Bedeviled

Chapter 3

Smoothing my dress, I bent down to put my heels back on.

"Better wipe that blush off your face before heading back to the ballroom" Christian says jokingly, smiling playfully at me.

"Better fix your hair," I replied just as playfully. His hair was tousled sexily from my hands gripping into it. The sight only made me blush harder, remembering the pleasure I finally allowed myself to.

I stood, walking towards the long, thin, mirror hanging between some of the bookshelves. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what I thought to be red glowing eyes in the corner of the room.

Gasping, I grabbed at my heart and stumbled backward with wide eyes. I searched my unblinking eyes through the dark corner of the room, begging the candles lit on the walls around us to glow brighter.

"What's wrong?" Christian walked quickly toward me, placing his hands on my shoulders, and looked in the direction I was.

I didn't reply immediately, too frightened to move.

"Nothing," I replied after a few moments, "I thought I saw someone in here, sorry." I was honestly still frightened but played it off as my imagination.

I continued to the mirror and adjusted my tiara with shaking hands as Christian messed with his hair over my shoulder.

Once finished collecting ourselves, we hurried out of the room. I was eager to get back to another drink.

When finally nearing the sounds of the ball, I placed my hand around Christian's arm and we both planted an innocent and loving smile on our faces. We grabbed the nearest drinks on a tray and pretended as though we took a sinless stroll around the Palace.

I made eye contact with one of my ladies and smiled tightly at her. The ladies always came to these events in case we were to need them.

She stepped forward a bit and raised her hand slightly as if she needed me, her eyes widened slightly while she did so. I looked at Christian smiling and excused myself, telling him I would see him in a bit.

I walked over to her quickly and she ushered me to privacy, sitting me down in one of the decorative chairs in the hallway.

"My goodness Miss Vienna, you could have at least informed me before running off like that. Thankfully I caught you before you walked into that ballroom, people would have known immediately with your hair looking like this." She reprimanded me, even though her lips formed a wide smile.

"Oops," I said and bit my lip trying to hide my smirk. She fixed my hair and tiara and pulled me up to standing.

"Off you go now, run along," she said sending me on my way.

I entered the ballroom searching for someone to converse with. My eyes passed a tall man with his back turned to me, his dark thick hair looking oddly familiar. I took a double take at him, only to find he wasn't there.

I swallowed slowly thinking of the man in my dreams. Although there was little to no lighting in my dreams, I could have sworn that man resembled the man in my bed last night. A hand grabbed my elbow and I jumped, turning to look at who it was. Scarlett.

"Vienna," She said lowly, drawing out the end of my name. She had a massive smile plastered on her face. "how has your night been going?" She asked dramatically.

"Psh, oh stop it." I rolled my eyes at her and smiled lightly. I knew she and the twins would be all over me to get the details later when we got home.

"Come on, we still have an hour to enjoy ourselves before going home" she stated pulling me farther into the room.

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