“Well,” Gisella began as she tried not to stutter through her sentence, “I suppose you are… decently adequate.”
The stranger only raised his brow at her with a bemused look.
“I seem to recall you expressing your utmost devotion to me and my acts of saving you.” He walked closer to her, “In fact if I recall your exact words were ha—“
“Okay!” Gisella laughed as she stood up from her seat, “Okay, moving on…” It took a while for her inflamed face to calm down and only once her raging heart stopped hammering could she begin to speak with him again.
“Do you want some?” She offered him the last piece of her bread Ivon had given her. The stranger only shook his head and refused politely. Gisella thought nothing of it as she ate the last bite and dusted her hands off.
“So, you’re royalty.”
“It would seem so.”
“Do all members of the council wear golden bands?”
He shook his head, “Only the royal family. That would be the King himself, then my brother and I.”
Gisella only found herself humming at the new information. “That makes sense. Though I don’t see why everyone is all hush about it, is there something wrong with talking about the bands?”
The stranger faltered in his step for a moment before he regained his senses, “I don’t suppose so. Though you are asking one of the less than handful of people who wear these things about it. I doubt I would know what goes on in the lives of the people.”
Gisella turned her face to stare at him then and regarded him. There were so many new things she was now beginning to learn about the young stranger. The most striking thing was the way he addressed the members outside of the royal court.
He didn’t call them servants or peasants like she had heard the King refer to them as at the performance, but as people. She thought back to the first moment she had met him.
“Why were you there?” She couldn’t stop herself from asking as her curiosity got the better of her. He only turned to her with a questioning raise of his brow.
“At the market, I mean.” She clarified.
He shrugged his shoulders as he turned into the garden and moved towards the well. “Is it so unheard of that royalty walks through the kingdom?”
She thought about it for a moment, “No, I don’t suppose so. These roses are gorgeous.” She said as she ran her hand over the tops of them then moved to stand against the cobblestone foundations of the well, “That’s the other thing. Are you going to tell me your name?”
But the stranger only smiled down at her as he too leaned against the cobblestone walls of the well beside her and crossed his arms over his broad chest. She huffed, annoyed, and rolled her eyes at him.
The two of them stood there in silence as the night grew darker and Gisella sighed loudly at the sight of the stars above them.
The stranger’s sudden voice broke through the silence and shocked her. He had stood so still beside her that she forgot for a brief moment that he was there.
“You were exquisite tonight.” He breath caught in her throat at his sudden compliment. “As soon as I saw you on that stage, I knew you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.” Gisella had to remind herself to continue breathing. “And when you began dancing…”
The stranger didn’t finish his sentence, but the noise he made at the end of it made a bolt of electricity shoot right into her stomach.
Despite the shock of being so freely complimented by an attractive man, she found herself not believing his words. He might’ve seen the look of hesitation on her face, too, because the next words he spoke surprised her.
“You don’t believe me?” He asked.
But before she could answer he was in front of her quicker than she could follow and his large hands came to rest on the cobblestone wall beside her.
He leaned in to her closer and closer and her beating heart only thrummed harder in her chest the more he leaned forward. “Why don’t you believe me?”
His lips were close enough to hers that she could feel the cool breath that escaped him, and her lips tingled at the sensation. She tried to maintain eye contact—she also tried to stop her body from shaking in excitement at his close proximity.
It was like the atmosphere between them had changed in a millisecond, and she was beyond confused and curious to see how this would go.
His body was pressed to hers and she could feel all the hard lines and rigid muscle against her own defined body. She felt the strain in his arms at her sides as he too gripped the surface of the well to keep himself steady.
If she leaned closer, even by a hair’s breadth, they would be kissing. And, despite having met the stranger only a few times, she wanted nothing more than to tangle her hands in his hair and pull him flush against her.
Her eyes fluttered shut for a brief moment before she willed them open. She didn’t want to break that delicious eye contact, didn’t want to look away from him and the way he was looking at her now.
It sent a sort of power through her—electrifying and confident—the way he stared at her. Like he wanted to ravish her and cherish her all at the same time. Gisella couldn’t remember the last time she saw someone look at her that way—if someone ever did.
She brought her hands up to his arms and squeezed lightly as they travelled up to his shoulders and down his chest.
Gisella heard him take a sharp intake of breath, then another stuttering one followed and he ran his nose from the top of hers and across her cheek. Finally his mouth came to rest near her ear, and by then her chest was heaving up and down from the tension.
“Do you believe me now?”
A shaky breath left her. His voice sounded the way she felt, and she knew if he didn’t kiss her then she felt like she might explode.
But he didn’t kiss her. And with one swift movement, he was standing away from her and walking back towards the castle entrance.
Gisella had to knock her head against the roof of the well and take a moment to steady herself before she could follow him.
The stranger, who had taken captive her heart it seemed, led her directly back to the performers’ quarters where she and the rest of her troupe were staying. Without another word he nodded to her and left her there.
She stared after him as he left with a newfound yearning she had not felt before. Gisella went to bed that night and thought about nothing but the handsome stranger.
A thought crossed her mind about the golden bands on his wrists and the aversion everyone seemed to have about talking about such things. She shook her head. Those were questions for another night.
The next morning Gisella would wake up feeling like she barely slept to an ecstatic Roseia jumping on her with a rose and a note in hand. When prompted and asked what exactly she was so excited about, Roseia only squealed in delight.
“This was dropped off this morning for you,” Roseia said as she handed her the items, “Read it!”
‘Dance for me tonight,’ it read. Gisella let her eyes travel the page and at the bottom a crimson R was scratched into the parchment in neat cursive handwriting.