**If you enjoy, please leave a comment or vote to let me know!**
A Nuisance
"Put these on," I ordered in a whisper, holding out my arms and resisting the urge to glance over my shoulder at the towering wall behind me.
Angelo took the garments from my hand, inspecting them with a skeptical look, "You think this will work?"
I nodded, "At this hour, we're not likely to run into anyone to begin with, but in case we do, we can tell them you're escorting me to my rooms, or some other nonsense."
The corner of his mouth quirked up in amusement, "Rooms?"
"Just put them on," I sighed, rolling my eyes and already regretting my decision to follow through with the plan I had concocted.
He shrugged, stripping off his shirt without further question. My eyes lingered on the lean muscle of his exposed chest, before he reached for his pants and I quickly averted my gaze– not because he seemed particularly concerned with his modesty or because I didn't want to look. He couldn't seem to care less if I watched him change. In fact, he likely wanted me to do just that and I very much wanted to oblige.
But I couldn't.
With the way the draw of the mate bond seemed to grow with each passing day, I didn't trust myself not to jump his bones if given half a chance.
My cheeks burned at the direction my thoughts had turned. With the reminder of our promised kiss at the end of the night looming ever-present in the back of my mind, it was difficult not to let my imagination run wild.
"Alright," Angelo said, drawing my attention back to where he stood, adjusting the uniform over his body, "I had my doubts, but I think I make a rather dashing castle guard, wouldn't you agree?"
I snorted and turned by back to him, if only to keep myself from doing something embarrassing like answer that question truthfully. How much simpler would our lives have been if he truly had been a castle guard?
"Let's go," I told him, looking up at the wall, "we don't have much time before the guards will pass through here again."
He grunted in acknowledgement, following close behind me as I darted from the tree line. "It's a bit of a tight fit," I warned, shooting him an apologetic look, before slipping through the hole in the curtain wall that my Aunt Sienna had once shown me.
It took him a bit longer to squeeze his larger frame through the opening, but he was grinning as he joined me on the inside of the castle grounds, "Such a rebellious princess, you are."
I snorted again. It must run in the family.
My nerves grew with each step that drew us closer to the castle. The plan will work, I told myself firmly, but it did nothing to lessen my apprehension. My anxiety would likely linger until Angelo was safely back on the other side of those stone walls that, all of a sudden, appeared taller and more menacing than they had ever been before.
Just before we could exit the cover of the enchanted garden, I halted. Angelo stopped as well, but his head was swiveling in every direction, taking it all in with raised brows. I let him gawk for another moment before I cleared my throat, "That disguise won't fool anyone if you keep looking at everything like you've never seen it before."
"This is..." Angelo said, voice trailing off as he looked around at the flowers blooming around us, "There's a spell at work here, I can feel it."
I gave him a pointed look in response, and he sighed, straightening his back and adopting the stoic expression of a guard.
"Better," I turned on a heel to exit the garden, hearing the crunch of his boot-clad feet following a short distance behind.
The castle was quiet, as expected, when we stepped through the side door by the kitchen. There was not a sound to be heard, save for the tapping of our footsteps on the stone floor.
For once, fate seemed to be on my side. Not a single soul crossed our path on the way to the library, a cavernous room just down the hall from the grand ballroom.
The door creaked on its hinges as I pulled it open, and I froze in place, waiting with a racing heart, but no one came striding from within the empty room to investigate the noise. I gestured for him to follow me inside, then left him to look around as I could see he so desperately wanted to, while I hurried deeper into the room in search of the map we were risking so much for.
I passed through row after row of bookshelves, before I found a pile of maps, all rolled tightly and tied with a leather strip, atop a desk against the far wall. As I picked up the first one, I couldn't help but peer around the room again suspiciously. It all felt too easy.
A sinking feeling settling into my gut told me that my luck could only last for so long.
"I found it," I whispered to Angelo a short time later as I peered down at the map in my hands. He came up beside me, but I was already rolling it back up, "Let's go."
"Go where?" He asked, watching me retie the leather cord around the thick paper.
"Somewhere more private," was all I gave him in response.
I led him from the library, map tucked securely under an arm, and climbed to the second floor. He didn't speak as we strode down the corridor, just kept pace with a stiff posture that looked foreign on his form. I found myself resisting the urge to reach out to soothe the tension from his shoulders. It's only a part he is playing.
One he was playing quite convincingly, I had to admit.
As we were nearing the stairs that would lead us up to the safety of my rooms, our luck finally ran out.
The cloying scent reached my nostrils the same moment I spied him standing in the shadows beside an open window. I stiffened, my steps halting abruptly. Beside me, Angelo observed the vampire with a passive expression, maintaining his charade, though there was a glint in his eye that told me he was watching the scene unfold with a wary apprehension to match my own.
"Ambassador Bruhn," I greeted, meeting his gaze with a confidence I didn't feel.
"Princess Giuliana," he regarded me with that quiet calculation that made my skin crawl. "What an unusual hour for someone such as yourself to be wandering about the castle."
My chin tilted up in indignation, "I could say the same to you."
His gaze left me to glance over Angelo as if I hadn't spoken, "And what interesting company as well."
"He is escorting me back to my rooms. As you said, it is very late." The practiced lie slipped easily from my lips.
Those dark grey eyes flitted back to study the map I still held tucked under my arm before returning to mine, "It's quite interesting though, I don't think that I have ever seen you accompanied by a guard inside this castle."
It was only then that I noticed the dishevelment of his sparse grey-brown hair, the missed button on his suit jacket, really took in the open window beside him. He had been flying– spying more like. But how much had he seen? I tried to think back on just how many windows we had passed, unaware of the potential audience. Had he seen us searching through the library? Had he been watching us the entire time? Since I led Angelo through the wall? Before that, even?
I was going to go mad attempting to figure out how much he knew, and that was likely just what he wanted.
Before I could think of a clever retort, he spoke again, "I wonder if your father, the king, would find it just as fascinating."
At those words, I snapped, done with whatever game he was trying to play.
I turned abruptly, making my way toward the staircase once more, but not before throwing one last retort over my shoulder, feigning disinterest in his threat, "Do find out, would you? And while you're at it, I'm sure he would be quite interested to hear of what you were doing lurking about in the middle of the night as well– a midnight flight, perhaps?"
The vampire had no response to that.
Angelo followed behind me in silence once more, the tension palpable in the air between us.
When we arrived at my rooms, I ushered him in without a word, locking the door behind us before dashing across the room to pull the curtains closed on all of the windows. Only then, did I slump down into the settee and place my face into my palms to collect myself, my breathing a touch ragged as if I had just finished my morning training.
After a moment, Angelo spoke, forcing his voice light, "Are all foreign ambassadors such nuisances?"
I groaned, not lifting my head from where it rested in my hands to look at him, "You have no idea."
And this nuisance could very well prove to be a problem.
He could know too much.
~*~*~
The kiss is coming, I promise!
Let me know what you think of the chapter (I'm trying to get back to all of you, it may just take a little while). Any thoughts? Predictions?
See you next week! (If not sooner)