Chapter 36 - Thirty Five: Dress

Lazzerro's Villa

" Boss, we retrieved this strange box in front of the villa gate and when we checked the security cameras, we saw that someone left it there last night." Lazzerro's bodyguard reported to his boss who was dining with a young woman while holding the beautifully wrapped box in his hands.

" Why did you bring it in here? What if it's a bomb or something?" Lazzerro stood up and walked towards his bodyguard.

" It's not boss, I used a bomb detector on it and found nothing." The guard responded and Lazzerro looked at the box then at his bodyguard. " I don't know who delivered it." The bodyguard added.

" Is that so? What's in it then?" Lazzerro asked curiosity and his bodyguard shook his head.

" I haven't opened it yet so I don't know, boss." The bodyguard answered honestly, causing Lazzerro to frown at the box.

" Well, what are you waiting for? Open it." Lazzerro commanded and his guard nodded.

" Yes, boss" He responded and unwrapped the box. He took off the lid of the box and instantly dropped it on the floor from shock. Fear of what he saw inside it.

The box fell on the floor and the human head inside it rolled out, scaring Lazzerro and his hoe in the process.

" What the fuck is this!" Lazzerro exclaimed in both shock and fright then backed away from the head.

" I don't know, boss. I swear, I don't..." The bodyguard trailed off when he saw a paper note close to the head. He figured that the note came from the same box as the head did and pick it up.

" Boss, there's a note attached to it." The bodyguard said and handed Lazzerro the note.

Still feeling a little jumpy, Lazzerro snatched the note out of his bodyguard's hand and read it.

' You're next if you don't stop fucking with my business. This is just a little gift from me to you, old man. Be warned.

With love,

Leonardo Kane'

Lazzerro angrily shredded the paper in his hand and crumpled its pieces.

" That brat!" He roared and looked at his bodyguard. " Take that thing out of my house!"

" Right away, boss" The bodyguard responded. Because he didn't want to make Lazzerro angrier than he already was, he quietly put the head back in the box and walked away with it.

Lazzerro then turn to the woman he was eating with and saw how petrified she looked then walked towards her. He sat next to her and brought her head to his chest, patting her gently.

" Don't be scared, it's gone now." He said, soothing her nerves but she shook her head and looked up at him.

" Who's playing this sick joke on you?" She asked with her eyes filled with worry. Lazzerro smiled at her and caressed her cheeks.

" A psycho sadist but don't worry, he can't hurt me," Lazzerro reassured but she still had a bad feeling about it.

" He got past your high-tech security system and left a human head in a box as a gift for you. What makes you so sure that he can't put a bullet in your head?" She asked with her hands on Lazzerro's shoulders, staring into his eyes.

" If he does then there will be fucking war and he wouldn't want that, not when he is currently going after Regina's daughter," Lazzerro explained and placed a kiss on her forehead. " I'm sure he wouldn't want her to get hurt."

In Atlas

Becca sat in her office doing what she normally did when she was there which was reviewing projects and signing documents. A typical Ceo's job. While fully engrossed in the work she was doing, her concentration got broken by a knock on her door.

" Come in," Becca said after hearing the knocks and her secretary, Agnes, stepped in holding a bouquet of beautiful flowers in one hand and a nicely wrapped box in the other.

" This was just delivered to you, ma'am," Agnes said as she stepped closer to Becca's desk. Becca turned to look at her secretary and the flowers in her hand caught her attention. Becca stared at the flowers and the box then at her secretary.

" Who is it from?" Becca asked and Agnes took out the card attached to the bouquet and handed it to her boss.

" The card only says it from someone LK" Agnes answered as Becca took a look at the card.

" LK?" Becca muttered and started thinking of who it could be.

' LK..... LK.... perhaps it stands for something or maybe someone's initials. LK... Leo Kane?

Could it be Leo Kane? Leo Kane sent me flowers?' Becca asked herself while staring at the card.

" I will have them thrown out if you like," Agnes suggested when she saw her boss staring at the card with a confused expression on her face.

