UNDRESSED BY THE KING

Chapter 5 - Some Like Them t**s

~ Your touch magnetizing. Feels like I am floating, leaves my body glowing. ~

***

Nicollete

Once I saw the man, I froze and went speechless. My heartbeat sped, my body temperature plummeted, and it was hard to breathe instantly.

My God, the man with Professor Danes looked like that man in that weird place!

Every bit of him. From his body built, to his facial features, to his frosty eyes that currently were looking at me too.

My wide world just shrunk.

Taller than the Professor and twice younger than him, the man moved with grace. So self-assured, oozing with authority and demanding attention with his surroundings, I was left gaping as he neared me, err...our table.

When our eyes met, I certainly went even stiffer. He had the same color of eyes as that man. He had the same tense brows and jawline, and the same full lips.

I was beginning to think that they were one and the same. That the curse wanted me to have a heart attack. That the man had come to yank my hair again and drag me into a spot where he could lodge a sword through my heart.

Luckily, I noticed two teeny details about him: his modern clothes and his short hair. It was enough to tell me I’m wrong. But still, his presence left me on edge.

He was exactly the kind of man I steer clear of. This kind of man always spelled trouble. But he brought something more than trouble though. I felt it in the way he looked at me. I just couldn’t decide what it was.

Now twenty minutes after he arrived, the two professors were called to the stage to give their speech, while the School Principal and her husband watched the program, having their backs to us. Mr. Ozric and the University Director were the ones who had conversed a lot. That’s where I learned that the man was the CEO and owner of a damn multibillion company. I just sat there, silent, but you could only imagine how cold my hands were. Unfortunately though, the University Director excused himself and went to another table to talk to a teacher. That left me alone with him.

“By chance, do...do you believe in reincarnation? Or doppelgängers?” I asked out of the blue. You could say that it was my way of opening up a conversation after an awkward silence with him, but partly I was curious too.

I believe in such things and right now, I was thinking that Mr. Darien Ozric of the Ozric International Conglomerate had a doppelgänger in a different world.

Twisted.

He looked at me and c****d an eyebrow.

“That’s an unusual question for someone who I just met,” he said smoothly.

I didn’t think that he was offended, but still I rushed to apologize, “Oh, I’m sorry...I wasn’t really thinking right.”

I cleared my throat and went to focus on my desert of mango meringue again, but my ears faintly caught a chuckle from him.

“No worries,” he said, “I get that a lot.”

“Excuse me?” I gave him a questioning brow.

“Many people confuse me as another person.” He drank his wine that the Professor seemed to have prepared only for him and I just stared at how his Adam’s apple bobbed. Rather improper for a lady, my grandmother always reminded me, but what was I to do? His presence just demanded attention even in the simplest of things.

“You sure look very much alike to a person I...recently met,” I confessed, unable to hold myself anymore.

“Hmmm,” he placed the empty wine flute on the table and then shifted in his seat to face me. “That’s an interesting story to hear.”

“Ah no,” I hastened to shift my eyes away from him, remembering my experience with the long-haired man last night. If I tell him, he’d think me a candidate for the psychiatric unit. “It’s not really a story that’s worth your time,” I lied. It was worth anyone’s time. It included swords, soldiers and a shape-shifting chimera. Who doesn’t like that?

“Hmmm,” he hummed and right there, I could feel his gaze giving me x-rays, “Believe me Ms. Holland, time is what I have...aplenty.”

I decided to retreat. He wasn’t going to charm the story out from me. Not a sentence of it.

“Well, uhm, excuse me, I should go to the powder room,” I announced. It was rude and cowardly, I know, but this was better than be placed in the hot seat.

He didn’t reply, so I made my way into the ladies room without giving him a glance.

‘Focus, Nikki. Focus!’ I shouted to myself when I stood in front of the rectangular mirror, certain I was alone.

My hands felt cold still so I opened the faucet and adjusted it to warm. The running water immediately soothed me.

“s**t, that man sure looks like him,” I muttered looking at my reflection eye to eye. “But it’s impossible. Just impossible.”

