Chapter 17.

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I had about two hours of sleep before I woke up and snuck out of my room to get to the gym, I had been in it for an hour, mostly just skipping and doing cardio when I heard the doors open.

"Jessica... Oh that's how you look so good." I laughed and heard laughing from the door as Gabriel, Maximilian, Jaime and Shayne walked in.

I looked at them and saw that they were all dressed to work out. I narrowed my eyes. "You've already warmed up?" I asked.

"What showed you that?" Gabriel raised his eyebrows.

"Other than the smell?" I joked. They laughed heading to different equipment everywhere. "So do you do this all the time or just when you're here?" I asked.

"All the time, but not here. My uncle owns a gym in town." Shayne said.

I looked at Maximilian and he nodded. "Arthur drives me there in the mornings while you're in here." He said.

I narrowed my eyes at him and he looked away so he did not have to answer the obvious of why the heck no one told me about that.

I began focusing on stretching more until Shayne sat up from where he was lifting weights.

"Hey, Jess. Apparently you can fight. Can you?" he said.

I looked at Maximilian and he raised his hands, "It is mandatory for anyone who resides in the palace to know how to defend themselves." He shrugged.

I nodded at Shayne.

He frowned. "If you weren't a woman..." he mumbled.

"Oh, do not let that stop you." I laughed when Maximilian said that. "Honestly, Shayne, I doubt you could get a hit on her."

"You think?" Shayne smiled excitedly, I laughed, "Alright, let's try. I'll go easy." Shayne said.

"Fine." I smirked.

"No. No!" we all looked at the door as the King's voice boomed, "There will be no fighting this morning. Gregory is calling for you –" he pointed at me, "And all of you need to start getting ready before your mother loses her mind, Maximilian. Apparently we're five minutes behind schedule." He made a face that made us all laugh.

"But father, the party only starts at five this afternoon." Maximilian said.

"We literally have ten hours to get ready, your majesty." Jaime said.

"I know." He said, "Queens's orders. Now get moving." He clapped resulting in everyone grabbing their things and leaving.

I showered quickly before I ran down to the room I knew Gregory would be in. I stopped running when I almost ran into someone.

"I'm sorry –" I stepped back before my eyes widened as they landed on the woman I had only ever seen on the internet. Emily...

"Why are you running?" she frowned at me. I opened my mouth but she continued, "Whatever. You're Jessica, right? You don't look like royalty at all. I guess it skipped quite a few of you after Adrian was born." She said.

I frowned. What?

"Please try, at the least, to act like you're civilised today, and spread that message to Maximilian and his friends as well. I will not have my day ruined by children. Tell those twins that as well." She said.

She was what, two, maybe three years older than me? She pushed by me and continued to walk down the hall as I tried to give myself reasons not to punch her in her face. Hey, maybe she was just stressed out?

I sighed rolling my eyes before I continued to Gregory. I found Gabriel there with him and he showed us what he had made for Gabriel. It was a nice little twist on Gabriel's black blazer that had him in complete shock.

"You cut my blazer – you modified my blazer! You didn't ask! You ruined –" Gabriel was saying.

"Stop being so dramatic, I made it look better." Gregory smiled at his creation.

"I can literally never wear it again after this." Gabriel threw his hands in the air.

"You shouldn't either, I suggest buying something you have not had since you were fifteen."

"I have not had that since I was fifteen. I bought it last year for a funeral!"

"Ah, that explains the dust and my sudden urge to bury it when you brought it in." I laughed as Gabriel kissed his teeth. It was easy to see Gregory was just poking fun at him to annoy him. "You should probably get ready."

"So should you. What are you wearing? A cloak again?"

"That was Halloween." Gregory frowned.

"Every day is Halloween for you though, isn't it?" Gabriel smiled.

I laughed grabbing his shoulders. "Thank you, Greg. We'll see you later." I said steering Gabriel out of the room.

We laughed as we walked into the hallway and towards breakfast.

