Majesty Castle

The masquerade went on well into the night and Allegra had gone to bed sometime after midnight. While she lay fast asleep in her bed, there were others who were still very much awake. Down at the end of the servant's hall where their chambers sat, James was just walking into Nina’s room. He didn’t bother to knock figuring she would be sleeping at this time of the night and wouldn’t hear him. Much to his surprise, she was awake.

Nina was lying on her stomach in her bed and when James entered her room, she hadn’t bothered to turn her head to see who it was. Quietly, he walked over to her bedside table and picked up a match to light the lamp that sat upon it. Still, even though the lamp had been lit, Nina never turned her head to see who had entered her room. After blowing out the match, James turned in her direction and it was then that he saw her exposed back covered in what appeared to be welts.

As he stepped closer, he was able to see that the welts were lashes that had already started to scab over. There was no telling how much pain she could have been in. “Nina.” Her name was all he could manage as the guilt started to take over.

“Go away,” she said. Her voice was scratchy, an after effect from the screaming she had done while taking her punishment at the hands of Peter.

“Let me help you.” James sat down on the bed, and Nina still kept her head turned away from him.

“Please, just go away,” she answered with tears spilling from her eyes.

“Why are you pushing me away?”

“Because, I don’t love you. Now just leave.” She was lying and he had a feeling she was, but the conviction in her voice made him second-guess what he was thinking.

“You can’t mean that,” he said moving a hand over her hair.

“Yes, I can and I do. You were just some spoiled little rich brat that was fun to play with once in a while. I don’t want you anymore.”

“Nina, I love you.” His voice was pleading and his heart slowly breaking as he sat there wishing that he could take her away from here.

“No. You love the idea of me and having your way with a lowly servant. Just go away.” James shook his head as his own eyes started to take on water.

“Nina please…” he started to speak again, but this time she slowly lifted her head. Every movement she made caused pain to ripple through her body. She turned her head to look at him and lashed out.

“I hate you, Jimmy.” With that she turned her head back again and rested it down on the pillow.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and walked out of her room never seeing the tears falling from her eyes. As he stood outside her door, he let his own tears fall down his face. She had told him she loved him on many of the nights that they secretly shared together and he had loved her in return. Never did he ever imagine hearing the word hate come from her lips. What they had was true and now he had nothing and he knew his father was to blame.

As the light on one couple’s love had burned out, another had just begun to re-ignite. Brian found himself standing outside her door. He knew she was still awake and he wouldn’t sleep until he saw her. From the time she had arrived, Simone paid him no mind. He watched her all night and she knew it too. Before she went away to school, they had shared an intimate moment in secret and if she hadn’t stopped him, she would have given him the one thing that made her pure. It was the fear of being caught that stopped her, yet he never stopped thinking about her. He wanted her and her he would have. Brian had made up his mind that no one would take her virginity, no one other than him.

Lightly, he rapped at her door with his knuckles. From the outside he could hear movement as she approached the door. A dim stream of light hit his face when the door opened and without asking for entrance, he moved the door further open and stepped inside. “It’s late,” Simone told him as she closed the door behind him.

“That it is,” he nodded, “but neither you nor I are sleeping.” He smirked as he stood in the center of her bedchamber.

“That may be the case, but now you are preventing me from doing such.” Simone walked past him to her dresser and picked up her hairbrush and began brushing her long locks.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he said and walked slowly to stand behind her. In her mirror she could see his reflection. With only one lamp lit, the light was dim and his reflection somewhat resembled a dark being.

“Why are you here?” She moved away from the mirror and walked back towards the center of the room.

“Cant a guy come and say hello to someone he hasn’t seen in a while?”

It would appear they were dancing around each other with the way that she would move away every time he came near.

“You could have said hello at the ball,” she noted. Once again he walked closer to where she stood and as she was about to walk in the other direction he grabbed her around the waist and spun her around in his arms to face him.

“That is true, but I couldn’t have done this at the ball.” His lips touched hers tenderly as he kissed her and her own lips responded to his.

It was Simone who broke the kiss shortly after only to be met by another satisfied smirk. “You have a funny way of saying hello.”

He chuckled upon hearing her statement. “And you have a funny way of saying hello back,” he replied and leaned his face in closer to hers again and took her bottom lip between his teeth, gently biting down.

“You can not do such things to me,” she warned when he let go.

Brian tilted his head to the side and smiled. “You don’t seem very convincing that you want me to stop.” Before she could protest, his lips met hers and she responded by slipping her tongue past his, but again it was her who broke the kiss.

“This is wrong.” She turned around and gave him her back. He moved her hair off her shoulders and kissed the back of her neck before moving his lips to her ear.

“It’s never been more right.” His hot breath sent shivers down her spine. “You’re my cousin,” she said turning her head slightly to the side.

He smiled and set his hands on her hips. “Simone, you know as well as I do that we aren’t the slightest bit related. Your mommy and daddy have a little secret that just happens to work out in my favor.” She closed her eyes as his tongue grazed her neck followed by soft pecking kisses. “Tell me you don’t want me,” he whispered in her ear. She sighed knowing that if she spoke he would see right through her. “You can’t.”

When she turned to face him, he attacked her lips and Simone, unable to control her own urges, buried a hand in his hair and returned his affection with her own. He held her in his arms taunting her with passionate kisses while she was falling victim to her own needs and desires. “Stop,” she said when she was finally able to detach her lips from his. “You need to leave.” Simone grabbed his hands and removed them from her hips so she could step away from him.

Brian turned and walked towards the door. With a hand on the knob, he faced her one last time. “I’ll go for now, but know that the evening will come when I wont leave. I will have you, Simone.” He walked out the door leaving her there with flush cheeks and improper thoughts of him.

On the night she found out her parent’s dirty little secret, he had been there with her. She was trying to hide in the darkness outside her parent’s bedchamber while they argued, but her white night gown was unmistakable even in the dark. He snuck up on her just as the revelation came out from muffled voices on the other side of the door that she was not the child of the only parents she had ever known. As she was about to scream out in anger, Brian covered her mouth and dragged her down the hall to his own chamber. It was there where he held her while she sobbed through the night, there where he hushed her softly every time she felt the need to say something. It was there where she had her very first kiss. Two days later, she was sent away to boarding school.