" No, don't! What I mean is it's alright, I know who it's from. Just drop it off on the couch." Becca instructed and Agnes did as she was told then left the office after Becca permitted her to.

Once the door shut, Becca stood up from her chair and sauntered towards the couch, staring at the box with the curiosity of a child. She sat next to the gifts and picked up the bouquet then sniffed it. It smelled nice, just like the person it's from.

It wasn't like Becca meant to sniff Leo, it was just hard not to notice the scent of his cologne when he was always getting all up in her space. With a smile on her lips, she put down the flowers and picked up the wrapped box. Wondering what was inside, Becca brought the box to her ears like a child and shook it to guess what it was. She settled it on her laps and started unwrapping it. She took off the lid and a small gasp escaped her lips when she saw what was inside.

She dipped her hands inside the box and took out a beautiful wine red velvet dress, marveling at the glamorous dress that seemed to be glistening at her. She stood up and held the dress in front of her body, picturing how it would look on her then stopped when she saw a paper note in the box.

' I'm attending a function tonight and I'm taking you with me. I can't wait to see how gorgeous you would look in that dress when I pick you up later at seven.

P.S. You still haven't given me your number.

The man who adores you,

Leo Kane. '

Becca read the note over and over and over again, her cheeks turning pink as she fanned them with her hand. Once the heat on her cheeks subsided, she looked at the flowers again and smiled before shaking her head. It looked like what Leo would do and write. He didn't even ask for her permission first, just went ahead and bought her a dress. An expensive-looking one at that. Like he was confident she would say yes.

That man was really something else. He was domineering, cocky, dominating, and let's not forget shameless. God, that man was shameless. Typical alpha male.

But despite all his attributes and his instinctive caveman antics, Becca still thought it was hot. It added more sexiness to his already sexy self and for some reason, Becca liked a man who took the first initiative, one who takes charge and dominates.

Then Becca realized that he was right, she hadn't given him her number yet despite kissing many times already and she was now heavily considering giving it to him.

With a bright smile that stretched her lips, Becca couldn't stop looking at the bouquet. It was a combination of the same type of flowers but different colors.

So cute.

Her eyes were still glued to them when her office door opened again and Navaya walked in to collect some documents from Becca but stopped dead in her tracks on seeing the scene in front of her.

When Becca noticed Navaya's presence, she quickly hid the flowers and dress behind her, looking like a child caught stealing which made Navaya laugh.

" Should I just pretend like I didn't see the flowers and dress?" Navaya asked teasingly and Becca nodded.

" Please do," Becca responded and Navaya laugh at how cute her friend was. Becca was acting shy in front of her because she caught her staring at a gift from her admirer.

" Okay then," Navaya said and took the document she wanted from Becca's desk. " By the way, Leo has a good eye for choosing dresses. You would look great in that" She added and exited Becca's office.

That day, Becca got off work earlier than she usually did because the excitement she felt wouldn't let her be so she decided to head home to get ready.

Better not keep Leo waiting.

When she got home, the first thing she did was to throw the old flowers in her vase out and replace them with the ones Leo sent. And still fucking blushed anytime she looked at them.

' Great, now I'm behaving like Liam.' Becca said frustratedly to herself and shook her head at her behavior. She went to her bedroom and stripped off her clothes then went to the bathroom to take a shower.

After a few minutes, she came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel tied above her chest and started applying lotion on her skin. Before she started applying makeup, Becca glanced at the red dress awaiting her on the bed and smiled then decided to wear lipstick that matched its color. When Becca was done with her makeup, she stood up after putting on some underwear, took off the towel she tied around her, and wore the dress which surprisingly fit her like a glove.

How the hell did Leo know her size?

Becca wasn't surprised though, for a man who kissed her without permission, staked his claim on her, and fucking admitted he was stalking her, this wasn't too shocking.

He was just full of surprises, wasn't he?

The dress hugged her in all the right places, emphasizing her curves and her favorite part about it was the thigh-high split in front. It also had long sleeves and covered up her chest as Leo didn't want any prying eyes on it tonight. Only he was allowed to look at her chest, it belonged to him after all.

