“Can we watch?”
My mouth went dry.
I needed a convincing answer.
I was spared when another man appeared, seizing her arm. “Alexia! Allesandro! You must accompany Gianna and me.”
Alexia pouted, her nails trailing along my wrist as she cooed, “We’d love to, but we’re trying to woo this beauty.”
She gestured toward me, but I didn’t wait for the conversation to continue. Slipping between a throng of approaching partiers, I wove through the revelers, my heart hammering.
That was close.
As I pressed forward, the atmosphere thickened—more bodies, more heat, more danger lurking beneath the gilded facade of pleasure.
Then, something caught my attention.
Two men stood stationed at separate doors, their elaborate costumes blending seamlessly into the decadence of the masquerade. Unlike the other guests, their movements were precise, their posture too rigid to be mere partygoers.
Guards.
I needed to test them.
As I passed, I let my fingers trail delicately across their codpieces.
Their bodies stiffened, but neither reacted beyond a sharp intake of breath. No smirks, no playful advances.
They wouldn’t be allowed to indulge in the festivities while on duty if they were truly guards.
I filed the information away and kept moving.
But before I could slip further into the shadows, a young man staggered into my path, his breath thick with the scent of wine.
His gaze locked onto me, eyes glittering behind his dark mask.
“Amore, I’ve been looking for you,” he slurred.
I glanced over my shoulder, thinking he was speaking to someone else.
No such luck.
“I meant you, my beauty.”
His hand shot out, grasping my breast.
Revulsion surged through me. I slapped his hand away, my pulse spiking as I scanned the hall. Onlookers milled about, but no one paid us any attention.
It wasn’t considered good form to deny someone’s advances.
He chuckled, mistaking my silence for coyness. “Playing hard to get, eh?”
His fingers curled behind my neck, yanking me toward him, his breath thick with liquor as he aimed for my lips.
Wrong move.
On instinct, I drove my knee straight into his groin.
A strangled cry tore from his throat as he doubled over, clutching himself in agony.
