Paris runs the fastest he has ever run before with his bow in his hand and his arrows beating his back as he goes. The night sky is only set aglow by the fire set in his home behind him by the thieves who have taken his most prized possession.

"Helen!" Paris yells from the shore as Helen is taken away kicking and screaming into a boat that her captors brought with them.

"I love you, Paris!" Helen wails through uncontrollable sobs when one of the burly, savage looking kidnappers pushes her over to quiet her.

She falls onto the kidnapper in front of her who cradles her with a raucous laugh as she struggles to see her husband on the shore. Paris positions himself to take out anyone in sight between him and his love. He raises the bow into the air and aims, but before he can shoot a sword is driven into his back. Paris immediately falls to his knees on the milky white sand and drops his bow into the black tide.

Helen's eyes widen in horror as she watches the man behind Paris remove his blade and wipe it on his leg with tears flowing down her creamy cheeks.

"NO!" She cries out into the night and struggles even harder with her captor.

Another man, behind her takes the handle of his sword and raises it above her head. Helen shrieks and then…

Shy jumps up from her nap when a book is slammed shut on the desk next to her. She looks to her left with sleepy eyes and sees another student leaving the immense university library. She looks on her desk and sees an open textbook in front of her with highlighter scribbled throughout. She shuts the book over quietly and shuts her eyes with a sigh. She feels her cell phone vibrate in her coat pocket and reaches in to answer it.

"Hello?" she whispers into the phone so she won't disturb the studying students around her.

"Hello, sunshine." A soothing, raspy voice responds.

Shy gathers her things in her hand and takes her coat from behind the heavy, wooden library chair and proceeds to the exit. As she walks male students glance up from their books long enough to watch her pass. To this, she is oblivious. She just continues to walk, not paying attention to their hungry stares.

Shy makes it out to the cold courtyard of New York University and places her textbook and notebook between her legs while holding the cell phone to her ear long enough to put her coat on.

"Are you there?" the voice on the other end inquires.

"Sorry, Desmond. I was in the library." Shy apologizes and grabs her books from between her legs.

"You look tired, darling."

"I am so tired. I was up all night - " Shy stops herself and looks around the campus. "How did you know I looked tired?"

"Turn around." The voice orders, gently.

Shy does as she is told and is greeted with a smile from across the courtyard. An older well dressed man is smiling at her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his right hand and a cell phone held up to his ear with his left. They begin walking towards each other, closing their cell phones over. They meet in the middle and Shy glances up at the much taller man with salt and pepper hair and distinguished face. She breathes deeply as he extends the flowers to her.

Shy takes the flowers nods her head graciously. "They're beautiful, Desmond."

"They're just flowers. You're beautiful." Desmond cups her face in his gloved hands and places a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Shy closes her blue eyes and lets the kiss melt into her pale skin. Desmond releases her after placing a strand of wavy golden hair behind her ear.

"You're a distraction." Shy says quietly as she opens her eyes again and peers into Desmond's beady gray ones.

"You look like you needed one."

"Do you always follow the women you are courting or am I just special?" Shy places the bouquet at her side and looks to the ground. A breath escapes her in a white cloud because the air is frigid.

Desmond's face drops into a scowl. "You aren't happy to see me?"

Shy takes a moment before she answers. "I have to study. I'll be happier to see you when I am done."

Shy leans up and places a kiss on Desmond's cheek. "I'll be at home. Thank you."

Shy begins to walk away from Desmond without raising the bouquet from its place at her hip, leaving Desmond behind her. She was not ready to deal with him today. She had three finals in front of her and an engagement party that should have been billed as a merger.

Desmond Aurelius is a powerful man, a worthy man. At least her father thinks so. She thought so as well to some extent, but the fact remains: he is thirty-nine and she is twenty-two. He's known her all her life and she did admire him growing up, but to marry such a man out of obligation to family was not the way she pictured her life.

Shy is exceptionally beautiful with long wavy golden colored hair and piercing blue eyes. From the time she was born she was told how beautiful she was. When she blossomed, so to speak, the admiration of her looks took away from the admiration of her mind. She had many boyfriends, all of which wanted one thing and one thing only. Some of them succeeded in getting what they wanted, but only because Shy allowed them to. She knew she had the control, but she desperately sought love and she knew she wouldn't get it from boys her own age. Shy grew tired of being coveted and groped and lusted after. She did not see what the big deal was anyway. She was just a girl, like any other.

Desmond is a good man. He respects her, he admires her mind. He will make a good husband and he won't take her father's company away from them. She could control that she knew. As long as she agreed to be his wife. She came to the decision herself. No one made her engage him. It was her choice. And she did love him. He could have any woman he wanted and he chose her.

Desmond is a good man. Shy thought to herself as she made her way through the cold courtyard trying to push aside her second thoughts.