Royal Maid’s Awakening - Chapter 6

‘Lukas.’

The rest of the club faded into the background. Lukas couldn’t look away. But he had to try to regain some control. ‘What are you doing here, Hannah?’

She smiled and Lukas’s legs felt weak. ‘Am I not allowed out past my bedtime? Perhaps I’m not worthy enough to mix with Santanger’s high society? After all, I am just a lowly palace maid.’

Lukas felt irritated with himself. He was much more urbane than this. But he felt crass. Uncouth. Feral. ‘Of course, I didn’t mean it like that.’ He took a breath, tried again. ‘I hadn’t expected to see you here.’

And then something struck him. He looked around but couldn’t see anyone else with her. ‘Are you here with someone?’

The thought of a man by her side, touching all that bare skin, almost short-circuited Lukas’s brain again, but for very different reaons. Disturbing reasons.

But Hannah was shaking her head. ‘No, I’m alone.’

Lukas’s gaze narrowed on her. She was looking at him with a determined gleam in her eyes. ‘Hannah—’ he started, but then she downed her drink in one go, handed him her gold clutch bag and empty glass and said, ‘Hold this for me while I go for a dance?’

Then she was gone, slipping into the crowd before he could stop her. He saw flashes of golden bare skin and her yellow dress. And then she was just below him, on the dance floor, arms in the air, swaying to the beat.

She looked up at him, head thrown back, and Lukas knew then that she did still feel the same. Not perhaps about loving him, but she wanted him. And, god help him, he wanted her. No woman had had such an immediate impact on him.

But Hannah Mendoza came with so many strings attached that Lukas knew instinctively that if he so much as touched her, he would be caught forever.

And he was not in the market for forever. With anyone. Not after losing everyone he’d ever loved. He was tainted. Toxic. Better on his own. Safer. He should walk away right now, take a taxi to the airport, get on his plane and fly far, far away…

***

Hannah had only come to the dance floor because she’d been suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that she was standing in front of Lukas Zárate and there’d definitely been a moment when he hadn’t recognised her and he’d looked at her…as if he’d wanted to devour her. But then recognition had dawned and so she’d fled, afraid of the spell breaking.

She looked up at him from the dance floor, willing him to keep seeing her as she was. A woman. Not a girl with a crush. But the expression on his face was grim.

And then, suddenly, there were two Lukases, side by side. It was so weird and disconcerting that Hannah stopped dancing. She felt dizzy. And then, she realised she was swaying backwards, only righting herself at the last moment.

It was as if the ground was tilting and moving under her feet. Her head felt woolly. She looked up again and everything seemed to be slowing down. The music. Time. The two Lukases were frowning at her. She had an urge to giggle.

Was he really here, or was she just dreaming? Was this all a dream? Then she saw the two young men who’d been asking if she wanted a drink. They were pointing at her and grinning…? Then they disappeared and Hannah knew that she should do something urgent, but she was falling back again and then someone was pushing her forward, saying, ‘Hey, watch it.’

And then she was being held up. Somehow. She lifted her head—it felt very heavy. Lukas. He was saying something and she struggled to focus.

‘How much have you had to drink?’

She tried to shake her head. Nothing! Just a glass. And then the images of the guys came back, their pushy behaviour. She tried to speak, to tell Lukas that she’d not even taken a drink from them.

But nothing seemed to be working and she was falling, spiralling down into thick black darkness where she was light as a feather and floating…