My Dragon Desire

Chapter Four - Ball Room

✩Dawn✩

As I walked into the dining room and saw that same man sitting at the large rectangular dining table, I froze. He glanced up when he heard me, and it was clear that he recognized me from the night before. I wasn’t sure what to do or if I should say anything. The man went back to eating his breakfast and I hurried past him into the kitchen. Was he really not going to confront me? I wasn’t sure but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

“Where have you been?” Bailey whispered to me when I joined her at the large washbasin. She was busy peeling potatoes.

“Sorry, um…I was um…” once again I couldn’t come up with a lie fast enough.

“Wandering around the castle?” she suggested, and I nodded as I started to help her. “You don’t learn, do you?”

“I’m fascinated, that’s all,” I said smoothly.

“You’ll learn soon enough not to be,” she muttered. We worked well together for a long time and when I finally peeled the last potato, I was exhausted. I had never worked so much in my life before.

“Bailey!” I glanced over my shoulder to see Josephine standing by the doorway.

“Yes, mam?”

“How far are you two?” she asked, and I rolled my eyes as I made sure to take my time finishing up.

“Done, mam,”

“Good, carrots next,” she ordered before she left. I looked around at the other kitchen staff and wondered what the big deal was.

“Did you forget?” she whispered, and I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what it was that I had forgotten but I knew she would tell me. “The party, remember?”

“Right, the party…” how could I forget that? After spending hours washing and polishing those floors! Bailey took the large pot of freshly peeled potatoes and placed it on the table. She brought over four bags of carrots and I groaned. “I’m tired of peeling,” I complained. Bailey simply shook her head and got started. With a loud irritated sigh, I got started too. I silently cursed Levana and Cora for this. May their fingers fall off!

“You and you come with me,” I heard Josephine call out. I curiously watched as two cooks stopped whatever it was that they were doing and followed the b***h from hell out.

“Where are they going?” I asked Bailey, who had been concentrating on the carrots.

“I don’t know,” she hissed out.

“Do you think the dragons eat them?” I asked innocently. I knew for a fact that they didn’t eat humans, but Bailey didn’t know that as the carrot she had been holding fell into the sink. She turned to me with a look of horror on her face.

“Do you think?” she whispered, and I nodded.

“What else do dragons eat?”

“Normal food?” she suggested, and I burst out laughing.

“Normal food? Well of course they eat normal food, otherwise, who is this all for?” I pretended to look around to make sure no one was listening in on our conversation. Bailey followed my lead and leaned in closer. “Or maybe this is all to fatten up the guests so that they can eat them later,”

“What! No!” the look on Bailey’s face was priceless and I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She lightly punched my arm and shook her head. “Don’t say stuff like that,” she muttered but I didn’t pay any attention to her as I continued peeling the damned carrots.

✩✩✩

“Why do we have to go?” I moaned out as I got dressed in a simple black button-down dress. It was knee-length with long sleeves. Hideous, but of course, we had to look the part as we attended the stupid ball party thingy.

“We have to serve the guests,” Bailey said as she slipped on her shoes. I rolled my eyes and sighed as I waited for her to get finished. The only reason I was finished before her was that I snuck out early after eating our dinner.

“Whatever,” I pulled open the door and looked up and down the hallway. All clear. However, if I listened closely enough, I could hear the distant chatting of the guests that had already arrived. I could already hear Josephine’s nagging voice if we were late. “Hurry up,” I snapped as I glanced over my shoulder to see Bailey busy with her hair.

“Almost done,” I watched her get finished, and then we both ran to the ballroom. I spotted Josephine standing right by the door and I panicked.

“Quick,” I whisper shouted as I reached out and grabbed Bailey’s arm. With all my sneaking around, I knew another way to get to the ballroom. Bailey caught on quick enough and soon we entered the room. I was proud to see that the floors gleamed brightly, and I wondered if anyone would fall? It would be funny if someone did. Bailey and I headed over to the large bar area as we had been assigned to hand out drinks. The barman shook his head but handed us a tray each. I carefully carried the tray to my first target. I had to admire the way the guests where dressed. Some of the cocktail dresses were elegant and radiant, whereas others were a bit more daring and sexier. The men, of course, were all dressed up in smart black suits with cute little bow ties. I served the small group a round of drinks and headed back to the bar as slowly as I could. Although the ballroom was filled up, there were still quite a lot of people and I was quite curious as to what this party was for. Was it someone’s birthday? I mentally kicked myself for not asking. It was while I was waiting for the barman to fill up the champagne glasses that I spotted Blake and that man enter the ballroom and I had to admit, they both looked mighty fine.

“If you are lucky, he’ll bed you,” the barman commented, and I rolled my eyes.

“Shut up and pour the drinks,” I said. He chuckled but finished up. I once again took the tray out to the guests. I saw Bailey making a beeline for Blake and I groaned softly. Why hadn’t I done that? Now instead of me being the one, it was Bailey. I didn’t know why but I was quite annoyed with her giggles that seemed to hurt my ears the closer I got to them. The man spotted me, and I wondered if my curiosity would get me in trouble. Surely, he wouldn’t confront me in front of all these people, would he?

✩Blake✩

I smiled politely at the young girl in front of me and took one of the glasses from the tray that she was offering. I glanced over at Kayne, who was staring at none other than Dawn.

“You look very nice my Lord,” the girl said, and I shifted my attention back to her. I had already picked out several females to take to my bed, but it was plainly obvious that this one wanted me.

“So, do you,” I flirted. She smiled and I thought she looked quite pretty.

