I Spent A Night With The Crown Prince

1. Prologue (first dream)

Annette

Annette didn't know why she had these  dreams and why they always ended with her waking up in a cold sweat but nevertheless , she still got them.

And HE was always there in her dreams , tempting her , making her question reality. She was attracted to him.

She could hear his voice , see his honey blonde hair , but not his face. His face was never visible and that wasn't even the strange part.

Because no matter what she did , she could not remember even a single word he said , or if he even said anything except her name. Because when she moved to get closer to him , to touch him , he would disappear and she would wake up in a cold sweat.

Nonetheless , it was a strange situation that would keep happening no matter what she did to stop it , and the though of that man kept her restless all day. She wanted to know if he was real or just her imagination from reading too much fantasy novels.

Still , she kept quiet about the matter because she didn't want anyone thinking she was crazy and besides , it all did seem pretty stupid , like it was just a dream so there was no reason to get so worked up over it.

And visiting a doctor in this matter seemed somewhat crazy because she knew nobody would believe her.

And besides , honey blonde hair , or any blonde hair for that matter was very rare in the empire , only the royal family having that trait , so she was pretty much convinced that this was just her brain imagining stuff.

Maybe this was a side effect of being single till now but that thought seemed funny as she couldn't care less about having a romantic partner , or any partner for that matter.

Sure she was a romantic at heart , and she loved reading romance but the real world , and the people of the real world were different. So the chances of her finding an ideal man that she would really fall for were pretty much none.

Hence why she never bothered to worry about her potential partner. And because she believed that the type of man she wanted could only exist in books. Besides , that man from her dream seemed too good to be true so she had to calm her nerves whenever she imagined him.

This was why she didn't believe it at first. Because the chances of this ever happening were so less ,she was sure that man was just someone imaginary , that he only existed in her dreams and maybe she would never come to see his face ever.

He was supposed to be a manifestation of her expectations. Someone only good enough to be dreamed about , someone who didn't exist in the real world.

But what if he did? What if he did exist? Why would she dream about a person she didn't know and had never seen in real life?

She had no explanation for that. And she also had no reason to believe she was dreaming because the pain of her throbbing head was too real to be a dream.

That honey blonde hair , that exact same voice , surely this wasn't a dream ...right?!

...

It was just a random party that she attended on a whim. Mostly because her friend was begging her to come out of her shell and actually socialise with the ladies. Of course she was wrong , because the only thing Annette Valentin did at these parties was drink herself to oblivion instead of 'socialising' with the ladies.

It was not a habit she was proud of , but she could not deal with all the crowd sober enough. Specially when people always reduced her to an "easy target".

That's what she was. An easy target. Their wild trump card to get acquainted with the Valentin family. Because she was a girl. A naive little girl they could exploit. Showering her with fake 'compliments' while their eyes showed a different story.

This was why she never attended gatherings like this. Because everyone was too busy sucking up to her , or judging her , to actually have a real conversation with her.

It was always so obvious by their faces , what the wanted from her. They couldn't hide their greed , lust or bad intentions, they didn't care about her true feelings. Their eyes told her everything and this was why she couldn't bother talking to them. She couldn't trust anyone at these events except her close ones , and instead of enjoying herself she would only get anxious.

Being a Valentin had its perks of course , but the drawbacks were also there. This was one of those drawbacks and it resulted her in never going out , only once in a while , when a friend asked or when her family worried that she was not going out a lot.

Their concerns were valid but she knew how to handle herself. She just didn't have enough energy to always entertain people like these. Maybe once in a while , but she kept to herself most of the time , showing her true personality to only people that understood her. Like her friends , her family and the people from the dukedom.

This was why she was running away in the first place. Because she got too drunk due to her nerves and all the people around her were making her more frustrated. So she slipped away and tried to find her way out on her own , forgetting Jessy in the process.

Jessy was one of her attendants who had accompanied her. She was usually the one who tried to convince Annette to go out more often.

Her head was throbbing while she manoeuvred her way through the huge mansion. It didn't help that the count had recently modified the mansion  and it was her first time in this new mansion.

Even as she felt like she would lose her senses any second now , Annette didn't stop , instead she tried to find a terrace to get some fresh air , and get some rest too because the heels were killing her.

This was why in her painful state , she didn't notice it at first. Wobbling past a room , she thought she heard a voice. And blaming it on her drunken state , she started to walk ahead but this time the sharp pain in her head caused her to stop and lean against the wall. A soft cry left her lips at the painful sensation as she sat down and held her head in her hands.

This time she heard the murmurs again and a whoosh of air passed her. Annette slowly lifted her head and stood up. Looking through the ajar door , she saw a balcony.

"Finally."

A murmur left her lips as she limped ahead and opened the door- only to be pulled forward because someone probably opened it from the other side as well.

A scream left her lips as she lost her footing and started to fall down. She closed her eyes in the dizziness.

Only to open them back when she felt an arm snake around her waist stopping her from falling , and deep blue eyes staring at her.

His lips moved , probably asking her something but she couldn't hear him. Her exhaustion caught up to her as she started losing consciousness.

'That man , I can't see him , he looks familiar.'

"Who are you?"

Was the last thing that left her lips as she lost consciousness in the arms of a person who looked too similar to the one she saw in her dreams every night.

.....

(TBC)