I heaved a breath and shut my eyes for a moment.

“Should I go back there?”

To ease the thudding of my heart, I think I should leave. Away from him. Away from the ancient mirror that I would be seeing soon, but...

“I think I should go back,” I clenched my jaw and snapped my eyelids open, determination flowing inside me. “I’m not a school girl who gets easily flustered. I’m a big woman. I can handle this situation.”

I was probably the only single woman inside the function room that didn’t give him lustful stares and I was proud of it. Very proud of it.

“You’re back. I was beginning to think you’d bail out,” Mr. Ozric informed me.

As I passed the hallway going to the function room, I kept on wishing he wasn’t in his seat anymore. That maybe, he was swarmed by queen bees and was fed up with it. I was thoroughly disappointed when I saw his broad back still as squared as ever, mocking me.

“And what makes you think that way, Mr. Ozric?” I answered as I slipped into my seat. I placed my clutch bag on the table, my meager way of diverting my eyes away from him.

“Nothing. I just get the feeling that you’re...intimidated by me.”

A short, soft laugh escaped from my mouth. This man is straightforward.

“I don’t even know you. Why should I be?” I answered, keeping my voice as sharp and unbroken as possible.

This time, I glanced at him with a brow up. My heartbeat jumped as I discovered he was already looking at me with interrogating eyes. As if he had caught me stripped of my soul.

Then, his focus flicked past me and then I felt someone lightly tap my bare shoulder.

“Ms. Holland, Mr. Ozric, come, it’s time to enter the museum,” Professor Malorie announced.

It was a total breath of fresh air. A very welcomed one.

I immediately took my clutch bag and stood up. Mr. Ozric however was faster than me as he was already towering me with a hand, palm up, near my face.

“I’m playing a gentleman to a beautiful woman,” he stated, “Shall we go?”

I glanced at Professor Malorie and God, even though the lights were now dimmed, I saw the mischief there in his eyes.

After clearing my throat, I took Mr. Ozric’s offer. I was taken aback however when I placed my hand on his. For the second time tonight of touching him, I felt myself tased. As if lightning just struck our interconnected hands. When we shook hands earlier, I thought that it was just because of some random friction. This time, I knew it wasn’t.

Just who is this man?

I quickly retracted and hid my hand behind my back, clenching it.

“Every artifact here has a story. Not one is boring,” Professor Malorie stated when our seven-people group entered the first floor of the museum, in the Ancient Artifacts Section.

I don’t know what the Gods had planned but hell, why was I walking side by side with Mr. Ozric? When did I become his personal chaperone for the night?

“For example this one, given by Ms. Holland of course,” the Professor paused in a glass-encased item that I recognized so well, so much so that I had to hide a laugh. The thing was huge as I remembered it to be. “It came from her expedition in South Africa. The Zumassi tribe call this ‘Pantassus’, coined from their Fertile God, Pantassu, who can grant the male wisher a thick pen*is and the ability to make their wives happy all night long.”

My mischievous smile fell. s**t. Why had this tour become a quick s*x History lesson?

Unintentionally, my eyes roamed on the ramrod straight Mr. CEO. He was looking at the pen*is-shaped artifact too and it sure looked like he was very interested in it.

“I got to say, this object is completely eye-catching,” he voiced out to me without even looking. “You must feel sad giving this to the museum.”

I pursed my lip. No, I wasn’t sad. Nope. Not at all!

“I’m just going to act as if you didn’t say that Mr. Ozric,” I answered him whilst crossing my arms to my chest.

His lips curved slightly when he looked at me and then his sights dipped into my cleavage - through the sweetheart neckline of my dress that I thought was conservative. I felt that he made it see-through in just a single gaze. Darn it!

“And here we have the ‘Stone of Abessus.’ Given by Mr. Zafe, from his wife’s collection of Egyptian artifacts.” Professor Malorie continued, nearing another item. We followed him. “This slab of stone, as per the saying goes, allows the owner a bridge to communicate the dead. No one knows how to use it though and it was rumored to house a deadly curse.”

