"Where is Amanda?" Sky asked innocently, looking for her.
"She went home, she had some work." I told her softly.
"When will she return?"
"We have no idea." I told her faking sadness.
"That's no reason! She can't leave me like this." She argued, closing her hands at her chest, puffing.
"Don't worry, love. I am here for you." I smiled, ruffling her hair tenderly.
"Promise you will stay with me." She said, showing me her pinky finger.
"Promise." I smiled, making a pinky promise with her.
"Good, now go. We need to leave tonight, you know you must dress as the belle of the event, right?"
"Yes!" Nodding, she left as I sighed.
"You lied." Astrid frowned.
"It doesn't matter." I replied, watching Sky leave. She should be attached to me the most or else how do you expect me to face Prince?
••••••
"There you go... all done." The stylist said leaving the last curl, completing the elegance.
My hairs styled from front and left as semi-curls, detangled to perfect, skin dusted with skins similar to shades of wine, the irresistible charm destined to meet anguish.
Perfumed with rose scented water, enhanced by expensive silk against my skin. The navy blue mermaid gown fitted to my curve had a slit on the left side, exposing my leg, giving it a seductive look.
"Thanks." Murmuring, I looked up at them, "No problem." They grinned.
Smiling, I rose from my seat and since I promised Zaniel to show him first about how I look, I walked out and went to the Kitchen without seeing anyone.
We agreed to meet in the Kitchen because no one except the servants goes there.
"Hey."
When I entered, he was already there, wearing a black shirt along with a maroon waistcoat, his sleeves rolled to the elbow neatly, looking extremely exquisite.
But it doesn't have an effect on me anymore no matter what. I smirked and came closer.
"How do I look?" I asked, enticingly, putting my hand on his shoulder, licking my lips.
Grabbing my wrist, he lifted my waist, placing me on the counter, holding my back firmly, linking his compelling gaze with mine.
"Cinzel." He called my name huskily, implanting a delicate kiss on my neck. Blinded in his allure, I hummed in response.
Smirking, he continued, "When my eyes meet yours-"
Inclining to my ear, whispering to complete my harsh beat with his spellbinding voice, " -All what matters is that you are mine." My heart skipped a beat by his vehement words and zeal.
Gulping hard, I put my hands on his shoulders, pulling apart from him, lowering my eyes in dejection as my heart stabbed by the keen emotions he still feels for me but shattered before they could take flight.
"Zaniel-"
"What the fuck do you think you are doing here?"
I opened my mouth to speak something but Prince, who swore to track my traces, came out of nowhere, grabbed Zaniel's arm and dragged him away.
My heart skipped a beat by his action, forming my lips in a thin line when Zaniel called him hesitantly, "P-Prince?"
My wobbly legs got down, going after them, mentally preparing myself for the chaotic drama which is about to take place.
I tried to suppress a smirk despite knowing how it could evoke Prince's fiery passion.
We went to the main hall, my heart throbbed against my chest by his unresponsive eyes grasping Zaniel who didn't know how to react.
"Theo!" Prince shouted as everyone came.
"What happened?" Theo asked, arching a brow to apprehend his fury.
Pushing Zaniel to the front, he hissed, "If I see him anywhere near my wife, I won't tolerate it." He growled, sending daggers at Zaniel.
"Why not? It must be hard for them to stay away from each other." Penelope mocked.
"Penny, don't accuse my wife." He pointed his index finger at him in contempt, my heart skipped a beat in disbelief, he took my side knowing she was right.
"I am not, it's the truth. The reality you can't accept because this girl has blind you." Penelope hissed, narrowing her eyes at him in fury.
"Enough Penelope." Theo said, stopping her.
"And you..." Theo turned his attention to Zaniel and without a warning, slapping him hard.
I gasped and instinctively reacted to his pain, unable to disregard the fact he broke my heart. Due to impulse, I was about to walk to him but Prince held my arm, stopping me.
"Don't you dare to do this again." Theo snarled, taking him away with him.
"Theo, let him go." Penelope also went after them worried. I looked down in lamentation of what happened but this was anticipated.
"Astrid, take everyone and leave for the party, Me and Cinzel shall come later."
