Panty-less, and covered in his sticky cum.
I felt so dirty, and yet so alive. And I was dying to tell Ilana and Imogen about it all. As I scanned the room, I noticed Adele quickly making her way through the crowds and the dancers to get to where I stood by my parents. She looked strange, like she was hiding something. Her eyes were wide, and her cheeks were flushed.
“Hey!” I grinned at her. “Have you seen Ilana or Im—”
She shushed me with a look, raising her brows at my parents before nodding me away.
“Where’d they sneak off to?” I whispered when we were away from earshot.
Adele’s eyes were wide and there was this glow about her. I suddenly dropped my eyes to her neck and gasped.
“Adele Thompson White!”
She went red, quickly bringing a hand up to her neck.
“Where have you been?” I hissed. “And with who?”
“Me?” she squealed, still blushing fiercely. “Where have you been?”
“Nowhere,” I said quickly.
“Nowhere with Prince Logan?”
I blushed, and there was no way I was even going to hide it.
Adele’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God Isla! Are you okay?”
I bit my lip, the heat flushing into my cheeks.
“I’m very okay,” I gushed with a big stupid grin on my face.
I eyed her bruised neck again. “Those are totally hickeys.”
“They are not,” she said primly.
“Where’re my sisters?”
Adele’s eyes went even wider, as if that was even possible at this point.
“What? Tell me!”
Her face went even redder, like she was utterly scandalized. “Isla,” she whispered, leaning close. “Ilana’s with—”
“Are you enjoying the dance, girls?”
We both jumped back at the sound of my mother’s voice. We whirled to see her smiling with a glass of champagne in her hands.
“It’s lovely, Your Highness,” Adele said quickly My mom laughed. “Right, public event. The Highness stuff.”
Out of the spotlight, and out of events like this, my mother was just Jessica to Adele and other close friend and family. Just like my dad was just Luc. They were actually pretty cool parents, which couldn’t have been easy with being regents of a Kingdom and all that. But you hear stories of modern royalty being ass-backwards and weird and cold and disconnected. My parents were none of those things, just strict about boys around their daughters.
“Well, enjoy!” She winked at both of us. “Go find some cute dance partners! That’s why we’re here isn’t it?”
“Going to find yourself a dance partner, Jessica?” Adele said conspiratorially, eliciting a grin from my mom.
“Oh, I’ve got a great one.” She smiled as she reached over and hooked an arm through my father’s elbow, whirling him around with a surprised smile on his face. “Shall we?”
He beamed his most kingly smile as he took in my mother. “As my queen commands.”
“Those two,” Adele said with a laugh as they walked off to the dance floor.
“I know, gross.”
“I think it’s sweet.”
“They’re not your parents.”
“True. So?”
I quickly looked away, feigning ignorance. “What?”
“Spill it!”
“There’s nothing to spill” I said primly, despite my mind immediately going to what was spilled all over my tummy and my pussy earlier.
“Liar.”
I groaned. “Adele, I’m not—”
I froze. Because right then, I looked up. Right then is when I looked across the ballroom, and found my eyes immediately held captive.
By him.
There, standing in the doorway across the ballroom, his eyes narrowed right on me like I was prey, was my beast.
And he looked hungry for more.
So was I.
Chapter 10
Isla
That said, I didn’t get a chance to dance with him. Or talk to him, at all.
It was like things kept interfering to keep us apart. My body yearned for his touch, and our eyes were almost constantly locked and sending little blazes of heat and desire across the room. But there was always my father, some advisers, other members of the court, or some dumb prince I had no interest in being pushed on me.
And despite my father’s off-hand comment about his guards having spotted Logan outside, I couldn’t help but notice a set of guards following my beast’s every move, three paces behind him all the time.
The suspicion was there, and the guilt was plastered all over my face as I stood there having boring conversations with boring princes.
All I wanted was my prince.
My dark prince.
My beast.
I wanted his hands on me. I wanted to feel his mouth on me again. I wanted mine on him.
And I wanted to let it all go with him. I knew how crazy that sounded, what with having just met him, and his reputation, and the fact that my father would have a royal freakout if he knew what Prince Logan and I had done earlier tonight.
Me wanting it to continue only made it worse.
…Or maybe better.
Eventually, the ball was dying down. My eyes locked with his as he paced like a caged animal across the room. I wanted nothing more than to run across the ballroom to him, but I knew that couldn’t happen.
Both my sisters were still missing, I’d long since lost Adele, and I was currently feigning a conversation with some prince whose name I couldn’t remember, all while trying to keep my eyes locked on Logan. He didn’t seem worried though as the music ended, and my father gave a final thanks while guests began to trickle out.
He just leaned against a wall, smirking at me, those hungry eyes devouring me.
But when would I see him again? How would I see him again? How would I even get in touch with him? For a moment, another pang lanced through me — a darker, more vicious thought.
He wasn’t coming over across the dance floor, because he’d already gotten what he’d wanted.
It was a poisonous thought, and I knew it. I knew what I’d felt out there on that terrace was real, and I refused to allow horrible, barbed thoughts like that into my head.
But just the same, what happened now?
How could we be a we?
The dance ended, and then, he was gone.
Books.
Books would make everything better.
With a sigh, I sat back, letting myself sink onto the large, plush sofa in my bedroom, an e-reader in my hand. The doors to my own terrace were open across the room, and with almost all the lights off, the room was bathed in a soft white glow from the moon. A summer breeze blew in, tickling over my bare legs and arms — still pink from my bath — and teasing up my nightgown.
I bit my lip and shivered.
What had I done earlier? I’d let myself get swept away by the most notoriously dangerous man in the kingdoms. The point of the ball had been to find a match, of course, but Logan Anders was the least eligible man imaginable. And with the curse, I wasn’t even totally sure he was entirely a man at all.
There was a beast inside of him. I’d caught glimpses of it tonight. I’d seen it when he looked at me like he wanted to devour me. I felt it when his huge hands scooped me up possessively, and when he’d growled as he’d claimed my body as his.
I’d met the beast tonight, but the thing was?
Well, the thing was, I wasn’t scared of that beast at all.