That's enough of that. Roxane thought as she excused herself from the table and rose to her feet. The men all pleaded for her to stay, but she was determined to sneak outside the hall to catch her breath. It was quite exhausting for her to keep up the pretense of being interested in the men around her when her prey was the extremely vulgar Crown Prince.
All throughout the banquet she could feel the hot looks that were coming from the main table. She felt some sort of relief to see the prince completely forgetting Diana's existence as she sat stoically beside him. The prince made no intention to converse with her and she seemed comfortable with staying silent.
This bastard. He had abandoned his bride-to-be the very moment he found another woman to sink his teeth into.
Even now, as she got up from her seat, she could still feel the prince staring at her. She quickly made her way down the rows of tables lining the hall. For some reason, her eyes landed on a pair of curiously grey ones that seemed to be carefully watching Diana. She slowed down her pace as she inexplicably found his stare odd.
Noticing her, he lifted his eyes and focused his stormy gaze upon her. As if surprised by her sudden interest in him, his brown colored eyebrows, the color of autumn fallen leaves, shot up. From this one simple movement, a strand of his hair fell over his forehead.
Roxane eyed him suspiciously as she walked on by, hoping her stare would dissuade him from further watching Diana.
She was still staring down the man as she exited the hall, not paying attention to where she was going and causing her to entirely fail in taking notice the man she ran straight into upon leaving the room.
Roxane's hand flew up to her forehead, knitting together her eyebrows as she tried to regain her composure. The man in front of her didn't seem to mind as he waited for her.
She finally looked up, making sure to mask the displeasure of their run-in.
"Pardon me good sir."
Violet eyes peered back at her, a serene expression on his handsome face as it was half-obscured in the shadows casted from the dark hood he seemed to haphazardly pull over his head. The absence of a reaction from the man made Roxane's enchanting smile falter slightly.
"Excuse me miss." His voice startled Roxane out of her stupor as he stepped around her to continue on his way into the hall where the banquet is being held. She felt a strange feeling bubble up inside of her and she was tempted to call out to the man, but she soon shook herself of the feeling. She just had never seen someone disregard her without a second glance. It unnerved her to her core.
Sighing, she began walking down the hall, trying to find a secluded place in which she could relax.
She stumbled outside the temple, taking a deep breath of the outside air. It filled her lungs and when she exhaled, she could feel a tad bit better now.
"Enjoying the night air?" Roxane's whole body froze at the sound of footsteps approaching her from behind. She quickly wiped her face clean of any trace of revulsion and replaced it with another one of her charming smiles, one she hoped reached her eyes.
She turned to face the owner of the voice.
"Your Highness. Are you also taking a break from the celebration?" She asked innocently, a sly smile blossoming on her red lips.
"I am indeed. But please, call me Xavier." He moves to stand directly in front of her. Watching her intensely while looking down at her as she shone under the glow of the moonlight. A perverted smile is lazily shown on his face.
Roxane blinked her eyes as his hand reached up to caress her face. The suddenness of his touch made her shiver with repulsion, but he must have mistaken it for something else as his smile grew wider underneath his mustache.
"Have you ever been told your eyes are as beautiful as all the gold in the world." His hot breath blasted onto her face and she internally sneered at his words.
"As a matter of fact, I haven't your Highness. If it had come from anybody else's mouth, I would have said they were liars, but since it is you, I feel myself believing that it must be true." She played the role of a love-struck woman very well, she thought, as she lowered her eyelashes like she was overcome with shyness from the words she had just uttered.
"You are the most ravishing woman I have ever laid eyes on." He continued his onslaught of compliments as he took hold of her chin with his hand, excitedly flaring his nostrils as he watched her.
"Your Highness." She let out a breathy whisper, which seemed to cause the prince to temporarily lose control of his sanity as he grabbed her waist and aggressively pull her against him. His hungry lips assaulted the side of her face as he pressed them down on her. Roxane was so close to him she could picture herself slitting his throat right then and there.
"Tell me, would you be interested in moving to the capital? You could have a place at court and everything you have ever dreamed about- jewels, dresses, and money- everything and anything." He whispered into her ear. "We could have so much fun together too. Every night. From dusk until dawn." His voice lowered as he made himself as appealing as possible.
Roxane laughed lightly as she ducked out of his embrace.
"Tantalizing offer my prince." She turned again to face him. "But you already have your queen, and the temple of Kara always preaches to not covet another woman's man. You see, I could never hurt Diana."
"She doesn't have to know." He growled. "You could come as one of her handmaidens. As long as you are by my side, there's no limit to how much wealth you could accumulate."
Roxane placed a hand over her heart.
"I am still a priestess of this temple. I cannot go against its teachings. Do you really need to marry her?"
The prince hesitated at her question, but soon answered her.
"I do. But don't worry. I will shower you with all the gifts in the world to make up for it. I only need Diana to take care of another matter, but my heart will always belong to you." Roxane's eyes narrowed. Frustrated by his unexpected response, she tried to stomp out the feeling of interrogating him on the matter.
"Is she really that important?" She hugged herself, pretending to not be able to look at him for the hurt she felt. "If you need a priestess then I do not see why I can't fulfill that role."
In a flash the prince was back at her side, hugging her from behind.
"I can't tell you the details, but you'll only need to place your trust in me. For reasons bigger than you and I, I need to marry Diana, if in name only, we'll be husband and wife. If you agree I will make you one of my consorts. With your looks you could quickly rise through the ranks and even more so if you father my child."
It was then that she felt her fingertips begin to itch. She needed to separate from the prince, unless she wanted to slash at his throat and throw her whole plan into a state of disarray.
Thankfully, she didn't have to resort to such measures, as the two were interrupted by a man who the prince seemed to be very familiar with.
"What is it cousin? Don't you see we are in the middle of something?" Cousin? She eyed the man she saw at the banquet, the only one who stood out to her. His grey eyes that were fixated on Diana now were focused squarely on Roxane who was still in the prince's arms. Roxane felt her face twist into a look of confusion as she pushed away the prince. She danced out of his reach.
"It seems your cousin would like to speak with you. Please excuse me your Highness." She bowed her head and made her escape, but not before watching with amusement as the prince glowered at his cousin who admittedly overshadowed him with his good looks. It was a surprise to her to find out these two were related at all.
"Apologies your Highness, but I really must speak with you." The prince's cousin's eyes peeled away from her as she whisked past him.
She heard the prince tsk underneath his breath.
"You have always been the biggest dunce in our family Thatcher. Very well, tell me what is so important that it couldn't have waited until the morning."
She disappeared around the bend, feeling only a bit sorry for the grey-eyed man. The prince was his problem now and she needed to take another bath to scrub herself clean of any traces of the despicable man.