IN LOVE BY MISTAKE

ChapterTwo

Mandy’s POV

“What is going on?” I look at Stephanie, who has a bright smile on her face.

“You will enjoy this,” she quips, hitting her palms together in excitement.

“Carols scavenger hunt through the ground!” Someone sings. “The winner gets a hideously expensive fur coat. I’m sure you don’t want to miss out on that.”

I do want to miss out on that. Rich people and their tendency to throw money around. Do they have any idea all the things I can accomplish if I get my hands on the money for the fur coat?

"Have fun," my friend chirps as she is pulled away by her other friends. The guests move out of the living room into the courtyard, holding my lanterns. I walk out behind them, feeling the cool air on my face.

It tastes like cold apples. Somewhere, a voice tries to remember the lyrics to “Good King Wenceslas,” and I try not to burst out laughing. The first comic thing I have heard tonight.

“You’re with me,” a voice says behind me. And I know it is him without even turning around. I feel it in the way my body reacts, in the way my heart thuds hard against my chest as if trying to claw its way out.

I purse my lips before I turn. “Pass.”

“You hate losing,” he declares, that same annoying brooding expression stretched on his face.

“You don’t know me,”

He glances at my bare arms, at my thin coat. And in the middle of his gaze, a shiver that has nothing to do with the cold travels through me. He shrugs out of his tux jacket and holds it out.

"I don't have to know you to be able to read you. You laugh too loudly and pretend that everything is great."

“I am not cold,” I throw back at him. “And you have no right to talk about me that way.”

“You are cold,” he retorts, his hand still outstretched. When I don’t take the cold, he takes a step closer and drapes it over my shoulders. I hold my breath as I feel him invade my personal space. But for some odd reason, it doesn’t feel impersonal.

The fabric warms me up immediately. It smells like him, and then winter and money.

“Are we playing?”

“Fine,” I murmur, turning around. “But I’m leading.”

“Lead then.”

The scavenger list is ridiculous. Find a carol hidden under the mistletoe, a silver bell under the bushels, and three French hens near the pens. We run in different directions and then meet up again in the middle of the clearing.

He is annoying, but more useful and faster than he looks. Once, under the mistletoe, our bodies collide into each other when a couple suddenly comes into our vision, their arms entwined and their lips glued together.

“s**t!” I curse, running out. But his hands catch mine suddenly, and my palms fly up to his chest, steadying myself.

“Careful,” he whispers. “You don’t want to end up on the floor.”

“Stop telling me what to do,” I breathe, if it can even be called that.

We win the scavengers hunt, and I raise the ridiculous fur as everyone else cheers. He moves away from me, back into the dark, and my eyes follow him. I notice the pinch on Amaya's face, aimed in my direction.

But before she can say anything, Stephanie appears and yanks me away from the group. "We are leaving before Amaya murders you. I don't know what you did to her, but…"

“Exactly! I haven’t done anything to her.” So why does everything with the man in the shadows feel like a sin?

“Mandy…”

I hand Steph the fur coat. "Guard this with your life, because when I get to Paris, it is the first thing I am selling."

She rolls her eyes. “I’ll guard it with my life. You, on the other hand, should stay here. I’ll be right back. I need to find our coats. I think we have had enough fun for one night.”

I nod as Stephanie rushes into the castle. My arms wrap around my frame for the second time tonight.

“Say you’re not cold again.” He appears beside me, falling out of the dark.

“I’m not cold.”

He steps closer, sighing. “Tonight….this castle...you shouldn’t act like you belong. You don’t need to laugh the loudest. It’s….despicable.”

“You shouldn’t assume who I am.”

We stare at each other as the music picks up inside, and I realize that we have no idea what our names are. And I am not about asking.

He is beautiful, standing here underneath the starless skies. It would have been easy to like him if he were not so irritating and annoying.

"I should go," I murmur. I need to find Steph, my coat, and maybe my damn sense. Instead, I take a slow step towards him, my lips parted slightly.

“You should go,” he echoes.

“You are infuriating. You know that, right?”

“And you are loud,” he says, which is crazy because I am actually whispering.

I don't know why I say the next words, but they just come tumbling out. It has to be the alcohol. It just has to be.

“I’m leaving London in two days,” I blurt. “You don’t have to worry about me getting in the way of your…whatever this is.”

“Good,” he says, but his eyes scream something else entirely.

Or is that the alcohol too?

Snow starts trickling down from the skies, and somewhere inside, a cheer erupts. Amaya's giggles come next, and the guests start clapping.

I don’t move. He doesn’t either.

"Kiss me," I whisper. I don't know what is wrong with me. I keep making stupid decisions. But I cannot look away. I cannot stop the delicious ripples running down my spine.

I might probably regret this in the morning, but right now, it feels like the best decision I can ever make.

He doesn't. Instead, he takes an impossible step closer to me, until all I can breathe in is him. He floods my senses, and my eyes flutter close on their own accord.

My throat feels parched, and I bring my bottom lip between my teeth.

“f**k,” he whispers, bringing his finger to my jaw, gearing my face up.

And then, his lips brush mine. Slowly at first. And then, everything erupts.

It is neither careful nor polite. It is the kind of kiss that is shared behind the wall on the night of prom, hiding away from everyone else. We thrash at each other with hunger. His hands wrap around my waist, and mine move to his neck.

Everything around us fades into oblivion, and I don’t even realize it.

"Room," he says against my mouth, and I don't say no.

I can’t.

We move up the narrow stairs and down a hall. He opens a door with a key and pulls me in with him before turning the lock. A phone lights up on the dresser, and the screen flashes a name I don't know.

His lips find mine in the dark, and he presses me hard against the wall.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps from the hallway. And then, a knock. “Orion, are you in there?”

The handle turns.