Kai's point of view

They say the eyes are the window to a soul. I couldn't tell if Emily had somehow recognized me else she wouldn't be staring at me this way like she somehow knew it was me.

I watched her shake her head as if trying to remove some ridiculous thoughts from her head.

"Hi," I said once again.

"Hi," she sounded almost breathless. She still looked as sexy as hell. I had to fight against the urge to just whisk her away and tell her everything.

No, I couldn't yet. If I rushed her at once, she'd think I was a liar and this was a prank or something and probably smack me on the face.

"I'm Emily and why are you staring at me that way even though you haven't told me your name yet," she roused me from my reverie.

"Oh, sorry," I thrust out my hand, "I'm Kai - kain," I corrected immediately with a sheepish grin while enveloping her hand in a handshake. I must look stupid right now.

"I'm Emily," She replied with a formal smile.

I rubbed the top of her palm, brought it to my mouth, and placed a kiss on it with my gaze holding hers.

Emily shivered, I felt it, coupled with the way she took her hand away as if stung by a bee. And it pleased me to know that unconsciously, we were still attracted to each other.

"You're a lovely woman, I'm honored to make your acquaintance," I muttered sugary words to her, the way a gentleman would.

"You have such lovely eyes, I would really like to see what you look like without the mask on," was her reply.

I tried not to show I was taken aback by her comment. She was regarding me skeptically - seems the whole dye the blonde hair dark didn't buy her over.

"Really?" I indulged her further,

"Removing the mask, isn't that a bit early in this relationship? I think we just met," my brows flirted with her.

She chuckled, "Forgive my manners. For a moment, I just thought… no, you just looked incredibly familiar to someone I knew?"

"Someone you knew?" I tactically pressed. I was wearing a Venetian mask that featured both gold and white color combination and covered the entirety of my face - my eyes were only visible.

"He was someone special to me but that's bygones. You haven't told me why you approached me?" She was quick to change the topic.

That unsettled me, had she forgotten me that easily. It was seven years already - I couldn't blame her - but I didn't have a choice. I would have come back for her sooner but I had to rebuild the kingdom from the scratch, get rid of the traitors, make it safe for her.

Now, it's finally done. Yes, Emily might not forgive me that easily but I'll work for it, make it up in every way possible till she accepts me back.

"You still haven't answered my question,"

"Huh?"

"Why did you approach me?" she asked with all manner of seriousness.

"You're a lovely woman, why wouldn't I approach you?"

"People in here have approached me for diverse purposes; some to inquire about my dress- I'm the designer by the way; some to socialize and the rest to flirt and see if they could get into bed with me - I'm a married woman by the way," She quickly drew the boundaries.

I chuckled inwardly, was that "married" part supposed to scare me away.

"Your dress is fine, it's being fun socializing with you and I'm not here to get into your pants," I would get the whole of her soon.

"So what's your motive," She persisted.

"To dance with you," I began to draw her towards the stage where the royal band was already playing a number, a slow romantic tune, yet she refused.

"What is it?" I asked, surprised. The Emily I know wasn't one to refuse waltzing all night long, she was a great dancer.

"I can't dance," She lied.

I gave her an indifferent look, saying In a sing-song, " Liar liar, pants on fire,"

"I've forgotten how to dance," She restated her lie.

I drew her close to me suddenly causing her to gasp loudly as our bodies met. I whispered into her ears, "Don't worry, I'll teach you," dragging her to the center of the stage before she could protest.

Her eyes were wide out of panic, her eyes darting around the hall while I used that opportunity to place her hand on my chest while mine went to her waist, pressing her flush against me - a little more than required but who would chide me.

"You're not relaxed," I observed.

"People are watching," her words were rushed.

"That's the purpose of dancing; entertain the crowd and have fun yourself," I said jovially yet the anxiety on her face told me she wasn't joking.

"No, you don't understand," she was ready to fly out of my grasp.

"Make me understand," I said to her, desperately. I couldn't understand why she was alarmed over a single dance.

"My husband is a politician…"

Oh, that man.

"He's running for the presidential election and I can't have a scandal coming out of this," she said pointing to the exclusive reporters at a corner of the room.

"Emily, those reporters belong to the royal family, they wouldn't cause any scandal to our guest, I mean the guest…" I had to take perfect note of my pronouns from henceforth, "Besides, you're in a mask neither are we doing anything scandalous - unless you want us to do something," I intentionally insinuated sexually.

Emily gulped, before her mind returned to the issue at hand, "I'm so sorry,"

"Why are you sorry?" my confusion grew.

"When I'm extremely nervous, I get anxiety attack at times -"

"You never had an anxiety attack before? How did you get one now?" Oh, I just got busted.

She gave me the look, "How did you know I never had an anxiety attack?" her suspicion began, again.

"Urm... Yeah, you didn't experience a panic attack when I was talking to you earlier… so that, you know, that explained the rest " I was short of words.

She nodded her head in understanding but I could tell she was having a hard time believing me. Maybe, I should just come all out with the truth. Yeah, my lie was pathetic.

"That's understandable," she smiled wryly, "After he died, I got this attack whenever I'm working on a big project," Emily said without even realizing she was dancing in tune to the slow music.

"Big project?"

"Yeah, I need to speak to prince Kai regarding his interest in our clothing line. If we become one of his designers, it would be a huge boost to my fashion line," she explained.

So, he was the reason for her being stressed out? Good going Judy or Kai or whatever.

"Say no more because you're in luck today."

"How?"

"I'm one of the Prince's people,"

"You mean, relative?"

"Well, sort of,"

"So you can get me to meet the prince?" she stopped dancing, clasping my hands from relief.

"Y-yeah, with due appointment - the prince is not an easy man, spares no formalities for his relatives too,"

Her face fell.

"But don't worry, he'd answer to me faster than normal people. Besides, I'll keep you informed of my progress every day after we exchanged contacts," I probably looked like a scammer right now. God help me.

Yes, her brows furrowed, "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"You don't need to trust me… oh boy," I swallowed when I saw my mother's head of guard coming my way.

"Oh boy?" she gasped in disbelief, "You're one strange…"

"Run,"

"What?"

"Run now," I grabbed her hand, leading her out of the dance arena just as the guard chased after me.

"Why are we running?" she asked as we successfully made it out of the bouquet hall.

"Let's just say the queen isn't as benevolent as her son, the prince. She wants to marry me off by all means possible," I shouted while going through a secret hallway the guards hadn't noticed until today.

"Why?" She asked, even though she was running out of breath.

"I'm her orphaned nephew, she wants me to raise a seed in case I die. Do you still doubt me being the prince's relative?" I asked her, this chase turning into fun for us.

Before they could reach us, I dragged her into a secret room, locking us in. I had this palace renovated, having the map in my head hence knowing all secret ways and rooms - essential for the king's life during an attack.

We heard the guards pass the room by, not that they realized there was one. We listened to their descending footsteps and turned back to realize we were intimately close to each other.

Her back was pressed against the wall, her chest heaving from the run, and unlike earlier, her cheeks had color now and she looked livelier - her mask had fallen off during the run - she looked more like the Emily I knew now.

I felt a pang hit my chest, wondering what Emily had gone through to make her turn dull and lifeless.