Beneath The Velvet Mask

I only meant to watch the fire.

I never planned to dance.
Never planned to kiss a stranger beneath the orange trees.
And I certainly never planned to undress for a man whose name I didn't know

much less a prince.

But there was something in the way he looked at me that night.
Not like royalty.
Not like a man who could have anything.
He looked at me like he hadn't wanted anything in a long time-
until me.

And I...
I should've walked away.
I should've remembered who I was.
Just a girl in borrowed silk.
A girl with flour on her hands and no future in palaces.

But I stayed.
And I let him touch me like I was made for him.

Now the mask is gone.
The kingdom is watching.
And one night we were never meant to remember...
has already begun to destroy us both.