Justice sat by herself in the far corner wishing she could be anywhere but in that room.
Luc had made such a big deal out of escorting her to the etiquette class but as soon as they'd entered the hall, he practically acted as if she was a stranger.
Annoyed, she huffed and folded her arms as she watched him across the room. She'd managed to sit in a position that made it easy for her to watch him without it being too obvious that she was looking at him.
He was stood with a bunch of other men, all painstakingly handsome and all, Justice noted, were looking at him with pure admiration and just a smidgen of intimidation. She noticed that Luc didn't speak often, but when he uttered the odd sentence, they seemed to hang on to his every word.
Behind them, was a small group of women who were doing their best to get the men's attention without outwardly asking for it. Every now and again they would burst into loud and obnoxious laughter causing the men's (but surprisingly, not Luc's) head's to turn towards them. Once they'd achieved that, they'd start with their hair flickering and eyelash fluttering, sporting sickeningly sweet smiles that were enough to turn Justice's stomach.
Rolling her eyes, she scoffed to herself and turned back in her seat.
"Not your scene?" A voice said behind her. Startled, Justice looked over her shoulder to see a frizzy haired blonde girl perched up on the window sill with a book in her hand. She had on a ripped band tee and twice as ripped jeans with a pair of very worn chucks on her feet. Justice looked down at her fitted midi dress and cursed Ava under her breath.
"They're not my type of people either," The girl quickly licked her index finger and flipped the page. "A little too stuck up for my liking."
Justice found herself nodding in response, then quickly stopped herself, remembering that she was probably going to be spending a lot of time with these people.
The girl looked up and chuckled. "It's alright, I'll keep your secret if you keep mine?"
Slamming the book shut, she swung her legs off the sill and hopped down, taking the seat next to Justice.
"You don't say much do you?" She smirked. "What's your name?"
"Justice."
"Aaah," She nodded knowingly. "So you're Justice .."
"Why does it sound as if you've heard about me before?" She asked dryly.
"You're only the talk of the town." She leaned back stretching her arms behind her head. "It's big news ya know? One of the royal 3 is being married off, so that only leaves 2 of them for our mothers to try and match us up with."
Justice laughed a little. "And if that doesn't work out?"
The girl nodded in the direction of the group of men. "Then one of the rich losers who wish they were royalty." Sticking out her hand, the girl introduced herself. "I'm Ana, by the way."
"Nice to meet you."
The two of them smiled at each other and then that was it. Ana didn't stop talking after that. Not that it bothered Justice. It was easier for her that way. She found it easier to respond to conversation rather than start it.
The only time Ana stopped speaking was when the door to the hall opened and Valentina waltzed in with a girl Justice had never seen before.
She took her in. Clear, porcelain like skin. Long, wavy hair that cascaded down her back. Sharp grey eyes that quickly scanned over the room before stopping to gaze in one particular direction. And plump rosy lips that broke out into a breath taking smile as she ran across the room.
"Luc!"
His head turned as this girl ran towards him and to Justice's dismay when she threw herself on him, he caught her, wrapping his arm around her waist.
It was almost like the scene played out in slow motion before her and the moment that Justice watched his hand touch her, she had risen to her feet without even knowing she had done it.
Her blood was boiling. Who the hell was this girl?
She had the audacity to coil her arms around his neck and it was taking Justice every bit of restraint to stop her from going over there and wrenching them off.
"Marcella," Luc looked down at her as she grinned up at him.
Marcella ... why does the name sound familiar? She thought.
"I've missed you." She said squeezing him tightly. Luc's eyes travelled from her over to Justice, who's glare was burning into his skin.
Slowly, he removed Marcella's hands from around his neck, stepping back to put some space between him and his sister's best friend.
"Aww! Don't we just love a reunion?" Valentina chimed in. "So cute! Guys, why don't we leave them alone to talk hmm? I see some new faces in the room and I don't believe we've all been acquainted."
Valentina ushered the guys more towards Justice's end of the room and of course the girls followed.
Ana nudged her and said something about them coming over but Justice couldn't take her eyes off Marcella and Luc.
She wanted to know what their hushed conversation was about. She wanted to know why Marcella kept touching him every 5 seconds and she wanted to know why the hell Luc was letting her!
Her view was rudely obstructed when Valentina stood before her with a fake smile on her face.
