Veronica

I walked right up to the angel in human form, not even bothering to pretend that I was passing him by. I looked him squarely in the eye, tossed my hair, and stepped directly into his path.

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced,” I said, putting on a brilliant smile. My man-catching smile, my mother liked to call it. Then I patiently waited for him to respond with his own name.

The man did not disappoint. “Tomas,” he said, with a smile of his own. That voice! It was like melted chocolate and brushed velvet and cigar smoke all at once. The rumble in it caught in my own throat, and I felt my cheeks heat.

I shook my head, trying to get a grip. I was acting like some untried schoolgirl, and not the confident head of the De Vernsey family. So he had a nice voice. And a face fit for the gods. His hair was the same color as the night sky, and his eyes were the same deep green color of emeralds and fairy forests. And he was tall, with well-built shoulders and a chiseled chest that his poor-fitting white shirt could not hide.

Tomas was staring at me too, a gleam of appreciation in his eye. “I wonder, my lady, what your intentions could be, brazenly introducing yourself like this to a lowly valet like myself?”

I waved his comment away. “Valet, noble, merchant, it doesn’t matter. Why should our class difference matter when we’re just trying to enjoy each other’s company?”

He cocked his brow. “And what kind of enjoyment are you talking about?”

My lips quirked up into a sly smile. “I’m more than happy to provide a few ideas if you don’t have any…”

“Oh?” He raised his brow. “Go on.”

Even his smile was charming. It was slightly lopsided, his full lips parting just enough to reveal two rows of perfect white teeth.

Focus, Veronica. “Merchants have dealings with people all over the world.”

“Which means?”

I drew closer, close enough that I could smell the slight hint of spice and lemons and musk that floated off of him like the world’s loveliest perfume. “Which means I’ve had the opportunity to pick up plenty of—let’s call them techniques.”

He took a step forward too, his beautiful eyes lighting up with a teasing gleam of their own. His smile turned almost predatory. “Is that right?” he said, his tone dipping to a purr. “I must say, I’m not too familiar with merchants—I didn’t realize that you mixed business with pleasure so often.”

“Well, as a general rule, I try not to…but you know what they say.” I took that last step toward him, finally closing the distance between us. “Rules were meant to be broken.”

I could feel the heat rolling off his body. His lips were inches away, those devilish eyes of his trapping us in a world all our own. Everything else faded to gray, then disappeared completely. There was nothing but me, and him, and those angelic lips of his.

Slowly, so slowly I thought I might burst from the anticipation, he started to lean down…

“If all our esteemed guests will gather in the hall! The reception will begin in a few minutes!”

A voice like a chicken squawk sliced through the still night air. We jumped apart, my face turning an embarrassing shade of scarlet. He looked vaguely guilty, as if he couldn’t quite believe his own behavior.

He grunted, gesturing toward the voice. “You probably should go,” he said gruffly.

“Oh, yes, I probably should. I—I’ll see you around!”

As I fled the scene, my cheeks blazing hotter than the sun, I realized a second too late that I’d never asked Tomas for his last name.

It took a drink (or four) at the reception before my face returned to normal. A couple merchants tried to approach me, but I turned them all down with a polite shake of my head. One was too thin, the other too old, another too bald for me to even consider so soon after my charged encounter with Tomas. None of them could even hope to compare to the hot valet I’d run into on the garden path.

“Ah, there you are, Lady de Vernsey!”

I cringed as Marchioness Gorley emerged from the crowd. Her shrill, irritating squawk sent my latest potential suitor running. She attached herself to my side, sliding her thin arm through mine as if we were the best of friends.

“You would not believe what I’ve managed to find out,” she jabbered. “The duke is up to his ears in gambling debts, and the honorable Lady Petrarch has been having dalliances with her stablehands.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured, already feeling the beginnings of a massive headache pressing against my temples.

“The earl, blessings on his house, is impotent,” she said, fanning herself frantically with her fan. “And Prince Bennett—”

She lowered her voice, ducking her head as the prince himself passed by. He was tall, handsome, charming, although his sunny smile was ruined somewhat by the tired smudges under his eyes.

“Prince Bennett is rumored to be King Cyrus’s number one pick for heir. And he is still unattached… Why the king hasn’t arranged a marriage for him yet is anyone’s guess,” the marchioness whispered, giggling like a little girl. “Maybe I should throw my own hat in the ring.”

I was only half listening, because my attention was on someone who was walking beside Prince Bennett. A man with hair like black ink, eyes like emeralds.

So Tomas is Bennett’s valet. I supposed it made sense. There was something about him, a refined air that was utterly out of place on an ordinary servant. But if he was a personal servant of the royal family, it made sense that he would be more elegant and polished than the average valet.

“Come!” The marchioness slipped her arm through mine and practically dragged me into the ring of fawning merchants surrounding Bennett. I only caught half a sentence of his imperious rant, but a handful of words were more than enough. I tuned him out, preferring to take furtive glances at Tomas instead. He seemed to be glancing at me too, although I could never catch him in the act. He was far too fast for me.

The marchioness tried a few times to break the flow of conversation and draw Bennett’s attention to herself, but the other merchants wouldn’t let her get so much as a word in. She scowled, crossing her arms in front of her chest, looking more like a spoiled, overgrown toddler than a refined lady.

Then a maid with a silver tray full of empty glasses passed by. The marchioness’s face lit up, and she stepped a half-foot backward, so the maid was forced to move around her. Just as their skirts brushed against each other, she gasped and lurched forward, spilling half a cup of wine onto the front of her expensive pale pink silk dress. Just as she wanted, Prince Bennett stopped speaking and drew closer, wearing an appropriately polite worried look.

“You—!” She gasped in false outrage. “I apologize, Your Highness! It was all that maid’s fault!”

A hot flush of outrage washed over me. I straightened and stepped in front of the maid, shielding her with my own body, accidentally-on-purpose spilling my own wine onto the marchioness. A few drops splashed off of her onto my own blouse.

“The maid isn’t to blame at all. This mess is all mine—just like the first mess was all the marchioness’s fault.” She glared daggers at me, but I ignored her easily. “Now, if Your Highness will excuse me, I must go and clean myself up.”

Then I turned on my heel and marched away, leaving behind a fuming marchioness and a lightly sniggering Tomas behind.

A few good scrubs later, the wine droplets had faded to an acceptable light pink smear. It was the best I was going to be able to do without proper soap and a good tool to beat the stain out, so I left the privy with a sigh—and nearly ran headlong into Tomas.

“What are you doing here?” I yelped.

“You’re not the only one who can manufacture an excuse to leave this dull reception.”

“If you went to the trouble of making up an excuse, why aren’t you out doing something more exciting other than haunting the ladies’ privy?”

“Because I was looking for you.”

My smile quavered from the shock, then turned into a satisfied smirk. “What can I say? I have a certain…magnetism.”

Tomas’s sincere expression didn’t waver. “I’m being serious here. From the moment we met in the garden, I’ve felt a strange sort of attraction to you. And seeing you come to the defense of that maid just now… I can tell there’s something different about you. Something special.”

I broke into a wide grin. “And to think, you haven’t even seen the best parts of me yet. Do you want to?”

He didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t protest as I grabbed his lapel and pulled him into the room I had just left, making sure to lock the door behind us.