Page 16 of The Masked King

“No, stay!” I say a little too quickly. “I want to hear it.”

“Yeah, I guess you can spin me some bullshit advice and get an easy night, huh?”

“You have no idea.” I don’t know where it comes from, and we both chuckle. “Look, Brian, I’m gonna level with you. I’m naked. You’re fully clothed, and I only know this because they wouldn’t let you in here otherwise, but it kinda turns me on. It’s the whole vulnerable thing, you know. If the lights came on, I’d have nowhere to hide.”

“And I thought I was here to live out my wildest fantasies, not yours.”

My shoulders drop from around my ears as he starts to loosen up a little. “Tell me about them, your fantasies.”

Brian was spot on when he said this would be an easy night. I get the sense he wants to talk more than he wants me to blow his mind without me touching his cock.

“If you mean fantasies I’ve yet to try out, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because they don’t exist.”

Okay, that’s an interesting take on the subject. “Because you’ve already tried them all?”

“No.” He pauses. “Because I don’t know what they are until I’m in the moment.”

“Until you’re with someone, you mean?”

“Sure. Fantasies aren’t generic. What I want to do to you would be different to what I’d want to do to someone I met in a bar, or someone I was in love with.”

I don’t know why, but this stabs me straight through the heart.

Someone I was in love with.

Past tense.

The ache is still real, and what I really want to do right now is sit on Brian’s lap and ask him to hold me.

Without realizing what I’m doing, I reach out across the boundary circling the seat and get a buzz through the metal bracelet I’m wearing. I’m too close. I need to back off.

What was I thinking? I’ll jeopardize this investigation before it’s even begun, and all because I like the sound of Brian, who isn’t even called Brian, a man who came here to get his kicks because he’s so fucking privileged, he’s jaded in every other aspect of his designer-suited life.

“What was that?” The hard wire in his voice is unmistakable. “What did I just hear?”

“It’s nothing, Brian.” Keep it moving. I can almost hear the control room barking the command and readying themselves to step in.

“Is someone else in here?”

He’s getting suspicious. I’m losing him, and I need to bring it back on track.

“No, we’re alone, I promise.” I force a smile into my voice.

I could let Brian go, tell him there’s nothing I can do for him tonight and send him on his way. But if I’ve misjudged him, he could be the kind of asshole who’d complain about the service being unsatisfactory and cost me my job.

“Are you alright, Nyx?” The concern in his distorted voice feels genuine.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry. For a moment there, you reminded me of someone I used to know.”

“Someone you were in love with?”

“Yes.” The whisper barely reaches my own ears.

But Brian hears it. “What happened?”