The courting trap

Library Meeting

This time she has really done it. That woman really thinks locking us together in the library will make us best friends by the end of the day.

Nicholas kicked his feet up on the desk he is sitting at, his back towards me. I sit at a desk on the other side of the room. He is scribbling something in his journal again.

"What are you writing?" I raise my voice so he can hear me clearly.

"Nothing." He murmurs the lie so soft, I wouldn't have caught it if I wasn't paying attention.

"You can sit with your back towards me, but I can still hear you write." I roll my eyes even though he can't see me.

"So?" He huffs.

"Just tell me." I groan, I am so bored right now why does he have to be like this? I get up from my chair and sneak up to him as quietly as my heels allow me to be. When I am right behind him I snatch the book from his hands.

He jumps up out of his chair "Give that back!" He barks.

"Never." I cackle as I run from him, he's right behind me. I know he's faster than I am, I need to get away from him.

The first thing that catches my eyes is a rolling library ladder. With one hand free I try to climb up as fast as possible. When I'm half way there, all my hope disappears when I feel hands on my waist and my feet meet the ground within seconds. I really thought climbing the ladder was the way out.

"Thank you." He says sarcastically as he snatches his journal back.

"Come on." I sit back down in my chair. "Why do you have to be so secretive?"

He sits down on the desk I'm sitting at. "Because it's none of your business, Victoria."

"It is if I'm going to be your wife." I flash a toothy smile. His face drops.

"Well you are not my wife." He gets off my bureau and walks back to the other one, he puts the chair on the opposite side of the desk, so he's now facing me. Afraid I'm going to steal his little book again, huh? He sits down the exact same way as he did earlier, feet up on the desk.

I stalk behind him. "Yet." I push his boots of the desk and with a thud they fall to the floor, where they belong. "Do you do that at home too?" I raise my brow at the disgusting habit.

He looks up in an uninterested way, "Yes." He says dryly, and goes right back to writing.

"Has your mother not taught you any manners." I scoff as I cross my arms over my red dress.

"What did you just say?" His eyes go dark, he sits up and places his closed journal back on the desktop.

"Has your mother," I repeat slowly in a mocking way. "Not taught you any manners?"

He pushes his chair back, now towering over me. "You don't get to talk about my mother!" He shouts while pointing a finger in my face and suddenly I am very grateful there is a table creating some distance between us.

"My goodness, calm yourself." I can feel the anger boiling inside me. Why does he still think he can talk to me like that. "I did not know it was a sensitive subject!"

"Go back to your little space over there,"  He points. "And leave me the hell alone!"

"Excuse you!" My mouth falls open in disbelief. "Where do you get the audacity from? I am the future queen."

"And when I am your husband you will listen to me!" He walks around the furniture separating us and strides over to me. It takes everything in me not to take a step back, but I got to show him he does not scare me.

"I thought we weren't going to be married." I say softer than before as he is basically in my face now.

"I guess we will, since you ruined our little plan." He mutters but his words have a harsh tone.

"How did I ruin it?" I raise my arms up in question. I do not get what I did wrong? I did everything we discussed to do, and I was in my role so well, that I even stomped on his foot.

"You waited too long to start the argument."

"You could have started it too." I hit him in the chest, he grabs my wrist. I was waiting for him to tighten his grip, to try and snap my arm in two. Though that never happened, his hand was ever so softly placed around my wrist.

"I was distracted." He whispers. He is so close I could count his freckles if I wanted to. I look down as his hand edges closer and closer to my hand. His big hand engulfs mine, now holding it. Our fingers intertwine.

I then realise I have been l looking at our hands for a long time now, I am nervous to look up, afraid of what his expression will be. Disgust? Anger? Misunderstanding? Love?

When I have managed the courage to look up, I find that his green eyes look at me softer than they ever have, like I am the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. His eyes wander over my face like he is studying all my features, as if he has just seen them for the first time.

His free hand slowly reaches up and I am curious as to what he is going to do. Strangle me? It's the ideal moment, I myself am very distracted too right now.

He carefully tucks a strand of my brunette wavy hair behind my ear, paying close attention as he does so.

I am pretty sure this is the quietest we have been so far in an argument.

His vision shifts back towards my brown eyes. He stares into them so deeply I feel like my knees are going to buckle.

He suddenly lurches forward and presses his lips to mine. His eyes are closed, but mine are wide open in shock. As fast as it happend, as fast it was over again. He pulls back and almost looks embarrassed, he waits for my reaction. His warm touch leaving my body all at once and I am immediately craving it again.

This is so wrong, yet I cannot help it. I grab his neck and pull him back to me. I kiss him. Our lips start moving together, it started of slowly, but then it becomes faster, rougher.

He turns us around and starts walking backwards until my back hits his desk, he then hoists me up on it and stand between my legs.

His hands are on my waist and I love them there, my right hand is on his shoulder and my left hand is pulling on his hair. A soft moan leaves his lips. My breathing starts picking up so much, it is hard to keep up.

A key twisting in the lock makes my stomach drop. Right away I kick Nicholas off of me, he stumbles backwards.

I wipe my lips with the back of my hand and hop off the desk right as mother walks in. She stops in her tracks and questionably looks at us. Nicholas is standing in the middle of the room in a very unnatural pose, with ruffled hair. I am randomly standing in front of a desk, looking like I have just ran a marathon.

"You are free to go." Mother says with a hint of confusion.

"Thank you mother." I do a curtsy as I make a B-line towards the door. My eyes flick over the Nicholas midway, and a smirk tugs at the corner of his lips.

Once I am out in the hallway, I feel like I can finally breathe.

What just happened?