Of Kings and Queens

Part II/16/Satisfied/

•June, 28th•

"I'm a girl in a world in which my only job is to marry rich.
My father has no sons so I'm the one who has to social climb,
So I'm the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in New York City is insidious,"

•••

"Dar Daden," He said with a tilt to his tone. He licked his lips. "Ryler Norton," The boy —man held out his hand.

"—Alicia's daughter?" Robin nodded in amazement. "Go figure. You're the spitting image of her."

"Sorry if I'm being rude, but— Who are you?" Robin asked irritatedly. He had still yet to apologize for bumping into her, but nonetheless she took his hand.

"Pardon me, my dear lady," He made a subtle bow movement, "I'm—"

"Norton? Any chance you're related to Kristine?" She interrupted him.

His eyes flashed dangerously, "My little sister. As I was saying before I was so rudely cutoff by someone obviously a couple of years my junior—" He trailed off when he finally got a reaction from her. A bright blush was creeping up Robin's neck and ears, but he just smirked victoriously at her.

"Care to dance," He asked as he held out his hand with perfect poise.

He wasn't just asking to dance though, he was putting her into a tricky situation; If she was ignorant to the Descendant rules then she would say no, but she'd also be letting him know about her nameless upbringing. She can't afford for him to get curious about her. If she said yes, which she was now forced to do, she'd have to risk being seen with him by the Braxtons. And this was a situation she didn't know how to explain.

A two-second long argument of pros and cons went on in her head before she came to a conclusion.

"Sure," Her reply was positive but her tone suggested otherwise.

"Where do you attend?" He said in an amiable tone.

"Avarice Academy," Robin gave him short answers as he made small talk with her.

"What a coincidence, I do too."

"But I've never seen you before," They stepped around in a slow and easy waltz. "I'm one of the international officials. I'm just finished in France, where I was working with Lacoste to promote some of their Men's apparel." International Official: An extra year in the Avarice Academy education where students traveled the world in search of their perfect job and look for a taste of the real world.

"I'm graduating this year though, and not to become a model as you would've suspected-" He said with a touch of dry humour, "But to take over the family business. And if my parents had their way, get married and have a family myself." He added darkly.

"Not what you want then, I presume?" She asked, getting curious about the man with dead eyes. Maybe he actually was dead inside, she considered.

"No." He said curtly. "But I have a responsibility to my family. I'm the oldest, afterall, and the only heir. So I'll spend the rest of my days doing what my father did, and what his did before him. And to think-" His previous arrogant behavior was back, "My good looks will be wasted in an office for the rest of my life."

They'd been talking for a while before Robin thought she'd ought to get back to the Braxtons. She'd think about what Ryler Norton had confessed to her later on. Robin glanced around quickly, and he picked up on it immediately, "Worried about something, love?"

"No." She replied crisply. She looked around slightly, trying to spot someone she knew so she could escape without causing a scene.

"I've always followed the philosophy that worrying only means you suffer twice." His smooth voice took a sly tone, as his hand slipped from her waist to her hip. He brought her too close for comfort, and panic alarms started going off in Robin's head.

"Come any closer, Norton, and you can suffer a third time." Robin said lowly enough that only he could hear. Both of their eyes narrowed on each other. He created a little space between them, but only so much that a piece of paper could fit between their bodies.

"I believe I've met my match, Alicia Junior." He was toying with her, she knew that much.

"My name is Robin." She corrected him firmly.

"Lovely." His dark velvety voice caressed the 'v'.

The song ended then, fortunately, and he let Robin go.

"Lovely what?" She sharply returned. But she never got an answer and was left in the corner of the Ball room alone, all too quickly before the conversation could carry on. He was an odd boy, she thought. Attractive, apart from his dead eyes, and a velvet voice; He must pull all the birds.

Robin deemed it a fluke that they had met, and forgot about him by the end of the night, but Ryler fully intended to meet again.

•••

"Did you end up getting a dance with her? She seems an excellent dancer. That's what I picked up from what I saw anyway," Bill said.

"No, how'd she look?"

Bill gave Perry an incredulous look. "She looked bloody amazing that's how she looked."

"You know I didn't mean it like that, scumbag, that's my sister." He laughed.

"I know,"

"Someone told me you threw a right nasty tantrum because she went to talk to Oliver. Told her she was fraternizing with the enemy or some such rubbish." Perry replied, curiosity burning within him. He honestly wasn't even that angry at Bill, he just wanted to know.

"Who told you that?" Bill replied sharply.

"A little birdy—Well, actually a really big werewolf told me—"

"—Whatever." Bill ended the conversation quickly when he realized that Perry wasn't going to be serious about it. Bill threw a pillow at Perry from his bed.

They both went to sleep that night with a strong buzz from a bit too many sneaky sips of champagne when Martin and Christina weren't paying attention.

They both also regretted said previous action in the morning.