When his eyes latched with mine after saying this, my breath hitched, obtaining a deadly shiver of apprehension which assaulted my mind.
"Yes, Brother..." Nodding sadly, Astrid left and Prince began to take me to our room.
Hastened breaths panicked me, radically slumping me in unpleasant emotions believing something fatal was about to occur.
My lips parted to reply but it was late and the clicking sound of the door being locked made me scurry away from him.
He took a step closer as I took a step back until my back hit the wall, making me convulse by his vigorous eyes speaking what I tend to deny.
"You love testing my patience, don't you?" His forthright form blocked my way, putting one hand on the wall his other trailed down.
"Or perhaps,"
Trailing his hand upward, he lifted my chin, "You do this deliberately just to be intimate with me? Hmm?" He mocked, leaning dangerously close to my face.
"When you feel nothing then why such possessiveness?" I asked with a shaky breath, praying to impede his alluring gaze smirking darkly at my petite form.
Hoping to hamper my shiver by his touch proceeding down. I pressed myself against the wall, hearing his deep resonance encased on my neck.
"Indeed my dear. But Will the display of emotions alter my actions?" He asked seductively.
Snaking his other hand around my waist, confined between traces of my breaths to his, control faded from my fingers just like the stains of blood from his skin.
It would never, disregard the emotions, he will indulge in the salacity gained by my fear.
Knowing my reply, he continued, "So why bother?" He asked, sliding his fingers down, close. So close.
With a shaky breath, I tried to clear my vision and seize his overwhelming actions.
"T-This is wrong." I mumbled, shaking violently by the apprehension he evoked.
All of it feels corrupt, my reaction, his mysterious warmth, all of it.
"Do you think I care?"
Seduction at its peak, unwaveringly I laid into his breathtaking eyes because what was seemingly immoral was undeniably desirable.
"Why are you doing this?" Asking in a hoarse whisper, my heart clenched by his piercing presence dominating me.
"To remind you of a lesson." His husky whisper responded.
Adjacent to my ear, his lips touched my convulsing skin delicately, biting it slightly as his touch finally reached my lower body, eliciting an instant moan of rapture.
"P-Please..." Whimpering. I didn't want to take things further because I know he will only torture me but won't grant me the euphoria I seek.
"That you are fucking mine." He snarled, giving my thighs a rough squeeze between his experienced fingers.
"Does it.. Make you feel envious when Zaniel touches me?" I mocked breathlessly, taking support from his shoulder to cope with the fatality of his fingers, leading to where they shouldn't.
"No. But it pisses me when you forget your goddamn place." he hissed, gripping my hair.
Things were always frivolous to him, nothing but a mere passion requiring senseless touch and he loved it.
To enrage him and break the rhythm of temptation he invoked, I derided, knowing it's nothing but empty obnoxious words.
"He will take me away."
A smirk gradually came to his lips, amused by my demeanor, mocking, "You are naive, Cinzel... things are not perfect as you believe them to be." I know.
He pressed himself more, quivering, my hands and feet turned cold. The rate of my heart increasing by each passing moment as his lips inclined to my cheeks, dispersing his strong scent in the air and I absolutely hated what his touch did to me.
It. was. Repulsive... but pleasurable.
"But I won't let it alter my faith." Which was non-existent. I told him strongly but my words came out as a joke to him.
Letting out a suppressed laugh, chilling my bones in incomprehensible caprice. I desperately closed my legs to cease his action but my efforts were fruitless, both hanker and dread lingering on the same rope controlled by him.
My afraid eyes meet his staring intently at me with a satisfying smirk of sensing my quaver from his touch below, touching slightly, moving over my skin delicately as if it was his.
"My dear Cinzel."
He lifted my chin, confronted my timid orbs with his lethal ones laced with malevolence. My trembling lips parted to stand resilient but failed miserably.
Leaning to my ears, he whispered seductively, stopping my heart by his vehement words, "You have no idea about your lover's true identity."
"Yours or Zaniel's?" I asked panting by the vile advancing under my skin.
"Am I on the list?" He mocked, brushing his lips on my cheeks, getting a closer look at his bewitching form.
My grip on his shoulders tightened, breathing through my nostrils sharply when his eyes cascaded down to my vibrating form.
