Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (26 page)

It was the prince’s eyes’ turn to grow wide. “What? Me? No way!”

“Yes, you were!” I insisted. “You were also staring at my breasts just five minutes ago when you woke up!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I wasn’t doing anything like that.”

“Oh, my God! You really
are
a terrible liar!” I yelled my frustration.

“True.”

“So you admit it?”

“That nightgown is…um, really short,” he shrugged.

“Ugh! Unbelievable!” I bent down and grabbed the scarf off of the floor and dropped it over my shoulders, leaving him standing there as I shook my head in disapproval of his so-not-royal behavior.

A quiet groan stopped me midway. I turned around to find him with the same look again, but now he was biting his bottom lip, releasing it when he saw mine very far from my top lip as I looked at him in disbelief with a gaping mouth. “You were checking me out. Again!”

“The gown is
still
short.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest again, but given what it did to my breasts, and the look in his eyes as he tried not to stare–but failed miserably–only managing to make his eyes bounce up and down between my eyes and chest, I dropped them to my stomach as I held the scarf in my hands, narrowing my eyes at him. “This is not acceptable at all!”

“You’re right, but… He looked me up and down. “You’re really-”

“Stop it,” I interrupted him. “You can’t have those thoughts about me.”

“Excuse me, Princess. But my thoughts are all mine. I can have whatever thoughts I want.”

That stupidly-beautiful smile was back on his stupidly-beautiful lips and the stupidly-beautiful, mysterious look was back in his stupidly-beautiful, attractive eyes.

“You’re doing it now!”

“Doing what, Jealous Princess?”

“I’m not jealous,” I said. “You’re having thoughts.” I sounded ridiculous.

“I am.” Crooked smile.

“You shouldn’t.”

“It’s
my
head.” He licked his lips. The sight of his tongue on his lip was distracting, and I found myself watching it as it swept over his bottom lip, replaying it in my head in slow motion–and for a moment I forgot why we were arguing.

No, seriously, why we were arguing?

“You shouldn’t,” I said, lower than I intended for it to be–and not really knowing what it was that he
‘shouldn’t’
do.

I left the sunroom with a sort of foggy mind, wondering if his words meant that he was attracted to me, confused by the smile that tugged at my lips when I had the thought. Why I found it pleasing to think that the prince was attracted to me was something I couldn’t understand.

Games.

Lies.

Traps.

“Princess,” the prince’s soft voice called in a whisper from right behind me. When I turned he continued, “I was just teasing, I only wanted to make you smile.” His smile was small and his words were warm. I found myself smiling back with one side of my lips, a small and careful smile. Careful not to show my feelings. It would be so wrong of me to let him know that I-…

It would just be wrong.

When I didn’t reply, he spoke again, “I’m in a very good mood, I had a very good night.” My blood pressure started going up again. “I wish I could make you have a good night, too.”

I looked up at his eyes, waiting for something, but not really knowing what that
something
was. Or maybe I was just enjoying looking into his green eyes…

Wrong!

“Can you keep a secret?” he whispered.

I frowned slightly, but nodded.

The prince’s smile grew bigger and, the next thing I knew, he disappeared into the closet, spending no less than five minutes in there and then coming back with something black in his hands.

“Put this on.” He handed me a black cloth and I took it from him, frowning again when I saw that it looked like the robe I’d worn over my dress on the night of the wedding, only in a thicker material with closed front. He must’ve seen the look on my face because he added, “Trust me. Please.”

After I shrugged the scarf off, I put the robe on with the prince helping a little, because it was a bit difficult for me to wear it without getting lost inside of it, since it was
so
big. He then brushed my hair behind my ears and put the black hood attached to the robe above my head, whispering
‘Perfect’
when it was in place.

“Uh, why am I wearing this?” I asked quietly.

The prince’s lips came close to my face again and spoke so softly in my ear. “We’re sneaking out.”

I was fighting myself to keep on showing him how angry at him I was, but I was still confused; my emotions were confusing me. Anger aside, I kept thinking of other scary things that I was feeling, and those things–those feelings–shocked me into an almost frozen state. I found that I had suddenly stopped the yelling and my sarcastic replies, worn the robe without first asking why he wanted me in it, then asked the
why
later with a quiet voice. It was strange, really strange. But what was inside of my head was even stranger.

The fact that I was blushing at his comments and smiling at his playful remarks, that my heartbeats were racing each other when I thought about how good it felt for him to think I was attractive or for him to be attracted to me… It was scary. Why was I finding it so appealing?

It was scary that I wasn’t finding it scary.

I mean, I was alone with him in this room, at the very least for the rest of the seven days. I was supposed to be his wife. Why wasn’t I scared of what he might do now that he found me to be attractive or sexy? Why wasn’t I thinking that he might take advantage of me?

