by Stacy Lane
The Labelles threw a good bash. A live band was set up on a stage, tuxedo-wearing caterers roamed the floors at all times, and the room was filled with many different types of professionals—athletes, business women and men, politicians.
The room glowed purple. Purple lights, purple linen, and shiny purple banners were all one could see. Tables were decorated with large yellow centerpieces, though. All in all, it was stunning.
“Champagne, miss?” A waiter asks as soon as I cross over the threshold. He holds a tray of flutes filled with bubbly liquid.
I reach for one. It’s my second, but I promise I’ll cut myself off.
At some point.
I catch Jo’s golden hair across the room. She waves me over.
“Hi, there.”
I seek out the polished greeting coming from behind. His voice is masculine. He’s tall, maybe around six foot, with light hair combed and styled to perfection. Not one hair is out of place.
“Hi,” I respond, a little breathless. He’s really handsome. Ryan Gosling circa 2011 handsome.
“I was out on the terrace,” he says, tilting his head over his shoulder. We’re both standing just inside the doorway. “You ignored me, but I’m not one for giving up, so thought I would try again.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I’m not sure if I’m confused by what he said or by his smooth, chiseled jaw. His entire face is made of sharp lines, angled cheekbones, and a straight nose.
“Outside. Did you hear me trying to talk to you?” His confidence wavers.
“No. Oh my God, I’m sorry. I didn’t even notice anyone out there.”
“That makes me feel slightly better about my game. Thank you,” he smiles.
“What was your game?” I prompt.
“Oh, you’re putting me on the spot now. That’s unfair. I watched you for a good three minutes before coming up with what to say.”
“Well, I didn’t hear it remember? Seems you have the opportunity to use it again.”
“It was about the water. Doesn’t apply anymore.”
“Ask me to go for a walk by the river then,” I say with unabashed coercion.
His smile spreads, showing a mouth full of perfect white teeth. “Would you like to go for a walk…?”
“Chelsea,” I answer.
“Chelsea. I’m Colt.” He shifts his stance to face me. “It’s a little chilly off the water. Do you have a coat?”
“I do.”
“I’ll walk with you,” he says, already in motion.
I reach a hand out to stall him, placing it lightly on the black sleeve of his tux. “How about I meet you back here? I’m going to let my friend know where I’m going.”
“Sounds great. Colt Andrews if she asks.”
“Why would she ask?”
“In case you go missing, she has a name to go after.” Clearing his throat almost immediately afterward, he adds, “That was dark and creepy. I’m not a murderer. Just socially inept.”
I release a soft laugh, part humor, and part nerves. “Stay put. She’ll want a face with the name.”
He nods, tucking his hands in the front of his pants. “I’ll be right here.”
Zigzagging through the tables, I pass the band and Betty speaking with the event coordinator. She spots me, waving and mouthing gorgeous as she points at my gown.
When I reach Jo’s side, she’s joined by Brooks, Cam and the woman he brought as his date. I’ve never seen her around before, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never see her again.
I don’t know when Alex arrived, and sadly, I’ve been searching. I was intrigued to see him in a tuxedo and to see if he brought anyone with him.
I pull Jo to the side, lowering my voice. “Do you see the Ryan Gosling look-alike standing by the terrace doors?” She glances behind me, nodding. “His name is Colt Andrews, and we’re going to take a walk down by the docks. I’m supposed to tell you his name in case he’s a killer or something.”
“Cute,” she says, still watching Colt. “I hope he’s not.”
“Me too,” I grin with a bounce.
“Did you just call a potential killer cute?” Cam asks, catching the end of our conversation. “Women are so strange.”
His date doesn’t even bother lifting her attention up from her nails.
I’ve taken a couple steps away when Cam calls out.
“If you see Alex out there, tell him Mom is looking for him. The auction is supposed to start soon. If he doesn’t come back, then I have to present, and Mom doesn’t find my auctioneer voice as charming as everyone else does.”
“He’s here then?” I ask with too much hurry.
“Yep,” Cam answers. “Alex mysteriously went missing the moment a certain beautiful woman arrived.”
Oh. Great. That’s an image I needed. Alex running off with some beauty, hiding away in an alcove and doing God knows what.
I step through the open doorway and into the hallway outside our venue. The music and voices of the crowd fade. A counter to the left is set up beside another door. Everyone in attendance will already be here by now. That’s why I find the desk vacant of a line as well as the person who checked in our coats.
“Hello,” I call out, leaning forward on the desk. There’s not enough space to hide back there, but certainly they are not supposed to leave their post in case someone wants to go.
Like me, for example. I want to leave, and a really good looking guy is waiting for me.
Twiddling my fingers on top of the desk, I peer down the hall, but no one is around.
I stare at the door, fingers drumming faster.
It’s my coat. It’s not like I’d be stealing.
Mind made up, I try the doorknob and find it unlocked. I step inside the dark room. Automatically the door swings shut behind me.
