“Pretty fancy, isn’t it?”
At the sound of Dylan’s voice, I turned and scanned the space behind me. With only the candles and the glow of the lights from outside, I could barely make him out where he stood in the shadows, leaning up against the adjoining doorjamb.
“The waitstaff left a couple of minutes ago,” he said, and I ordered myself to stay where I was as he pushed away from the door.
Let him come to me.
“Perfect timing on my part, then,” I said as Dylan passed by one of the large couches in the main sitting room, getting closer to me with every step he took.
“I’m starting to believe everything you do is as close to perfect as it could be, Ace.”
As my name fell from his tongue, Dylan finally stepped into a slither of light bright enough to illuminate him, and just
damn
. This man was breathtaking. I’d been around plenty of beautiful people in my business, but they had nothing on Dylan Prescott. I didn’t think anyone could. He was magnetic. In a league of his own, and there was no question in my mind that the man currently staring back at me would eventually be a household name.
“God, Dylan, you look…”
“Well, if you’re speechless, I’m assuming I will pass inspection for whatever you have planned tonight.”
“Pass? I’m pretty sure I’m the one who needs to step up his game now.” I shook my head and walked closer to him. “I’m almost afraid to touch you because you’re so put together.”
He was dressed in black from head to toe. Pierro had measured and fit Dylan’s tall, leanly muscled body to absolute perfection. The tailored pants left little to nothing to the imagination, and the starched tailored shirt Dylan had tucked in at his trim waist was left unbuttoned at the top, where the collar sat perfectly spread in invitation.
“I certainly hope that’s not the case. I was kind of hoping by putting this on you’d be enticed to peel me out of it.”
I stroked my fingers along the shadow covering Dylan’s jaw line, and when I reached his full lips I traced them gently, catching my breath when he kissed the tips.
“About that…” I said, lowering my hand.
“About what? Peeling me out of my clothes? Oh yes, let’s talk about that,” Dylan said, as he took my hand and stepped closer to me. “But first.” He leaned forward and captured my lips in a sweet,
sweet
kiss that made my heart squeeze as tightly as the fingers I had entwined with his, and when he pulled away he beamed at me. “I missed you.”
I sighed and kissed him again, unable to help myself. “I missed you too.”
“Like, how much?”
“Like…the second I left the hotel room, I wanted to turn around and come back.”
Dylan licked his lower lip, as if savoring the taste of me, and it was shocking how much the idea of
that
appealed to me. I’d never been an overly possessive man in the past. Not prone to jealousy. But with Dylan I wanted to lay claim in some way. Stamp him with some kind of ownership that let the world know that
he
belonged to
me
.
I tugged on his hand, leading him over to the table as he continued to look at me like I was the best fucking thing he’d ever seen. When I pulled a chair out for him, Dylan’s eyebrow winged up.
“Such a gentleman.”
I wondered if he’d still think that in five minutes. “I can be, sometimes.”
That seemed to amuse him, because Dylan aimed a smirk my way. “Well, I wouldn’t want you to
always
be polite.”
“No?”
He took a seat, and his eyes took on a sultry look that had my dick reacting. “No. Definitely not.”
With one hand on the back of his chair, I bent down and placed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth and whispered, “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that.”
Dylan blinked, and this close in the candlelight I was blown away by how thick and long the lashes surrounding those beautiful eyes of his were.
“Oh? And why’s that, Mr. Locke?”
Okay, this is it. Now or never,
I told myself as
I pressed a kiss to his lips. “Give me one second, and I’ll show you.”
As I straightened to go and get the envelope, Dylan reached out and took a hold of my wrist. I stopped and glanced down, and he gave me a stunning smile and said, “Sorry. I just wanted to look up and see you staring down at me. So I could store it away, for later.”
And yeah,
fuck me
, it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been one month, one week, or, hell, one hour. My heart was fully involved with the man I was about to hand it over to.
I walked over to the safe and removed the envelope from earlier, and could feel my nerves resurfacing again.
What if he said no? What if he thought I was crazy for even suggesting it?
No way, there’s no way he is going to think I’m crazy.
He might be shocked, but I had a feeling that once the idea settled in and took root, Dylan would be all over it.
After locking the safe, I headed back to the table and took my seat. I figured it was best to do this before dinner; that way there were no plates in the way, or glasses to throw at me.
“Okay,” I said as Dylan’s eyes flicked to the envelope I’d placed down in front of me. “So, as you know, I have plans for us tonight.”
“Very
mysterious
plans…thus far. I have to say, I’m extremely curious about what exactly is in that envelope. It feels very
Mission: Impossible
.”
I let out a bark of laughter at that. “Does it? Well, I guess in a way it’s very…secretive. But there’s a reason for that.”
Dylan leaned back in his chair and let his eyes run all over me in a way that made my pulse race.
Jesus, what is he thinking…
“And what reason is that?” he asked.
I reminded myself that for tonight’s role, for this to play out the way I intended, I needed to be in control—starting now. I opened the envelope and pulled out the paperwork, then reached for a pen in the pocket inside my jacket. When I placed the papers down on the table and gently rested the pen on top, I looked up at him. “Because this place is exclusive.”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed as he sat forward and looked down at the papers on the table, and I mentally kicked myself in the ass for not pouring myself a drink before starting this. I was positive that would’ve helped with the jitters.
The silence in the suite was deafening as I waited for some kind of reaction. Anything from the man whose head was bent over the document I’d laid out before him, and when he raised his eyes to mine, the frank curiosity in them put any fears I may have had to rest.
Dylan wasn’t upset. He wasn’t annoyed. But he
was
curious.
The papers had no establishment name at the top, merely the same symbol as the keycard I’d shown him earlier. They gave nothing away, but demanded complete silence and privacy should you choose to visit wherever the hell it was they were allowing you into.
