Page 50

Nico's POV

Khloe has been in the bathroom a lot longer than necessary. Even I knew that it didn't take a girl this long to put on a dress, and I was beginning to become impatient.

Not because she was taking a long time, but because I already knew full well that she had already changed.

I knew that she was probably just looking herself over, finding something that she was insecure about and second-guessing her dress choice because of it.

Insecurities that I still didn't understand why she had.

I leaned back, setting my arms on the bed for support.

I mostly just hoped that she wouldn't chicken out on showing it to me because of them. I wasn't going to let those ridiculous thoughts of hers stay in her head once she showed me.

She was going to show me how she looked in that dress whether she liked it or not, so I guess I'll let her stay in that bathroom for as much time as she sees fit.

My head lazily fell to the side, eyes fixed on her folded up drawing that I had set on the bed.

Having nothing better to do while I waited for her, I grabbed it.

I leaned forward as I unfolded it, looking it over once more.

It was an amazingly detailed drawing, but it still wasn't satisfying my want to see the real thing. If anything, it just made me more impatient.

I partially wondered if she would get mad at me for going into the bathroom myself.

Luckily I didn't have to put that plan into action because the next thing I knew, the bathroom door had opened and Khloe was taking slow steps into the room.

I'm pretty sure that I stopped breathing the second I set my eyes on her.

Her body went still. I'm pretty sure that mine did too, but oh my god I was not expecting what I was seeing.

The dress fit her even more perfectly than she drew it, hugging the curves of her body that had stayed hidden most of the time.

Not to mention that I had never really thought about the fact that I had never seen her freckled shoulders before.

The entirety of her looked absolutely stunning.

I had to snap myself out of my daze once Khloe's eyes fell towards the floor, telling me that my staring was making her nervous.

And that was the last thing I wanted her to be feeling right now.

So, I took that as my cue, setting her drawing to the side and rising from the bed.

I stayed quiet as I approached her, trying to think of something to stay.

My legs stopped moving for a moment, my body then overpowering my mind and deciding that I was going to walk around her and inspect every inch of this dress.

My hand held itself against my chin as my eyes did just that.

I realized a couple things as I circled her. I realized that the heals that she was wearing brought her up quite a bit so that she was standing near my shoulder. I could also tell by the way she was standing that those shoes were going to be quite troublesome for a while until she gets used to walking in them.

Also, I realized that there was not one inch on this girl that I didn't like. She looked legitimately perfect from every angle.

I would even confidently argue that she's going to look better than most of the vampires attending this ball.

Hell, she was going to look better than me at this ball.

I came to a stop in front of her, watching as her icy eyes slowly turned up to meet with mine.

The eyes that clashed so beautifully with the color of this dress, and the eyes that were disappointingly being partly covered by her hair.

Which reminded me of the final touch she was missing.

I turned and walked over to the box sitting on my desk, grabbing the silk black ribbon that sat at the bottom of it.

Khloe's eyes were wide by the time I turned to face her again, which I found amusing.

I placed the ribbon between my teeth as I made my way to the back of her, careful not to pierce the fabric with my fangs.

Khloe oddly stiffened as I reached around to pull the hair away from her face, but I tried not to think too much of it.

My fingers ran through her fiery hair, replicating the half ponytail she had drawn in her picture before carefully tying it with the ribbon.

There, now she cant hide behind her hair anymore.

Content with my work, I returned to the front of her. Only then realizing that her silence was because she was waiting for me to say something.

And I wasn't quite sure how to dial down how I really felt about how she looked, so instead, I asked a question I knew she wouldn't like.

"Do you like it?"

I could tell right away that she very much disliked the question, but I wanted to hear some of the negative thoughts she had about it so I could get rid of them.

But of course, she had to answer my question with her own,

"I don't know, what do you think?" She replied.

I wasn't sure I really wanted to fully say what I really thought about it, but the thought of her reaction if I were to do that caused a smirk to rise on my face.

So, I just said something that would basically cover how I thought about it.

"I think you look amazing."

The fact that her cheeks began to fill with color made my smirk grow even more.

"Y-you do?" She questioned, stuttering as she always did when she was nervous or caught off guard.

I nodded, tucking a stray piece of hair that I had missed behind her ear.

"I do. I think it shows off your figure beautifully, and the colors contrast nicely with your hair," I moved my hand down, tilting her chin up towards me so she couldn't try to hide herself, "And your eyes."

I knew that that was something that she needed to hear, and judging by the fact that she was struggling to find something to say, I knew that she had taken my compliment fully.

Yet a tinge of sadness washed over me when her eyes shifted downwards, telling me that she still wasn't completely comfortable with herself. With what exactly? I wasn't sure, but I didn't want to try and question anything right now.

Instead, I just wanted to get her mind off of it.

So, I removed my hand from her chin and made some space between us.

"Do you know how to dance?" I asked, knowing full well that the answer was no.

Her eyes widened before she shook her head.

"I-I've uh, never really been good at that kind of thing.'" She admitted quietly.

Perfect.

I lifted my hand towards her, inviting her to take it.

Hopefully, by the end of this, her negative thoughts will have vanished.

"Don't worry about that. I'll teach you."