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He smiles, but I see an edge in his eye that takes me by surprise. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” He sighs. “I suppose I’m finding this all quite difficult.”
“I’m sorry, Vic.”
I place my hand on his arm as he looks around the room wearily. “It’s just that ever since our father died, things have been a little intense. Maxim is unbearable as usual and as the new king, everything is centered around him. He is impossible to be around because of what he’s inherited and I’m just expected to suck it up and act the good second in command and help him navigate a sea of killer sharks.”
“I’m sorry, Vic, maybe things will calm down when he chooses his wife and they sit on the throne of power together.”
“Let’s hope so. Anyway, what about you? I wasn’t kidding when I said we could team up. It would be a sacrifice but I’d do it out of duty.”
“You’re good.” I grin and sigh as I look around me. “I’m not interested in catching anyone’s attention, and to be honest this whole scene grates on me.”
He nods because out of anyone here, I think he understands the most. Like me, he was educated abroad and enjoyed a freedom many of us are finding hard to give back. Since childhood it has been drummed into us that our future lies in Andromeda. The next generation. The next keepers of the faith, but how can we settle when we have seen what’s out there?
“Anyway…” Victor’s voice brings me back to the job at hand. “I’ll fetch us a drink; I won’t be long. If you want to escape the crowd and keep your virtue intact, I suggest you wait behind this tapestry. Nobody will see you there and it will keep those other horny bastards from taking what’s mine.”
“Thanks, but just for the record, Victor, I’m not yours, ok.”
I grin as he rolls his eyes. “Keep telling yourself that, darling, we both know it’s destiny.”
He winks and heads off and I’m grateful for the heads up and move through the giant tapestry onto a balcony that looks out across the Augustus Kingdom.
I feel a little sympathy for Victor because if I am expected to follow a certain path, his is far more guarded than mine and it’s a lot to deal with.
The gentle breeze ruffles my skirt and I take deep, cleansing breaths of it. Allowing it to cast its comfort on my face as I struggle to get through this tedious evening.
A movement behind me makes me turn and I see Victor make his way onto the balcony. “Hey, where are the drinks?”
He appears empty-handed and yet something is different about him. It’s only when he comes closer that I realize it’s someone else entirely and I say slightly nervously, “Um, I’m sorry, but I should leave.”
I make to pass him and a hand reaches out and grabs my wrist so hard it burns and pulls me toward him and as the other hand locks around my waist, I smell danger of the most intense kind.
The eyes that stare at me through the mask are the darkest I’ve ever seen. So compelling, so deep, and so dangerous. They flash with a power that takes my breath away and holds my attention far longer than I’m happy with. There’s such intensity in that look I am struggling to breathe and then he speaks with a voice that sounds like a thousand knives stabbing my heart in a frenzied attack.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Cassie.”
“Who are you?” I really can’t tell because the light is so dim and the shadow crosses his face.
“I’m your future.”
I try to pull back because God forbid somebody actually removes my mask and chains me to his side forever, because how will I escape then? It’s far too early in the evening for the unmasking ceremony and I intend on being long gone before that happens, so I say angrily, “Let me go, this is against protocol. You should know that.”
He laughs as if the devil has entered the room and I almost think he has as he whispers darkly, “I choose you, Cassie and I don’t need to wait for an unmasking ceremony for that.”
The panic starts setting in and I say angrily, “You do. Actually, it’s in the rules. You must give everyone an equal chance and if you choose the same girl as another, it goes by order of nobility. Surely you know that.”
He laughs and I wonder if he’s slightly deranged because this laugh has no humor in it, just a wicked sense of fucked up.
He backs me against the railings and I briefly wonder if it could all end here this evening because the weight of us against it could have us crashing to the deep valley below.
Before I know what’s happening, my mask is whipped from my face and tossed from the balcony and as I open my mouth to protest, his lips land on mine with a possession that seals my fate. He plunders, tastes and owns and as he pushes in hard, my huge dress does nothing to stop the feel of his body against mine as he devours me in the moonlight. I have no room to move and almost can’t breathe as he fists my hair and punishes my lips with a strength that takes my breath away.
As first kisses go, this is one that moves continents because despite how outraged I am, I’m loving every passionate moment of it.
A discreet cough behind us stops the attack, which certainly felt like one and as he pulls away, I see the furious face of my friend glaring at us both, as he hisses, “What the fuck–her mask?”
My attacker steps away and says darkly, “Is at the bottom of the valley. Checkmate, Victor, I win.”
I glance between them in confusion as Victor looks as if he’s about to toss this guy off the balcony to go and collect it personally and then I watch in bewilderment as two uniformed guards step onto the crowded balcony and say “Sire, the first dance, they are waiting.”
Sire, what the fuck? I blink in surprise as he takes my arm and says in a dark voice, “Follow me.”
“No!” I try to pull away and Victor says angrily, “Let her go. Choose someone else.”
This madman actually laughs. “We both know it was always her. Now stand aside and let us pass.”
Victor looks so mad it completely changes him. There’s an anger surrounding us that I can almost reach out and taste and as I’m pulled from the balcony beside a man who is scaring the hell out of me, my bright future may as well have joined the mask in the valley below because this man has cemented my fate and I have no escape from that.
