-CELINE’S POV-
I want to disappear. If the floor could crack open and swallow me whole, I wouldn’t even scream.
I wouldn’t even care. Not when I can feel a hundred pairs of eyes crawling over me, judging me, undressing me-ming mé,
ming me for standing where I shouldn’t. For dancing with a man I have no business touching. For breathing in a room that doesn’t belong to me.
I bow my head, my fingers trembling against the frayed seams of my in dress. It still smells faintly of sugar and cream, leftover from the ident earlier.
Or maybe it’s a shame that I’m smelling. I can’t tell the difference anymore. My teeth sink into my lower lip harder than they should. The sting feels necessary.
Grounding.
Reminding me that this is real. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be dancing with him. I shouldn’t-
My gaze lifts and collides with Charlotte’s from across the room.
Her stare is icy. The kind of cold that makes you feel like you’ll never be warm again.
I’m not sure who looks away first. Maybe I do. But the cold clings to me long after her gaze is gone. And then Hunter does something that makes my heart stop altogether.
He smiles.
At Nathaniel. But there’s no warmth in it. It’s the kind of smile that makes you feel like you’ve already lost something. And then he says it.
“I’ll give her to you,” Hunter tells Nathan, tilting his head in that effortless way that makes him look dangerous. “But not before I have the first waltz.”
His words float through the air, slow and deliberate. I hear a few menugh under their breath. Nathaniel looks amused.
And I-I’m frozen. My feet don’t move as Hunter tugs my hand, guiding me to the center of the floor. I should resist. I should say no. But instead, I let him.
I don’t even realize I’m still wearing my stained apron until his hand tugs at it, yanking the knot loose.
“Take it off,” he says under his breath.
I fumble with the straps until he gives up waiting and does it himself. The apron falls away, leaving me feeling exposed even though I’m still fully clothed.
He tosses it to one of his maids without a second nce. She catches it, her face unreadable. The head maid whispers my name from the sidelines, her voice sharp but hushed.
“Celine,” she hisses, motioning for me toe back.
I want to listen to her. I do. But then his fingers tighten around my wrist. “Don’t move,” he warns his voice like steel wrapped in silk.
I swallow. My body listens to him even though it shouldn’t. Even though everything inside me creams not to.
His hand slides to my waist, and suddenly I’m facing him, standing so close I can feel his breath. It’s warm. It smells like expensive whiskey and
something else I can’t name.
We start moving, and my heart pounds hard enough that I think it might shake me apart.
But I follow his lead. One step. Another. Like I was made for this.
Like we’ve done this a thousand times before when we haven’t.
When we shouldn’t.
“You act like you don’t want this,” he murmurs, his lips brushing my ear as we move in time to the music.
My breath catches. I can’t look at him. I can’t look anywhere.”But your body says otherwise,” he finishes, and I swear I feel the words sink into my skin.
Like a secret, I didn’t mean to tell. Like a confession, I’m not ready to give. I gasp, my fingers trembling as I try to step back.
He doesn’t let me.
His hand presses firmly against my back, pulling me closer until there’s no space left between us. I can feel his heart beating through his suit.
Steady.
Controlled. While mine races like it doesn’t know how to slow down. Our eyes lock, and I feel it.
The crackle. The current. Like we’re standing in the middle of a lightning storm, but neither of us is running for cover. I don’t know who leans in first.
Maybe it’s him.
Maybe it’s me. But there’s a breath between us that doesn’t feel like enough space for either of us to survive.
And then it happens. A voice cuts through the moment like a de. “Well, well… don’t you two look cozy.” I flinch, my body jerking back, even though Hunter’s hand doesn’t move.
Caroline.
Her voice is a slow drawl, but it carries. Like honey that’s turned sour. Like poison dressed in something sweet.
I twist in Hunter’s grip, my heart pounding in my throat. She stands there, arms crossed, wearing a dress that costs more than I’ll ever see in a lifetime.
Her smile is sharp.
Her gaze was sharper.
“I didn’t know we were dancing with the help now,” she says, tilting her head. Nathanielughs behind her, but it’s different now.
Meaner.
Hungrier. I feel like a rabbit standing in the middle of a field full of wolves.
Hunter doesn’t flinch, He doesn’t even blink. His hand stays on my waist like it belongs there. He looks at Caroline and says nothing.
But his silence is louder than any words he could have spoken.
She shifts ufortably, her confidence flickering for a second before she recovers.
“I suppose everyone has their… tastes,” she says, and there’s a flicker of something cold in her eyes.
Anger. Protectiveness. I couldn’t understand my best friend’s tone. I’m not sure which is w in my throat.
I find my voice, even though it feels like it’s been crushed
“I should go,” I whisper to Hunter, but I’m not sure if he hears me. He does. His hand drops from my waist slowly, like he’s making a point.
“Go,” he says, but it’s not an order.
It’s something else. Something I don’t understand. I step away from him, my knees shaky. Caroline watches me leave, her gaze hot on my back like an
open me.
Thear the whispers follow me as I move toward the corridor.
“She’s different,” someone says.
“She doesn’t belong here,” another murmurs.
But it’s Nathaniel’s voice that haunts me the most. “This keeps getting Interesting,” he drawis. “He didn’t deny it.”
I don’t realize I’m holding my breath until I’m out of sight. And when I finally let it out, it’s shaky, Broken:
I press my back against the cool wall, my palms t against the surface as if I need it to hold me up. My heart still hasn’t slowed down
I don’t think it will.
Because now there’s a question in the air. One I don’t know the answer to. One that no one dares ask out loud. But we all feel it
We all see it.
What am I to him? And why didn’t he deny it?
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