Why wasn’t I paying any attention to all of this and only thinking–wondering–what it’d be like to be touched by him?

What was wrong with me?

“Sneaking out?” My eyes widened. Excited but disbelieving.

“Uh-huh,” he said, tucking a wayward golden lock inside of my hood.

“To where?” I asked.

“Somewhere,” he smirked, earning a glare from me in response.

The prince chuckled lightly and walked away, grabbing an apple from the fruit basket that had been placed once again on the round table. My guess was that Mona had come in when I was asleep and put it back, more likely when the prince came back from outside.

“Eat this,” he offered me the apple.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You can’t not be hungry. It’s almost two in the morning and we had lunch eleven hours ago.”

“I really don’t want to eat.”

“You have to eat it and take another capsule of your medication, or else we are staying inside. The weather out there is nothing like the sunroom and you
will
get even more sick without your medication. I’m not risking that.”

I huffed and took the apple from him, causing him to smile before he grabbed one for himself and started to eat it while gazing out the window. I did the same when my legs took me to stand beside him, and when I was finished with both the apple and the pill swallowing, he asked me if I was ready. My heartbeat sped up and I nodded frantically, so eager to leave the room that I almost forgot I was barefoot.

When I put the heeled sandals back on, the prince offered me his hand. I took it and then he led me out to the living room. I thought he was going to lead us out the main bedroom door, since that was where I’d come from on the night of the wedding and it was the door he’d left from a few hours ago, but I didn’t question him. There were more doors and exits in this place than people who lived in it, and it was seriously disturbing.

“God! Do I need a map for this palace!” I said to myself when the prince opened a hidden door.

He chuckled, “I could get you one, but it’d be useless when it comes to the secret doors.”

Of course!

“Why do you need so many secret doors, anyway?” I wondered when we left an elevator, that wasn’t the same one I’d used before to get to the wing. We used this one to go down to some floor that was pretty much underground, then went into some kind of alley that looked like it wasn’t part of the palace, due to the lack of decorations and elegant paintings that were always on every wall I’d seen since I came here.

“Security reasons,” he replied, opening yet another hidden door that led to a different alley.

Duh!

“I know that,” I said. “I meant: why so many?”

“Time.”

“Time?”

“Yep.” He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “It’s a known fact that every palace–especially the ones belonging to royal families–has secret doors. Having so many of them gives us time to flee when needed by distracting the attacker.”

Huh!

“That’s smart,” I told him as we walked again. “But, why would anyone attack the palace? Or the royal family? There are no wars here or anything.”

“That’s a story for another day, Princess.”

I didn’t push.

The second alley looked like a never-ending one. It went on forever, and it started to become trying, especially with my ridiculously long robe that was way longer than floor length. I kept most of it fisted in one hand, in order to be able to walk at all and not just trip on it and fall on my face.

After what felt like two weeks of walking, and because I was the luckiest girl on earth and all, my heel decided to break. “Oh, snap!”

“What’s wrong?” the prince asked, holding me by the waist to his side when I stumbled.

“My heel broke,” I whined, bending down and holding my foot a bit up to look at the damage. If I broke the other one I wouldn’t walk any better since the front was way higher than the heel when broken.

This is why I want my freaking clothes and my freaking shoes; those sandals are not to be worn outdoors!

“Take them off,” the prince suggested.

“And then?” I asked, annoyed. I didn’t want to go back after I’d already walked that far, but I didn’t want to walk barefoot either.

“And then…” he said. The next thing I knew, my feet had left the floor and were being held almost at the same level as my head, as the prince put one hand under the back of my thighs and the other around my back and lifted me up, carrying me bridal style and continuing to walk, smiling smugly when I squealed in surprise.

“You can’t carry me the rest of the way!”

“Yes, I can.”

Smug jerk!

“You still won’t tell me where we’re going?”

“We’ll be there soon.”

I sighed. “Are we still in the palace?”

“Not really.”

“Where are we then?”

“You see, Princess, secret doors could lead you to other rooms or other wings, but the ones leading you to elevators take you out of the palace.”

“How come?”

“The elevators open to tunnels. Each one takes you to a different place, miles away from the palace.”

“Wow!” I said, fisting his shirt. “How do you know where to go or which one to choose?” It sounded really complicated to me.

“I’ve had it memorized since I was a little kid; my mother taught me.”

“The queen?” I asked. Didn’t she have anything better to do? Like threatening others with death and giving them deadly glares? I could only imagine how many doors and how many alleys …
tunnels
, or whatever.

“Only the immediate royal family knows of these tunnels, Princess. My parents, my siblings, and now you,” he smiled.

I smiled a small smile. But then I remembered, “How about your sister-in-law?”

“Wives are not supposed to learn of the tunnels until after they bring an heir to their husbands, in case they were intruders.”

I frowned.