"What's a beautiful noble woman like you doing out here when there's dancing to be done?"
She smirked at him and turned back to the stallion.
"You startled me,"
He casually bounced off the barn wall and approached her until he was leaning on the stall door.
"Do you prefer the company of animals."
She glanced at him beneath her lashes, "Somtimes. It depends on my alternatives."
He smirked and spun a large, stray, metal button between his fingers. It was intricately decorated with swirls and flowers.
"I see."
She quirked a perfectly arching brow and turned to look at him fully.
Her eyes sparked a challenge that both thrilled him sent him into his killing calm.
"I believe you and I have met before."
She very nearly rolled her eyes and he could see the dismissal in her gaze; just what he was expecting. For he knew she was expecting the same old line. The one where he knew her from a dream or what have you.
Instead he turned his cards and showed a glimpse of his actual hand. The one that could walk into a room filled with people and analyze exactly who was dangerous, who was pretending, who was vulnerable.
He looked at the floor boredom etched on his face as he began naming the pretenses he had gleamed.
"You prefer to sit in the stables when there's a room full of everything good that money can buy. Not only because your bored of the wealthy things in life bit also the people who process them. You have no interest in any of the men at this party or for marriage in general which is why you wear a wedding band when you go out and your father isn't around." His eyes went from her empty left hand which had the most subtlety pale line and instead bore holes into her stunned eyes; which seemed to glow violet as he read her further, "Titles bore you, which is why even though you clearly have the status to be at this party, you dressed more plainly than any woman here; you long to be free from the chain of society." He very purposefully gazed at her lips even as the thrill of watching her pulse thrum in the delicate curve of her neck tempted to derail that purposeful glance. "You want to be free to kiss who you want, and leave them after if it suits you too although you've never kissed a man before." That last part was a guess and he smirked as he realized it wasn't true. For she straightened, the spell broken. A small laugh left her lips. She twirled a stray piece of her hair hiding her embarrassment at how flushed she was over a stranger's words
"I am as free as I need be."
She didn't correct him. He noted it.
He seemed to think this over relaxing further into the wood of the stall door he turned his metal button in his calloused fingers.
"Perhaps."
Nadine turned to him a questioning look on her face.
"Who are you?"
He smiled at her, disarmingly charming, "My name is Edward Euthania."
"Well Mr. Euthania, are you going to ask me to dance? Or are you just here for calloused assumptions?"
He stared as he tried to figure out the strange feeling that crept over him. He was unnerved; the calm excitement of the hunt giving way to something else.
He was sure it had something to do with the mischievous grin.
After a moment she titled her head back at him the mischief sparkling as a cocky smile graced her lips.
"Would you perhaps be left to the company of animals Mr. Euthania?"
"Only if you tell me your not happy with your alternative." There was a devilish smile on his handsome face, but his insides were turning as if he was among the back alleys of the city, outrunning the red collared for the first time.
Playfully she pulled away from the barn and looked at him from head to foot.
"You are a middleclass man?" There was no judgement in those beautiful cloudlike eyes.
"I am." He produced no more information to her and the next few seconds felt like hours.
"I will dance with you, though I should not." His heart plummeted in his chest, but he made himself smile and offered her a arm.
As he led her from the barn he steered her not towards the manor, but instead to the gardens beside the stables. Let her think he was being gentleman like. It suited his purpose to not be seen with her by anyone tonight and the thought sobered him as he steered her beneath a beautiful willowed tree. The music from the manor floated out softly into the sweet garden air and he turned her. She spun into him arms effortlessly and they twirled and moved as one. She smiled, pleasantly surprised, "Where did you learn to dance like a noble man."
He answered her truthfully, "My father taught me when I was very young."
It had been part of growing up. He knew the manors to eat with the richest of the rich and dance with them too.
