The Reverence of a Man on Fire (BOOK II)

Chapter 4- Heated Gazes

--Aurora POV--

Seeing him after so long left an odd feeling in my chest, whether that was a good thing or not, I didn't know, but I moved passed it and greeted him with a smile, because one thing I was certain of was that this man was unlike any other I've met in this life.

"There you are, where did you both disappear to?" Lilliana asked as I meandered over to where she sat at the table, Giovanni casually following behind me.

"I had to deal with a small problem, but your brother was ever so nice to assist me with it," I spoke with a light laugh as I looked around the table to find my name before going to sit beside Lilliana as she spared a grin to her brother who sighed, and sat beside me.

"I'll let you off just this once," He said to her as her grin only widened.

"What did you do?" I asked her as she gestured to my name.

"I switched your name with my brothers so that I could sit next to you," She proudly stated as I laughed, giving her a thumbs up which she returned with her own.

"So... How did it go?" She leaned in to whisper to me.

"How did what go?" I curiously asked.

"You and my brother, aren't you interested in each other?" I choked at her words, leaning forward as I coughed, and she was ever so nice to pat my back to help calm me down.

"No, why would you think that?" I asked, baffled, to say the least.

"I don't know, because I saw the way he looked at you when you were walking towards me, and that wasn't an ordinary look, he had fire in his eyes," I felt that fire she spoke of spark to life in my stomach, but quickly diminished it before it could grow, swatting her words away with an eye roll.

"Don't be silly, there's no way he would have any romantic affection for me. Maybe as friends, but I doubt it's anything more than that. Everyone's always known that your brother and I are two vastly different people, we just don't look right next to each other," I subtly gestured between me and the large hunk of a man that was sitting beside me, unaware of this conversation as he tapped away on his phone, replying to some e-mails.

It's true, he was a beautiful man, but just because he was beautiful didn't mean I wanted to date him. I appreciated beauty in everything, not just men, and if I were to date every beautiful man I've ever met, then I would have dated over billions of people by now.

Other than his physical appearance, there were other things I loved about him; Things like how he took his work seriously, and enjoyed working, and how he cared about his family in his own gruff way, and how he hasn't changed in all these years. But those things weren't enough.

"Well, if you insist, but I would have loved to have you as a sister-in-law," I couldn't help but laugh at her words, jokingly shoving her shoulder as she laughed with me.

"Well, well, well, I see all the cool people have gathered around this table," 

I picked my head up at the new entrance, seeing a brown-haired man grinning his way towards us as he went to sit beside Giovanni who didn't look very pleased to see him.

"Hello," I nicely greeted, leaning forward a bit to be able to see him.

"Hi, beautiful. And who might you be?" He asked, leaning closer to me as I chuckled.

"Aurora Vandenburg, and you?"

"Wait a minute, Vandenburg. As in... That Vandenburg?" I raised a confused brow as he took my hand to shake, but the confusion he instilled in me wasn't dissipating.