~~Daniil's POV~~
The banquet hall looked simple yet classy. It was themed white with touches of red and black here and there, sourcing from the linen tablecloths used to adorn the round tables, and the black petals on the floral height placed on them to add a hint of sophistication. Of course, how could I forget to mention the guys in suits and steaming hot ladies swarming the scene in either black or red dresses? There were in addition, wine servers parading the hall with trays that had wine glasses filled halfway with assorted wines. All these, coupled with the refined chatters, whispers, and giggles, from every corner added color and spice to the evening. Even a newbie could tell that the hosts of this event meant business. 'A cave of Future Leaders' indeed.
I and my date stood out from the lot. While the other couples were dressed solely in either color with tinges of the other to add to it, we wore a mixture of the two. Our style distinguished us from the crowd and I was so already relishing the esteem that came with it.
Just when I thought it was only the beginning of hoarding attention, another couple in a similar style walked in. The guy was wearing a red suit, while the lady, a black dress. Although I didn't look it daily, I could tell how much luxury screamed from their accessories and apparel in general. His wristwatch in itself was a limited edition from Italy. How did I know? I was wearing one of its kind. Each graceful step they took exuded an aura that commanded attention from not just me, but a couple of bystanders as well. The very fact that I, Daniil Smirnov paused sipping my wine midway already said a lot. 'Finally a worthy opponent.' I smirked, raising the glass' rim to my lips again.
Never ridding the interesting couple of my querying gaze, I watched the guy ascend the stage, while his date on the other hand blended into the crowd, a few paces away from him.
A sudden silence prevailed when he took the mic.
"Testing the mic. Ah…ah… Mic testing." He paused for a while, scanning the scene. "To you my dearest colleagues. In this cave of Future Leaders…" he went off on an exquisite American accented tone and got the ball rolling with a loud cheer from the crowd after his opening remark.
Eventually, we made a toast. To a flourishing political career, a profitable network, and so on.
Now it was time for the couple's dance.
Every couple already took their spot in the open space around the podium, standing while facing each other. Now I was forced to look at Ashley's face. She'd been awfully quiet the whole time but at the very least, I was grateful she wasn't necessarily looking disgruntled. I didn't want her to give anyone the impression she was forced to do this, especially not to Archer who's had his eyes hovering around us the whole time.
I got lost in the outrageous length of her mink classic lashes and was only jolted to reality when she suddenly raised her enchanting pair of jade eyes to me. I was flustered at first and that caused me to randomly divert my gaze. Darting my eyes, I finally realized the instrumental kicked off – the dance was starting.
By the way, why was she looking at me like that? So confidently yet meekly. This time, I was the one doing the aversion; she just stared intently at me.
Going with the rhythm, I got rid of the remaining space between us, bringing our bosoms in contact. Locking eyes with her again, I gently slid my hand behind her back and pulled her even closer to the point that any more of this, and our bodies could fuse. Her eyelids never flickered, and her eyes remained the steadiest they'd ever been in such closeness with me. Instead of doing any of those, she raised her left palm to my right shoulder, aligning her forearm with my arm instead. Then we intertwined our other fingers, fully assuming a stance for the Waltz.
'Where did this boldness come from?' Or did it? Fuck, no! I was only distracted by her font for a second there. Her heart was actually beating erratically behind her chest as our bosoms moved rhythmically. What baffled me the most was how no shred of this was given away by her face. She must have taken extra lessons on how to flawlessly mask these true feelings.
The dance got to a point where I had to spin her around. And the very instant we broke contact with our hands still locked, spanning our distance, I felt something weird. My heart skipped a bit.
'What was that?' I didn't really understand so it was kinda hard to put into words but it felt like my body of its volition yearned for her and that was its way of protesting when we broke loose.
'What am I even thinking? What is this strange feeling? Was I actually falling for her? For Ashley?!!' No! This was never part of the plan. It was supposed to be the other way round and now? …
Before my thoughts could fall into order, she spun back into my arms with her back against me this time, shutting down my mind completely.
*Lub-dub*
Okay, this was getting pretty intense, I thought when my heart unexpectedly doubled its pace.
A few moments on…
*Instrumentals playing in the background*
Each couple seemed to be affectionately engrossed in themselves, listening to the instrumentalists play. I figured it was the best time to kick off a proper conversation.
"You said you'd speak once we got here."
"I'm speaking right now," she deadpanned, never ridding the stage of her eyes.
"That's not what I meant when I said that. One hundred percent sure you know it."
Silence…
"Your mom called me some strange name. Why's that?" I switched topics on recalling that again. "Do you really not know my name?" I questioned, tilting my head slightly to the side to face her but she wouldn't even spare me a glance. I heaved a sigh trying my hardest not to pick offense. Randomly darting my eyes, I saw the couple from earlier approaching us from a corner of the hall.
I froze, narrowed my gaze then discreetly swayed my eyes back to the stage. All the while pretending to be focused I watched closely through the corner of my eye, as they approached and stood beside us. Okay, this was weird, I thought, remaining calm. I peeked at Ashley and surprisingly, she mirrored my reaction, unmoved as well.
"YA vizhu, u tebya tozhe otlichnyy modnyy vkus. Ital'yanskiy brend Panerai, da? (I see you have sleek fashion taste as well. The Italian Panerai brand, huh?)" He commented on my wristwatch, ending the silence contest. No wonder I felt something different about him from the onset; he was also Russian.