Halfway through Carina's tour of the palace, Spencer was called away to handle something seemingly urgent, and Carina was left to her own devices back inside.
Spencer looked apologetic for having to leave her alone, but Carina assured him it would be fine and he reluctantly took off after a couple minutes of Carina convincing him that she would be fine on her own.
At first Carina had spent her time in the sitting room, nibbling on a few more cookies, but then she had gotten bored and decided to explore the palace a little. She spoke to a maid about places she was allowed to visit and eventually she was guided to the library.
As she pushed the tall library doors open, the first thing that caught her attention was the refreshing minty scent in the air. Carina barely spared a glance to the bookshelves filled to the brim with all sorts of literature, and instead tried to follow her nose to where the intriguing smell was coming from.
Her nose eventually lead her in-between two of the bookshelves near the back of the room, and more specifically, to a body propped up against the wall in the middle, sleeping.
Carina gasped involuntarily at the sight of someone else being there, since she expected she would be alone.
"Prince Gabriel?" Carina whispered, puzzled, wondering what he was doing here, and why he was asleep.
Then her nose caught a whiff of that strange smell again, and she frowned, bending down and leaning a bit closer to his unconscious body to check if this was really where the smell was coming from.
"Perfume?" Carina wondered.
In that moment, Gabriel woke up, eyes suddenly opening and locking onto Carina, who's face was right in front of his.
Carina immediately stood back up, embarrassed at having been caught staring, and took a few steps back too to make sure there was more space between them.
"Excuse me, I'll be going now-"
Carina turned to leave, hoping he wouldn't think anything of what just happened, but before she could take a step he spoke up.
"Leaving so soon? Without even a greeting?"
Carina closed her eyes for a moment, cursing her bad luck, before turning around to face Gabriel with a fake smile.
"Greetings, Your Royal Highness. Now if you will excuse me, I'll be-"
"Stop trying to escape, Rayburn." Gabriel cut her off, a strange expression on his face. "Did you think you could just get a good look of me as I was sleeping and then leave?"
"I wasn't trying getting a good look of you." Carina scoffed.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's what it seemed like to me."
"You can believe that if you wish, now, I really have to get going-"
Gabriel, again, didn't let Carina finish her sentence, interrupting her by stepping forward and grabbing her hand.
Gabriel had a smirk on his face, and Carina vaguely wondered if he really thought girls liked this.
"You're going nowhere. You can deny it, but I think I know the real reason you appeared before me. It's alright, you don't need to lie, I know you think I'm devilishly handsome."
Carina rolled her eyes. "If you want the truth, I'll give you the truth. First of all, your brother is a thousand times better looking than you. And second, I only got near you because I thought you smelled."
She actually thought he smelled pretty good, but now she would rather choke than admit that to him.
Gabriel frowned at her response, dropping her hand and stepping back. "You really are strange."
"Thank you for the compliment." Carina replied, smiling in that plastic way she always did with people she didn't actually like. "Now I'll be leaving, and don't even think about stopping me this time."
Gabriel could only watch in confusion as she walked away from him, thinking about her eyes on his the moment he woke up, and how his heart had skipped a beat from the sight.
The soft look in her eyes went away the moment he opened his mouth though, but Gabriel wasn't exactly worried. He smirked to himself as he thought about having her make those eyes at him once again.