The full splendor is revealed. Within the tall hedges the place is lighted only by fairy lights, which makes it almost seem to be under a spell. As we follow the winding path deeper into that unearthly garden, there are full-throated white flowers, lipstick-pink peonies, and ponds where frog spawn glistens like precious diamonds. There are no formal geometric patterns here. Only a profusion of nature growing in every available space. When I touch the leggy flowers, I feel electricity rush through me.

Dante leads me further in and I spy more flowers. Our presence startles a dozy hedgehog that scuttles into some bushes. Right in the middle of the garden, a fountain spouts water into the air. Iridescent fish swim in the water.

“Your father has created his own truly beautiful world here. No wonder he does not allow anyone to disturb it. They simply wouldn’t understand. This is heaven on earth.”

“Why do you think he gave you the key?”

I search Dante’s face. “I don’t know.”

“I think he knew you belonged here. This garden needs a goddess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Strip for me, Rosa?”

“Are you serious?”

“I’ve never been more serious,” he says huskily. In the dark, his eyes glitter, making my heart ache with love.

“We can’t have sex here, Dante. It’ll be almost sacrilege.”

“How wrong you are, bella. It will be beautiful.”

“But—”

“Trust me.”

“What if someone comes in?” I whisper.

“I locked the door.”

I bite my bottom lip uncertainly.

“I need to see you naked in this garden, Rosa. I need to taste you.”

He steps away from me and waits. I ease down the zip of my dress, and it falls on the springy grass. I step out of it and remove my strapless bra, and then I slide my panties down my legs. I stand in front of him, nude but for the necklace and bracelet. I see his chest rise and fall as he breathes. He takes his jacket off and lays it on the ground behind me.

“Lie down,” he says huskily.

I obey. The inside of the jacket is still warm from his body. The grass tickles the backs of my legs. I smell the earth and the smell of things growing in the dark. It smells like baked apples. He stands over and looks down at me. His gaze is possessive and full of fierce pride.

“Spread your legs, bella.”

I push my legs up and let them butterfly on either side. Wide open, I gaze up at him.

“You cannot imagine what you look like,” he whispers as he kneels down. His mouth finds a nipple. He sucks it and my body arches with pleasure. He slides a finger into me. I’m so wet his finger makes a squishing sound. He adds another finger and I moan. I feel drunk with pleasure and I want more and more.

Slowly, he kisses and licks his way down my body until his tongue can reach out and lick my slit. Then his tongue goes to work. He laps at my folds and circles my clit. His other hand pushes back my hood and his lips capture the hard bud.

My hands clench in his hair as I gaze up at the vast sky, the stars. I rock back and forth against his face mindlessly. Thrusting my pussy harder and harder into his face and mouth. I want to remember this until the day I die.

I don’t want to come so quickly.

I want this to last and last, but his tongue flicks back and forth so fast and furiously, I can hold back no longer. My body starts trembling. As I crest, he bites down on my clit, making me scream into the night. My body jerks and my thighs crush his head.

I feel myself filling his mouth with my liquid while he keeps pumping his fingers right through my extended orgasm. When it is all over, he rams his tongue one last time into me.

Then he brings his mouth to mine and plunges his tongue into my mouth. His tongue tastes of me. I suck it desperately. I feel as if I need him in my mouth more than I need to breathe. Our mouths meld in a sensation of heat. Oh God, I love this man so much I don’t know where he begins and I end. Eventually, he lifts his head and looks down at me.

“Fuck, baby. You’re so fucking beautiful.”

I want to say the words. It seems like the perfect place to tell him I love him. All I have to say is I love you so much, but my throat locks, and I don’t say anything, I just stare up into his beautiful face.

He unzips his pants quickly, and pulls them down his hips. He pushes his underpants down and his cock springs out, hard and almost purple in the moonlight.

“You belong only to me. This is the only cock that you will ever have in your body again,” he says as he pushes slowly into me, his eyes dark and hooded.

After all this time, I still have to get used to his size, to the sensation of being so stretched and full. He stops to allow me to adjust then he grinds his hips against my pussy. I’m so soaked and I can hear the sticky sounds of his skin against mine.

“My need is too strong, bella. I can’t last,” he mutters thickly.

