After You Left

Chapter 31

Knock, knock.

"Come in." I call out from the bathroom as I do my lipstick before I step out of the bathroom, my dress glides across the floor as I focus on fixing my earrings. "I'm nearly done." I look up to find Damien staring at me.

"You look beautiful." He breathes.

I let the heat flush my cheeks. "Thank you, Liv chose the dress and Alexa helped with the hair."

Damien takes a few steps until he's right in front of me, he brushes his fingers across my cheek and drops a feather light kiss on my forehead. "I love you." My stomach fills with thousand butterflies and I absentmindedly bring my hand up to his heart and lean into his touch. "They're waiting for you downstairs." I nod and pull back before taking a seat on the bed, I grab my heels and wear them, Damien kneels down and u frown confused. "I can't let you go without some sort of protection." He lifts my dress up, reaches into his jacket and retrieves a black strap that goes around my calf and a small gun fits into it, perfectly hidden.

"I won't be in comms or anything." I tell Damien, he nods and helps me up. We go down to meet the others, our arms are hooked. He hands me to Dylan when we reach the living room whom is wearing a plain black suit.

"You know the plan right. Just talk to them, convince them to be on your side and we will be great." James instructs us both.

I nod. "How long is the drive to this place?"

"2 hours." Damien says, he looks to Dylan. "Be safe." Than he turns to me and he presses his lips just so light against mines. "Come back to me." He whispers against me, I nod and pull back.

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"How will we know who the host is, or who the leader is?" Dylan asks confused.

"Well according to Damien, the host usually comes to you, so we just wait and mingle." I feel the anxiety and panic of being in a crowd flush through me. Dylan must have noticed it because he reached over for my hand and placed it on his lap while drawing small circles to calm me down.

"We still have a whole hour left, try to relax." Dylan advises, I nod with a smile.

"How's Davina doing today?" I ask, Dylan breathes out.

A small smile forms. "She's in love with all the books in the room, she won't stop rambling about them." I sigh relieved and let my mind drift out the window into the starry night.

An hour later we arrive. I stare at the place in amazement. "And I thought my home was impressive." I think out loud.

"What are these people? Royals?" Dylan asks. "They live in a freaking castle!" Dylan helps me out of the car, for a split second I get the sense that we're being watched and I look around but find no one. "You alright?" Dylan asks and I nod.
We make our way up the stairs and a butler greets us with a bow as he opens the doors.
If the outside was that gorgeous, the inside was even more, with the flow of the white marble with speckles of gold across the floor, the dark wood on the railing, there was gold scattered almost everywhere you looked.

Footsteps head towards us as a man who seems to be in his late 30s comes to view, his hair so light, it seems to be shining in the light, a smile warm enough to have me less anxious and a suit fitted to his lean figure.

"Mrs. Hammet, it is nice to finally meet you. My name is Nikolas Yest." He greets cheerfully taking my hand and dropping a kiss on my hand, I smile politely and nod.

"It's a pleasure to be here." I reply. He shakes hands with Dylan before turning his attention back to me.

"The party just started." He holds out his elbow and I hook my arm through it and let him lead me, Dylan walks a few steps behind me, I can feel him looking around cautiously. "I must say you look dashing young lady."