Okay, he would drag someone into the first alley he saw and steal their clothes. Then he would double back to the apartment and grab Ophelia. They’d find somewhere to stay while they made a new plan—one of those motels that took cash and a false name. It couldn’t be that hard to come by cash. He’d seen muggings on the news, and they didn’t seem altogether difficult to pull off.
A twin spotlight flashed over the crowd, the narrow beam pinning a woman who’d risen out of her seat. She wore a lace mask that obscured half her face, but he recognized the delicate bow of the lips beneath it—and the nervous way she was nibbling them. Her hair was loose around her bare shoulders, the lighter strands shimmering beneath the light.
She was dressed all in black—if you could call the set of sheer, lace lingerie being dressed at all. Their eyes met. It became an unbearable struggle to keep his face schooled to a look of seduction when he longed to call out and soothe her. She hugged her arms around her chest, standing awkwardly in place. Even at this distance, he could see the rapid rise and fall of her chest and knew she was on the verge of panicking.
“Ah, is that you, Ninety-Seven?” the announcer asked.
Sam’s eye twitched as he resisted the compulsion to shoot the man a withering look.
“Y-Yes,” she squeaked, her voice tiny in the cavern of the auditorium. “Sorry, I’m coming!”
With that, she lurched into motion.
CHAPTER 40
Ophelia shuffled down the aisle,biting back a shriek when one of the men between her and the aisle cupped a handful of her mostly-bare ass. The way Sam’s face darkened suggested he’d seen it too, and she was suddenly grateful that the asshole—whoever he was—was wearing a mask. Otherwise, she had no doubt that Sam would have hunted him down and killed him later, thwarting her plan to start a life with him that wasn’t hounded by the threat of arrest and imprisonment.
All her doubts that Logan had double-crossed her or ‘fixed’ Sam’s code fizzled out at the obvious malice in his eyes. Couldn’t the rest of them see it? The thinking, feeling man beneath that perfect synth skin was so obvious to her.
Gritting her teeth, she squared her shoulders and approached the stage, trying to look like she belonged there. Her stilettos clicked against the hard floor with each step, a discordant beat against the pounding rhythm of her blood rushing in her ears. Her skin was flushed and feverish, despite the breeze of cool air circulating through the auditorium.
Sam’s gaze shifted from concern to hunger as she climbed the stairs to meet him. He took her shaking hand as she approachedthe top step, pressing his lips to her knuckles before guiding her over to the bed.
She wanted to weep from the relief of seeing him unharmed after the days they’d spent apart. He’d been in her life so briefly, but she couldn’t reconcile the idea of going through the world without him in it. He startled a gasp from her by lifting her off her feet and cradling her in his arms like a bride as they reached the bed. With reverent gentleness, he lowered her to the middle of the bed.
“Are you sure?” he whispered, but his voice was picked up by the mic, echoing throughout the auditorium.
A drone hovered over him, and the huge screen behind them suddenly projected them in high definition, large enough that no one in the audience would miss a moment of his ‘demonstration.’ Even with the lace mask on, she felt completely exposed. Her nerves threatened to choke her, but she nodded nonetheless.
For him. I do this, and I get him. Forever.
He climbed onto the bed, kneeling between her legs. Gentle hands undid the delicate straps of her high heels, and he dropped them off the side of the bed one after the other. His eyes shone with some strong emotion, and she got the sense he wanted to tell her something. Reassure her, maybe, or explain why he was about to do what he was going to do. But he couldn’t—not with that mic threatening to broadcast his every word. She nodded at him in understanding, willing some of the tension from her limbs so he would know he had her approval.
After a moment that stretched long enough to cause some confused murmuring in the crowd, he leaned forward and hooked his fingers beneath her lace panties. He dragged them with agonizing slowness down her hips, over her garters, until finally they were hanging from one ankle.
Sounds came from the audience now that he’d bared her, small grunts and clicks and wet sounds that made it clear that not everyone was passively watching. When he pressed her knees wide, the drone buzzed closer, the lens whirring. Her eyes darted to the screen, and she realized with dawning horror that it was zooming in on her bare sex.
She moved to squeeze her knees together, but Sam caught them and pressed them open, making soothing sounds.
“Don’t hide,” he purred. “You’re beautiful. Let them look. They should be so lucky.”
His hands skimmed down her thighs until his thumbs pressed against her labia, and he spread her wide, baring her to the hundred people watching them. After a moment of contemplation, he popped the front clasp of her bra, baring her tightened nipples. Someone moaned low, and a strange thrill went through her at the knowledge that it was for her.
She forced herself to ease back down against the covers, unclenching her core as his fingers explored her. A second drone hovered near her face. The screen beside them split, offering multiple perspectives of their joining.
She peered into that glassy lens when Sam slipped his finger inside her. Her whole body tensed at the intrusion.
“Fuck, you know she’s tight,” someone near the stage muttered.
The flush on her cheeks deepened, and she couldn’t resist the urge to look into the darkened crowd. Her eyes met with a masked man in the front row who was shamelessly pumping his cock in his fist as Sam fingered her with uncharacteristic gentleness. The man bit his bottom lip when he realized she was staring at him, his hips bucking toward her as though in offering.
“Do you like that?” Sam murmured, his voice echoing throughout the hall. “Knowing they’re all touching themselves to you?”
Hesitantly, she nodded, meeting his gaze.
There was no universe where she would have ever envisioned subjecting herself to this, much less enjoying it, but…
Sam made her feel like there was something worth envying about her. After so long spent ducking her head and trying to become invisible, there was something irresistibly heady about having so many people looking at her, knowing they either wanted her or wanted to be her.