I gripped at my clutch bag harder. It made me remember the ancient mirror and the feeling that I’ll be seeing it again soon. Very soon.

Professor Malorie moved to another artifact again. It was placed against a wall, still in a glass case. We, as visitors, followed him again.

“And this one here, from Mr. Jameson Holland’s collection, Ms. Holland’s father, the Necklace of Rentaur. It is said to give the bearer ten times strength and...”

I zoned out. The Professor’s history tidbits just passed through my ears.

It wasn’t intentional but there I was, staring straight at the accursed mirror hung on the wall. It was in the farthest corner, a very good place for it to be displayed, and it was lighted by two spotlights bolted in the ceiling. Around it was a red rope to keep the viewers from touching it.

Good.

But I hadn’t realized I neared it when Mr. Ozric’s voice filtered through my ears.

“A mirror?” he asked, stopping beside me. I didn’t care to look at him.

“Yes, a mirror,” was my blunt reply.

From the corner of my eye, I saw his hand ran along the information plate, stopping where my name was written.

“You gave this too?” he asked, looking at me through the mirror.

I zoned out again. His reflection on the accursed thing caused me to remember the chimera.

But why the chimera? That I don’t know.

“It’s for the best. The mirror was beginning to...grow on me,” I lied.

“Really?” He c****d a brow. “You should take it back then if it means a lot to you.”

“Oh no,” I shook my head and turned around, not wanting to see his reflection anymore, “its better here than in my bedroom.”

“Hmm, your bedroom huh...”

I wasn’t certain if it was just my imagination, but his voice turned huskier when he said it. It was honey in my ears. To give it a double meaning would be improper, but here I was thinking of him and me in my bedroom and...

Shit. My underwear... it is suddenly wet. Stop day-dreaming this instant Nikki!

“I think...I should go,” I hurried to inform him, embarrassed with my own thoughts.

I turned my head to look at his profile but I was startled to see the definite change in his expression.

I honestly believed he’d smirk on my way. I didn’t expect he’d show a scowl. But luckily, it wasn’t directed to me, but directed to the ancient mirror.

He was staring at it like it was his worst enemy resurrected. Like the artifact was a demon in disguise.

“Nicollete,” he spoke, my first name rolling out his tongue like it was meant to live there. His frosty eyes gazed at me and I swear I was chilled down to the bone. “Where did you say you got this mirror again?”

“I...I ahh,” I stammered. My heart rate quickened when my mind compared the scowl in his face to that scowl the long-haired man gave me. They were alike, hands down no rebut needed.

My eyelids fluttered when he grabbed my right elbow, holding it like pliers. I whimpered a little in response, giving him a look of fear.

“In...in Malta,” my mouth managed to word out.

His expression turned even gloomier.

“Where exactly in Malta? How was it kept? Did you see anything written on its frame? How about its back? Did you examine it?”

I gulped at how he threw his questions. Never had I seen a man so serious just because of a mirror.

“I don’t...I don’t know,” I blurted out. He had so many questions I didn’t know which one to answer first.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

His grip on me tightened. I whimpered again, but this time with my face cringing.

“Mr. Ozric, you’re...you’re hurting me,” I voiced out. “Let go, please.”

He seemed to register it just now because his countenance slightly eased.

“Ms. Holland! Mr. Ozric!” Professor Malorie’s voice, thank God, interrupted us.

Just as I turned my head to look at the Professor, I felt Mr. Ozric’s hand loosen. He cleared his throat and then stepped forward.

“Am I interrupting something?” Professor Malorie asked while looking at my worried face.

“No, not at all, Professor.” It was Mr. Ozric who answered, and smoothly might I add. As if... As if nothing happened.

“Well then, let’s go to the second floor? We have a collection of swords I am excited to show you.”

We both nodded and went, but this time, I opted to stand next to the Professor, trying as much as I could to get some distance between me and the man who just hurt me.

But mind you, the whole time we were in the second floor, I could feel his stormy gaze on my back.