Chapter 3

"Good manners do more for a man than good looks."

-E.W. Howe-

***

Damian was seated in a study chair in the living room writing down some notes of his activities  for the next day. Everything was planned. We would spend his entire day exploring the Red Square, just to see if it was really as fascinating  as people claimed it to be, everything was listed in a rough outline but he had a pretty good picture of what his day would be.

After that, he went to the kitchen to make some dinner. The menu for the day was steamed vegetables with boiled chicken with a little bit of chili sauce. Not the most flavorful dish, but most importantly, it was healthy. He had been paying a lot of attention to his health since he realized he was not very young anymore, at least he thought he was not.

Once it was cooked, he poured them to the plate, plating them beautifully as if he was a  contestant in a cooking contest. After he was done with the plating he washed the dirty dishes first before eating his meal because he could  not stand his own mess.

It took less than five minutes before he could sit down and eat. He thought it would be so easy, he just had to sit  down and eat, but he was wrong, once again.

There was a knock on his  door, stopping him mid air from taking a seat. Damian was confused  since he did not recall inviting anyone nor did he have any service  requested. With a slight frown on his face, he stood up and fetched the door, only to find Lana standing there with a lunch box on her hand, smiling attentively at him.

She had changed into her casual wear, black sweater with long pair of light trousers. Nothing  too over the top. Her hair was semi wet, a sign she had just taken a shower. She was walking barefoot and this time he was able to see her without makeup.

She did not look all that different, she just had no extra black line on her lid or a painted over warm nude pink lips,  nonetheless, she was still stunning. He was about to ask her what her business was when she pulled up the box and handed it over to him.

"I brought you some Golubtsi, it's a local dish made of stuffed cabbage. I thought since you  are here you might as well try some of our meal. Also, it's a thank you  for helping me out earlier and a welcoming gift for being my short  term neighbor" Damian had no idea how he was supposed to react.

It was the first time someone had ever treated him like that. He wondered if it was a Russian thing. She stole a peek inside his place, waiting for him to invite her in but he did not. Instead he only thanked her briefly before closing the door.

It would take an apocalypse to have Damian inviting a woman into his place.

She froze in disbelief.

How could he just let her stand there?

It was probably the worst thing a man could do. Was it an American thing? She should have known better but still she was not going to allow him to treat her like that.

Lana had never been treated like that before, it was as if he did not acknowledge her effort  at all and it pissed her off. Syill, she had set her eyes on him, both in a romantic and perverted way, though it was more based on curiosity and once she set her eyes on someone, that person must at least acknowledge her. She  took a deep breath before knocking on the door again.

"What is it?" he asked  her while maintaining a flat expression. He did not appreciate having  his meal disturbed twice. Both were equally annoyed by each other but somehow she still managed to pull of a smile.

"That is NOT how you are supposed to treat a woman who just brought you some food. Didn't your mother teach you any manners? You could have at least invited me in. It's called being polite." Damian was a bit shocked because no one had ever talked to him that way before. He realized she did make a sense.

"Okay, I am sorry, but my apartment is not guest ready right now. Maybe you can come to visit me later." He apologized and could not believe himself. Her sister Scarlett was probably one of the most spoilt lady by her man he had ever seen so he was not surprised by her demand, which was quite nothing compared to what Scarlett asked from her husband Carter, he just felt odd being called out on it for the first time.

"Okay, where do you plan to go tomorrow? I can accompany you and be your tour guide if you want to. You don't need to pay me, just be a gentleman and pay for the lunch and snacks." That was it.

His mind on her was made up. She was definitely nosy. She was not trying to flirt with him or  anything, that much he could tell, instead, she was more meddlesome than anything else. Quite demanding as well, but somehow he could not help but find her intriguing as well.

He was making a quick decision in his head, weighing the pros and cons of having her and the possibilities of her being a charlatan, but when he looked into her green eyes, he felt part of him unable to refuse her offer.

"Okay, I would be at The Red Square tomorrow, and I will be spending an entire day being there. I will walk a lot and it would be tiring, if you come with me, it's going to tire you out as well and you are not allowed to complain."

She knew he would say something along the line. It was the most famous destination in Moscow, if one did not visit the place while being there, did he really visit it? He thought she was going to give the idea up, no, instead she held out her hand with confidence as if she was about to seal a deal.

Договорились! (Deal!)

***

After her little  encounter with Damian, Lana returned to her room with a soft smile on her face, proud of herself for negotiating a day with him. After all if she could not get her ways, she would not call herself her father's daughter.

A lot had happened that day. She never thought that a gang would come up to her in the middle of  the day. They were definitely attracted to the fact that she was a soft looking woman who was walking down the street on her own with a nice  looking purse on her hand, making her appear to be an easy prey.

They had no idea who she was, if they did, they might think twice, and in  such situation, she was actually ready to unleash the beast inside of  her which she had been keeping asleep for so many years, her body was  ready to pounce when Damian came to the picture, acting like a hero and did most of the dirty deeds for her. She did not even have to lift a  finger to touch the filthy men.

Yet when one of them was  about to hit him, her instinct pushed her to recall her inner self and  made a move, locking him in place and nearly choked the man to death. The only thing that stopped her from doing it was the last bits of her sanity and the fact that Damian was watching. It would not be funny if she ended up murdering someone in front of a witness.

Damian Heart, even his name made her curious.

She did not know what it was about him that made her feel so comfortable being around him. Lana  was not typically a woman who would offer a meal to a stranger she barely knew of. She would consider herself a nice person, but she was not that generous. In fact, if she was to think about it, it was the first time she ever cooked for someone aside for Dimitri.

Perhaps it was the  fascination she developed in a snap of a moment when she saw him  fighting them. It had been a while since she saw anything like that. It was a real fight which she used to despise in the past, coming from her background, but when it was done for the sake of righteousness, it had the reverse effect on her.

She looked down at her own hands, moving and clenching her fingers back and forth as she felt the rush she had not felt in a long time. How long had it been since she actually hit a person?

Lana had never been a violent person, but she loved a good dose of adrenaline rush, just like  how she loved to exercise her brain with complex computer algorithms,  her body loved a good dose of endorphins. Her past had taught her many things she needed to know and have in order to survive and sometimes, violence in the name of self-defense was one of those.

Most men she had encountered in her lives were rash and violent when they were fighting, but Damian was different, when he was landing his hits on those men, he was calm and composed, he made as little move as possible and saved his energy to hit only when he knew it was going to make an massive impact. That sort of stability he possessed intrigued her.

Lana had always lived in the world of men her entire life, acquiring a sharp recognition of their different types and nature, but Damian, he was like a breath of fresh air. He was distinctive, outstanding and sultry in his own way.

He excited her.

She needed to know more about him.