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.
…I was drawn to it.
Except right now, I was very suddenly realizing how impossible us being us would be.
I’d texted both of my sisters, and Adele after the ball had ended, and I frowned as I glanced over at my phone. Still nothing back — from any of them!
My thoughts were interrupted by a creaking sound by the far wall of my bedroom. I froze, my head whirling around to stare wide-eyed at the bookcase covering the secret doorway that led to the emergency escape passage. This was a castle, after all, of course there were secret doorways and passages.
But even as secret passages go, this one was a total secret — meant only for me in case of a life or death emergency. The staff didn’t even know about it. Of course, I used it as a spare closet most of the time, but still.
No one should have been back there, and I could have sworn the sound I’d heard was footsteps. And for one brief second, I wanted to hope beyond any rational thought that it was him. I wanted to believe that somehow, despite the impregnable security of my father’s palace, despite having watched him be escorted from the castle earlier after the ball, and despite the fact that my room was way up at the top of the west tower, that the sound I was hearing was him.
But I knew that was impossible, just like I knew seeing him again, or there being anything further with that dark, tortured, beautiful man was impossible.
My heart started to crack all over again, when the shuffling sound came again from behind the bookcase. An icy feeling crept up my spine.
It’s probably the wind, or this old castle creaking, you wimp, I told myself. You’re imagining things.
But there it was again, and this time, the sound of footsteps was unmistakable. I sat upright on the couch, wide-eyed and breathing quickly. My gaze darted to my cell phone, and then to the emergency line by the door to my room. But the top of the west tower was a far climb, even for guards rushing to save a princess. And whatever was behind my bookcase was definitely going to get to me first.