Page 3 of Escape From Me

Her words played around in my mind. Auctioned off too.

“But something tells me that you would find anything lucky if you had the chance to choose who you married?”

Her head moved, nodding against my hand, which was still loose around her neck.

“Wouldn’t you? I shouldn’t be a pawn in my father’s power grabs. Some might say I have everything, but what no one seems to see is that my life isn’t really my life.”

It was my turn to try to hide my reaction to the strange tightness in my chest at her words.

“Sweet little fallen princess, I don’t think anyone’s life is really theirs. Not until you take it.”

TWO

daisy

Take it?

Could I just take control of my life? There was an idea. Instead, I’d just been hiding in one corner and trying to avoid this arrangement. Power grabs. Alliances. Daughters being good for one thing and one thing only. Making alliances thicker than paper and ink.

The man in front of me? He smelled like cologne, of course, but it was trying to hide something gritty beneath. Metallic and dirty. Nothing like the men in my world.

I never said what I wanted. I was meant to be seen and not heard. But this man? The way his eyes focused on my lips, like he couldn’t quite decide what he was supposed to do with them. The warmth spreading through my belly though? It knew what I wanted without consciously even realizing it.

I wanted choices. But more than that, I wanted whatever came with him. The warmth of his hand around my neck should have been a power play, one that was meant to scare me. Instead, the way his fingers seemed to press closely over where I could feel my own heart beating was like he was trying to read me. Like there was something the pulsing of my blood could tell him.

I met his eyes, only for him to look back down at my lips, and then, without another word, he abruptly turned, taking that warmth with him.

“Wait,” I called after him, reaching for his suit coat, my fingers sliding over the smooth, expensive fabric before I caught the hem and pulled. “Wait. Please.”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder.

The man had a poker face. A darkness swirled through eyes that never seemed to actually meet mine, but somehow it felt like he still saw me.

I wanted to be seen.

“Wherever you’re going, take me with you.”

He smirked as he repeated my words. “Take you with me?”

I nodded and let go of his jacket and stood up, the fine organza of my dress reminding me how thin it was and how warm his hand had been. How warm that body had been against me a moment ago.

“Yes. Take me with you. You said to take control of my own life. So I choose to go wherever you’re going.”

For a man that I couldn’t read for anything, that little smirk his lips pulled into sent a shiver of thrill down my spine.

“Little dove, what exactly makes you think I want to take you with me?”

My hope sank.

“Nothing, I guess. But something tells me that you don’t live by the rules up here either,” I said with a fake confidence I didn’t really feel.

He slowly turned.

“I like rules but not rules made for people who seem to respect no one else’s. Follow me.”

Without another word he pulled me to him, pressing my body against his.

“Stay close.”

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