"Please..." I whispered, looking at him.
"Why stagnate it when this unsteadiness is from both fear and seduction? You won't regret it."
"Because I don't want it." My voice came out croaked, clutching onto his collar tightly, desperately.
"Why...? Why do you desire his touch but not mine?" He asked in the same tone, holding my back with one hand and securing his fingers around my neck.
Staring intently into my eyes with the captivating yet depraved expression I have never seen on his face.
"Does the fact that I used to be your teacher and now husband bother you? Or our age gap? What is it about me that stops you?"
"Prince... I.. I.."
I tried to say something but only the honest reply came out, "I am afraid of you."
"What about me scares you this much?" He whispered, awakening what never rose.
"I would never hurt you." He said earnestly. A tear rolled down my cheeks, not removing my eyes from his.
"Stop reaching for his call, take my hand."
He spoke what his heart is making him due to hopelessness and waive his heart to one emotion- he tried to relinquish it but couldn't.
"I.. can't." I replied sadly, moving my hand to his neck, yielding a wave of shudder emitting from him.
My heart hammered uncontrollably but no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't keep away from him.
"This fear won't let you? Isn't it?" He asked with a dry chuckle.
"I am sorry. I know you are only protecting me... But your method. Your dominance. Everything...-" I whispered, lowering my head.
"It's okay."
Passing me a genuine smile which made my heart hurt, he pulled away.
"I won't offer you my hand again."
His voice came out soft, surrendering before my emotions, Deeply staring at my eyes, he said in resoluteness.
"You will give yours to me yourself." Smiling, he lowered his head, looking at his hand.
"Until then." He came closer, offering me his hand, gulping hard, I hesitantly took it.
"I will try whatever I can to constrain this terror into insurance."
To say I was astonished by his display of affection would be an understatement. I couldn't believe the person in front of me was Prince.
Anguished to find my path, defeated before my petrification, he agreed to devastate himself to become mine.
Nodding a little, I walked with him as we went to the party without talking further.
My eyes stuck on his form, still dominant and cold but there was a strange softness flickering in them which only woke him when he was with Sky.
"Why.. are you doing this?" I asked when we stopped.
"Does it still require words?" He laughed a little and got out and helped me to get out as well.
We walked inside, holding hands, I couldn't remove my eyes from his with a numbness I have never felt before. Why did his words affect me this much when I didn't care?
"Did I tell you; you look stunning?" He said, walking. I shook my head as no, he pulled me closer, locking his hand over my waist.
"You look stunning." My eyes were affixed on his sharp features, holding me like never.
"Does this frighten you as well?" He asked as we greeted the host, he introduced me as he complimented, "Oh my, You guys look great together."
"I know." He smirked as a red shade came to my cheeks.
"Is it your first time at a sophisticated party?" He asked.
"Zaniel took me to attend balls many times." I replied.
He hummed, "I have some work, I will be back, you enjoy yourself." He said before leaving me alone.
Sighing, I didn't know what to do so I had a few drinks until my eyes met Zaniel's watching me from afar but I looked away, not wanting to think about him. Prince's words have obstructed my mind.
"So you're Cinzel.." A voice came, I turned and saw a woman looking at me scornfully.
"So?" I asked, turning to her.
"Come on, it's no secret Prince married his Nephew's fiancée. I wonder what he saw in you." She smirked, mocking me.
"Don't be offended but he has seen girls prettier than yours."
"Too bad among them, he chose me." I taunted, turning my head again as she frowned. She opened her mouth to speak but Prince came.
They both exchanged a glance as she left without saying anything. "Did she say anything?" He asked, turning to me.
"No." I mumbled, taking a sip of my drink. "Who was she, anyways?"
"Just an affiliate co-worker, leave her. She tried to make advances on me but failed." He shook his head and took the drink from my hands.
I raised an eyebrow but he only smirked and drank from where I did. I blushed at his action, looking away.
"What are you doing?" I asked shyly.
"What? Drinking." He shrugged, acting oblivious and took my hand again.
"Can I tell you a secret, Cinzel?"
Giving him an innocent nod, I couldn't fathom his action as he brought my hand closer and kissed the back of my palm like before, saying the sincere words which initiated everything.
"Tears don't suit you."