"Everyone," Valentina said loudly. It was only then that Justice realised that everyone had gathered around her and she was stood in the middle.
"I'm sure you've all been incredibly curious after hearing about my brother's upcoming nuptials." She continued before gesturing to Justice. "This is my future sister in law, our soon to be queen, Justice."
All eyes were on her and she felt herself getting increasingly nervous. She wanted nothing more than to make a run for it, but she knew she couldn't. So instead she just stood there, silently wishing she could disappear.
"I know what you're all thinking." Valentina giggled. "I was just as shocked when I first saw her. But who knows, maybe we'll see something special in her once she's on the throne." She shrugged.
A few of them sniggered at her remark whilst everyone else remained silent. Justice heard Ana stirring behind her but prayed that as outspoken as she seemed to be, she wouldn't say anything to make the situation worse.
"I don't know Val," a guy with blonde hair similar to Ana's stepped forward. "She doesn't look like your typical Muerter. I'm excited to see what she has in store for us."
His eyes glittered mischievously as he smiled at her and Justice smiled back, grateful that he'd spoken up for her.
Valentina just rolled her eyes. "Yes, well we all know it doesn't take a lot to excite you Antonio."
Antonio continued to smirk as she dismissed him and went around introducing other people in the group.
However she only introduced the people who were clearly her friends, and for the more quiet people in the back, she barely even acknowledged their existence. Justice made a mental note to make an effort to talk to them later.
"Since its Marcella's first day back, we had the etiquette lesson cancelled. We're planning on going for drinks and games down at Arcadian. Those of you who were invited, we're meeting at 1pm, and for the rest of you," She lazily gestured to them. "I don't care what you do, but don't hang around here. I'll have you thrown out."
Justice watched as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and sauntered off, with her little friends not far behind her.
Ana let an exasperated breath. "What I wouldn't do to shove my--"
"Shut up, Ana." Antonio had shoved his hand over her mouth. "God knows what would happen if she heard you."
She pulled her head away, scoffing. "I'm not scared of her."
"Exactly. The last thing we need is you setting the place ablaze in a fit of rage after she tries to break your bones." He raised an eyebrow.
Clueless as to what they were talking about, Justice merely blinked as she looked between them. Now that she had gotten a closer look at them, she could tell they were related.
She couldn't help but notice how much more pride Antonio took in his appearance. He was quite handsome too.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend sis?"
She rolled her eyes. "Justice this is my idiot brother Antonio," she said lazily. "And vice versa."
"Nice to meet you." He gave her a small bow and held out his hand to her. Just as she went to give him hers, Ana burst out with, "Don't give him your hand!!"
But already too late, Justice felt his ice cold hand cover hers and looked at Ana who was shaking her head.
"He sees into people's pasts." She said stepping forward to pinch her brother. "He only has to hold your hand to be a glimpse of every event you deemed important up until this day."
"She's right," he said slowly. "But I don't see yours."
"Huh?" Justice rose her eyebrows.
"Nothing's happening." He said releasing her hand and holding it again. "All I feel is warmth."
Ana put her book down and took a step towards her. "Seriously?"
He nodded quickly. "You try."
"I can't try!" She hissed. "I don't want to hurt her."
"Go on, just do a strand of hair or something."
Justice moved her hand to her head instinctively, not sure what the two of them were planning.
"Ugh, okay fine."
Ana took a deep breath and closed her eyes momentarily before opening them focusing hard on Justice. Well, more like her head.
After a few seconds when nothing happened, Justice was convinced that the siblings weren't all there.
"Sorry, but what exactly are you trying to do?"
"Well, I was trying to set you on fire..." Ana's brow furrowed.
"Pardon?!"
"Only, it's not working. Does this normally happen?"
"Well I don't know, nobody has tried to set me on fire before!" She exclaimed
Ana waved her hand quickly. "No, no, no! Not the fire thing. I mean you being all immune to people's abilities?"
"Oh." Her gaze flickered between the two of them who were both looking at her curiously. Something in her didn't want to tell them that she was a blocker. She wasn't even entirely sure what that meant yet. So she lied. A little bit ...
"Well this is the first time anyone has ever used an ability on me so I don't really ..."
Antonio stepped forward and placed his hands on her face, tilting her head up towards him.
"I bet you're a blocker." He whispered lightly.
She was about to pretend she'd never heard of it before but Ana stepped in and slapped her brother around the back of his head.
