“I agree,” Gabriel chimed in, though he smiled at his mother. He leaned forward, his eyes catching on Valerie, and he winked. “Can you blame me for wanting a quick wedding? Just look at my bride.”
The flush that bloomed across Valerie’s neck and cheeks had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with the fact that her gut was churning.
Celine was outnumbered. She seemed to realize that and pasted on a small smile, reaching for her wine. She’d already drained three glasses at the dinner table and motioned for more to the server lingering at the door.
“Of course, my dear,” she said quietly. “Whatever you want.”
Gabriel leaned back. Out of the corner of her eye, Valerie saw motion in Madame Allegria’s lap.
Her ears started ringing when she saw Gabriel’s fingers slide up the slit in her aunt’s black dress…and then his hand disappeared between her thighs.
Madame Allegria shifted, ever so slightly, a small smirk playing over her lips as she regarded Celine across the table. Gabriel’s fingers moved underneath the silky material of the dress.
Valerie jerked her head forward, more nausea rising in her belly.
Her aunt and Gabriel were sleeping together. Was that how she’d gotten Gabriel to go along with marrying her? Just another of her twisted mind games?
Of course it was. Madame Allegria was in the business of sex. And she knew how to use it to get what she wanted.
And now…her fiancé was running his fingers over her aunt’s sex, right at the dinner table, in front of his parents. This was the man she would be marrying, tying her life to.
Valerie stood from the table, pushing her chair back so suddenly that it nearly toppled over.
Everyone’s eyes cut to her but it was Celine that Valerie was looking at. Did she know?
“Everything all right, darling?” Derek Larchmont asked.
“Y-yes,” Valerie replied, before clearing her throat. She pasted on a smile that felt as brittle as Celine’s. “I need to use the powder room, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” Derek said. “Our server will show you the way. For the rest of us, let’s retire to the sitting room for the night. We can have our dessert served in there.”
Valerie was unseeing as she followed the server from the room. He was silent as he led her down the hallway, up the grand staircase she’d seen on her first visit to the house, and halfway down another hallway.
“In here, Miss,” he said before opening the door and then backing away. “Do you need me to wait for you, to show you—”
“No,” Valerie said quickly. “That’s all right, thank you.”
She locked herself inside the small room, leaning her back against the door. It was hard to breathe in the dress so she stood there for long moments, staring at herself in the reflection of the mirror. Like everything in the house, it was gilded and heavy, leaning against the wall, and…expensive.
Valerie thought of Celine, feathering her gilded little cage. And she wondered if that was her fate too. To smile at people across the table at dinner parties and pat her husband’s arm and call himdear.
She smiled, a bitter twist of her lips, but in the reflection she saw her face begin to crumble.
She stifled the small sob that escaped her throat, clasping her hand over her mouth, and her mind went to Dravka.
Dravka, who had kissed her again just a few hours earlier. Just thinking about him, thinking about his dark eyes and gentle hands, quieted her sobs until she felt centered again.
She remembered the first time she’d ever seen him. It was the first day she’d been on Everton. A week after her mother had died. Madame Allegria had told her to go introduce herself to the Krave in the Cluster of the brothel. Alone.
Back then, Valerie had still been quite numb. She didn’t remember walking down the hallway to the Cluster, she didn’t remember opening the door, or standing at the threshold, seeing four pairs of eyes staring back at her as she hollowly introduced herself.
But then, her eyes had found Dravka’s. She remembered her heart giving a little throb at the sight of him and all at once, her breath had seemed to return to her. He’d been watching her carefully as she’d introduced herself. And once she was done? A small smile, secretive and knowing, had passed over his lips…and he’d never looked away from her.
As if he knew.
As if he’d always known, from that very first moment, that they’d…
Valerie blew out a long breath, regarding herself in Celine Larchmont’s gilded mirror.
