Vatican City, Rome, 2016

Aurora smiled at the cathedral that she had longed to see since she was a child. The architecture and the art of the entire city, no no, sorry, the smallest country of the world was absolutely a wonderful delight to her eyes. Her friends had gone for the invitations that they had received from the countless men who had admired the group of girls on their solo trip at the end of their university year. But Aurora, being the responsible one for once thought that she was supposed to enjoy herself.

Her father had said,” Aurora, you are the only one on whom I can depend with my life but that does not mean that you have to bear the weight of the entire world on your capable shoulders. You are going to come and take over a section of my business, that is still a surprise but before that you need to let yourself loose and go and have some fun. Get some girl time, enjoy yourself, pamper yourself and come back home safe, like I know you will.”

Aurora had smiled at the words of her father. It pleased her greatly to hear that she was a place where her father could depend, unfortunately her other sisters were too out of their way or wild or naiive or sheltered to be anything but not her. But why was she thinking about her sisters? They were the ones who made the headlines for different purposes every day or the other. Scandals had been rocking the family name of Kingsley since she could remember since the last five years but she was not the one to cause so.

“Are you visiting this beautiful city all by yourself?”

Her train of thoughts were broken at the voice of a husky man who was standing quiet close to her. More than she would have liked or she would have allowed ever in her life. But she turned to look at the face of the most handsome male specimen that she had ever laid eyes on.

He had dark mahogany hair which was so thick that probably her hands would drown if she ran her fingers through them and then there was the pair of the bluest eyes that she had ever seen in her life. There was a slight curiosity and mischief playing in his eyes but apparently he was good natured. His face seemed to be chiseled out by Michelangelo all by himself. And Aurora seemed to have lost all capability to speak at all.

“Madame? Are you alright?” asked the man again and there was that husky voice which made Aurora blush furiously as she was embarrassed by her own behavior.

“I am alright, thanks a lot for asking….” Said Aurora as she cast her eyes down and did not dare to look up at the man who was seemingly pleased by her shyness.

“So you are all alone by your own self in this beautiful city? I know that it is not the most romantic place in the world but what can I say…Rome has its own charm, don’t you think?” asked the man as Aurora smiled at him and nodded.

“I agree with you,” she replied and then continued,” The history that this place has along with the romanticism and the rebellion and Renaissance, I don’t think that Paris can even hold a candle before Rome,” said Aurora as she surprised herself by speaking out her mind freely for the first time in her life.

“Merci…You are so correct Madame…so I take it that you are alone?” asked the man with a genuine smile on his handsome face which made him seem like coming out of some page of any of the romance novels which her sister Esmeralda liked to read so much.

“Well actually I am with some friends but since they have abandoned me for going to the party some of the men of the troop called them, so I can safely say that I am alone for the evening,” said Aurora with a smile.

“In that case would you mind if I accompany you to all the sights of the city? I mean, the ones which are open for the night…” said the handsome man and Aurora found herself blushing again.

“I guess that cannot really hurt, after all I would not mind some company,” said Aurora as she smiled at the man who grinned in return.

“In that case Madam, it is Lucien, at your service,” said the man. Aurora understood that he was of Italian descent from his name itself and his looks also helped to come to that conclusion.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Lucien, I am Aurora,” said Aurora with a soft smile on her blushing face. Lucien thought that he had never seen a woman so utterly ignorant about the fact that she was so damn beautiful and she did not have to flaunt it in any way. She was naturally so gorgeous that she did not have to even try and look beautiful.

“I am charmed Madame Aurora,” said Lucien, as he took her hand and kissed it softly. Aurora felt a tremor passing through her entire body as his lips touched her skin. She could feel that his lips had been imprinted on her skin just with the sheer warmth of the gesture.

“So shall we?” asked Lucien as he offered his arm to her, just like in the movies. Aurora smiled shyly and took his arm, placing her hand in his.

The rest of the evening he showed her everything that he knew and Aurora loved. They had dinner on a cute little bistro by the side of the Vatican in the alley ways. Finally when it was midnight Lucien walked her back to her hotel and said,” So I take it that we are going to have a trip of the Church in the morning? I know a few places more which you are gonna absolutely adore!”

“It is a date,” said Aurora as she smiled at the man and then put her hand over her mouth realizing what she had said and then looked at Lucien embarrassedly. He was grinning at her words.

“I did not mean it that way…it is that…it came out all wrong…” Aurora started mumbling in an embarrassed way. She could not even meet his gaze and was blushing furiously.

“That is not a problem. I don’t mind at all in being your date and taking you to a date. It is a date, mia luca,” said the handsome man.