It was not as if tasting your new bruid or even sampling her wares, so to speak, was unheard of. That also didn’t mean it was approved of to have sex with your new bruid outside of a political ball. And to leave her needing, though she added that tidbit to herself.
Now she didn’t have Dom’s arm to lean on when she turned to face the woman waiting for her. And waiting she was, demurely leaning against the wall checking her long dark red nails as if she’d come into the bathroom for that only reason.
Felicity took her time re-pinning her sagging hair. After a minute she knew she was lingering so she turned to face her little nemesis with her shoulders squared and eyes hard.
Helena Blackmoore, yes, Felicity had learned she still used his name, lounged gracefully against the wall. Did learning that Dominic’s ex bruid still had his last name invoke a fiery rage inside of Felicity? Absolutely. Still, she had Lady Blackmoore’s words running through her brain. Smile politely, keep your composure and never let anything you’re feeling slip up. Felicity did just that as she made her way for the bathroom door.
“You smell like a whore,” said Helena.
Felicity stuttered a step but kept walking. It became difficult not to open her mouth and say anything, and not to walk straight over to Helena’s beautiful face and scratch her eyes out. Felicity neared the door. Why did it seem that escape for her was always a door away? First from when she had been running from Dom the night he’d first taken her, and now here at this ball. Life had a strange way of coming around on itself.
“I have something you might want to hear.” She tossed the words out so carelessly, so offhandedly that something compelled Felicity to stop.
She’d later regret that move.
Moving as if her legs were stuck in tar, she turned to face Helena. “What do you want?” She sounded weary even to her own ears.
Helena stood up from the wall. Her fiery eyes bright with amusement traced up and down Felicity’s gown. Under her gaze she managed to make the expensive dress seem like something nothing more than ragged tatters that had been dipped in dung then sewn back together to make the “dress” that Felicity was wearing. Felicity hated to admit it but the look did make her feel small, and it did make her cheeks burn in a mixture of embarrassment and shame as if she really did wear a dung-covered dress.
“Well, if that’s all, I have more whoring to get back to.” Felicity turned and had her hand curled around the doorknob when Helena spoke.
“Don’t bond with him. This is the only warning I’m giving to you. Do not touch what is mine.”
Felicity turned around as if she had all the time in the world. Meanwhile, anger surged fast and the rules she’d been lectured with all morning flew out the window. “Is that what this is about? Some petty jealously over Dom? Listen, you lost your chance. You had a long, long time with him and you squandered it. I won’t be doing the same.”
One ruby-colored, thin eyebrow arched up. Then she chuckled a slow, mocking laugh. “You’re in love with him. Oh, this is just too exciting. I’m sure all that love you feel has nothing at all to do with the vast amount of wealth that lines his pockets. Wealth that surely paid for that dress you’re wearing.”
Felicity stiffened but didn’t say anything. She did not need to justify herself, or her love for Dom, to this bitch.
“You won’t be mating with my Dominic tomorrow, dear Ms. Shaw.”
“Oh, and how is that?”
Helena came towards her, the long length of her tight gown moving with every lithe step she took as if the dress was one with her. Felicity wanted to roll her eyes. Helena stopped too close by to be comfortable.
She leaned into Felicity’s face, eyes hard and burning bright with anger. “Because, I will be mating with Dominic tomorrow.”
Felicity froze, stunned.
Then the hysterical laughter that followed could not be contained. It rolled and rolled out of her until tears blurred her vision and her sides throbbed in distress.
“Do shut up!” snapped Helena.
It took an entire minute for Felicity to calm down enough to stop laughing. After that draining fit her body actually felt much looser and more relaxed than it did coming into the bathroom.
“Thank you for that, Helena, I feel much better now.”
Helena’s glare was colder than ice. “Listen here you uppity little bitch. Do us all a favor and go home tonight. To your poor little shack you call a house and forget about Dom, forget about all of this, because tomorrow night come the ceremony it’ll be me he’s mating with.”
Anger once again rose hot and fast. “What on earth makes you think he’ll mate with you tomorrow? Perhaps you forgot, but not that long ago he permanently separated from your bony ass, and for good reason.”
Suddenly, a bruising grip caught Felicity’s arm. Shocked, she looked down at Helena’s hand snatching her and watched as ruby-red nails bit into her skin.
“I know I’ll be mating with him tomorrow because if I find your fat ass at his side tomorrow night then I’m challenging you for rights, and I will win. Then he’ll have no choice but to mate with me.”
Felicity took in Helena’s words, contemplated them for a few tender moments, and then acted without thought.
In a flash she had her palms raised and thrust forward into Helena’s chest with a resounding, fleshy snap. Helena’s eyes widened a fraction as her body jerked then she went flying across the bathroom. She landed hard on the bathroom floor skidding along the tiles in her tight black dress until her back crashed into a stall door denting it into a concave mold of her back.
“Why you little---” she began sputtering.
Felicity did not wait around to see what colorful name Helena was going to call her next. Nope. She simply turned and marched right out of that door. Her high heels sunk into the carpet of the hallway. She marched fast, her steps matching the quick tempo of her heart beat. She eyed the crowd inside the ballroom as she neared, hoping to find Dom where she’d left him. No luck, and now she did not know where to find him.
A burst of panic swept inside her. The bathroom door just opened and Helena came out, wobbly and cursing.
“You!” she seethed, visibly shaking with rage.
Felicity’s eyes flared with alarm even as she tried to keep calm.
Helena’s voice grew much louder, much shriller. “You bitch!”
Felicity’s cheeks burned as she shot a quick glance into the ballroom. Many of the people who had been in the midst of idle conversation now stopped and stared at them with acute interest. Helena was steadily marching towards her like a belligerent drunk with a grudge to fill.
Felicity walked faster towards the ball, a soft smile on her face. For how she looked to the outside world, she did not have a clue that an angry woman was marching after her. She made it to the doorway of the ballroom when she heard a hiss of breath at her ear.
Her body stiffened. Everything that happened next seemed to move in slow motion. Two strong hands slapped her in the back, thrusting her forward much as she’d done to Helena. She toppled forward, arms wind milling, feet skidding along the floor trying to find purchase. Impeccably dressed politicians lifted their eyebrows and backed away offering no help.
She watched the floor coming rapidly towards her face. Right before her eyes came two sets of feet. One she recognized immediately during her slow fall. The flawlessly polished loafer gleamed under the chandeliers and for a moment she could even see her reflection in Dominic’s shoe. The other pair of shoes did not match at all. That is, she realized as her face moved a few inches closer to the floor she was about to kiss, the shoes matched but they did not match the pants. An expensive pant leg covered up a pair of dirty white sneakers with black stripes going up the sides.