Chapter 131 Kiara

• I head to the rose garden for our forbidden second dance. It’s harder than usual to slip away, what with Nicholas watching me like a hawk, but I finally manage it as the chandeliers dim overhead and the music grows languid. Tension fills the ballroom as the dancers move closer, lips parting on a collective sigh, and even my overprotective brother can’t resist the spell.
• He partners with a woman dressed all in green silk, twigs and red berries woven around the edge of her mask, and I dodge my mother’s searching eyes to duck through the patio doors.
• The gardens are dark. Couples moan in the shadows, clothes rustling in the quiet, and my dress swishes against my legs as I plunge down our usual path. I’ve only been here a handful of times, and always in the darkness, but it’s as familiar as my own bedroom at home.