Or maybe it is?
I have no idea what I should be doing right now.
Maxine appears at our side, from who knows where, probably sensing my oncoming panic. “Eros, I’m so glad you came tonight,” she purrs, draping her hand on the man's shoulder with an effortless familiarity, “and how clandestine that you seem to be drawn to our very own Psyche.”
“Psyche,” he recites in a low voice.
“This is her first night here,” Maxine offers. “I was hoping you two would cross paths.”
I have to stop myself from asking her what she means but I bite my tongue instead.
The man, Eros, embraces Maxine, bending his head down to whisper something in her ear that makes her smile like the Cheshire Cat. “Of course, I’ll have one of the staffmembers come get you when it's ready if she’s agreed to join you.”
Shifting on my feet, my eyes slide back and forth between them. What did he ask to get ready? Does Maxine mean me when she says if she agrees? He hasn’t even said a single word to me. Does he think since I’m new here, I’m going to fall into bed with the first person to acknowledge me?
Better yet, why am I hoping she means me and whyamI ready to fall into bed with the first guy to pay me any mind?
Maxine sashays away and his attention is back on me. “Psyche,” he acknowledges again, lifting my free hand and, even though the mask is in the way, he places a faux kiss where my hand meets my wrist. Even his voice is attractive, it’s deep and rich, like I’ve bitten into the decadent piece of chocolate cake. I may never see this man’s face and yet, at this very moment, I would be perfectly content to only have him speak to me. As long as he continues speaking to me it would never even matter what he looks like.
“Hello,” I manage to squeak out.
There’s another quick tilt of his head, like he’s trying to remember something before he speaks again. “And how is your first night?”
“Better now.”
A dark chuckle comes from behind the mask at my response. “I like that.”
Now it’s my turn to question. “Like what?”
“A woman who says what’s on her mind.”
I almost scramble back and apologize, telling him actually I don’t speak my mind but being here, in this dress, alright maybe it’s the mask, is turning me into someone else. Someone I don’t recognize but someone that I like.
Someone who gets exactly what they want.
Fuck it. Might as well give it my best shot and say whatever it is I want. “I think you’ll find a lot of things about me you may like.”
Eros’ fingers tighten around my wrist, a simple twitch to remind me he never stopped touching me. The movement makes me want to crawl into his lap and feel his hands roam my body, see what it would be like to have them dig into the softness of all the parts I usually hate.
I’m trying to remember what I put down for public displays of affection when someone walks up to him, handing over what looks to be a set of keys. The gold ring slips around his finger before he pockets them.
Eros turns back to me. “If you haven’t already committed to someone else, would you like to join me in my room?”
Desire pulls at my spine when he says the words. It wraps itself up each vertebrae until it reaches my throat, cutting off any chance of me answering. Instead I thread my fingers through his and give him a quick nod.
Eros leads me out of the main room, past the staircase and to the far side of the building. It looks like any other living room, and honestly a bit like the room in my grandmother’s house where no one’s really allowed to sit on any of the furniture. Except there is a couple occupying one of the couches. Or more so the man is on the couch with a woman sitting on him, faces millimeters apart with his hand sliding the strap of the woman’s dress down as he kisses along her collarbone.
Before I intrude any further, I tear my eyes from them with a focus straight ahead as I’m led down a smaller hallway. “They like being watched,” he says, pulling the keys from his pocket. “They can’t do anything explicit in thatroom but they like to start there to draw in a crowd,” he says while unlocking the door, answering a question I’m too shy to ask.
Before we walk through, he stops to turn to me. “Did you want to watch?”
Did I?
Moments pass but I’m not really contemplating his question. I’m frozen. I don’t know how long I’m lost, until suddenly my hand is empty. Eros sweeps my dark curls back behind my shoulder, letting deft fingers trail along the slope of my neck and it pulls me back enough to answer. “No, thank you.”
His chest swells with a deep breath. “So polite.” The words are a whisper and the skin he’s touching shudders.
I follow him into the room that looks almost like a standard hotel suite, equipped with a large four poster bed that looms in the middle of the room, with soft white bedding and so many pillows it’s almost laughable. A chair sits in the corner facing the bed, a nightstand on one side and another doorway that, I'm guessing, leads to a bathroom. The only difference between here and the last hotel I checked into is a bookcase on the back wall near the bed, but instead of books, each shelf is dedicated to different types of toys.
