06 | charms of a belly dancer.

SHAYLA'S P.O.V 

"I hope you are not bailing out on me, Cameron," I smiled at him as I joined him on the couch. "You have to come and join us at Baadshah Palace. That restaurant has some awesome food. And some awesome dancers."

His eyebrows shot up in amusement at my last sentence. "Dancers?"

"Yes. Professional belly dancers with killer gazes, sultry moves and scandalous dresses. I am sure you will like the whole atmosphere."

His lips quirked up a bit, not as a smirk but if he had some sort of inside joke with himself. I would have sold one of my limbs to find out what he was thinking.

"Amusing."

"And yeah, it's not a big affair or anything. It has like fifty invited people."

"That is good to know. Thank God, no large crowd."

"Hm, so? You in or do I have to apply some other technique?" I inquired, shaking my head slightly. 

Cameron gave me a dimpled smile and I felt myself melt a little. "Hm okay, I am going," he mused, closing the magazine he was reading,"But I sure am interested to know what the other techniques were."

"Too late," I smirked at him as I got up,"see you at the party, star boy."

I walked upstairs and took the turn to my room to find the door wide ajar. 

"Hey, Mille."

She looked up at me from the bunch of papers she was pondering over.

"Hey, Shay. Come, sit."

I took a seat beside her and took a peek at the papers she was reading before she gathered them in a file. Some documents about murders and stuff.

"What were you up to? Looks.. gruesome."

"Oh. That. I'm a pre-FBI student at the George Washington University, and I was just well doing some extra research."

"Oh my God, how cool is that?"

She grinned at me, shrugging. "Well, it's cool. I like following clues to uncover something and all that stuff, you know?"

"Yeah," I nodded at her, a small smile at my lips,"So you live away from your family?"

"Yeah, it's kinda sad but well I have got to give up a little in order to follow my passion," she chimed in,"but it's summer break so I joined everyone here and it is pretty nice."

"Yeah. Hey, I am sorry for like lashing out at you that day. You don't have to move to another room if you don't want to. We can still share a room, I promise I will keep my anger at bay."

She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it slightly, shaking her head. "It's absolutely okay, Shay, and come on I don't have any problem living in some room, that is currently being renovated for me, let me add," she continued, getting up and walking towards her closet,"I don't care if it is on the other side of the house. Your house is ethereal. And I understand that all of us need personal space."

"Wow, okay, yeah. I just didn't want you to be mad at me."

" 'Course I'm not."

"And yeah, by the way, Farhan is my brother."

"Oh, wow. I didn't know about that."

"Yeah, well, he stays in Mumbai for all business things."

"Ah, that's why I don't recall being introduced to him."

I shrugged and smiled in response. 

"So you persuaded Cameron to go to the party, hm?" 

"Yes..," I trailed off as I saw the mischievous glint in her eyes,"you're planning something in that pretty little head of yours, aren't you?"

"Yeah, we need to dance with the other dancers. I have always wanted to belly dance!"

I let out a laugh. "Mille, do you even know how to belly dance?"

"No," she squealed as she flopped onto the bed with a golden dress in her hand,"but I am sure you do & I will follow your lead."

A wry smile paved it's way on my face. "Deal."

It was not a rare occasion when I was standing in front of my wardrobe and declaring that I had nothing to wear, even though there were dresses and blouses galore. But of course, in the end I would mix and match this or that and would manage to look fabulous ; which wasn't a very big feat when ninety-nine percent of your dresses were perfectly tailored designer things.

But this was different. It had been ages since I had last gone to Baadshah Palace.

"I have nothing to wear. Haye Bhagwan, I have nothing to wear," I declared as Bryan let out a scoff.

"Woman, you have like, what, thousand designer dresses there? How could you not have anything to wear?"

"Let me correct myself. I have nothing to wear that doesn't show at least miles of my skin."

"Hm. Well. That I believe," Bryan's voice piped in from behind as he joined me and we both stared at the wardrobe,"Most of the times, you dress up like a hooker."

"An expensive, high class hooker who is out of reach of like most people, you mean."

"Yeah, like you said," Bryan shot me a last look as he ducked into one of my walk-in-closets, shuffling through the racks of couture gowns, which were beautiful but so not right for the party. I flipped through the garments of the other closet, but I could still hear Bryan's occasional snickers at the designs.

After what felt like forever, Bryan tumbled out of the closet with a victorious shout and a dress clutched to his chest. "Found the perfect fucking dress, Shay. Look at this."

Walking closer to him so that I could properly appreciate the teal coloured gown, I felt my breath catch in my throat knowing that we had finally found the perfect dress.

Cut generously in a Lehanga style with a twist of bell sleeves, the silk georgette dress was heavily embellished across the shoulder and the torso and tapered down further, with heavy embroidery. The thread work was impeccable. I took the dress in my hands, looking at the dress in awe, not missing the sparkle.

"I am going to hug you now, Bryan, because I feel very affectionate." I laughed and hugged him as he shook his head and wrapped his arms around me as well. 

"You going to go on & seduce Cameron by the charms of this dress?" 

I turned to give him the look. "I don't know, honestly."

Bryan snickered to himself. "Sure, sure."

I flicked his forehead. "Anyways," I said as I held the dress up,"it's time for the jewellery. What type of jewellery do you think will go with this?"

I was answered with a groan.

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CAMERON'S P.O.V

Bryan accompanied me to the venue. Mille and Shayla were already at the place and Mille texted me saying that Shayla looked absolutely gorgeous, which was not needed to be done on her part, but Mille had to be extra and tell me in advance.

"We will also meet Wes and Caira here." Bryan whispered as we entered the place.

Like Shayla had previously informed me, there seemed to about fifty people seated around the numerous tables, all laughing, eating, drinking and watching the belly dancers at the centre of the room. I duly noted the graceful moves of the dancer, trying not to let my gaze linger and come across as weird, and was about to glance away when another woman, literally spun into my line of sight.

Shayla.

Her hips swayed in a sultry manner and tried hard not to stare blatantly but I could almost feel the desire and temptation nip at my heels. How this woman could be the portrait of pure femininity even when she was wearing the most modest clothes and wasn't even entirely paying attention to what she was doing, was beyond me.

I think I knew why Camille sent me the text. 

I blinked twice, trying hard to snap back into reality. But Good Lord, the image was too real. I could almost feel my body warm up by the heat in her eyes. And the thing that bugged me the most was - my eyes were not the only ones on her. It was going to be very hard for me to push the image out of my head.

"Oh My God," Bryan breathed out beside me as he pinched the bridge of his nose,"Our sisters are trying to upstage the professional belly dancers."

My eyes snapped to the figure next to Shayla's and I noticed my sister in a golden dress, trying to shimmy and follow Shayla's lead but doing a horrible job of it and stuck out like a stiff twig.

"Mille looks like a stick, doesn't she?"

"It isn't that bad, don't worry. Not all of us know belly dancing anyways."

"Bryan!" A voice called in from behind and we turned around as we found Wes and Caira waddling through the crowd. Caira gave Bryan a brief hug followed by Wes, & I didn't miss their gazes lingering on each other.

"Cameron!" Caira mused, a smile on her lips,"Didn't know that you were coming."

"It was kind of an abrupt decision, yeah."

"It's good that you decided to come, bro. Or you would have missed a lot." Wes added, giving me a small pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I am very glad too that I decided to come here after all." I mumbled, wondering how I was going to keep Shayla off my mind for the rest of the night.

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