I Choose All of You

Chapter Twelve

At the top of the staircase, a royal guard member gave me his hand to escort me to the ballroom. My eyes widened at the hall before me. My shoes clicked against the marble flooring and echoed along the column filled walls and high ceilings. The hallway itself looked like it could go on forever. Large archways to indicate huge rooms, many doors, and chandeliers bigger than I have ever seen before hung above me. I saw guards every several yards, lining the hall walls. This whole mission thing was starting to look more and more like an impossible task.

Soon enough we turned right into the ballroom. There hanging above many dancing people, was one giant crystal chandelier, to make the ones in the main hall look trivial. The guard left and I stood frozen at the entrance to the room. A sweet smell of tiny cakes and roses enveloped me, and the walls itself seemed to sparkle. Was this a dream? If so, no one pinch me. Colors swirled around as everyone danced to the music coming from the live orchestra. Some people already were coupled up, chatting along the sides and whispering to each other. Everyone looked incredible. Almost fake. This doesn't feel real.

I suddenly felt small and started my retreat to the back of the room. This is a lot more anxiety inducing than I mentally prepared for. Once I scurried to the back, I was greeted by a long table covered in a white sheet. It was populated with hundreds of pastries and more finger foods than I could count.

"No way," I whispered to myself, amazed.

I glanced around to see if anyone was eating too and saw a few people with small plates of food in their hands. My mouth practically watered. I scanned the table but found no sign of tiny plates anywhere. Fuck it. I used my hands to pluck the most delicious looking tart I could find and popped it into my mouth.

"Oh my god," I muttered lowly, mouth full.

The sweet and flaky pastry crust practically melted on my tongue, and the vanilla cream filling was perfectly mixed with the small raspberry on top. I turned around to grab another, when a shiny silver plate was shoved in front of me.

"Champagne miss?"

I force swallowed the last bit of the tart down and saw a butler peering at me. He had a black mask covering half of his face and wore a simple black and white tuxedo.

"O-oh no. I shouldn't," I said nervously.

He looked down at my hand and smirked slightly back up at me, "Are you sure? It could help wash that down."

I looked down and saw I must have grabbed the tart quicker than I thought.

I chuckled, "Oh! Yeah sure. Thank you." Then took a glass of champagne from his tray.

He kept intensely staring at me and now, with both of my hands full, I felt obliged to eat the tart in front of him. I shoved the whole thing in my mouth, turning the back of my head towards him and chugging half of the drink to wash it down.

"First time at an event like this," the butler asked.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, I just haven't seen you around before."

I turned to look at him and noticed how closely he was looking back at me. I studied the part of his face I could see and he was pretty cute. Handsome even. I didn't know the palace hired models. His brown hair parted at the middle and fell in short waves. His piercing green eyes scanned my dress, and I shuffled a bit. Unlike most guys I know with paper thin lips, his were a fair pink and were the most perfect shape I had ever seen. They looked soft too. He must have noticed me looking at them because I then watched his lips curl into a slight smirk. He towered above me, which made his strong jawline hard to miss. And damn. Is that a muscle vein? I caught myself staring and averted my eyes to the food in front of me. Stop checking out the butler, Sarah. You have a mission to do.