“Are you feeling all right?” His eyes are concerned, his brow furrowed.

“I just need some air.” I feel a bit sick. His scent is heady and spicy and masculine. It is making me giddy. The earthy, cloying smell of chicken feathers isn’t helping much, either.

He has a firm arm around my shoulders.

“Over here.” He leads me through the open sliding windows. People are gaping, but he ignores them. Victoria appears, and I shriek. She ignores me, and plants herself firmly in our path.

“Where are you going?” Her face is grim.
“She’s not feeling too good. I’m bringing her outside for some air.”

I lift my face, and make a cut-throat gesture across my neck with my forefinger. She gasps, and I pretend to sway on my feet, he tightens his hold on me, and we brush past her. I turn back, and stick out my tongue, cutely, at her. She turns white. Don’t mess with me, Vic. I’ll ground you to a pile of designer dust.

We are in the garden. It overlooks a pretty pond.

“There is a seat just behind us,” he says. “Shall we sit for a while?” Dim light flickers over our heads and is reflected in the water.

“Let’s just walk on,” I murmur coyly.

It’s too near the ballroom. I need to get him somewhere dark and secluded, so that 1. Victoria can’t find us, and, 2. he can unleash the primal part of him, and give in to his lust – oops, love, I mean – for poor little me.

We stroll on. The lighting is getting dimmer and dimmer. Yes!

He looks sidelong at me and his dimple appears. Why haven’t I noticed it before? Though it is more a slight crease in his cheek than a dimple. It is more manly than a dimple. And the corner of his mouth lifts. He is happy, strolling into the unknown with me, a poor little innocent waif. I stifle a giggle. If he only knew.

“There are lamps strung from some of the trees in the garden,” he says. His eyes are very dark. I think he wants to seduce me. He made up his mind the moment I said I wanted to stroll on. Aw. He’s so transparent.

“It is lovely down there. Would you like to see?” He is staring at me. There is something in his eyes, something intense.

Flutter, flutter.
My Candy heart is pounding.

“Are you sure you ought to go so far away from Victoria?” I ask, my eyes wide open. I am a cloud of Candy fluff. I am a pure little chicken. I am the dumbest chicken in the universe. I am about to step into the woods with a tall dark stranger. I almost want to do a high-five with him.

He blinks. He has forgotten about boring old Victoria. Tsk tsk. How feckless. I almost laugh out loud.

“You brought me out here and left her in the ballroom,” I remind him.

My eyes are sad. I watch him carefully. He swallows.

“This is my own home. I will do as I wish.” He squares his shoulders. His face is mutinous. He has decided to put her out of his mind for a little dalliance with the dumb Candy. How utterly predictable. I almost snort, but change it at the last moment to a delicate little sneeze.

“Are you cold?” he asks at once.
“A little,” I lie, and let him pull me tighter into his side. He is feeling protective. It makes him feel like a hero. My lip curls a little. How typical.

We descend the stone steps to another garden with lawns and trees and winding paths and an ornamental pool and fountain. We stroll on.

He stops. I know what he is thinking. He is wondering if he has made a mistake. The path is narrow and dark. There are no lamps strung in the tree branches here. The only light comes from the main path and from the moon above. The path is also winding and deserted.

Even the music sounds more distant from here. The voices and laughter of revellers sound a million miles away.

“I do beg your pardon,” he says. “The path is far narrower than it looks. And it is very dark. Perhaps I ought to take you back to the main avenue, Candy.”

He is lying through his teeth. He wants to stay out here with me.

“Ah, but it is lovely here,” I say dreamily. I smile a silly little smile. Lovely? Are you kidding me? A wild boar could come charging out of the woods any minute. And are those eyes I see blinking at me between the trees? Seriously, can he believe how dumb I am? “Can you hear the wind in the trees? And the birds?” There is no wind. There are no birds. All I can hear is a deafening silence, and my stomach rumbling. I had a LOT of wine.

The moon is almost full. There must be a million stars up there. And if I tip my head right back, I can see a surprising number of them.

Perfect.

I tip my head back for the kill.

I draw a deep, deep breath.

“Look at the stars,” I say. My voice is perfectly pitched, it is a little breathless, with a tinge of awe.

We are in a small clearing, and he turns his head. I have angled myself so that my face is bathed in moonlight. I think of Dongmae in Mr. Sunshine staring at the girl he loves with wonder in his eyes, and just like that, I feel my eyes shining with the wonder of it. I turn my face to share the wonder with him. I smile, but not with my usual bright and brave Candy smile. This time, I make my smile more dreamy, more…intimate. As if we are sharing some very precious secret.

“I am looking,” he says. But it is not at the stars he is gazing any longer, but into my eyes. And why is he whispering? My lips part, and the moonlight gleams on them.

“Isn’t it lovely, oh – ”

For he has bent his head down to mine and kissed me.

“Babe.” My voice is barely a whisper. But he breaks the kiss at once, and recoils. Damn it.

“Candy,” he says softly. His eyes are filled with guilt. “I shouldn’t have done that. Forgive me.”

What the hell?

“What do you mean?” My voice is shaking. I am so mad that he stopped kissing me.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you.” His face is a picture of misery. “I – I am not free. I am engaged to Victoria.”

What the hell??!!!

“It’s okay.” I flutter my eyelashes sadly. I swallow down my rage. “I’ll pretend we never – it never happened.” Yeah, right. You lying, cheating asshole, I’m going to make you pay.

“We should go back.” His face is white.

“Yes, we should.” My voice is broken. I look at him under my lashes. I say sweetly, wistfully, “You won’t want to keep your fiancéé waiting…”

He flinches, as if I have struck him. Yes!

We walk in silence and when we reach the stone steps, I run the rest of the way, leaving him behind. Candy always does that. She stumbles away from the man she loves, a man who belongs to someone else, forbidden to her. She stumbles away, tears in her eyes, her breaths fractured, her heart breaking a little with each stumbling step.

Me? I run, because dammit, my bladder’s fit to burst with all that expensive wine I guzzled. I run like the wind, because I can’t fight it anymore, what I’ve been trying to curb all night. I let it out, finally. I unleash the beast. It bubbles up my windpipe, and rips past my throat in an almighty explosion.

BURRRRRPPPPPP!!!!