spoke to him. Calvin then noticed how Archer walked in shortly after, looking somewhat the same.
Calvin leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting over to Andrew. “Like I said, the first cards in this game have already been dealt… andI’m fortunate to have a pretty good hand.”
Calvin entered his home with his wife Vivienne and Archer coming behind him. Vivienne went to get ready for the night, leaving him and his son alone in the foyer.
“So, Archer, how was everything tonight?”
“It was fine,” Archer replied, though his mind was elsewhere, thinking about what occurred just a few hours ago.
“Fine? Hmm. You seemed to have disappeared for a moment or so…”
Archer froze in his place, and Calvin discreetly looked over, catching him in the act.
Archer cleared his throat and averted his eyes as he took off his vest. “I just went to step away is all. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said and walked to the stairs, not sparing his father a glance.
Going into his room, he decided to take another shower so he could clear his mind. Once he finished, he got dressed in a pair of joggers and left his torso bare.
He went over to his bathroom sink and dried the remaining droplets of water from his hair with his towel from the shower. He looked into the mirror as his damp curly hair fell on the side of his face. He placed his hands against the counter and sighed heavily.
This can’t ever happen again.
Her voice rang in his ears, though he knew he couldn’t agree with her. He knew why she said that. Killian, being the overprotective father he is, would never let his precious daughter go to the hands of his enemy’s son... Why, it just wouldn’t be Killian anymore then, would it?
Archer knew that because he’d finally kissed her, it was going to be harder to resist the urge to have her. Just seeing her tonight, holding her again, feeling her lips against his, her shuddering breath against his skin, her doe-like eyes staring up at him…
He bit his lip as he almost broke out into a smile.Finally.
A moment he had been waiting for over a decade. Her father may have been more than a minor setback for pursuing her, but that wouldn’t stop him. No one would keep him from his princess—not Killian, not his father, not Luca, notanyone.
Sooner or later, she would finally be his.
Chapter eleven
Delilah
Looking at myself one last time in my mirror, I sighed.Please. Please get through the day...
I silently begged myself, as it had been a few days since my kiss with Archer, and since I’d been to the academy, I hadn’t seen him in any of my recent classes...
Not that I was secretly waiting for him in every class we shared to see if he would notice me or discuss the other night.Yeah, I was definitely not waiting for him.