"Ow Ana!!" He let go of her to rub his head frustratedly. "What was that for?"
"Why are you touching her face? She's our queen 'nio! Have some respect."
Ana gave her a little wink before the two of them started to bicker back and forth. Justice just watched and laughed.
*********
Luc was far too busy watching Justice to listen to anything that Marcella was saying to him.
She'd been harping on about her holiday for about 20 minutes now and he was far from interested.
What was catching his attention was how close the blonde kid was to Justice. He'd already noticed the way he'd been staring at her when she was sitting down earlier and now he'd managed to worm his way in and actually start a conversation with her.
He watched as he argued with the other girl and watched how easily Justice laughed with him.
It vexed him.
Why was she so playful? She'd only just met the guy and here she was giggling with him. And that was nothing compared to how she acted with Demetri.
When he watched Demetri lift her over his shoulder, he wanted to body slam him into the floor and then teach her a very important lesson.
He didn't understand her.
Had she not been in that room with him?
Was that not her that had moaned underneath him?
Did she not understand what had happened?
He'd realized there was a problem when hours after he'd taken her back to her room he still couldn't calm his restlessness.
Firstly, it had shocked him how panicked he'd been when she passed out in front of him.
When he couldn't wake her, his heart had pounded in his chest so loudly that he couldn't hear anything else. He'd gotten so use to doing things and not having any regard for others that his concern for her had him genuinely questioning himself.
After getting over the initial shock of that, it then dawned on him that he had kissed her.
To any normal person, that might've seemed like a perfectly normal action. But Luc didn't kiss girls. He fucked them.
And it had been that way for some time now. Kissing was intimate. Kissing was something that he couldn't help but associate with feelings. You kiss someone because there are feelings involved and you fuck someone because you're horny, that was just his outlook on things. So why the hell had he kissed her?
He thought back on it as he looked down at Marcella who was still chatting away, beaming up at him as she did.
He was attracted to Marcella. They'd had sex enough times for him to know that he was sexually attracted to her. But even then, as his eyes descended to her lips, he had no desire to kiss her. Why was that? And why was it that all Justice had to do was get within an inch of him and he was fighting himself not to lean in and brush his lips with hers?
He couldn't like her. He barely knew the girl. He didn't know anything about her to like her. Other than the fact that she found it hard to look at him. Or that her cheeks turned a tinted pink whenever she caught him looking at her. Or that she bit her lip when she was nervous.
He mentally shook the thoughts out of his head and tried to focus on what Marcella was saying.
"It's so beautiful out there," she said softly. "It definitely a place for couples. We should go some time! Oh and ..."
Her voice faded out as once again, his gaze shifted over to Justice. Blonde girl was continuously slapping blonde guy until he saw it fit to stand behind Justice and shield himself. His hands were on her shoulders and Luc counted down the seconds until he removed them.
Aware that he wasn't paying attention to her, Marcella huffed.
"What are you looking at?"
She turned to follow his gaze and saw that he was staring in Antonio's direction. She had a feeling that it was one of the girls either side of him that had Luciano's attention.
Both were pretty enough, though not nearly as attractive as she was. Nevertheless one of them has caught his eye while she had been away and she wanted to know who.
It only took about 30 seconds for her to figure out exactly who it was.
When Antonio put his arm around the curly haired blonde in the white dress, Luc made no efforts to hide the discomfort in his face.
"Excuse me," he said to her without taking his eyes off them. Without even waiting for her to move out of the way, he nudged her aside and made his way towards them.
Marcella could only watch on in envious shock as Luc stepped in between the two of them. Turning to Valentina, she pointed to the situation in front of them and demanded an explanation.
"Oh that?" Valentina said nonchalantly. "Didn't I mention that Luc is getting married?"
No. No she did not.
*******
Justice felt Luc coming.
He was the only person who could make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge like that, but she chose to ignore him, especially after the way he'd ignored her all morning.
"Is there a problem?" Antonio asked genuinely confused by his little invasion.
"Yes. We have to go." He growled.
"We?" Justice raised her eyebrows. "If you have to leave, then by all means," she gestured towards the door. "I'm talking."
Normally, Justice would try to find any excuse not to look at him but she made sure he felt the full extent of her glare this time. She wanted him to feel just how irritated she was.
"You're my fiancée." He said through gritted teeth. "Where I go, you go."
