Page 63 of Heavenly Bodies

‘Merissa, you promised you’d be quick,’ she said, flinging the door open.

She stopped short.

Enzo was leaning against the frame, one foot crossed behind the other. As she mastered her panic, she noted something else. He was dressed in the formal colours of the Asterian court. A black blouse was undone at his collar, a bowtie slung around his neck. His hair hung in damp curls from a bath, and the smell of amber oils filled her senses. He looked like sin.

‘What are you doing?’ she breathed.

‘I had an inkling you might try and do something stupid. Like, I don’t know, attend a masked ball, alone, where the god intent on killing you waits.’

He brushed a piece of lint off his indigo jacket. ‘So I got myself ready and came here to escort you.’

A lump was forming in her throat. ‘Why? Your father forbade it.’

‘And I don’t take orders well. I won’t let you go alone. So if you need to go, then I’m coming with you.’ His eyes dragged from her feet up to her dress, and Elara suddenly felt vulnerable in the thin material. Then, with a curved smile, his gaze landed on her face.

‘Do you need some help?’ he purred. She bit back a smile as she opened the door wider, crossing the room to the discarded corset.

‘Merissa was dressing me, but she’s disappeared to Stars know where.’ She blew an errant strand of hair out of her face as she looked back to him, still leaning in the doorway. ‘So unless you know how to tie a corset and get me into this damned gown, perhaps you could go and find her?’ She shot him a sweet smile.

He looked at her, as he lazily pushed himself off the doorframe and entered the room. ‘Well, princess, undoing corsets is more my strong suit, but I’m sure I can assist.’

He approached, and Elara felt heat crawling up her neck to her cheeks as he stood behind her. She looked at her reflection, the silk gown clinging to her delicately, outlining the shape of her curves. She pressed the corset to herself, gesturing to Enzo. ‘You need to find the two loops in the middle and pull.’

Enzo studied her back. ‘You know, I never saw the point in these things,’ he murmured as his thumbs brushed herhips, holding the strings in each hand. He drew them towards him deftly.

‘Why not?’ she asked, her breath quickening. She saw his smile in the reflection as he began to pull on each string, the corset tightening with every movement.

‘Just seems like an awful lot more for me to have to take off.’ Enzo’s voice caressed her ear, a low murmur. She felt goosebumps ripple through her body. Trying to fight down the delicious pleasure that his words brought to her, she focused on her reflection.

‘Is this tight enough?’ he asked, hitching her in roughly so that she was pulled against him. She exhaled a little breath of shock. A hand around her waist steadied her. She nodded silently as a smile danced on his lips.

‘Is my hair getting in the way?’ she asked innocently and swept it around to one side, the nape of her neck exposed. The hands tying a bow behind her went still, and she glanced in the mirror. Displayed in the looking glass was a furrowed brow and clenched jaw as Enzo’s gaze bore into her exposed, silver-dusted neck. She knew he could smell the faint smoky vanilla perfume dabbed behind her ear. Her chest, spilling out of the bodice, was heaving, shallow breaths that she inwardly insisted were caused by the tightness of the corset and not the way Enzo was looking at her.

He lifted his eyes to the mirror, finding hers as he stood still, hands still wrapped in strings. His breath was warm, causing rivulets of fire to dance down her back. In that moment she thanked her shadows for hiding the feelings swirling through her. The air grew heavy, almost suffocating, before Enzo spoke.

‘Don’t we look quite the royal couple?’

Elara forced out a laugh, batting him away. He grinned and finished tying the bow, the movements rough and taut. When he finished, he stepped back from her.

‘There.’ He bowed. ‘In another life perhaps I was a handmaid.’

She chuckled as he swaggered towards the door. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘I’ll arrange a carriage. Take the servants’ staircase.’ Then, with a final look at her, he was out of the room.

Minutes later, there was a quiet knock on the door and Merissa swept back in, just as Elara was almost drowning in the swathes of ballgown that she was trying to put on the right way.

‘Thank the gods,’ Elara muttered as Merissa hurried over to help.

‘Sorry,’ she said breezily, ‘His Highness needed my assistance.’

Elara raised a brow. ‘Oh, I gathered that by the attire he was wearing. But that doesn’t explain where you disappeared to when he found himself in my rooms while I was wearing only my undergown and corset.’

Merissa’s lips twitched as she pulled Elara’s ballgown around, righting it and smoothing it down. ‘I thought you may need a moment alone to discuss your plan.’

Elara’s mind flicked to that moment alone, to Enzo’s thumbs stroking her waist, the way he’d looked at her neck, the feeling of his hard body as he’d pulled her against it.

She clicked her tongue, admonishing herself.Get it together, Elara, my gods. You’d think you were a tremoring virgin the way a few touches are making you act.

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