She felt the brush of rough fingers against her cheek, just below the mask they had been discussing. “There are a great many reasons why he should want you. Why, if you were mine, I would make sure you knew how much you were wanted.”
“You know that, do you?” she gasped out, trying to be bolder than she felt when he was so close and there was so much crackling in the air between them. Some of it far deeper than mere desire.
“I’ve known it since the first moment I laid eyes on you,” he said, his voice suddenly strained.
Anna’s heart was pounding now, the blood rushing so loud in her ears that she couldn’t hear anything else. But perhaps that was best because it dialed all the focus in her mind and body to the shadowy presence of the man before her.
She’d had lovers before. In this very club, in fact. Usually masked men who were as disconnected as her husband when they touched her. Sometimes there was pleasure. But she’d never experienced the kind of hungry, animal draw to anyone that she felt toward this man whose face and name she didn’t even know.
“W-what if Icouldbe yours?” she asked. “R-right here. Right now.”
She heard his breath catch, felt the wobble of him like she’d weakened his knees with that suggestion. It was a heady thing since she could tell the man was powerful, even if she couldn’t see him. Physically commanding, yes, but also someone who knew who he was and what he wanted. That he wanted her was a thrill.
“Are you certain you’d desire that?” he asked.
She felt the blood rush to her cheeks and was once again happy he couldn’t see her humiliation when she said, “In this moment, I-I want to feel wanted. You say you could make that happen. And the Donville Masquerade is where people come for such things.”
She stepped up to him, letting her hand find his chest a second time. Her palm flattened against the rough fabric of his jacket and she shivered as she slid her fingers up the hard expanse of him beneath it. Eventually she traced the line of his jaw. It was harsh and peppered with whiskers. Not in fashion, but she wanted to feel them brush against her skin nonetheless.
“I…need to tell you who I am,” he began.
Anna shook her head. “Oh, please don’t,” she murmured. “This is a fantasy. A dream. If I know your identity, then it will make coming back into reality that much harder.”
He hesitated for what felt like an eternity, like he was weighing the ethics of her suggestion. But then his arms came around her…steady, strong. She shivered against the warmth and width of him. Oh yes. She wanted this encounter in the dark. She wanted it more than she’d wanted anything in a very long time.
He dipped his head, the edges of their masks tapped and then his lips found hers. She was shocked at how he moaned when their mouths brushed, like he’d been waiting a lifetime for this moment. But she couldn’t process that because he swiftly swept her away.
His tongue breached her mouth and he pivoted her so her back was to the wall. He kissed her with abandon, drinking her in, inhaling her. Ravishing her, but gently. She drowned in that, drowned in him, memorizing his taste and his touch so she could remember them later when she felt lonely and unwanted.
He deepened the kiss, slowed it, and she wound her arms around his neck, lifting against him, rubbing her breasts against his chest as she made a little moan that was lost against his seeking tongue.
He drew back. Anna felt him looking down at her shadow in the dark, calculating…well, what she couldn’t say. He’d followed her into the back hallway, he knew why she was here and why he was here in this den of sin and pleasure. She’d offered herself and still he hesitated.
“Please,” she whispered, whimpered, and hated herself for it.
“You deserve such pleasure,” he murmured, almost as if to himself rather than her. “I want to give you such pleasure.”
She stared, seeking his features, wishing for the first time that this encounter wasn’t anonymous. She wanted to see his face, to read why he sounded so earnest in that desire. Like it mattered to him how she felt, if she came.
Had any man ever done that? And this one didn’t even know her name.
“I—” she began, but didn’t have a chance to finish.
He pressed his mouth back to hers, this time with more power, with more purpose. He flattened her against the wall, letting her feel the full length of him, the weight of him. His hands began to move over her, down her sides, around her waist, tucking her closer to him as she moaned against his mouth once more.
He dragged his lips away from hers, across her neck, sucking there lightly as she arched against him. Next he kissed her collarbone, the soft curve of the top of her breasts that was exposed in the revealing gown she’d worn here. His thumbs stroked against her ribcage, his hands drew down to her hips as he slowly went to his knees before her.
She couldn’t breathe as she realized in that heated moment what he was about to do. He lifted her skirt, the cool air in the dark hallway hitting her calves, her knees as he shoved the silky fabric away. He palmed her thighs, spreading them slightly before his fingers found the place between them.
She wore no underthings and was shaved there, and he swore beneath his breath as he made those two discoveries for himself. Anna rested her head back against the wall, closed her eyes and smiled as she surrendered to this moment, to this stranger.
He pressed his mouth to her hip, down against the inside of her thigh, his whiskers lightly abrading the ultrasensitive skin. She gasped and dropped her fingers into his thick hair, massaging his scalp in encouragement as he peeled her open with his thumbs and pressed his mouth to her entrance.
She jolted as the wet heat of his tongue met her. He groaned against her, the vibration rippling through her as she gasped and began to grind against him. He stroked her, gentle at first, tasting every fold, devouring her like she was the finest feast. She lost herself in his touch, forgetting where they were, who she was, what she had seen in that room where her husband made love to some other woman.
Everything was this stranger and his tongue lapping her up and drawing pleasure from her that built with such intensity that she could only cling to him as she rode it.
He gripped her hips tighter as he grunted, like this was his own pleasure. Then his mouth moved away from her. “God, I want to do this all night. I want to tease you all night. But someone will enter this hall soon enough, it is inevitable, and I don’t want this to have an audience.”
