Baron Kaldwin watched the entire dance from the side as he talked to the people he knew. And when the music finally stopped, a satisfied smile spread across his face.

’She has finally found a man that she is genuinely interested in.’ the Baron thought to himself.

He had spent years trying to get Claire to settle down. He brought countless young nobles in front of her, trying to secure a strong political marriage. She always shot down his efforts and every single political candidate he tossed her way got totally ignored.

But right now? She was breathless and blushing hard after stepping away from Adrian. Kaldwin knew she finally caught feelings for someone and it honestly made his day.

So he just turned his back and went to drink with the minor nobles.

On the complete opposite side of the massive tent, Serena stood frozen.

She watched the music stop and placed her wine glass on the closest table.

Serena took a deep breath. She just needed a tiny bit of courage to walk over there and ask him for a dance.

But her heart was basically hammering against her ribs. Her legs completely refused to move.

So she resorted to the good old liquid courage.

Serena reached across the table and snatched an unopened bottle of red wine. She popped the cork and just chugged the whole thing.

She dragged a wrist across her mouth. Then she just stood there land watched while Adrian walked away from Claire. He headed straight for Aria and started grabbing a bunch of sweets off the dessert platters.

After about ten or fifteen minutes, the wine finally hit her bloodstream.

When she thought about asking Adrian for a dance this time, there was no nervousness. Just pure confidence and weirdly enough, a little bit of recklessness.

She lifted up her blue dress a little and went straight to Adrian.

Adrian looked up as she approached.

"Ah, Serena." Adrian smiled warmly. "I hope you are having fun tonight."

He checked out her blue and white dress.

"You look gorgeous by the way." Adrian said.

Her face went entirely red. The wine already had her cheeks looking pink, but that blunt compliment just messed her up and she giggled.

And then she struck.

She lifted her hand, doing the exact same bold gesture Claire had used earlier.

"Care to dance with me, Lord Adrian?" Serena asked, batting her eyes dreamily as she looked up at him.

Adrian just stared at her offered hand.

’Goddamn.’ Adrian thought wildly. ’Why are both of them suddenly being this incredibly direct toward me?’

But he did actually like her company, so he was not going to reject her.

"Okay." Adrian nodded. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

He glanced down. A half eaten piece of honey cake was still sitting in his hand. So he just shoved the entire chunk into his mouth, chewed, and tossed the dirty plate on a table, knowing that his servants would clear it up for him.

Aria saw him inhale the cake and immediately slapped his leg.

"Rude Papa." Aria scolded him, but she was just grinning ear to ear. The best scenario was happening right in front of her and she couldn’t be happier.

Her dad, the one she loved the most and the woman who was a mother figure for her in her past life. The two of them liking each other was a dream come true.

"Well, sorry." Adrian mumbled with a full mouth. "Papa likes food a lot."

He swallowed the cake, wiped his hand, and took Serena’s fingers.

He led her toward the dance stage and as he did that, Serena’s high heels caught on the edge of the wooden platform and she stumbled forward slightly. The wine was clearly ruining her balance.

Adrian shot his arm out and grabbed her by her waist. He caught and steadied her before they hit the dance floor. Couples were already swaying all over the place to a new, much slower beat.

Adrian paused. He tried to think of a polite hand placement for this kind of music. He reached out to hold both of her hands politely.

But Serena completely ignored his attempt.

She snatched his right hand and placed it directly on her own waist. She threaded the fingers of her other hand right through his. Then she closed the gap and dropped her free hand onto his shoulder.

She stared right into his eyes and started stepping backward, dragging him into a slow rhythm.

Adrian stopped thinking and followed her lead instead.

While his dance with Claire started out slow and quickly escalated into a fast, highly dynamic routine, this dance with Serena was totally different.

It was incredibly slow and felt a bit too dramatic. And in a weird way, it felt extremely romantic too.

She did not push herself completely against him. They kept a tiny gap between each other. But that space meant nothing because they never broke eye contact once. Staring at each other like that while ignoring everything else made them feel something special.

They kept dancing for a long time.

Adrian was not in a rush. He had his dose of good food and the burning urge to punch someone in the face had finally faded away completely. So he just relaxed and danced with her for almost fifteen minutes.

"Did you know what all the girls here say about you?" Serena whispered suddenly.

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Not really."

"Everyone says that you are going to be incredibly rich." Serena mumbled, her voice soft. "They talk about how you are the perfect bachelor. And how you are a terrifyingly strong person, especially after that brutal display earlier."

Her eyes dropped to his chest for a second before snapping right back up to his eyes.

"But I feel like they are missing the real truth." Serena mumbled. "They have no clue about how nice you actually are. They don’t see how good of a leader you are, or how much you actually care about your citizens."