Justice scoffed humorously. "Oh now I'm your fiancée? How convenient that you've suddenly remembered!"
"Enough!" Luc snarled pulling her by the wrist. Justice was surprised again by his gentle grip on her but to the outside eye, it must've looked as if he had aggressively grabbed her because Antonio suddenly grabbed her other wrist, pulling her back.
Luc briefly looked over his shoulder and sighed as he scratched his head frustratedly.
"Let go of her. Now."
Justice noticed that the room had gotten silent and everyone's head had turned towards their little drama.
"Justice you don't have to go with him." Antonio said skeptically.
She wanted so badly to tell him to shut his mouth. And not to be rude either, just for his own good.
"It's okay," she said quickly. "You can let go."
Antonio looked uncertain and Justice tried to plead with her face.
"I suggest you listen to her pal. I'm losing my patience." Luc finally turned his body around to face him, his eyes firmly on Antonio's hand on her wrist.
When he still didn't let go, Luc resorted to raising his voice.
"Take your hands of her!!" He barked loudly.
Antonio jumped back slightly and let her hand slip away. Justice hated that look of fear on his face. She hated the fact that even Ana had taken several steps back and in that very moment that he was dragging her out of the room and down the hallway she'd decided that she hated him.
She allowed him to drag her to a deserted corridor but only because she wanted to be able to rip into him without causing another scene.
Once they came to a stop, she yanked her arm out of his grip and glared at him. He merely rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to start talking but to his surprise she held up her hand to stop him.
"I'm going to talk. And you're gonna let me because I have a lot to say."
He didn't look happy about it but she was past caring.
"You are by far the rudest, most irritating person that I think I've ever come across. You're blatantly disrespectful and have no regard for other people's feelings yet you're so entitled that you think you can demand respect from others!!" She exclaimed. "Who do you think you are? Yeah, you're messed up. Okay you've had some messed up things happen to you but who hasn't in this world?! Do you think everyone else lives easy breezy? Why are you so different? Why does everybody have to walk on eggshells around you?!"
Her face flushed the more irritated she got and Luc was using every fibre in his being not to smirk. She was yelling at him, telling him off and the only thing he could focused on was how attractive he found it when she lost her temper.
He was truly ruined.
"And let's touch on one thing! Don't think I haven't noticed the way you suddenly notice I'm around whenever another male is around me. Are you that petty? 'I don't want to acknowledge her but no other man is allowed to?', is that it?!"
"Yes and no." He interrupted.
Her breath caught in her throat. She wasn't expecting him to answer her.
"What?"
"No, because if you think I don't acknowledge you, you're very mistaken. And yes, because no other man can." He said calmly.
She blinked up at him, stumped by his response yet again.
"Well ... why not?"
"Because you're mine."
She stumbled back a little.
It was such a simple statement. A 3 word sentence and yet it had her floored.
Her heart was beating at a 100mph and the way he was stood leaning against the opposite wall staring at her had her a little weak at the knees.
She swallowed. " I don't belong to you."
"I disagree."
"I'm not an object, Luc."
"I agree."
"Therefore I can't belong to you."
"I disagree. You're my fiancée, therefore you're mine."
Justice inwardly groaned. There were those words again.
You're mine.
He was being problematic. She should've been chastising him about how it was 2016 and no woman should be made to feel like she's a man's possession but she couldn't.
She couldn't because every time he said the words "you're mine" her heart skipped a beat. Because deep deep down, if she allowed herself to admit it, she wanted to be his.
She didn't want him to know that though. She was still trying to show him that she was annoyed but all signs of irritation were slowly dwindling away ...
"Have you finished your little rant?" He pushed himself off the wall and advanced towards her.
"No," She looked up trying to think of some other unpleasant quality about him. "You're mean."
"I agree." He took a step towards her.
"Arrogant."
"I agree." He took another step towards her.
"You're hot-headed. Uncontrollable. Inconsiderate."
"I agree." He took one last step until he was stood infront of her, once again consuming all of her space.
"Are you finished now?" He asked more quietly. His gaze bared down on her and she tried to steady her breathing.
Luc ran his eyes over her face, praying that she would stop talking so he could do what he'd been itching to do from that morning.
"Yes ..." She croaked as she allowed herself to be backed into the wall.
Luc leaned into her, running the tip of his nose along the line of her jaw before softly brushing his lips over hers.
"Good." He whispered and then claimed her mouth with his.
***********