His Selected Mate

Chapter 33

I fiddled with the bottom of my wine glass when I smelled Maxon's scent. I took a deep breath in and tried to stay calm. He had ignored me for the entirety of the evening and as a result I was on my third glass of wine. But now he was here and I wasn't sure if I should hold my ground and be mad at him or drag him to the dance floor and pull him close to me.

I decided to let him approach me. I felt him standing behind me as I took another sip of my wine. "Well," I said still facing away from him. "Has His Highness finally decided to grace me with his presence?" I felt him lean over and say, "Oh America don't be like that. I promise I have a good reason for only approaching you now. Please just dance with me." I finally turned my head to look over at him. I had seen him multiple times over the course of the evening, trying to get his attention, and he looked even better up close.

He was obviously dressed as a pirate. His hair, which was obviously messy, was concealed by a bandanna. He had let his beard grow in slightly so he had stubble along his jaw and cheeks. But his actual clothing was the best. His shirt was had a slight V-neck that could let me see the dip in between his pecs and his pants were fitted to him perfectly but not indecently so. He must have caught me ogling him because he stood up straight with a grin on his face. He offered me his hand. "Come on America, dance with me."

I pretended to think about it and slowly let go of my wine glass and stood up from my chair. His eyes immediately left mine to look at the entirety of my dress. I loved all the dresses my maids made for me but, I had to say, that this dress was my favorite. The bodice was snug and accentuated my breasts. This accentuation was also helped by the small butterflies that were glued to my collarbone area. The same butterflies littered the bottom half of my dress and everything was finished with the mask that covered my eyes. It made me feel beautiful and mysterious all at once.

I couldn't help but send him a smirk at his obvious gawking and he cleared his throat and extended his hand further. I placed my hand in his and he slowly escorted me to the dance floor; taking his sweet time. Just as we got into position, the song that was playing ended and a slower one started playing. We started dancing as Silvia had taught the girls and I but Maxon had quickly pulled me into his arms and suddenly we were close enough that our bodies could touch the other's with the intake of ones breathe.

His arms were tightly wrapped around my waist and mine were wrapped around his neck. He let out a sigh and buried his nose at my neck. "I missed you," he whispered. I let out a sigh too. "I missed you too." I missed you so much it hurt my mind supplied. "I'm sorry it's taken this long to dance with you. I wanted to get the others out of the way so I could spend the rest of the evening with you." I smiled at his words and my heart melted. I pulled him closer so that now our bodies were actually touching.

He had moved his head so that he was facing me and said, "You look absolutely stunning darling. Absolutely beautiful." I felt heat rise to my cheeks and I looked away. It didn't help that I had drank two glasses of wine before he had found me. I was slightly tipsy. "Thank you Maxon," I replied, "and you look absolutely handsome though I fear our costumes don't exactly match." He grinned at my statement.

"You're right. I should have come as some form of tree or shrubbery." I couldn't help but laugh at what he said. "I would love to see dressed as a tree." He laughed with me at the ridiculous image of him dressed as nature. He let the silence settle over us and we stayed like that for a few minutes.

I remembered his promise about how he was going to eliminate one of the Selected after this ball and I really wanted to know who it was going to be. Maybe he would wait until the end of the weekend to dismiss them? I held my tongue though because I didn't want to ruin this moment of peace. Tempest was quiet and content, happy to be in the arms of her mate. "I saw you speaking to my father," I brought up.