Chapter 7

Adriana didn’t sleep much last night, she twisted and turned on her bed, thoughts of Xavier and his wicked tongue and touch plaguing her mind.

She couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t ran away. Would they have had another tumble on his bed or hers? Would he have apologized for dissing her?

If he did apologize, would she have let him in? Would she have let him touch her again? Would she have let it have another go at her?

She knew the answers to all that, and it infuriated her how easy she was when it came to him.

This wasn’t who she was. Something had shifted in her, the night before at the club when her gaze had collided with his. But what could it be?

And she knew without saying, that whatever it was, it was the reason why she was so pliable when it came to him.

Urgh, she groaned, throwing her legs off of the bed. She had to get ready for the day, and forget about the hot prince, who plagued her mind day in and day out.

Yeah, who said it was gonna be easy?

For the rest of her day, Adriana spent hours finishing up her designs and trying to pick up the right fabrics to make Xavier’s tuxes.

She knew how important this job was, and what it meant for her to be specifically picked out for it, out of a thousand applicants, when she was sure that there were other people more qualified and with better fashion experience than she had. So, she should do everything within her capabilities to make sure that she didn’t fuck up this once in a lifetime opportunity that she had. Except, she was doing the exact opposite; wasting her time by trying to convince herself to stop thinking about the playboy prince, while still thinking about him, which was a direct violation of her contract.

What would Miss Lucy say if she found out about her onetime affair with the prince? Would she kick her out? Dishonorably fire her off the job? Or would she have her thrown in jail?

Fuck, things were already starting to get complicated, when she had promised herself before she had gotten on the plane to Veronia that she would stop doing complicated.

She knew that the only way to un-complicate things was to quit the job and run as far away from the palace and the prince as was humanly possible. But, she couldn’t bring herself to even think about the possibility of kissing her dream job goodbye, when she hadn’t even started. All she could pray for was that Xavier lost interest in her, and sniff around another lady, even though the thought of him kissing another, touching another who wasn’t her, made her sick to her stomach, a strong wave of irrational jealousy washing over her.

She hissed through clenched teeth, dumping her sketchbook, pencils, and the palace credit-card into her tote bag before slipping to her feet and heading towards the double doors, deciding some good old shopping would do good to assuage her irrational jealousy and make her forget about her situation-ship with the prince. After all, the way to a fashion designer’s heart, was always through some quality and colorful fabrics.

The market wasn’t far away from the palace so she decided to take a walk there, instead of taking a cab. It was a warm day, and the exercise would do good to calm her racing mind.

The city was bustling with people and vehicles, so it was tough trying to get through the crowd, but it was a rich and enjoyable experience nonetheless.

It reminded her of Manhattan a little; so much traffic in one place would make a person feel like an ant.

When she reached the market, Adriana found stalls selling all sorts of things. Food, jewelry, clothing, bags, dishware, and even some Veronian antiquities.

She found various stalls selling fabrics but being a designer for as long as she had been–which was all twenty two years of existence– Adriana knew that the stalls wouldn’t have exactly what she needed.

She wasn’t looking for a bargain; she was looking for quality material, and after making a few rounds around the open market, she found exactly the store she had been on the look out for. It was a store located behind a few stalls, its walls were almost bare, with peels of paint coating a few spaces here and there. But from outside, before she got in, her eyes snagged on the fabrics and she knew without a doubt that they held the highest quality than the others sold in the more presentable stalls.

The saying ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ had never been more appropriate.

She thumbed through the fabrics, picking out the ones she liked, touching each as she went, because the texture was everything, and the princes deserved nothing less than perfect. As she searched the fabrics, she couldn’t help but pick out the ones that would bring out his eye colors better, be it the slate grey or the icy blue. And call her crazy, but Adriana was looking forward to watching him try on the clothes that she was going to make for him.

When she was done with picking the fabrics, the saleslady rang her purchases and she paid for them, opting to have them sent to the palace instead of taking them with her.

She still needed a few moments to clear her head, and to check out the views of the country, before she headed back to her complicated workplace. And as luck would have it, she stumbled upon the last person she wanted to see today.

She froze, and before she could run away, he glanced her way, and their gazes locked momentarily.

Shocked, she grabbed the first thing she could find—a few long drapes of flower patterned blue fabric—and hid behind it.

Double fuck!

Nothing could hide her obvious blush the moment he ripped it away from her hands, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

Shit.

Why now? Why here of all places? Why was he here? And why did they always have to run into each other?

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” he drawled, with a lopsided grin, hoisting the fabric up, away from her grip.

“Oh, Lord…” she muttered, rolling her eyes to stem away the arousal that had hit her at the sound of his voice, as she turned around and grab at a random piece of cloth just so she could take her eyes off him and hide her reaction.

“It is good to see you too Miss Malloy,” he drawled, snatching the fabric away from her again.

She turned around and grasped at another fabric again, all the while cussing at her body for being turned on, just by the mere sound of his voice, and his proximity with her. How was she to survive a year of working with him, without being close to him? What sort of torture was this? If she had known that he was a prince, she wouldn’t have signed the contract that forbade her from interacting with him.

“It is good to see you too, Your Highness,” she sighed, when he mimicked her movement, turning to face him. “But I must go now, I have a lot of work to get done.”

“Have a drink with me,” he said, not acknowledging what she had said.

“I told you…”

“And I heard you,” he cut her off, with an eye roll which she found utterly attractive, damn her traitorous hormones and body. “It’s just one drink, I promise I won’t bite.”

“Unless you ask me to,” he added, winking at her.

She shouldn’t say yes. Lord, she shouldn’t even be thinking about saying yes. A drink, Xavier and her shouldn’t be in one place at the same time because drinking lowered ones inhibitions and without those inhibitions, who was to say that she wouldn’t agree to spending another night on his bed with him?

She knew that it was only a matter of time before she found herself back on his bed, naked but was it worth it.

“I can’t…” she began to say but his eyes pierced hers at that moment, and something unspoken went down between them. “Just a drink,” she found herself saying, returning the fabric she was holding back onto its stand.

“Whatever you say Adriana,” he rasped, his eyes banking with heat that made her legs almost turn to Jell-O.

What was it about this man’s virility that made him so irresistible to her, and made her forget all of her vows to stay away from him?

As she followed him back to his car, Adriana knew without a doubt that she was falling far down the rabbit hole, with no anchor to pull her up.

The only problem though was that she didn’t know whether or not she wanted to be pulled out or if she wanted to fall down deeper.