Xavier sucked in a breath, holding it for a moment and then slowly releasing the air.
Oh yes. He remembered.
“I do,” he said softly. “You do, too?”
“I could never forget that.”
My heart rate accelerated. Even just dancing around the truth and flirting with the memory gave me a thrill. I didn’t dare let myself say what I wanted to say or ask what I wanted to ask. But the risk of even thinking it and of walking Xavier closer to the truth was enough to make me feel alive in a way I hadn’t in weeks.
Xavier cast his eyes to the ground, clearly anxious. I held my breath, needing to hear him talk and to know if he would take it further.
“I remember you looked horrified,” he said quietly. “I remember running away because of how disgusted you looked by the idea…” He trailed off, unable to say the words.
A cold chill went across my skin. “You thought I was disgusted? I wasn’t disgusted,” I said. The expression on his face came back to me, as clear as that first night. “I was… confused,” I said, the explanation feeling insufficient.
Xavier glanced to the front of the shop. The street was quiet, but through the large windows, I was sure anyone passing by would see us there, dancing around the truth.
“Confused,” he said, then brought his eyes up to meet mine. “I was confused, too.”
Even with tension so thick in the air I could feel it on my skin, Xavier wasn’t running away. There was no judgment in his eyes.
“I have something to tell you,” he continued. “A few weeks ago, we were at the same party.”
My mind drifted across the social events I had attended, from the small work dinners to the larger gatherings hosted by different teams on the city project. If Xavier had been at any of them, surely I would have noticed. I would have remembered his face and the soft, easy joy of his laughter.
And then I realized the truth. It seemed as clear as day, as undeniable as the sunrise.
“You were the man in the mask,” I said. “The man I spoke to as I was leaving.”
He nodded and turned his gaze back to the ground. I saw his lips part, but he did not speak.
Xavier was the man in the mask. The man who had tempted me and who I had thought about for days after, right up until Xavier entered my life and replaced him.
He was the man who had never been spanked before but needed it.
And I was the man who would give him what he needed.