Becca contemplated whether to put her hair in a bun or let it loose but later chose the latter. She walked out of her apartment and saw Leo from a distance leaning on his car waiting for her.

' How long has he been waiting?' Becca asked herself while approaching him. On hearing the sound of clicking heels, Leo looked up and felt his heart stop beating for a while as he saw her walking towards him.

A smile graced his lips, seeing Becca in the dress he bought her after sending Lazzerro a present.

Leo for some reason felt a little festive that day so he decided to send gifts to both his foe and Becca. Though their reactions to his gifts and his kind gesture weren't the same, Leo still did it with the same objective in mind. To surprise them and boy was Lazzerro surprised. Shocked even. The fear on his face had been a bonus.

Becca stood an arm's length away from Leo who ran his eyes through her body and nodded in satisfaction. Loving how the dress made her look sexy without having to show off any cleavage.

His eyes still fixed on Becca, Leo curled his arm possessively around her waist, pulling her closer to him. And she gasped, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

" You look amazing." He complimented and kissed her forehead, making her giggle.

" You don't look bad yourself," Becca responded, running her fingers lightly on his black coat. " Let's go?"

Leo craned down his neck and touched her forehead with his, with his hot breaths fanning her face.

" All I want to do now is kiss you till you're breathless. Kiss me" Leo said in a husky tone and Becca, who was badly trying not to get trapped in his spell again, glared at him.

" No way, I just applied lipstick. You will ruin it if we kiss." Becca said and tried to free herself from his hold but he didn't want to let go. He wasn't done with her yet.

" Then reapply it," Leo said and crashed his lips on hers, kissing her the way he liked. Till she was breathless and panting.

When he broke the kiss to let her breathe, he used his thumb to wipe the smudged lipstick off the sides of her lips and straightened out the top of her dress, intentionally grazing his fingers on her chest that seemed to be calling his name.

Like a moth to light, those beautiful bosoms of hers were always messing with his head so much that keeping eye contact with her was slowly becoming a problem.

That was one of the main reasons he chose the dress she was wearing, it covered up her chest so that unwanted eyes wouldn't wander to what didn't belong to them. Because God help him if he caught other men looking at her, he would gouge out their eyeballs and then remove all their internal organs.

Becca soon stopped panting and huffed angrily at Leo, she didn't need a mirror to know that he ruined the lipstick she had on. She pushed him away and walked towards his car, away from him. Even when he called out to her, she didn't answer and just got into the car.

She was pissed at him for ruining her lipstick. How childish. But in her defense, she did tell him not to.

He then got into the car with her and sat on the driver's seat, next to her.

Becca sat on the passenger's seat this time around to avoid sitting next to him because she thought he would be sitting on the backseat of the car like he always did. But when she got in and saw no driver, Becca soon realized that he would be the one driving, and her plan to avoid him had backfired on her.

" You can't seriously be angry at me over lipstick," Leo said, starting the ignition but Becca didn't respond to him, she didn't even look at him. She just folded her arms over her chest and stared out the window.

" Okay, I'm sorry, sweetheart." He apologized when he saw that Becca was seriously ignoring him and couldn't take it anymore. Her silent treatment was bugging him.

" I am not your sweetheart." She grumbled and puffed her cheeks.

" Becca" He called out her name softly and she turned to glare at him.

" I don't want to talk to you." She said and pulled her glaring eyes off Leo who let out a sigh.

" What did I do?"

" You ruined my lipstick, my work of art. If I reapply it now it won't look the same." She angrily complained and Leo bit his lip, trying not to laugh.

' God, she was so damn cute.' He thought, glancing at her frowning face.

" What do you want me to do to compensate for it then?" He asked with a smirk and Becca tipped her index finger on her chin, thinking of what to ask for.

" Buy me all I can eat ice cream tomorrow." She responded and he chuckled, remembering how much she loved ice cream back when she was a child.

Looks like people don't change after all.

" Then consider it done." He declared and a smile graced her lips, showing off her dimples. " So are we good now?" Leo asked, smiling as well.

" Maybe."