CHAPTER SIX
Serafina
It happened so fast, the world spun under my feet, disorienting.
A hand clamped over my mouth, fingers pressing hard against my lips, stifling the scream that tore from my throat. Horror shot through my veins like ice water.
I thrashed violently, my heart hammering against my rib cage like the wings of a gilded bird trying to break free. My elbow connected with something solid, a rib perhaps, but the grip around me only tightened.
I tried to scream again, but it was muffled by his large hand. My pulse thundered in my throat and my vision blurred with black dots.
Was I going to be… killed?
Oh my God.
Why did I come this far? Why did I leave the safety of the ballroom? Why, why, why? Stupid me.
Tears slid down my cheeks when I blinked, gasping for air against his palm. And that was when he laughed… a deep, morbid chuckle… and it sounded like a madman. Straight out of a horror movie.
The pit of my stomach quaked.
Absolute terror filled every cell in my body. I really was going to die tonight.
My whole body shook, a broken cry escaping past my lips. I kicked backward, desperate to escape.
“Such a fighter,” a dark voice whispered directly into my ear, low and dangerous. His hot breath brushed against my skin. The familiar timbre sent a jolt through my body, my spine stiffening in recognition. “I’m impressed, Princess.”
Thud.
Adrian.
Thud.
My body went limp in his arms.
Thud.
My heart stuttered.
How could he?
How dare he?
“Are you scared?” he rasped, dark, amused… taunting. “The perfect princess, all alone in the garden. Away from all the eyes. How reckless of you.”
His scent enveloped me, sandalwood and minty, expensive cologne mingled with whiskey. And something musky, darker, more primal. My struggles intensified, fury replacing fear as I now recognized my captor.
My arms came up and I clawed at his hand that still covered my mouth with my nails. I knew I made him bleed, but he didn’t seem to care. He only laughed again. In that same mocking way he did before. Only this time I didn’t find it horrifying.
No, it was maddening. Rage like nothing before filled me, coursing through my veins like wildfire.
“Careful now,” he murmured, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “You’ll ruin that pretty dress.” His grip tightened, pulling me more firmly against him until I could feel every hard line of his body against my bare back.
His hand relaxed a little and it was enough to give me an opening.
I bit down. Hard.
He hissed and then chuckled louder, darker… the sound vibrating through his chest and into my spine. “Vicious little thing, aren’t you?”
With a swift movement, Adrian spun me around to face him, one hand still firmly clasped over my mouth while the other gripped my waist with bruising force. His mask still covered half of his face, and in the moonlight, his blue eyes gleamed like a predator’s—calculating, amused, malicious.
“I didn’t know you were a biter.” He licked the corner of his lips. “I find that I quite like it.”
I glared at him with all the hatred I could muster.
“If I remove my hand, will you scream?” he asked, his head tilting slightly. I huffed back a response.
My body went rigid as he slowly removed his hand from my mouth, his fingertips dragging across my lips in an unexpected way that sent a sudden, inexplicable jolt through my body.
His other arm remained firmly around my waist, keeping me pressed against him.
“How dare you grab me like that?” I hissed the moment I could finally speak, my voice trembling despite my attempt at bravado. “Let go of me.”
“And why would I do that?” His breath was warm against my neck, sending unwanted shivers down my spine. “You’ve wandered right where I had been, almost like you were seeking me out. How is that my fault if you’ve put yourself right into my territory?”
I twisted in his grip, trying to break free but he was solid, immovable. “How delusional can you be? This isn’t your territory. Nothing here belongs to you.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he rasped. “You owe me a dance.”
“Let go of me!” I said again, loudly this time. Loud enough my voice echoed into the silence of the night.
“Careful, little bride,” Adrian warned, his eyes gleaming dangerously behind his black mask. “You don’t want to attract attention out here. What would your fiancé think if he found his precious future bride-to-be, alone in the dark with me? What would your family think?”
I hated him.
I hated him. I hated him. Goddamn it, I hated him.
“Oh how scandalous that would be for the princess,” he mocked. “Your innocence will be questioned.”
I had never been a violent person before, but somehow, for just a single moment, I imagined how his throat would look like. Slit. Bleeding.
Because I wanted to kill him myself.
“Are you sure you want to take such a risk, Serafina?” My name rolled off his tongue, like he was tasting molasses.
His hand moved up against my back, his fingers splaying, touching exposed skin.
Every part that his warm, rough fingertips touched, tingled.
