Racing towards Love

Chapter Eight - From Russia with Love?

(Nikita's POV cont.)

Conor and Sam told me that they wanted to change their outfits for the club once we made it back into the main hotel lobby. They asked if I was planning on changing too but I shook my head and told them that I was going to wear what I had on and would meet them outside because I wanted to have a cigarette.

Given an eta of 20 minutes, I watched as they headed towards the elevators in the opposite direction. The moment I saw the elevator doors slide closed, I turned and walked toward the exit.

Unbeknownst to me, a hotel front desk clerk, working behind the counter, looked up at that exact moment and spotted me walking across. He immediately bent to retrieve something from behind him, before running around the long front desk counter to follow me.

"Are you perhaps, Ms. Nikita Lyle?" I heard someone ask in rapid French from behind.

"Uhm, yes. Yes, I am." I said, turning around to see who was asking. I found the young man, dressed in the standard desk clerk uniform standing before me.

"This was left for you, Madam." He said handing me a sealed envelope.

"Left for me... by whom?" I inquired in surprise, staring down at the sealed hotel envelope which had my name written on it then back at him.

"I do not know, madam. I was just given your description by my supervisor with instructions that I was to personally give this directly to Ms. Nikita Lyle, which is you, madam." He stated.

"Oh. I... I see. Well, um... Louis, thank you for delivering this to me." I said calling him by the name written on his nameplate, as I glanced down at the envelope that I now held in my hand, completely mystified.

"Not a problem, Ms. Lyle. And please enjoy the rest of your evening." He responded with a low bow before walking away.

"Yes... I... will." I said mostly to myself as I stared down at the envelope in my hand.

'I wonder who left this?' I said to myself and was just about to open the envelope but instead I opened my clutch bag and stuck it inside. I decided that I would open it later after my cigarette.

Once outside in the cool night air, I lit a cigarette and proceeded to inhale and exhale a plume of smoke on the cool night breeze. With each pull, I could feel the nicotine in my cigarette slowly entering my system and calming my rattled nerves. But even though I was slowly entering a calmer, relaxed state, I still found myself seeing Phillippe's face in my head.

My god, I can't believe it. Phillippe was actually a Prince?! What are even the fucking odds of unknowingly meeting, kissing and falling in love at first sight with one? 1 out of million or a billion, for that matter. This was like some fantasy out of a romance novel, except in this case, this was real, and I was that person. I had done all of those things.

I can still see the look on his face when his eyes found me in that crowd. It had been one of stunned surprise. Heck, I was more surprised than he was. There I was, staring once again at the person I had been dreaming about every single day and night, wishing and at times praying that I would have the opportunity to meet again only to meet him on the arm of another woman and in the capacity of royalty. I found my facial expression instantly sink into a deep frown at this revelation.

I recalled Phillippe's expression quickly shift as the surprise melted away to be replaced with a more familiar, heated stare, which he immediately ran over me. I felt his eyes like invisible fingers running over me from my head to my toes. There was so much desire and love radiating in that stare that I couldn't for a moment breathe much less move under that kind of pursual. It was so intense, that I found it very hard to look away.