Something that also wasn’t specified on the paperwork, which you agreed was okay with you from a mere signature and a hope and a prayer that it wasn’t anything illegal, was the fact that you were okay not knowing what you were potentially signing.
Yeah, seemed insane, but this place had been vouched for by people I trusted, and I was hoping Dylan was going to show the same faith in me.
“I…uh…I didn’t think you wanted one of these between us,” Dylan said, as he ran his finger over the pen, and then added, “But I’m happy to sign it. That’s fine. It’s just not very specific. Shouldn’t it be more specific?”
I reached across the table and placed my hand over his, stilling his fidgeting, and when his eyes locked with mine, I said, “This isn’t for me, Dylan. I trust you when it comes to me. To us.”
He frowned and returned his attention back to the paper, rereading it to see what he’d missed, and when he looked back at me again, he shook his head. “Then I don’t understand. Who is it for, then?”
I turned his hand over in mine and stroked my thumb over his palm and said, “Everyone else.”
* * *
AN HOUR LATER and the words Ace had spoken before dinner were still echoing in my head, sending a flutter of nerves and excitement through my body.
Everyone else
, he’d said, and though he hadn’t elaborated on what that meant, I’d quickly signed the privacy agreement anyway. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d never put me in harm’s way, and the undercurrent of excitement that seemed to vibrate just below his surface told me all I needed to know about his intentions and what the night had in store for us.
My mind was alive with possibilities, but every single one of those thoughts disappeared as Ace stepped out of the enormous marbled bathroom, looking like he himself had been carved out of the blue and black swirled stone.
The unbuttoned collar of the midnight-blue button-up he wore accentuated his chiseled jaw and brought out the color of his eyes, and the way his black pants tailored to his powerful thighs…
“Fuck,” I said, moving in his direction, unable to look away from him.
Ace’s lips quirked up as he tucked the folded, signed agreement into the back of his pants and then placed the strange-looking keycard into his pocket. “I’ll take that.”
“Uh yeah… Yeah, you should definitely take…” I said, leaving that statement open-ended on purpose.
“I just might have to do that. Soon,” he said, and then he held out his hand to me, and I didn’t hesitate to link our fingers. “You ready?”
That damn tingle of anticipation flowed through me again, and I nodded. I would’ve said,
Fuck yes, bring on whatever it is you have in store
, but the words got lodged in my throat. Ace brought our hands up to his mouth and brushed his lips against the back of my hand before leaning forward to place the softest of kisses against my lips. And then he was leading me out the door and down the skywalk hallway, his hand still firmly joined with mine, which had me wondering if he even realized what he was doing.
As if he read my mind, he gave my fingers a reassuring squeeze, and as we came to a stop in front of the private elevator, he inserted his keycard and the doors opened immediately. But after we’d stepped inside, he pulled out the one with the strange symbol on it and stuck it into a slot high up in the right corner of the elevator.
Oh shit. Where does that lead?
When the elevator began to go up, I gave him a questioning look. “I thought we were on the top floor?”
“We’re on what everyone
thinks
is the top floor.” His smile was positively wicked as he pulled out the paperwork from his pants, and when he unfolded it, tucked away inside were two thin black eye masks, like something Zorro would wear.
Wait. Oh my God. Oh my
God.
My hands were fucking shaking when he handed me one and then put his own mask on. It covered just enough to make him look familiar, but you were unable to place how you knew him, unless, like I had, you’d memorized every line of his body—and that was before I’d had him lying in my bed.
As the elevator reached destination unknown, Ace hit the stop button, giving me time to get the mask over my head, which wasn’t an easy feat when I was pretty fucking close to hyperventilating.
“Hey,” Ace said, lifting my chin with his forefinger, and the directness of his gaze calmed me instantly. “You’re in complete control here. If at any point you want to leave, we’re gone.”
When I swallowed and then nodded, his finger moved along the line of my jaw before trailing down my neck.
Then he continued. “These past few weeks with you have been more than I could’ve ever imagined. You’ve fulfilled every one of my fantasies, and now”—his hand dropped to grab hold of mine again —“it’s time I do the same for you.”
My heart stuttered in my chest, and as Ace hit the elevator button again and the doors slid open, I caught the first glimpse of what awaited us…
23
UP THE ANTE
THE FIRST THING I noticed as Ace and I stepped off the elevator was how dark it was. As the doors closed behind us and my eyes struggled to adjust, I couldn’t tell what we were walking into or how big the room was, or even if there was anyone other than the two of us standing there.
Ace’s hand was a steady presence in mine as we stood there, and he seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. And sure enough, a few seconds later, a slither of crimson light filtered out from directly in front of us, growing wider as thick curtains were pulled to each side, and that was when Ace walked us forward.
There was a pounding, exotic rhythm that seemed to move in time with my heartbeat as we entered a room the size of my small kitchen. The walls were blanketed in velvet curtains so that there seemed to be no way in or out, and there were only two other people in the room: the first, an elegant brunette standing behind a podium, and beside her, a man in a tuxedo who had to be at least seven feet tall. Both were in masks and both gave off an intimidating air of confidence that would’ve had me shrinking back, had it not been for the formidable man beside me.
As Ace handed the woman the paperwork we’d signed, no words were exchanged. The woman looked over the documents before pulling out a lockbox tucked below the stand and entering a code. Then she set the papers inside, locked it back up, and went about writing something down on a covered checklist set atop the podium. When she was done, she gave a curt nod to us and then to the man beside her, who reached to the side and pulled open the curtain next to him, gesturing for us to enter.
Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on?
If I’d thought I was out of my element with Ace before, this was taking things to the extreme, but never once did my trust waver, even as the bodyguard type walked us down a long, dark hallway toward the music that was growing louder with every step we took.