Chapter 1 #2
Oh dear god, it’s him. Viktor of House Draven. The male from the portrait. The darkest badass of Krovenian Vampires.
His long black coat drips rainwater onto the stone floor in slow, steady plinks.
His dark hair is plastered to his forehead and curling at the ends, water trailing down his temples.
The collar of his dark shirt is open. There’s scruff on his hard jaw and his perfect lips are slightly parted.
I can see the very tips of his fangs. He’s furious-handsome, storm-soaked and devastating.
My entire body heats up in response.
Oh wow.
His eyes lock onto me. The Crown Prince drips rain onto the floor, looking at me like I’m a problem he hasn’t decided how to solve yet.
I become aware, with a slow, sinking horror, that I am meeting my employer for the first time, at midnight, in his kitchen, looking like I’ve just been rescued from a sleepover gone wrong.
My hair is in a ponytail at the top of my head, without a speck of makeup and there’s a clay mask drying on my face.
Dammit. How unprofessional can this possibly be?
I set the pastry down on the island, very, very slowly, as if not making a sudden movement will somehow make him forget what he just walked in on. I clear my throat. “Um.”
His head tilts, just slightly. “Who are you.” His voice is low and rough and it does something to my insides that I am going to ignore forever.
I swallow. “Hazel.”
He waits.
“Um, I’m Hazel Novak. I’m the new nanny.
You hired me.” I add, because the silence is awful.
“Well, Madam Petrova hired me, through The Bellamy Group. You were away. She has hiring authority,” I ramble.
“She told me she had hiring authority. I have a contract, it’s in my room. I can go get it if you?—”
“The new nanny.”
“Yes.”
“In my kitchen. At midnight.”
I bite my lip. “Technically it’s eleven fifty-three.”
I close my eyes for one brief, mortified second, and remind myself that I have been a model employee for five whole days.
Politegood mornings and yes-ma’ams and never voicing an opinion when one wasn’t asked for.
I have beenmeasured and contained . My entire life I’ve been told I’m a bit much, that I say things I shouldn’t, especially to people I shouldn’t say things to, and I’m trying to do better.
I open my eyes, fully prepared for my new employer to already be annoyed with me. But his lips— His lips justtwitched . I see it happen. Just the smallest pull at the corner of his mouth, gone before I can be sure it was real. He’samused?
The Crown Prince steps fully into the kitchen. Slowly. Deliberately. Like he’s giving me time to flee. He stops on the other side of the island.
“Viktor,” he says.
“Hmm?”
“My name.”
“Oh.” I blink. “I mean—Your Highness? Sir? I genuinely have not figured out the right honorific. Madam Petrova just calls you His Highness . I’ve been practicing the curtsy, but I haven’t really nailed it yet?—”
He shakes his head. “I want none of that from you. You may to call me Viktor.”
My brow furrows. “Just Viktor?”
“For now.”
For now? For now what? I open my mouth to ask. I close it. I open it again. I close it again. I am a fish. How can I possibly call the Crown Prince by his first name? He has to know that’s impossible.
His eyes drop just for a second, down the length of me—the pajamas, the slippers, the bare legs—and back up to my face.
My cheeks heat up. I shift on my feet, trying to relieve the insistent heat that’s growing between my thighs.
He inhales. Slow. Deep. His jaw goes tight.
I have absolutely no idea what’s happening, but something is happening, and I can feel it in the soles of my fuzzy white slippers. It feels wonderful and yet dangerous at the same time. I’m finally meeting the Dark Prince and he’s everything I’d imagined, and more.
“You’re eating my pastries,” he says.
“Yes.”
“At midnight.”
“Eleven fifty-four now, I think.”
His lips twitch again.
I am going to combust.
“I have a contract,” I tell him, more for my own benefit than his. “It includes meals and snacks. I’m allowed to eat. I just wanted to clarify that, in case?—”
“You think I’m going to fire you over a pastry.”
“…Maybe?”
“No.”
I exhale.
“You wear that to bed?” he questions with a rough voice.
I glance down at my skimpy pajamas. “Yes? It’s summer. The estate is warm. I—” I gesture helplessly. “I didn’t think anyone would see me.”
He grunts. “You didn’t think anyone would see you.”
I throw my hands up. “I thought I was getting a snack and no one would ever know I was roaming the castle like this. You were supposed to be back hours from now.”
“My business concluded early.”
“I noticed.”
He stares at me.
I back stare at him.
“What is that on your face?”
I lick my lips. “It’s a face mask. It’s supposed to make my skin softer. I’m going to wash it off when I get back to my room.”
The space between us, across the marble island, suddenly feels charged.
I clear my throat. Loudly.
He inhales again, sharper this time. His knuckles flex once, then go very still at his sides. “Go to bed, Hazel.”
His voice is barely human and also very commanding.
My eyes widen. Oh wow. “Right,” I respond and take a step back. “It was nice meeting you. Welcome home. Apologies for the—” I gesture at myself, the pajamas, the entire scene. “—everything.”
I keep my chin up as I swiftly walk out of the kitchen. I make it three feet past him, two feet, one foot, into the doorway?—
And I then hear him inhale again.
I don’t look back.
I make it ten more feet down the corridor before I break into a run, fuzzy slippers and all. I make it back through all the formal areas and take the stairs two at a time and then race down the last hallway. I shove open the door to my room, close it behind me, lock it, lean against it.
My heart is hammering so loud I can hear it. I press a hand to my chest.
What was that?
His eyes had gone darker. I’m sure of it.
I press my hand harder against my chest, and I remind myself, very firmly, that having a fling with Lily’s father is an impossibility.
I’m here to do a job. One year and I’ll be debt-free, my professional reputation rebuilt and Lily will be taken care of.
A small Midwestern girl will get to say she once worked in the country of Krovenia, for a vampire prince.
It will be an interesting story for my future grandkids.
That’s the plan. I am not here for anything else.
I am especially not here to entertain sexy thoughts about Lily’s father .
No, no, no. I need to focus on Lily, and that’s it.
The Bellamy Group would fire me if they found out I was flirting with him or doing anything at all inappropriate. The contract will void. And I can’t allow for Lily to have yet another nanny walking out on her.
Absolutely not.
I take a long, shaky breath in the dark.
I am here to do a job.
That’s it.