Bona Fide Queen

Six

He held out his hand for me to take, a gesture I only ever saw in the movies. The old ones, of course.

Whoever said chivalry was dead?

I could also be feeling a bit out of place thanks to the attire I was stuffed into by silent maids who were rough and evil, pulling at my hair tightly while pinching me in other places. In the end, I looked stunning, but felt brutalized.

A black corset- a color which seems to be popular around here I noted- cinched my waist painfully enough to crush ribs. The bodice, while fancy enough, to my displeasure, was sparkly. Very sparkly. Jewels and pearls were woven in and fitted in a ornate pattern.

To keep up the charade of being this 'special guest' I had to look the part.

"When in Rome," Adrian had told me, just as a team of maids filed into the room from behind him and terrorized me.

I was out of place. I felt false and new and different all at once. The most expensive items I ever wore were my collection of converse and leather items, which in themselves, were not cheap, but did not compare to the obscenity of the dress. The impractical fluffiness made moving hard and restricted, and the shoes pinched my toes to the point where I kicked them off. I'd rather walk barefoot than have those death traps on.

Thankfully, the dress covered my feet, so maybe people wouldn't notice.

My hair, painfully, was a complex twist and headache waiting to happen. Actually, it wasn't waiting, it had already started and was just getting worse. Geez.

Thankfully, I was able to shoo the ladies away before any more damage could be done.

By the time I made it to reach his hand, I was already in an annoyed mode, to which he merely regarded with dark amusement.

"Why are you smiling like that? Why am I in this.....contraption? Where are my pants!" I argued, which only made him fight that much harder to conceal his growing amusement.

"Is the dress not to your liking? I mean, I think it suits you well," He said, his eye scanning over my body, giving me a small shrill of pleasure down my spine that I hid with the motion of huffing out an angered breath. It made the suffering tone done just a little bit.

"In fact, it only makes me want to undo every last button and lace," He said more quietly, his tone dangerously calm. It was seductive and made my heart flutter as usual.

This time, I could not suppress the blush that stained my cheeks.

"Are you trying to sweet talk me?" I looked to him, only to find an articulate brow raised. My voice was meant to sound sardonic but came out as a mousy wisp.

"Is it working?"

I wanted to laugh so much, despite the fact that I should be mad, yet in this moment, I just couldn't. It felt like I was talking with an old friend, and not my captor of two days.

Finally, I took his hand, small sparks tingling where our hands joined, causing me to gasp.

"Wow, what was that?" I said aloud.

"Another bonus to being Mates, I believe." Adrian said as he pulled me through the door.

"Are there any downsides?" I asked, my mood light, but my question seemed to cause a rift, as I glanced to see Adrian's eyes darken and jaw set.

He didn't answer, and I tried to ignore the gnawing sensation in the pit of my stomach.

It couldn't be that bad... I hope.

We made our way down the winding corridors that revealed through their wide windows, a fresh morning.

If I took a deep breath, I could almost imagine I was on vacation...A hellish one, but at least in the end, everything would somehow work out and I'd be back in school and...life would just go on.