Chapter Twenty-Two

May’s POV

Two hours later, I was called by one of the maids to have dinner with everyone. I didn’t want to go but I felt it’ll be disrespectful for me to reject a royal invitation to dinner.

After Gabriel’s shocking revelation, I was brought up to a large room in the Guest quarters of the palace, screamed my lungs out into the pillow that was on the bed, took a long shower, texted Declan, and started browsing the internet about how I’ll be making my escape in the next few hours.

I walked into their dining area to see everyone seated except for the Queen. Gabriel was sitting beside Nicholas, laughing at whatever they were saying and touching him lightly on the shoulder.

I scoffed at his actions.

“Loser,” I said under my breath.

I went on to sit directly opposite Nicholas, right beside the Queen. Before Nicholas could meet my eyes, I avoided his gaze, and still, I could feel his eyes on me.

“Hope you had a good rest?” Vanessa asked.

“A little. Thank you for the room, it is a really nice one”

“You don’t have to thank me for that”

I nodded and looked over at the food places on the table. When I looked up, I saw Nicholas looking at me and finally, our eyes met, he smiled but I just looked away like the other time.

“What of Tiffany?” I asked the question that’s being on top of my lips.

“She’s in mourning,” Nicholas said before Vanessa could reply.

“You’ve been staring at your food, May, correct?” The King asked and I said a quick yes.

“You should eat before it gets cold”

I picked up a fork and started eating, trying again not to be disrespectful.

Suddenly, Nicholas stood up, dragged out his chair, picked up his food and the next thing I saw was him walking toward my side of the table.

He stopped beside me, dragged out the chair right next to me, and sat on it, smiling as he did.

I wanted to flip Gabriel the middle finger, but I stopped myself and only gave me a solid high-five in my small head.

“Are you okay?” Nicholas asked.

“Yes, I’m fine” I quickly swallowed the food that was in my mouth.

“It’s kinda funny you know” Vanessa whispered in my ear, making me wonder what she meant by that.

“What?” I whispered back.

“Your rival being a guy. I mean, every other girl in the world wants to fight with a girl over a guy not with a guy over a guy” she laughed quietly trying not to get the attention of others.

Hearing someone else talk about it finally confirmed my suspicion. Gabriel was in love with Nicholas and he’s doing everything in his power to get rid of me and have Nicholas to himself. What I’m not sure about is if Nicholas has any feelings for Gabriel or not.

“You guys went to the same high school, right?” Vanessa asked, loudly this time.

“Yes, we were in the same grade together”

Gabriel replied.

“Tell me May, how popular was Nicholas with the girls?” I almost spit out the food I was eating as I wasn’t expecting such a question.

When Nicholas introduced his sister-in-law as being intuitive, I thought he was exaggerating but from what I just heard, intuitive doesn’t justify how much she loves trying to find answers to things.

“I’ll say he was really popular with the girls and even with the guys” I replied.

“I’m not into guys, I don’t have anything against those who love guys. It’s just who I am the same way they’re what they are. I’m into only one girl” Nicholas replied, obviously not happy with what I said.

“To whom it may concern” I laughed.

The table went completely silent after that and nobody bothered to bring up a topic after that.

“When will the Queen be available?” I asked Vanessa.

“In three days”

“I guess I’ll have to book my flight to Saturday then”

“What flight?” Nicholas asked.

“Back to where I come from. I think it’s time for me to go back home”

It was difficult to say but I did. I have to go back to my life before Nicholas came into the picture again.

Angrily, Nicholas dropped his fork on the plate, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Why are you leaving, May?” He asked

“That isn’t even a question and you know it, Nicholas”

“Okay! Let me rephrase my question, ``Why are you leaving when you promised to stay here with me?”

“You don’t even want me here, Nicholas. The Queen asked you to bring me here and that’s exactly what you did. You followed her orders, made me believe you want me here but now I want to leave” I yelled “Who told you that bullshit? Who told you I didn’t want you here? The Queen hadn’t even spoken to me about you since I was told my father is dead and now, you’re saying….”

He ran his hand through his hair.

“Where did you put her, Vanessa?”

“One of the guest rooms”

“Get the maids to transfer her stuffs into my room in the next three hours”

Before I could protest, he stood up, grabbed me by the hand, and pulled me out of the dining room.

After getting into an elevator leading to his floor, I looked everywhere except at him.

“Who told you that bullshit, May?”

“Nobody did. It was just an assumption”

“Fuck those assumptions of yours cos they’re messing with my head”

I don’t know why I’m protecting Gabriel by not telling Nicholas the truth. Maybe I didn’t want to damage the friendship between two friends or maybe because I didn’t want to stoop so low as Gabriel had done.

“What are you doing to me, May?”

Once the elevator stopped, the doors opened leading to a fancy part of the palace. I thought the room given to me was beautiful, this made me speechless.

I didn’t realize Nicholas was behind me until he backed me into a wall.

“What are you doing to me, May?” He asked again.

His hand was on my waist, holding me tightly, forehead right on top of mine, his nose so close to my nose and his lips, bare inches away from my lips.

“Nothing” I replied

“Liar!”

“I thought you hate me”

“I thought you hate me too. Even though I want to hate you, I still can’t. Whenever I close my eyes, I see you, I want to feel your body right against mine. I want to kiss you till you’re breathless, I want to fuck you lard, make love to you, and wake up the following morning with you wrapped in my hands. Will you let me do that?”

“Yes,” I moaned.

His sexy words had so much effect on me. I could feel myself getting wet, my nipples getting harder as his chest was now closed against my chest.

“With no strings attached” I added.

“If you say so, baby doll”

Without saying anything further, he dropped his lips on mine, kissing me slowly, gently, and passionately.