“So that’s it? Everybody goes back to partying while he runs off to get tortured?”
Clayton eyed me from behind his mask before pulling it off to smile at me in reassurance.
“Hey. It’s really not that bad. He knew what he was getting himself into. You’ll see him again in a few hours and see that it’s just a game.”
My heart was beating in my throat, my stomach turning with the alcohol I’d consumed. Standing near the large bonfire, I could feel beads of sweat slipping down my temples and between my breasts.
With his mask still shoved up to the top of his head, Clayton looked out at the party beyond my shoulder. His eyes met mine again.
“Will you be okay for a few minutes standing here by yourself? I need to find a bathroom, or at least a bush where I can take a piss.”
Nodding my head, I pulled my arm from his and wrapped it around my abdomen. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Clayton wandered off, and I turned to stare at the bonfire, the dancing flames and crackling wood stealing my attention from the awkwardness I felt for standing among a crowd of masked students, most of which I didn’t know.
I’d been at Yale for two years, but until Everly was moved into my dorm room following an unexpected reassignment, I’d never had much of a social life. Most of my time was spent in class or in the library studying.
The first year of law school was the worst, a grueling schedule that weeded out who could handle the pressure and who would buckle beneath it. But now that my second year had started, I’d been able to ease back on the constant work, which helped get me out among new people. Unfortunately, I couldn’t name more than a few of them.
And for that reason, I stood watching the fire, my eyes tracking the embers that floated up in the sky, the heat washing over my face despite the distance I stood away from it.
Several minutes passed, each one making me feel more nervous for standing by myself.
Around me, people laughed and talked, some dancing, others cheering each other on to drink more, be crazier, to give in to whatever irresponsible urge they had.
Feeling out of place, I let out a heavy sigh of relief when Clayton walked up behind me, his chest brushing my back. Walled in on one side by the heat of the fire, and on the other by the heat of his body, I found it odd he didn’t say anything.
I spun on my heel to smile up at him, but my heart dropped into my stomach as soon as I laid eyes on a devil mask, the carved wood design even more intricate and beautiful now that I had a chance to study it up close.
“Damn it, you scared me.”
Laughing, I held my hand to my chest, assuming that Gabriel had finally found me and had walked up to say hi.
Although I couldn’t see his eyes due to the small black mesh that covered that portion of the mask, I noticed how his neck moved as his gaze tracked down my body to where my hand covered my chest.
“Are you happy? I showed up to your torture party, so you can’t take personal offense.”
His gaze must have tracked up to my face, his neck angling to the right as he watched me.
It was unsettling being this close to him, especially because of the mask. Gabriel’s silence only made the moment that much more eerie.
“Are you going to say hi, or are we going to stare at each other all night?”
Reaching up, Gabriel pushed the mask up off his face, a smile curling my lips that flattened immediately when a set of cold, dark eyes met mine.
Stilling in place, I realized my mistake, my lips parting slightly when Tanner’s face stared back at me.
Fear chased down my body, coating my spine in ice, and I stepped back to place distance between us, but not fast enough.
Before I knew what was happening, Tanner reached out to cup his hand around the back of my head, his long fingers weaving into my hair where it was pulled up into a mess of curls.
He leaned down as my breath gushed from my lungs on a startled burst, his mouth slanted over mine without concern for whether I’d invited the kiss or not.
My body trembled at the contact, every muscle going weak as I melted against his chest, my lips parting as his tongue licked across the crease, demanding I allow him entry.
It was instinctual, my surrender to him, some long forgotten part of my brain recognizing his power over me. Scared, yet so filled with desire, I shivered as his tongue slid across mine, his teeth scraping against my lip with the threat of pleasure and pain.
Without thinking, I pushed up on my toes to make up for the height difference between us, my hands moving to his chest to find steel muscle beneath his shirt.
I didn’t want to admit to myself that, since the moment I’d first met him, I’d wondered what this kiss would feel like.
Now I knew it would disarm me in every way that mattered. Now I knew that it would steal away my ability to think and breathe.
Now I knew that there was no flame hotter than the heat of my body when Tanner was pressed against me.
The party around us must have disappeared without me noticing, because at the moment a horn was blown in the distance, the primal low bellow of sound that reminded me an entire world existed around us, voices filtered back into my awareness, jeers and hollers, people egging Tanner on to kiss me harder.
He let me go before I had time to rebalance my body, and I stumbled back to open my eyes and meet his.
Although his eyes were still the cold, dark stones I’d always known them to be, I finally saw that they were a deep moss green.
Tanner’s lips curled at the corners, dark laughter now surrounding us as his friends stepped up to pull him back. I wish I could have said that his smile was friendly, but it was more an expression of hatred than anything else.
Anger coursed through me, my eyes scanning the other men in devil masks, my teeth clenching together to realize they were laughing at me.
From behind them, Clayton walked up with his mask in place, his expression hidden behind the leather.
“The horn blew, come the fuck on, Tanner. We’re first round.”
I didn’t recognize the voice of whoever spoke to him, but I stared as Tanner blinked his eyes and turned to run off with his friends. As they left, Clayton stepped up to touch my arm, his other hand pushing his mask up so I could see his face.
“What the hell was that about?”
Shaking my head, I cleared my throat and explained, “I don’t know. He just walked up and kissed me.”
My eyes tracked past him to watch Tanner and two other people strip off their masks, top hats, capes, jackets and shirts. All three of them were built like fighters, two of them identical with scars obvious on their bodies.
Turning to follow the line of my sight, Clayton spoke to me in a low voice.
“That’s Ezra and Damon Cross. They’re twins, if you hadn’t already noticed.”
I blinked, my eyes watering with tears I didn’t want streaming down my cheeks as proof that Tanner had an effect on me. Still, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from him, couldn’t stop staring at the strong plains of his chest, the smooth tan of his skin that stretched over broad shoulders, thick biceps, and washboard abs that made my fingers curl into my palms with the need to touch him.
He was too beautiful for words. Too damn gorgeous to be real.
“Hey,” Clayton whispered, “Did he do something to you?”
Without answering his question, I asked, “Who are Ezra and Damon in the group? What do people call them?”