He looked entirely too smug about this entire encounter, leaving Juniper wanting nothing more than to wipe the look clean from his face; her eyebrows knitted together. She wasn’t here to play games with him - she was here to make him grovel. To pay. To hurt. Not tonight, but now that she knew he was in London it would be soon enough. Her thoughts of him had consumed most of her life the past year and it was time for her plans to come to fruition - she had many ways for her plan to play out, but they all ended the same: Cassian Valenduris would be a miserable sod. She might even collect his tears in a jar to keep as a decoration in her room. Smiling coyly back at him, she ignored his words of condolences.

“Concerned?” Juniper’s lips quipped into an amused smile; she looked up at him through her eyelashes as she batted her eyes at him in hopes of showing some form of innocence. He didn't know who the Edevanes were rumored to be nor did he know what she'd up after their departure from each other. “That depends entirely on you, Mr. Valenduris, and whether or not you think I’m capable of bodily harm.” Winking at him, her whole body froze for a split second as he stepped toward her; she let out a slight breath before she pursed her lips together and willed herself to take another sip of the champagne. He was a miniature giant and she felt like an ant compared to him; she straightened her back and stepped forward until her shoes were touching his, and even as green hues blinked up at him, she couldn’t help but offer him a coy smile as he laughed at her question.

There he was, trying to unravel her lies in a single go, but Juniper was ready to allow him to step into her web - she would show this man just what she was capable of. She couldn’t help but snort. “No wonder London has been so dreary and miserable lately. It must have heard that you were moving and now it weeps because of your existence.” (Grace should be proud that she managed to sneak speaking of the weather into a conversation tonight!) Then she rolled her eyes before tilting her head up so her eyes met his. They were a beautiful shade of blue; the color of a perfect raindrop on a blue aster; the color of a river hurrying to join the great ocean.

She wanted to gouge them out so he’d stop assessing her as if she was a piece of meat. “We did vacation west of Milan almost the entire summer because father had business to attend to, so coming back from the beauty that Milan offers to London was quite arduous indeed, but I adjusted fairly quickly.” June wet her lips with her tongue but she laughed inaudible under her breath; hopefully that was one lie she was able to spin to be partially true. “I suspect you’re probably still floundering around for friends, and while I would love to put in a good word for you, I don’t think you’ve earned that favor yet Mr. Valenduris.” Not that she knew many bachelors outside of the few she’d spoken to, or believed he was alone in London. Cassian Valendurius was a man who people would go out of their way to befriend and women would throw themselves at his feet to speak to him.

Juniper scowled at him. She swirled the last bit of champagne in her glass, watching as the bubbles rapidly came to the surface; she’d save the last bit of it in case the man before her looked particularly thirsty. “Although I am shocked to find you have left Italy at all. Did they throw you a grand departure ball in hopes that you’d never return? I will when you leave London.” The blonde tilted her head as she offered a luminous grin at him before she raised her glass in a form of cheers, despite the man having nothing in his hands. "Consider that a promise."

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