She frowned at his change in mood and halted the dance. His hands held her hips, her hands rested on his shoulder, a breeze blew around her ankles as she tilted his face. Instead of asking the millions of questions on her mind, (Was your father a nobleman once, Did you two not get along, why do you look so sad all of the sudden,) she smiled at him. A grin lit his face and she touched the long thin scar on his face lightly. A silent invitation to tell her a story that he didn't want to share. He blinked and suddenly he felt completely and utterly wrong. He was acting like he wanted her to know him. An act he had done a thousand times. Her gentle curiosity went straight to the most vulnerable parts of himself. Most would have been tied up with his backstory, where had he come from? Where did he live? What did he do for work?
The violet eyed beauty in front of him hardly asked a word with her mouth, but her eyes... her eyes asked real questions.. Questions he didn't want to answer. It was different, it was dangersous, and it was throwing him off. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes with a charming smile,
"Shall we?"
She withdrew her hand with a gentle smile, and turned to the next beat of the song. The small magic capsule that would make her faint if he crushed it between his fingers felt like a thousand pounds in his pocket. A quick snap in front of her face would leave her walking and functioning tamely to his every whim. She would recollect nothing until it effectively wore off. She would also forget the last half hour prior, and that somehow bothered him.
The dance came to a slow as they held their hands up to each other and circled throughout the garden. Their hands fell and she stepped into him. He grabbed her hips and held her for a moment before pushing her effortlessly into the air. The soft light of dusk painted her dark hair in a blueish light. This is where the gentleman would quickly lower the lady and she would go into a wide twirl. He had to get back to a game he knew. He had somthing different in mind, his hands came down ever so slowly. Their eyes met and her lips were beautiful shimmering pink. Her feet touched the ground and he leaned towards her. He half expected her to pull away, but when his lips touched hers there they were; soft and eager. He thought perhaps if she was lust blinded she wouldn't ask so much with her eyes. His mouth wielded hers to his will, strong and gentle until her lips parted and he tasted the sweet mint. Somthing unexpected happened. He felt a lightning bolt of energy, and real lust filled him as he pulled her closer still, and gently released her mouth. He brought his forehead to rest on her hair, feeling as though he'd been punched in the gut with no idea how to recover. Her hair smelled like lemongrass and some other pleasant flower. He found himself breathing in the scent as if storing it away even as he accounted every moment as a mistake.
This wasn't a normal hit he could spin away from, blade in hand ready to concure it. She wasn't like the other woman he had played this game with. Their was somthing honest in her eyes; the gentle trembling of her lips; the soft breathlessness in the small space between them as their breath mingled. The capsule utterly and completely forgotten for a moment.
"Can I meet with you again?"
He told himself the party was not died down enough to execute this job.
Her smile was like fresh water in a drought.
"I would like nothing better."
He escaped from busier parties with far heftier things, and people.
He smirked, feeling foolishly out of control as he watched his body and listened to his mouth. He watched himself step away his hand gently lingering in hers.
"I have to go. Meet me two days from now? In the marketplace square by the little dying willow."
"Yes, at day break."
"Not a moment later," he said smiling. He was stepping away from her when she caught his sleeve.
"Edward," she laughed softly as he stopped, she leaned in and softly whispered in his ear, "aren't you going to ask me my name?"
He smirked devilishly, he already knew her name but it was cute how mistchieviously she said it. "My name is Nadine." she added sweetly, "Nadine Ravenglass."
He smiled, There was footsteps on the gravel. "Nadine, I will see you again soon."
He exited the manor with a dissappointed scowl on his face.
Whatever powerful emotions of lust and starstruck giddiness were gone. Replaced with anger and disbelief toward himself. Control returning to him like a familiar cloak. Whatever his feelings showed on his face had dissapeared as he swung into his carriage. A large man that went by the name of Rat, sat in the front, he was here to pick him up involuntarily. His cold brown gaze was prodding beneath that tangle of honey blond hair, and scarface swallowed silently. His face like stone as he spoke,
"Things went badly. I couldn't find her alone, We'll have to wait for the next opportunity."