“That’s my sexual fantasy, too.”
She laughed with him, snuggling into his arms, her fingers playing with the swirling dark hairs on his chest. “There’s one other part in my fantasy I forgot to mention.”
“You have whips and chains.”
“No, but I may have to add that one in later.”
“What is it?”
“You have no mask.”
He grew silent. The sounds of the party drifted up the stairwell and reminded them of the short hours left. “Once I remove my mask, the game is over. I want a little more time with you.”
She blinked back sudden tears, and concentrated on the moment, wanting to pull every second of pleasure from the man beneath her.
“Then take it, Phantom. Take me over and over until the bell rings.”
His eyes blazed with promise. “I intend to.”
He rained kisses over her face, naked from the removal of her mask. She shook slightly and knew no other man had every taken her body and soul like her Phantom.
“Give me a little more on our last night together, Hailey,” he said.
She tossed him a wicked smile. “I thought I already did.”
He chuckled. “I mean truth. Tell me what you want from your life. Tell me what you still fear.”
This time, when she spoke she had no mask to hide herself. This time, she didn’t need one. She already spoke to the man she loved, and refused to hide anything. Hailey wanted to tell him the only thing she wanted was him, but he asked the question with the assumption this was their final meeting.
“I want to build something that lasts,” she said softly. “Don’t all people want the same thing? Someone to remember them. If I can’t do it with children or the love of my life, I’ll pick friendship. I’ll pick rewarding work that makes a difference.”
He waited a while before answering. “If you had a chance to have this love of your life, would you be strong enough to reach out for him?
“Yes.” She spoke the truth. Ciro Demitris had given her that gift.
“And your fear?”
“You already erased my fears, Phantom. The only thing left to be afraid of is being without you.”
He turned from her then, as if he couldn’t bear the emotion of looking into her face. Hailey took the time to ask her own questions. “And you? What do you fear?”
His voice came from a distant place. “I fear the truth,” he said. With one quick movement, he rolled over and pinned her to the mattress. “But you’re here now. Mine for the next few hours. That’s all I need.”
Then his mouth took hers.
The evening slid by with slow strokes of the clock, as they roused one another to make love through the night. He took her places she had never seen before. She showed him a tenderness and emotion he had never felt before. The bed became their escape from the world beyond, as the full moon shimmered in the sky and the sounds of the party rose and fell through the rooms. And when the bell finally chimed at dawn; when the music and laughter and screams grew to a crescendo, he sat up in bed and looked at her naked body.
“It’s time, Hailey.”
His eyes were filled with resolve, and another emotion she couldn’t put a name to. A glint; a glimmer; something she needed to hold onto but was too afraid to demand from him. Did he love her? Would he walk away without a second thought? Was she just another woman involved in his masquerade, a rousing distraction to never be thought of again?
She sat up. Heart pounding wildly against her chest, she waited.
He reached up and with one savage motion, ripped his mask off.
Hailey sucked in her breath as she stared at the man before her. The man she knew. The man who had played a game and betrayed her trust.
Theodore Rivers.