It was at this moment that I wished my dress had been more conservative, covering every inch of my flesh.
“Don’t touch me,” I spat, my voice trembling with helpless fury. “How could you?”
Adrian’s lips curved into an infuriating half-smirk.
“I needed to see if you were as docile as you pretend to be.” He leaned closer, his face mere inches from mine, his warm breath feathering against my lips.
“I was right. There’s a burning flame, a mysterious chaos beneath that icy wall you have built around you. ”
“Get away from me.” I pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge. His solid strength was truly frightening. “My father will—"
“Your father?” Adrian laughed, the sound devoid of humor. “Is that your first instinct? To run to Daddy? How predictable.”
His fingers caressed my bare skin, almost mockingly. As if he wanted me to know that he could touch me so freely and I could do nothing about it.
Oh, he wanted me to be unpredictable? Fine. I’d give that.
“If you don’t let me go, I’ll scream,” I finally had the courage to threaten.
“And what will people say?”
“I will tell them you attacked me like a psychopath.”
Adrian grinned harder, evil and utterly sinful. “Are you so sure they will believe you?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “Because they know how deranged you are while I have an impeccable, perfect, untainted image.” I was a dignified woman and he was a degenerate.
“Is that right? Impeccable, perfect… untainted image, you say?”
Wild fury flooded through me with such ferocity I didn’t know was possible. “Let me go, Adrian. Last warning or I will scream.”
I was playing with fire. Testing his limits, and my own in the process. A part of me knew I wouldn’t scream. And I think Adrian knew that too.
His arm tightened around me, pulling me so close we were plastered against each other. I could feel his heartbeat thudding against mine. “Then scream, Princess,” he whispered, almost tauntingly, his warm breath feathering against my cold lips. “Scream as loud as you want. Do it.”
It was something in his voice, in his dark command, that made my brain stutter, as if Adrian had taken complete control of my body and senses. My lips parted, a scream bellowing from my throat.
But no one heard it.
Adrian slammed his mouth over mine, swallowing my scream.
I gasped. Thud. My eyes widened. Thud. My heart stuttered. Thud.
My body went limp in his arms. His hand moved up to the back of my neck, his fingers threading into my hair and he anchored me against him, keeping our lips locked.
I didn’t move. He didn’t either.
One ruined moment.
Two furious heartbeats.
Three shattering seconds.
My balled fists came to his shoulders, as if to push him away, but I… didn’t.
My pulse throbbed. My stomach fluttered. My fingers dug into his hard muscles.
And then he moved, licking the seams of my lips. I gasped again, which opened my mouth to him. His eyes closed and his tongue slid inside, slow and deliberate, tasting me.
His chest rumbled with a low groan and my thighs quivered. His scent surrounded me; his taste engulfed me.
A whimper I couldn’t control escaped me.
“Fuck,” he groaned into the kiss.
And in that precise moment, my gaze landed on my left hand on his shoulder.
My engagement ring gleamed under the moonlight and it glared back at me.
My engagement ring…
I was engaged…
To his brother.
God—
My eyes widened in utter disbelief, and mortification slammed through me like a cold chill. Shock coursed through my body and with all my strength I pushed Adrian away.
The movement was enough to surprise him and I stumbled back from the kiss. My lips felt bruised and I could almost still feel him on them, I could still taste him. At the same time, my lips burned with absolute shame.
“H-h-how…” I stuttered. “How c-could you? W-why did y-you do that?”
His gaze, intense and burning with something dark—unrecognizable, landed on mine. Adrian licked his lips, deliberately slow, as if to taste the remnant of our kiss.
Guilt slashed through me, like a sharp blade cutting my flesh open. Everything I knew, everything I upheld, every moral, every part of me that I had carefully put together over the years, shattered. I bled and withered at Adrian Salvatore’s feet, but he didn’t even notice. Or he simply didn’t care.
Adrian smirked wickedly. “Did I just steal your first kiss, Princess?” His words were sardonic, mocking… careless. I couldn’t bear it.
My chest rattled with a shudder and tears filled my eyes.
Adrian stole something that didn’t belong to him.
How could I have allowed something so catastrophic to happen?
I couldn’t breathe.
“What did you do?” I whispered, both frightened and ashamed.
I can’t breathe.
I took a step back, away from me. I couldn’t bear to be this close to him, to be in his presence. “Why did you do that?”
I took another step back.
He took one forward.
“Stop,” I said, almost pleaded.
“Why did I do what?”