“Can you what?”
“No, nothing. It’s stupid.”
I grab her hand, bringing it to my lips, and she sucks in a breath. “Nothing you could ever say would be stupid.”
She bites her lip, and I want to lean over and suck it into my own.
“Can I touch your face?”
My heart stutters, fear lancing through it.
Normally, my response would be no, but…
I grab her hands and guide them to my cheeks.
The second her hands make contact, she smiles. I let go, and she starts her slow perusal. Her touch is light as her thumbs run over my brows. She pauses when she reaches the scar on my temple, fingertips tracing it while her brows furrow. She rounds my jaw and brings her hands to cup under my ears. I feel her still as her knuckle grazes my piercing. She rolls the stud, and I shiver.
She runs her hands through my hair next, and I lean into her touch, my guard lowering with each passing second.
Fuck. I know what this feeling is. I don’t want to know what this feeling is.
She grips the hair at the base of my neck, tugging on it, and I grin.
“I like it a little rough,” I tease her.
She freezes, and my brain flashes back to the other week. When I said the exact same thing to her as Aleks. Crap. I don’t think I can do this. Not if she doesn’t know who I am. It doesn’t feel right.
God-fucking-dammit.
The car swerves suddenly before righting itself, and we go sliding off the seats onto the floor.
“Francis. The fuck?” I yell.
“Sorry, sir!” he yells back. “A couple of kids ran into the street.”
Stevie’s body shakes with laughter under me. I push off her and help her back onto the seat before sitting next to her. I hold her hands and realize just how clammy mine have become.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this.”
She sucks in a deep breath before a single, sharp laugh spills out. “Oh my god. I was literally about to say the same thing.”
Relief and rejection mix within me. I’m glad she feels the same way. But I’m also a little offended she doesn’t want to have sex with Blade. It’s a weird feeling. Fucking hell. This shit is getting too confusing. I don’t know if I can keep this up. I just want to be with her. Why does it have to be so hard?
My phone starts pinging from somewhere on the ground. I swear I put the damn thing on ‘do not disturb.’ It’s not even a regular notification tone, either. It’s a full-on siren alert.
“Someone’s looking for you,” Stevie muses.
I flip it over to see a ‘Find My Phone’ alert going off. Unlocking the phone, I see a dozen missed calls and texts from Parker and Jackson asking where I am and where the car is. Needy little shits.
I shoot them both a text letting them know I’m using the car to take Stevie home and that they have to sort their own shit out.
“All good?”
“Yeah. The guys are just heading home and wondering where I was. I let them know I was dropping you off.”
“That would require me telling you where I live, and for all I know you could come murder me in my sleep.”
“I am not abandoning you to some street corner.”
“I never said that,” she smirks. “I’m staying at my friend’s tonight. You can drop me at hers.”
I squeeze her tightly in my arms for a few seconds before loosening my grip. I place a kiss on the side of her head and let out a sigh.
“Alright, sounds good. Let me just get my mask back on.”
I pick up my mask and pause. I give Stevie one last once over, drinking her in before I strap the mask back on, my world turning back to red. I tug my gloves out from where I stashed them in my back pocket earlier and slip them back on. All evidence of Aleksander is hidden.
I reach forward and untie the tie, letting it slip from her face.
She blinks a few times, her honeyed eyes readjusting.
She shimmies to the front of the limo and gives Francis her friend’s address through the divider and then bends down to retrieve her purse from somewhere.
She looks at me with a melancholy smile and places a kiss on my mask.
It’s a kiss that speaks a thousand words, but she just says two.
“Thank you.”
TWENTY-THREE
* * *
STEVIE
I look hot as fuck.
I twirl in the mirror again, admiring myself as the train follows my movements. The gold embellishments glitter in the light. I toe on my classic nude Louboutin heels and give myself one last check, making sure that my makeup isn’t shiny and that my hair hasn’t shifted.
I even went over to Deanna’s before she left for work to have her put my hair in an elaborate half-up Dutch braid crown. There are a handful of bobby pins sticking uncomfortably into my skull, but it’s worth it.
My makeup is subtle, a brown eye with smudged black liner and a nude-pink lip. The overall look is giving a Greek goddess vibe, just like Aleks remarked the first time he saw the dress.
I snap a quick selfie in the mirror and send it to him with a wink emoji.
He replies instantly.
ALEKS: You look hot, baby
ALEKS: I think I just came
I snort, rolling my eyes before clicking it off.
After our night together, things shifted. They feel easier.
He brought over tacos for lunch this week while I was deep in the painting groove. It was super sweet. He sat with me while I painted and just played a game on his phone, chattering away every once in a while. But even when we didn’t speak, it was a comfortable silence. Something I’ve never experienced before. Just being around him brings me peace, and the little things he does make my heart flutter more than any grand gesture. I used to think I was Chase’s princess, but Aleks has shown me what it is like to truly be treated like a queen. We plan to meet up tomorrow; he took the night off and has some cute dinner planned. He’s been super hush about it, and it’s adorable.
Guilt slithers into my stomach as I remember my night with Blade a week ago. I had a major debrief with Deanna the following morning, who basically told me that I should embrace my pussy power. But what I’d concluded was that I was all-in on Aleksander. Even if we weren’t technically exclusive, it felt wrong. Plus, something else seemed entirely off about the whole situation. The entire time I was with Blade, my mind kept wandering to Aleks. And it wasn’t in some “oh, I can’t stop thinking about him” kind of way but more of a “this reminds me of him” way…
My phone buzzes, and I pick it up to see three notifications. A bell alerting me that Blade has started a livestream, a text from Deanna imploring me to spill my drink on Felicity if the chance arises, and an update from the driver my father ordered letting me know he is a few minutes out.