-----

I sucked in my breath as I stared at the girl in the mirror. Directly after breakfast the most torturous day of my life started. Okay, maybe I'm aggregating but come on, was it really necessary to spend almost four hours on my hair alone? My neck hurt!

But as I stood in front of the mirror, all of that didn't seem as bad... Because I had to admit I looked amazing. My hair was tied back, but it still hung down my back in soft brown curls. The dress Gregory had made was a golden lacy dress that went a little bellow my mid-thigh. The heels I wore, though they were incredibly hard to walk in because it wasn't something I usually ever wore, made me feel really tall, that was until Gabriel and Gregory walked in and they were somehow still taller than me.

"Whoa, you're looking good." Gabriel said smiling at me.

I smiled seeing that Gregory had given him a gold tie and had re-done his black blazer with touches of gold, I didn't know why he disliked it so much, it looked really nice.

"Ah! My dress looks beautiful on you!" Gregory beamed. My smile widened. I felt so different in this. "We're late." He stated looking at his watch.

"Let's skip it and go to a pizza place in town." Gabriel sounded excited.

"And waste my work? Ha. You are not going anywhere except to the ballroom." Gregory said.

I laughed as Gabriel rolled his eyes and took my hand. I smiled as he led me out of the room with Gregory following us. We walked down to the ballroom and I gasped at how it looked. It was decorated white, silver and pink mostly. It was filled with people who were talking amongst each other as low-key music played softly.

"Oh my God! You look like a girl!" Gabriel laughed as hands grabbed my shoulders and I frowned up at Maximilian. He had Candice right beside him in a flowing black dress. She looked gorgeous... even with the frown on her face as she looked at me. "You look beautiful, Jess." He smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile.

"Thank you." I said.

"As you should for what they put you through." We laughed at Jaime's words as we walked up to us with our other friends in tow.

We spent the next few minutes gashing over how everyone looked before we proceeded to dance and eat while not really mingling with anyone else invited to the party (probably because we kept getting disapproving looks for laughing and joking around too much, and the guys were louder than they should have been).

"I saw you wobble." Gabriel smirked.

"Shut up. I don't usually wear this." I said talking about not only the heels, but everything else. We were outside beside the pool because the ballroom was pretty crowded now.

He laughed pushing me so he could twirl me and I glared at him when I nearly fell while he caught me by my waist as he laughed. He had been being mean to me all night.

"I am never agreeing to go anywhere with you again." I said shaking my head as I sat down. The pool looked really nice surrounded by the garden as the lights at the bottom of it glowed through the water. He chuckled sitting beside me.

"Ha. Liar." I rolled my eyes because I knew he was right.

We looked up as a throat cleared in front of us and our eyes fell on Adrian. I froze slightly. I had seen him a few times in the ballroom, but he was always speaking to people. I hadn't seen him take a break or dance all night.

"There he is – the groom to be." Gabriel smiled got up, "The reason we were all forced to dress up!" Adrian laughed.

"Yes. Sorry about that." Adrian gave a tight smile before his smiled widened to something not fake, "Sorry for making you look like you actually have class, Gabe."

Gabriel shoved him and they laughed. I smiled watching the scene.

"You look the same as you always do." Gabriel replied frowning.

"Yes. It is called being presentable, Gabriel." Adrian said before he chuckled, "Anyway. I wanted to ask if I could break this up for a moment and steal Jessica for a dance." He said looking at me. I got caught in his eyes for a couple of seconds before I looked at Gabriel.

"Take her away, I'm hungry." We laughed as Gabriel said that. "See you guys inside." He smiled at us and made his way inside.

Adrian smiled as he held his hand out to me, the other behind his back with his head slightly bent.

"My lady." He said.

I smiled taking his hand and letting him pull me from the sat before pulling me close to him, still leaving pace between us, while his other hand lay on my waist gently.

I looked down suddenly feeling overwhelmed by his presence. He wore a red tie that matched his fiancé's dress. His suit was black with a velvety texture to it. It was fitted to his body and he looked so good in it...