“Blake, it’s time,” Kayne said as he nudged my arm. The girl walked away, and I casually looked around for Dawn, but I couldn’t see her. Damn it. “Let’s go,”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said as I suddenly raised my glass. Those closest to me went silent and soon all the guests came closer to hear what I had to say. The soft music in the background went silent and I knew I had everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for coming tonight. I know that this is a bit overdue, but I do hope that you all enjoy yourselves,” everyone raised their glasses and I nodded before taking a sip. The music started up again and I turned to Kayne. “How was that?”

“Boring,” he remarked, and I chuckled.

“It was meant to be,” I said. The truth was I had been putting off this little get together since I had arrived at Uza. I hated crowds and I was already feeling claustrophobic. “Is it just me or is it stuffy in here?” I whispered as I looked around the room. I saw the glass double doors and headed straight for them. I noticed that it was slightly ajar, and I pushed it all the way open and went out onto the balcony. What I had not been expecting was to see Dawn standing by the stone railing looking out at the view. It wasn’t much as it was pretty dark out already, but I was just too curious to know what she was doing outside rather than serving drinks. She heard me and when she saw me, she gasped.

“My Lord,”

“Dawn,” I breathed in the cool air and went over to where she was standing. “It’s a beautiful night,”

“Yes, um…sorry, I know I should be in there, but it was just getting a bit much,” she said honestly, and I chuckled softly.

“Yeah, tell me about it,”

“What are you doing out here?” she asked.

“Same as you, I needed a breath of fresh air,” we stood side by side in a comfortable silence and when she suddenly turned to leave, I reached out and gently grabbed her arm. “Who are you?” I asked her. Of course, I already knew her name, but I knew nothing else about her and I was intrigued. Dawn looked at me as if I was crazy and I shook my head. “Sorry, it’s just I’ve never met anyone who has captured my attention the way that you do,” I tried to explain.

“Well, my Lord, as much as I would love to stand here and tell you my life story, Josephine will have my head if she notices that I am gone,” Dawn carefully removed her arm from my grip and left me alone. I sighed as I turned back to look at the view. Josephine would have her head. What the hell did that mean? Did it mean that she was hard on the staff? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that and made a mental note to bring it up in the morning.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kayne’s voice suddenly interrupted my nice time outside. I groaned out loud as I turned to face him. “I know you hate these kinds of things, but people are looking for you,”

“I know,”

“Come on,” he said before going back inside. I was on edge around Kayne after catching him in my office the other night. He had somehow managed to get my locked drawer open and had been reading one of the letters sent to my father. I trusted Kayne one hundred percent, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about this invasion of privacy. I went back inside and put on a smile to please the quests. Almost immediately I spotted the group of Seniors. Damn it, I had forgotten that I had invited them. I slowly made my way over to them.

“Good evening,” I greeted them.

“Thank you for inviting us,” Earl said, and I nodded absentmindedly as I saw Dawn heading our way. When she arrived, each Senior took a glass from her tray. The last one for me and she was gone. “You seem taken with her,” Earl whispered, and I quickly shook my head. He wasn’t wrong but I wasn’t about to admit it.

“Just curious,” I lied.

“And my name is Doug,” he teased. “You showed great strength the other day at the meeting,” he pointed out, changing the subject.

“I did?”

“You did, very impressive,” he said, and I smiled as I thought back to how I had just left them there. “Of course, most found it quite disrespectful,” he added, and I laughed dryly.

“Of course, they did,”

“But Blake, on a more serious note, are you sure you won’t consider forming alliances with other supernatural beings?” I could tell that he was being deadly serious, and I stared at him.

“The answer is no and always will be no, I have zero intentions of forming alliances with traitors,” I snapped out. I downed the contents of my glass and headed straight for the bar. “Don’t you have anything stronger?” I asked the barman.

“Yes, my Lord, what would you prefer, whiskey or brandy?” he asked, and I didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Whiskey,” he quickly poured my drink and I gratefully took it from him before heading back into the sea of people. This was turning into my worst nightmare as I pretended to be interested in the things these idiotic people where talking about. I kept an eye out for Dawn but when Josephine announced that dinner would be served, I knew that she was probably busy elsewhere. I followed the crowd into the large dining room and sat down at the head of the table. I had to say, the place looked nice. The table had been set quite beautifully and I could hear people complimenting the silver cutlery. It would never cease to amaze me how people judged these kinds of things. Kayne sat down next to me on my right and soon Earl sat down on my left. I was happy that I wasn’t sitting next to an old fart. The first course was served, and I was disappointed when I didn’t see Dawn. I didn’t pay any attention to Earl or Kayne as we ate our way through several courses. All I wanted to do was go to my bedchamber and sleep. This was by far the worst night I had spent at Uza.

✩Dawn✩

“Well done, you all did very well,” Josephine said, and I yawned. It was well past midnight and I was exhausted. After all the guests had left, Josephine had ordered us to clean up. My feet were aching and my stomach hadn’t stopped rumbling. The early dinner hadn’t done much for me and as I glanced around at the other tired staff members, I wondered if we could eat from the leftovers. “Goodnight,” Josephine said before she left the kitchen. A lot of the others left soon after her but about five of us stayed behind, Bailey included.

“Midnight snack?” I suggested as I headed over to the fridge.

“Definitely, I want some of that chocolate mousse,” someone said, and I smiled. I knew what I wanted. I pulled open the double door fridge and immediately spotted the container with the pork. I took it out and went to the table. Sitting down, two others joined me. We sat around for a while, eating before we eventually went out separate ways to our rooms. Bailey was ahead of me and I shuffled after her. The only good thing that had come out of tonight was my alone time with Blake. Although I hadn’t gotten any information out of him, I did feel as if I had made some progress. His interest in me would work in my favor. Now all I had to do was use that. However, as I stripped out of the dress and got into bed, I knew that it would have to wait for another day.