He must have been really holding himself back, because in a few thrusts, his whole body clenches, and with a roar he fills me with his seed. I know he likes to stay for a while inside my body after he has come so I gently stroke his face. Eventually, he moves, molds his body to mine.

“Told you it would be beautiful,” he murmurs.

“Yes, it was.” One day I’ll tell him how beautiful it really was for me. How it felt as if I was making love amongst the stars.

“Almost perfection, isn’t it?” he asks.

“I’m not sure about the almost part,” I say. “I’m pretty convinced this night is totally perfect.”

I tell him I’d felt some trepidation about the ball. I’d never been to one before, but now I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Once more we kiss, and I cling to him as if I never want to let him go. I don’t want to leave this enchanted garden and go back to the real world.

“Ready to go back to the party?” he asks when we break apart.

“I suppose we should.”

He helps pull my zip up for me. Some bits of my hair have escaped the pins, so I pull everything out, and let my hair loose.

“Here, keep this,” I say dropping the pearl pins that belonged to his mother into his trouser pocket.

As we walk back to the party, my shoes start to hurt my feet. I tell Dante I’m going to go up to my room to change my shoes. He offers to come up with me, but I tell him I’ll meet him at the entrance of the ballroom. When I reach the lobby, I see Cassandra hurrying up to me.

“Where have you been?” she asks, her eyes roaming knowingly over my hair.

I don’t know why, but I don’t want to tell her that I’ve been in the South Garden. “We just went for a walk,” I tell her.

“A walk?” She smirks. “That’s a new name for it.”

I shrug and smile.

“Aren’t you going back to the party?”

“Yes, but I’m going to change my shoes first. These shoes are killing me.”

“Well, what a coincidence because I was just about to go up and change my shoes too.” She lifts her lime green dress and shows me her sparkly shoes.

“I saw you dancing with Linnus’s father,” she says as we walk side by side up the winding staircase with a huge crystal chandelier hanging over us.

“Yes, I had no idea he is such a wonderful dancer,” I say mildly.

“The two of you looked marvelous waltzing around the dance floor. I think he likes you. A lot.”

“That’s kind of you to say, but considering the stern looks he throws my way, I didn’t really think he approved of me at all.”

“He gave you something, didn’t he?”

I don’t look at her and I keep my voice casual. “Yeah, he gave me the key to the South Garden. He wanted Dante to show it to me.”

“So that’s where you were. Why didn’t you just tell me that instead of pretending you went for a walk?”

I turn to face her. She is staring at me with a hurt expression. “I didn’t tell you because it’s not important, Cassandra. He thought I would like to see it because I like gardens, but there is nothing to it.”

“If it’s not that important why hide it?”

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It was just a private memory between Dante and me and I wanted to keep it that way. Do you understand where I’m coming from?”

She laughs. “I was just yanking your leg. Of course, I understand. I knew you and Dante had been having it off somewhere.”

I smile with relief. For a moment there, I thought I had just made another enemy in the palace. The sooner I get out of here, the better. As we walk up, I can’t help but glance up at the chandelier.

“This palace is so beautiful—”

The words are cut off when I feel Cassandra’s foot slip off the next step and kick hard against my left leg. To my horror, it causes me to lose my balance. My arms flail and I turn towards her hoping to catch hold of her, but she makes a quick, nimble movement away from me. I try to grab the banister, but it is outside my reach.

In a moment frozen in time I see Cassandra turn to look at me, a wicked smile flashing across her face. It’s there for only a second, then it disappears as quickly as it appeared. As my body hits the hard marble stairs, I see a schooled look of concern displace that triumphant smile.

A sharp pain radiates in my side.

Then I am rolling like a bowling ball down the stairs, bouncing, my body hitting every hard edge. I hear a roar of disbelief from somewhere in the vast lobby as I continue to tumble down the steps. I know it is Dante shouting for me. I land on my back with a thud, and lie there, with my legs askew, like a rag doll. For a moment or two I can’t move. I’m too stunned and shocked.

Then Dante’s face is hovering above me. I think he is talking to me because his mouth is moving, but I can’t make out what he is saying. I am in a fog. I recognize the terrible distress on his handsome face through a haze of pain.

And I see her. The woman who deliberately caused my fall. She is crying. Other people start rushing towards us.