Chapter Ten

                                    

                                          
His golden eyes flickered meaningfully at Christine, and she nervously
looked down to avoid his unnerving gaze when she realized that he was
holding his hand out for her to take. She slowly reached for his hand,
knowing that it wasn't a choice in her case, but hesitated right
before she actually put her hand in his. He, however, had obviously
grown tired of her hesitation and took her hand in his. Without a
word, he turned away from her slightly shocked expression and led her
out of the room.
                          
It seemed to Christine that the man literally had money growing on
trees... for she had truly never seen a more expensive interior design
than this. The staircase he was currently leading her down seemed to
be made of marble, and the rail itself was trimmed with pure gold.
                          
When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Christine nearly
thought she was going to lose her balance, because of how thick the
carpet was beneath her feet. Looking down at it, she vaguely wondered
where it had come from. Rome? Italy? Persia? She honestly had no clue,
but her attention was immediately snapped away from the carpet as they
entered what she assumed to be the dining room.
                          
Marble tiles covered the floor, a huge dark wooden table stood off to
the side of the room, its legs trimmed in silver, which contrasted
nicely with the silver-edged paintings lining the walls. But the first
thing that actually truly caught her attention was the huge and very
extravagant chandelier hanging from the very center of the ceiling,
its light giving the room a very intriguing feeling.
                          
Thousands of candles lined the walls around the room, each one lit and
flickering at her with unspoken secrets, and they gave the room a very
magical glow to it.
                          
Christine was so taken up with the design of the room that she
flinched when he snapped his fingers, surprised by the sound. But what
shocked her even more was when suddenly the chandelier's light
disappeared, leaving the room to be lit only by the candles'
flickering flames.
                          
She tilted her head backwards to look up at the chandelier, wondering
why it had suddenly stopped giving light.
                          
"Magic."
                          
She felt chills go down her spine at his low tone, and turned to look
up at him in wonder. Magic? Magic wasn't real... was it? She never had
believed in magic before.. but then again she had never believed she
would be kidnapped by some rich guy that offered her an entire life
full of luxury for simply agreeing to marry him..
                          
"Come, Christine, you must stop your daydreaming or we shall never
have time to eat."
                          
He almost seemed to purr as he talked, and it left a very strange
feeling in the bottom of Christine's stomach, though she couldn't put
her finger on what the feeling was.
                          
She followed him silently as he led her to the table, and nodded ever
so slightly at him in thanks when he pulled her chair out for her. He
gave her a heart-wrenching smirk before walking around the table and
sitting down in the chair opposite from her.
                          
To her slight dismay, the food was already on the table, which meant
that she had neither no more time to admire the room she was in or
find out more about her captor. Not that she had learned anything
about him anyways... Well besides the constant
sending-chills-down-her-spine smirk and his dark,
smooth-as-chocolate-and-caramel-mixed-together voice.
                          
Holding back a sigh, she looked down at her plate, but was extremely
surprised to find that it was her favorite meal. Looking up at him,
she narrowed her eyes slightly. "How did you know..? How did you know
what I liked to eat?"
                          
The corners of his lips turned upwards slightly in that smirk, and
Christine forced herself to keep calm and not let him know how his
gorgeous smirk was affecting her.