Royal Masquerade

Chapter 23

Feeling very disgusted with herself for even allowing ‘Zachary’ to kiss her, Astrea went to her room to clear her head. She sat down, feeling pretty disoriented and very confused. What actually happened? She was harassed and kissed fiercely and passionately on her lips at the bottom of the swimming pool. She never felt that way before, not even with Narcissus. The burning ache was so sweet and addictive. She was not supposed to enjoy it, but oh, she did enjoy it. What’s worst, she felt like craving for more of his kisses that it shocked her. Tears flow down her cheeks involuntarily.

The guilt sank in, and conscience did not spare her. They hit her hard. She felt like a cheap slut for enjoying the passionate kiss with a man who is not her betroth. What’s worst about that fact is that she shared it with the man she claimed to loathe to her very core. Is she so fickle that just by sharing one kiss with her arch enemy could undermine her love for Narcissus? Tears continued to flow as she flashback to the moment where she responded to the kiss eagerly, experimenting with the man’s lips in her almost drown state with her body being pinned at the bottom of the pool. The very act of kissing underwater was very erotic. She was not supposed to like it, but she enjoyed it nevertheless. She had betrayed Narcissus’s love for her. She felt like an adulterer. Is she still worthy of him? She honestly could not answer her own question, as she surely felt that she don’t deserve Narcissus anymore.

She stood up, wanting to clear her head. This is not happening. How could she feel almost the same way towards two different men? Distraught, she stormed to the door and bump into Zephyr who is on the other side of it.

“Miss Sinclair?” he asked softly, examining her disturbed expression. She looked at him blankly in return. There are still traces of tears on her cheeks.

“Miss Sinclair, are you all right?” he asked, and this time he managed to get her to pay attention to him.

“Oh… I guess so,” she lied.

“Have you been crying?” Zephyr asked as he saw the watery glint in her beautiful eyes.

“No, it’s nothing.” she said quickly, to avoid from being interrogate on the reason that caused her tears and distress.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, anyway, I need to get out of this place for a while…I need to clear my head. I…I need to go back home…” she said incoherently, avoiding from making eye contact with Zephyr as she proceed to walk to the main hall to hail a taxi. She ignored Zephyr’s almost hysterical voice calling for her as she left.

It was drizzling outside as she hailed a taxi to leave. Astrea sighed to herself as she recalled her times with Narcissus. He was a wonderful man and now, here she is, silently lusting for his brother. What the hell is wrong with her?

She was completely quiet during her taxi ride that seems to last forever. She even ignored the small talk attempt made by the taxi driver. As soon as she arrived to her intended destination, she paid the taxi driver and hopped off without even bothering to take the balance of her money.

There she was, standing in front of her old apartment. The place that she used to live a couple of months ago until Narcissus came into her life and take her in as his nurse, easing all of her financial worries at the same time. He had not only been generous with her, paying for her creaky and dusty old apartment even though she’s not living there anymore, simply because her things are still there, but he managed to steal her heart too.

Astrea was not so sure why she wanted to come back here, but maybe it’s because she needed to get away from the Mansion, where the man who had stole a kiss from her and made her responded to it involuntarily is probably still cackling with delight of her current state of emotion.