Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions
Chapter 232 - This Is Not Ideal

Leo had been rather put out to hear after he wasn't invited to the beach. He had come back after dinner was over and caught the end of the conversation that Lena and Samuel were having.

Even though he knew that he wouldn't have had the time to come along anyways since he would be leaving in a few days, that didn't stop him from making a comment about it.

"If you want to do fun things like this, go do it yourself or replace someone to take with you." The princess told her brother with a roll of her eyes.

She got the feeling he often didn't understand the point of her and her fiance doing things alone together.

"But what if the person I want to borrow happens to be your lovely fiance?" Her brother asked as he put his hands on Samuel's shoulder.

Samuel had gotten used to most of the younger man's antics, but some of them still made him uncomfortable at times.

"No because he isn't yours and he's going to be doing things with me. Why don't you invite his annoying older cousin instead? I think the two of you could get along quite well." Samuel couldn't stop himself from laughing at this comment which caused Leo to frown.

"Even you think that he would be a better fit for me?" He asked looking down at the older man.

"Honestly, I can only barely tolerate him after everything that happened." he told them.

"That's a bit of surprise considering how well it seems like the two of you get along whenever you share the same space." Samuel told him as he looked up at the other.

"Aside from that first day you met him, I didn't think that you held any kind of grudge against him." Leo stifled a laugh when he heard this.

"That's only because I'm good at acting like I'm not bothered by people even when I really am. A good skill to learn to deal with even the most difficult of people." He explained.

"Regard less. I still think the two of you would be a better fit rather than tagging along with the two of us." His sister told him as she swatted his hands away from her fiancé. Mostly to give him a hard time but also perhaps due to a tiny amount of possessiveness.

"How sad. I will only be here for a few more days and the only two people in this family I want to spend time with are rejecting me for such unfair reasons." He sighed dramatically as he turned to leave.

"There will be plenty of time to do things when you come back for the holidays if you don't turn around and come back before then." The princess pointed out effectively shutting down his dramatic display.

If her brother could get away with it, she knew that the other would be coming back home to spend time with his family and to see how things were going if he got any kind of time off from classes. He couldn't do it so much before when he was younger but now that he had more autonomy, he could practically do whatever it was that he wanted.

"Would I though? Considering the way that everyone is treating me, I might decide not to come back at all this time." Leo teased.

"There's plenty to do in England during the holidays that I doubt I would even miss anyone around here if I decided to stay there for the holidays." Lena was about to say something in response to that, but Samuel interjected first.

"That's okay then I suppose. You'll just miss the vacations and adventures we intend to have over the holidays when have the time." Lena wasn't quite sure what he was talking about or had in mind by his comment as it was something that he hadn't brought up to her, but she wasn't about to say that aloud when she saw the look on her brother's face.

"Insult to injury!" He exclaimed rather surprised that his half-way to brother-in-law had said such a thing to him.

"I would imagine this coming out of my sister, but from you? I am rather disappointed that you would treat me this way. Excluding me from such things despite how nice I have been to you." The older man just shrugged his shoulders slightly as he looked over at Lena rather than at her brother.

"I'm not excluding you from anything. Just that it can't be helped if you don't intend to come home for the holidays because you're having too much fun in England. We'll of course send photos and postcards to you so that you'll know what went on even if you can't be there."

Leo really didn't know what to say in response to this. Lena had apparently been rubbing off on her fiancé for him to suddenly start treating her brother that way. Two against one wasn't an ideal situation for him and left him without an idea as to what kind of comeback he could give.

"I see then. Well I don't plan on sending anything back to you if this is the way that you two will be. I might have considered inviting you over for the holidays, but I don't think I will be doing that now." He didn't even wait to see what kind of response this would give him before he left the room.

Neither Lena or Samuel knew if his reaction to the situation was exaggerated or real but neither one could deny that it was rather amusing to watch.

"Don't think that I missed the way you referred to me as yours just a few moments ago." Samuel commented once her brother was gone. This caused the princess to make an odd face when he brought this up.

"Should I take this to mean that your feelings are starting to change even more for me?" He asked though he was already certain that he knew the answer to this, he wanted to see if she would say it herself.

"Possession and affection are two different things." was all she replied with.. He didn't quite know what she meant by this except that it wasn't exactly a no.