"Alvise," Tanya called out after discussing with her brother for a while, "this is Nathaniel, my eldest brother. Following in the footsteps of my father he is a young lieutenant with his squadron and even has a special commands team who are on standby and takes exclusive command from the head of state."
"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sylvester," Alvise said as he offered a handshake to him. "The pleasure is all mine," Nathaniel answered formally.
"And the lovely ethereal goddess beside him is his second-in-command; also a member of the special ops and a very skilled markswoman. She's also the first daughter-in-law of the Sylvester household and Nathaniel's newlywed wife. Rhea Adelaide Sylvester, My sister-in-law."
"A pleasure to meet you. Please call me Rhea." She said to Alvise as she deflected his handshake and went for a hug.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Rhea," Alvise said as they separated from the hug.
"Don't be formal and call me Rhea. I insist." Alvise smiled with a nod and heeded her request.
"Big brother, First sister, this is Alvise Leon Abara, My teacher and best friend." Tanya introduced and Alvise gave a small nod.
"Your… teacher?" Nathaniel asked. "The young master and only treasure of the Abara household is your high school teacher?" Nathaniel asked in sheer and utter disbelief in his voice but his face was still impassive as always.
Tanya's smile didn't fade at this new piece of information and Nathaniel narrowed his eyes at her lack of expression at the information, "You knew?"
She didn't answer and just looked to the middle of the hall, "The dance has started."
"So," Alvise started his hands stretched out in a request to receive his partner, "Shall we, My lady?"
"The pleasure is all mine." She replied and took his arms, and they walked to the dance floor, where they performed the opening dance before others began to swarm in to join in the fun.
"You know ballroom dance, Anya?" Alvise asked confused.
"I slash bodies like a machine, but you don't ask me how I do that, but you suddenly question me when I dance? Aren't you contradicting yourself a bit too much now, boss?" Tanya was a bit pissed as she spoke, her breathing getting a bit too erratic and her feet speeding up in tempo.
"Calm down, Tanya. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just surprised that you can dance. You don't seem like the type to learn to dance." Alvise said, a bit amused but his tone placating.
Tanya gazed up at the handsome man in front of her with a look of suspicion and disbelief but she eventually shrugged it off and kept on dancing, "There are many things you don't know about me, Alvise. So don't go guessing stuff without asking. My secrets are deep and dark, so much so that the Mariana trench fails in comparison."
The sing soon came to the point where they were to switch partners, and Alvise spun Tanya away from him, and she spun till she fell into the arms of a random man.
The man soon picked up his feet and assimilated his steps to align with hers. Feeling an odd sense of familiarity in the steps, Tanya looked up at the man's face and she suddenly deadpanned, disappointed at what she saw.
"Why do you look like you were stranded on Valentine's?" The man asked.
"What are you doing here, Nolan?" The man named Nolan smiled at the lady in his arms probably happy that she remembered his name.
"Hoping for lady luck to smile at me. And it seems she has." Nolan answered, his lips curving upward in a grin.
Tanya rolled her eyes in disbelief, "How are you here, Nolan?" Tanya asked, rephrasing the question.
Nolan smiled and looked at Tanya. Like hers, Nolan's family was a family with a military background, each in very respectable positions in the military, but Tanya's were a lot more integrated and far more aged in the military than Nolan's.
They were originally a family of businessmen who were forced into the military pathway by the civil war that took place over half a century ago. After they had survived, they remained in the military and refused to quit, though some of them ventured into business while still in the military.
"My family ventures in business and have contacts in the political sphere so of course I was invited." He answered as though the answer were obvious.
"You know very well that's not what I mean, Nolan Abelard."
Nolan sighed in resignation, "My older brother has a business deal to secure in Europe, and soon after, he's flying to the Middle East to find partners for a new project that he's been working on."
Tanya frowned. "You have two older siblings, last born. What about your second?"
"Second brother got married last week…" Nolan said with a pause and a troubled expression as though he had trouble, but Tanya knew what he couldn't say.
She giggled in a childlike manner, "So, how long is the honeymoon." Nolan said nothing but turned his gaze away from hers, his face a lovely flush of pink.
He was cute, she noted. If she were like her past self, she might have loved to take him as a month-long fling before a messy break-off. But now…
Their turn was coming to an end and it was soon time to switch partners again. So, when he took her into her arms, she drew closer to him, their bodies only a hair's breadth away from each other.
Using the proximity of their closeness as an advantage, Tanya snaked her hand that was on his shoulder to the back of his head and clamped on his neck. The young man stilled, unprepared for their proximity or any of her tricks at hand.
Tanya leaned to his ear and whispered with a hot breath, "Don't be like this little Nolan. If you continue like this, I just might not be able to control myself anymore."
The time came for them to be separated, and Tanya fell off from their embrace and took a step back, as did the others. She smiled when she saw him flustered and her heart itched terribly for one final tease.
With a breathy moan, she called out for him, and he made the mistake of looking at her. They soon linked hands and fell off one more time, making a shuffling move to a new partner.
Nolan's face burned so furiously that his new partner was concerned as to whether he was sick or in pain. Worried about his well-being. He told her that he was fine and it was internal heat. At this point, he wasn't even sure if he had told her gently or not as all his mind was on Tanya's last gesture to him.
She had smiled at him, a smile that one who was innocent would still find something odd with such a smile.
He was a head taller than her and had a pretty huge build due to his military training. Taking advantage of such situations, she stared up at him and smiled in a very sensual and provocative manner that incited in him certain desires that enticed in him certain behaviors and excited in him demons that he did not know existed.
She then licked her lips and bit them in a slow but sensual manner as she looked at him, her head still down but her eyes staring at him and meeting his gaze and holding it. It felt as though she were using her gaze to burn him internally and externally. He felt as though he were on fire; a fire he wished to be doused by her skin against his, her flesh against his flesh, her body against his own.
At that moment, the foreign yet familiar feeling of domination filled him and he wanted to take hold of her and embrace her till his heat was doused but, as though she had read his eyes, she disappeared into the crowd and left him there: hot, wet and panting in his flames that she had ignited within him.
F*ck! He cursed as he felt a familiar heat in his lower abdomen and chuckled darkly in helpless amusement.
That bloody Sylvester girl had a way of leaving him high and dry. Every. Single. Time.
***
Tanya spun with her partner and chuckled to the amusement and bewilderment of her new partner. The look on that poor boy's face was good enough to leave her not only satisfied but a bit hungry but not for meat.
Well, it wasn't that sort of meat she wanted, she thought with darkened eyes hooded with the desire to acquire and possess someone but she restrained herself. She couldn't afford to make the mistakes that led to her demise in the past.
"What are you thinking of my lady?" A voice came overhead her and she snapped her head to the source of the sound, finally taking notice of her partner.
He had a hair full of long, wing-length dark tresses. He looked like a sin anyone would gladly commit.
To say she wasn't enamored would be like saying the sky wasn't blue before rainfall and that was a lie. But that didn't mean she wasn't skeptical.
To her cold visage and eyebrows quirked in skepticism, he smiled a wide face-splitting grin that made her a little bit uncomfortable.
"Relax my lady. I won't do anything is displeased about." Hearing that, she loosened up a bit and relaxed her tensed body but her guard was still up, never slacking. He could tell.
"I'm Allen." He finally introduced, "One of Alvise's sworn brothers and your probable brother-in-law."