Acting Royal #Wattys2017

12

"I like them." He seemed totally sincere. "You look...", he stared at her squinting his eyes for effect, "Very intelligent."

Zayn glanced down at the book Jenny was reading, "Acting for theatre by Stanislavsky." He read it out in a terrible posh vaguely British sounding accent. Jenny smiled at him, correcting the pronunciation of the authors name in an impeccable British accent.

"That's some serious reading. Aren't other women your age reading that Shades of Gray book?"

Jenny scrunched her face up, "I would never read that! It's too... too"

"Sexy." Zayn offered.

"I think I'd be too embarrassed to read it, even if I was alone."

"You're a bundle of contradictions, Jenny. Too embarrassed to read a racy book, but able to do what we just did. What you just did to me, was better than any woman I've ever been with."

Jenny felt her cheeks flame and lowered her head quickly, trying to focus on the swimming words on the page.

"Do you know how attractive that is?" She felt Zayn come closer now.

"What?" she asked.

"Right now, that coy little look you're doing. You're the perfect mixture of vixen and virgin Jenny Simm. That's your poison."

"I have a poison?" she was amused now, and raised her eyes from the page.

"You do. And it's deadly.' His tone was serious and the mood quickly changed.

"Come, I want to show you something." Zayn jumped up and grabbed Jenny by the hand, dragging her across the room, out the door and down a corridor.

"Where you taking me, I'm semi-naked." She tried to pull her top down, but each step she took flicked it up.

"Don't worry, everyone's asleep and we're heading far away from the sleeping wing."

He was picking up speed now and Jenny was struggling to keep up. Shit, she really needed to go to gym.

This place was a maze, and how anyone got around, she didn't know. A series of twists and turns. Down corridors and up staircases. She felt like they'd been walking for miles when he finally stopped. It was a dead end, nothing around them except a large Persian carpet hanging on the wall. Zayn pulled the carpet aside to reveal a door.

"You're kidding right?" Jenny was amused, " I thought secret doors behind wall hangings were totally mythical."

"Not in my world." He said as he punched a numerical code into a keypad. The door unlocked with a loud click and he pushed it open. "This way," he puled her once more, this time down a brightly lit corridor. Jenny couldn't help notice the security camera's that were perched above her every few feet. What was this place?

She could see a large silver door at the end of the corridor. It wasn't really a door, it looked more the door of a giant safe you might find in a bank. This was getting stranger by the second.

Zayn entered another even longer code and the enormous door unlocked with an even louder click. He pulled on the massive handle that was the size of her arm and the door started to open. It looked like it weighed a ton.

"Come." Zayn tugged her once more and Jenny suddenly found herself in the most curious looking room she'd ever seen. She gasped and looked around

"It's where we keep the crown jewels." Zayn said it so casually and nonchalantly that it made her laugh.

"What?" Zayn looked at her with a smile.

"Oh sorry, please pass the salt and by the way this is where we keep the crown jewels." Jenny mocked playfully. "Do you know how weird that sounds?"

Zayn's smile grew and he raised his shoulders in a shrug, "What can I say. I live in a weird world."

"Tell me about it!" Jenny went back to examining the room. It looked more like a museum. The walls were covered in thick glass and behind it sat rows and rows of jewelry and coins. It was incredible; she didn't know what to look at first. From tiaras to massive gold crowns, bracelets, earnings and necklace's. They were all so ridiculously big and intricate that if she didn't know where she was, she would have automatically assumed they were pieces of costume jewelry.

Zayn entered another code into yet another keypad and a drawer slid open. Jenny glanced inside, and laid out in a perfect row, were the most exquisite pieces of jewelry. Zayn then very slowly and carefully picked up a necklace and without saying a word, started undoing the clasp and placing it around her neck.

"What are you doing?" Jenny reached up and touched the piece. It felt cold and smooth beneath her fingers. She could also feel the weight of it. When Zayn had clasped the piece, he gently took her by the shoulders and walked her to the other side of the room where a mirror covered a portion of the wall. Jenny's eyes widened when she saw it properly. The necklace was made entirely of large rubies, and in the middle of it, a massive pink heart hung.

"It's a very rare pink diamond. The largest in the world." He was right behind her now, his hands resting on her shoulders. "I told you you were pink."

"It's beautiful." She was intoxicated. Who said diamonds weren't the way to a women's heart?

"This is not how it should be worn, though." He said, pulling the neckline of her top down so that the stone was resting against her skin and not on the faded material.

"There, just as I imagined." He said with a smile.

"What did you imagine?" she touched the heavy stone that was hanging in her cleavage.

"How beautiful it would look against your pale skin." he pulled her neckline down even further, revealing the start of her breasts. She could feel his hot breath on the back of his neck and she could see her skin pebbling in the mirror.

"I want you to wear it to my birthday ball." He took it off, placed it into a velvet box and handed it to her. But she couldn't. It was far, far too much and she pushed the box back to him.

"I couldn't possibly wear something like that."

"It's my birthday wish." He pushed the box back at her. Clearly he wasn't about to take no for an answer.

"You seem to have a lot of birthday wishes." Jenny took the box tentatively and opened it one last time to have a look. It really was incredible, and she didn't even want to know how much it was worth.

"Don't you get three wishes?" Zayn asked, tucking some hair behind her ear.

"I guess you do." She thought about all the times she'd been made to close her eyes and think of three wishes before blowing out the birthday candles. But her wishes had been more along the lines of a new pair of shoes, not necklaces.

"So two down, and one to go." And without any warning, he leaned in and kissed her. It was soft and gentle and slow. He took her face in his hands and held her close. His lips felt soft and warm, which was very welcome, because she was starting to get cold in the room which seemed to be heavily air-conditioned. She shivered and he stopped kissing her.

"You cold?" he asked.

Jenny nodded.

"Let's go to bed." And once again, she was being pulled by the Prince through the palace.

"Bed. Together?" Jenny asked.

Zayn smiled. "Unless you still want me to sleep on the couch?"

She stopped and looked at him. "No. No I don't want you to sleep on the couch."