"You look absolutely breath-taking, Jessica... You know, you are not supposed to look better than the bride-to-be, right?" I felt myself blush at his words as I looked down.

"That's not even possible." I mumbled watching our feet.

"You give yourself too little credit... you are gorgeous... Though, I have to admit, as much as I love this dress on you, I hate it in equal amounts...too many eyes on you." He said. I bit my lip feeling my stomach flutter. I felt like my body was at war but had decided that it was still safe enough for a circus in my stomach. What was wrong with me? Had I eaten too much of the chocolate? The chocolate was amazing...

"You're looking pretty good too." I smiled looking at him, I decided to brush off what he said after 'gorgeous'.

I watched his eyes study my face, a smile on his lips. I was feeling more nervous under his glaze as the seconds went by.

"You have nice legs." He smirked. I felt my blush get deeper.

"You've seen my legs before, Adrian."

"Surprisingly not. Whenever you get undressed, I am under water. Whenever I get dried up and changed, you're still in the water until I am gone." He said.

"Right." I nodded.

"Glad I taught you how to dance?" He asked.

"You should have taught me how to dance in these." I lifted my foot and he laughed.

"I will... Right now." I gasped a little as he pulled me against him and his arm circled my waist.

"Adrian -" I began.

"Everyone is inside; you will not blow your cover... Follow my feet, like last time." I smiled at him as he finished.

I could hear faint music, and felt myself blush when I realised what the song was and it immediately took me back to the night we went to the gadget store.

'Settle down with me... Cover me up...'

I was staring up at him as I followed his movements slowly, his eyes hadn't moved from mine at all. He was staring at me intensely, a small smile played on his lips. I felt like I couldn't look away from his eyes either. They were so captivating...

He pushed me out gently and I twirled under his arm before he caught me again and I smiled at the fact that I hadn't fallen this time.

"Not bad if you have really never danced in those before." He said smiling down at me.

"Maybe you were right; you're just a great teacher." I admitted.

"I am always right, Jessica." I laughed rolling my eyes.

"Well, we know cockiness is the one thing all four of you have in common." He laughed but agreed anyway.

I smiled looking back into his green eyes and biting my lip as is eyes took mine in.

'I'm falling for your eyes, but they don't know me yet... And with this feeling I'll forget...'

The song seemed to make me freeze on the inside slightly as I panicked. What were we doing out here? This was not cousin dancing! What if someone saw us? Yet, I didn't want to move away from him... I let my eyes take him in, every inch of his face from the small scar he had just below his hairline to the little beauty mark on his temple and they stopped at his lips. I watched them open slightly so he could lick it and bite his lip. I felt my heart beat faster when I noticed him moving closer to me.

I cleared my throat finally breaking my eyes away from him and looking down between us, my forehead brushed against his chest lightly. "Um - We - we should get back -" I was saying.

"I do not want to." He said and I felt him hold me tighter against him.

I kept avoiding his eyes as I lifted my hands to his chest and pushed away from him so there were a couple of feet between us. I felt a little cold at the sudden feeling of being completely out of his grip. I lifted my hands to my arms staring at my shoes.

"I - I think we should... You have to go -" I was saying.

"Adrian! There you are! It is time for you to address the guests." I heard the King.

I glanced at Adrian to see him still staring at me. His smile was a tight one now, a look I couldn't really read in his eyes.

"Uh - right. Yes, yes father. We were just dancing." Adrian smiled at his father. "I will be right there." He said.

The King looked at me. "You look very nice, Jessica." He said.

I thanked him and he smiled before nodding at his son and then turning and walking back into the palace. I let out a sigh as my heart beat harder in my chest. What if he had seen us dance seconds earlier?

"Thank you for the dance. It has been the most fun I have had all night..." I froze feeling his finger bellow my chin lifting it up before he kissed my cheek softly, his lips just millimetres from my own.

The kiss lingered before he pulled away and walked towards the house. I watched him disappear into the palace before I let out a sigh and followed.

*****