“You recognized me.” He sounded faintly surprised, as though hiding his face could disguise his powerful, masculine presence.
“Of course.” This close, the warmth from his body offset the chill of the air around her and made her want to burrow even closer against him.
“You look beautiful.” He tipped his head to the side. “And…dead.”
“I’m the Corpse Bride.” She tugged at the bodice of her ghastly gown, realizing the irony of her costume choice, considering she’d be undergoing an MRI in two days to check for tumors or other awful—and potentially deadly—things in her brain.
Mark reached out and touched her hair. “Well, you’re a beautiful corpse.”
“Thank you.” Her skin tingled beneath his touch.
Mark seemed to feel it too. He didn’t move for a long moment, his fingers still tucked into her hair, his eyes blazing into hers from behind the mask. “How are you?”
“Fine,” she answered automatically, but she didn’t need to see his face to know he wasn’t satisfied with that answer. She blew out a breath, which somehow seemed to bring her even closer to him. “I’m having some tests run to see if anything’s wrong.”
Mark went very still. “That’s good.”
“It’s really not. I hate being poked and prodded.”
His hand slipped from her hair to cup her cheek. “Sometimes it’s necessary.”
“I know.” A shiver ran through her. “But the MRI…I’m claustrophobic.”
Mark dropped his hand to her arm, drawing her subtly closer against him. “Bring one of those sleep masks to use as a blindfold, and you can listen to music through headphones too. It’s loud in there, and the music helps.”
Something inside her chest loosened at his words. “That…yeah, that does sound much better. You’ve had one then?”
He nodded. “Several.”
She thought of his scars—the ones she’d felt beneath his shirt—and the way he sometimes limped. She wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time. “Thanks for the tips.”
“Yo, the Phantom of the Opera’s here!” Ryan announced loudly, sliding in beside Mark and clapping him on the back.
Jessica stepped back to a more respectable distance.
“And…don’t tell me.” Ryan eyed her up and down. “That Tim Burton movie, right?”
“The Corpse Bride.” She nodded with a smile, suppressing a laugh to realize he was dressed as John Travolta fromSaturday Night Feverto match Emma’s disco ball.
So many couples’ costumes tonight…
Jessica wanted that. She wanted to be part of a couple and wear themed Halloween costumes together, and she wished like hell it wasn’t the masked man in front of her that she was imagining as the Victor to her Emily, the Phantom to her Christine. Because it would never, ever happen, no matter how much she might wish for it.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her brother walking toward her, wearing jeans and a leather bomber jacket, and…“Oh my God, are you Tom Cruise fromTop Gun?”
Brennan grinned. “I sure am.”
“Holy crap, that’s fantastic. Andoh!” She let out a little shriek as she caught sight of Brennan’s husband, Patrick, in a flight suit. “Please tell me you’re Iceman.”
“Of course.” Patrick threw his arm around Brennan’s shoulder and grinned.
Ryan fist-bumped them both. “Yo, best costumes of the night, right here.”
Even Mark was smiling…or at least she was pretty sure he was. It was hard to tell behind the mask, but his eyes were crinkled, and his posture had relaxed.
Brennan held up his cell phone. “Vlogging the party for my viewers too.”
“Seriously?” She gave him a mock-annoyed frown. Her brother was constantly videoing stuff for his YouTube channel, and while she liked to give him a hard time about it, she was also ridiculously proud of him. Bren had recently surpassed one million subscribers, which was a pretty awesome milestone. He mostly made gaming videos, but his vlogs—or video blogs—were gaining in popularity too.