“Okay. It’s really dark in here.” Talking to myself made me feel slightly better about being alone as my hand searched along the wall for a switch. When I came up empty, I reached into my clutch for my phone.
Right as I tap the screen for the flashlight icon, a rogue, husky voice shatters the obscure calm in the room.
“It’s on the outside.”
I scream.
I scream precisely how you would imagine someone to react when they learn there is a stranger inside a pitch black room with them.
“Jesus! Chelsea! Chelsea, it’s me.”
Alex’s voice registers after he’s wrapped a hand around my mouth to silence me.
He was so close to getting kneed in the junk.
He drops his hand.
“Alex? What the hell are you doing in the coat closet?” I pant with heavy gulps of air.
Holy shit. I thought I was about to be murdered. If I hadn’t just been talking about stranger danger, I might not have reacted so dramatically.
I would have screamed, just maybe a little less like I was about to be chopped into pieces and stuffed in everyone's coats as a party gift.
A narrow, rectangular window at the top of one wall comes into view now that I’m paying attention to the rest of the room. It gives off very little moonlight, but enough of a balance to see the outline of Alex’s body.
“I’m a voyeur. I get off on wearing other people’s clothes,” he makes the dry remark as he takes a step away from me.
I’m plastered to the wall, tense and slowly unclenching my fist from the initial fear.
“Wow. You can make jokes.” I hear the sound of liquid sloshing around. “Are you drinking?”
“I swiped a bottle of champagne. I needed a quiet spot, and this room was unattended.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” I gripe. “I came to get my coat.”
Alex’s flashlight from his phone brightens the room.
“Ivory. Or was it a pale pink, like your dress?” He browses through the hangers in the first row.
So he saw me arrive.
Alex grips the neck of the tall bottle, tipping it up and up as he takes a chug.
His voice was off. Smooth and careless w
hen it’s usually wound tight like the man himself.
“Are you drunk?”
“God, I wish,” he mutters.
“It’s ivory. Alex, I can just step outside and turn on the light. It’d be easier. And faster.” I don’t move. He’s acting weird.
“That takes the fun out it. But I guess you must be in a hurry. Colt Andrews is waiting, is he not?”
“You know him?” I’m weary of his answer. Not with worry that he’ll ward me away, but worry that he won’t. I should want to return to the party, except I’m finding this small, headache-inducing room that’s blended with hundreds of different perfumes and colognes from the owners’ clothing exactly where I want to be.
“Very well. He’s a great guy. Someone who you could talk to.” More sloshing comes from behind the rack.
“Right. ‘Cause you’re not getting involved,” I say, absently.
“Colt was in an unhealthy marriage. The two of you would hit it off wondrously. Think about the pretty babies you would make. Beautiful, little blonde things running wild and talking everyone to death.”
Slosh slosh.
“I think you’re drunk.”
“I’m trying very hard to be.”
“I’ll let you get back to it.” I spin toward the door. Alex mumbles incoherent sounds, probably happy that I’m running away.
And I am running away. I don’t want to hear him refer to me with another man. How I should confide in that man and have babies with that man.
He has no idea how much I would kill for those little blonde things.
My hand latches onto the knob. I twist.
It doesn’t open.
I turn the handle again and then start shaking it up and down like that will make it magically open when in fact it is locked.
We were locked in.
I was stuck inside a moonlit room with Alex.
“It’s locked,” I mutter, disbelieving.
“That’s impossible. We’re both in here.”
“Yeah. Clearly, it was unlocked then.”
“Someone realized it’s supposed to be locked up when she steps away from the desk.”
“We’ll recommend her for the employee of the month,” I reply with sarcasm. “Now how do we get out of here?”
“Do you have pins in your hair?”
“Yes! Can you pick the lock?”
“No.”
My arms drop back to my sides. I think I like Alex more when he’s stoic and broody.
“Alex, the party is starting. We have to get out of here.”
“Then why did you need your coat?”
“I was going to walk down to the water. With Colt.”
“Romantic bastard,” he grumbles.
“How do you know him?”
“He said he’d talk to her.” Alex doesn’t hear my question. He keeps muttering to himself. “The pretty pink one. Pfft. Idiot.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Found it!” He yells, startling me. Hangers slide along the metal bar, then Alex swaggers over.
“Thank you.” My hand wraps around my coat, but Alex doesn’t let go.
He yanks on my jacket with a sudden jerk that has me stumbling a step forward.
“Alex.” I glare straight at him. Light from his phone shines from beneath our faces. The angle makes him look menacing.
I don’t even know where he left the champagne bottle.
“My coat, please.” I tug, indicating he can let go.
“If you really want to leave and go back to Colt, I’ll let go.”
I blink, and blink again.
“Or?”
“Or.” He tugs me closer with less of a shock this time. “We give in, just this once, to a dark, empty room that’ll never tell our secret.”
“Which is…?”
“If we say it out loud, it’ll no longer be a secret. It’ll become the truth, and I won’t be able to fight against what I know to be true.”
“You still aren’t making sense, Alex.”
He growls. I snap back, unsure if he’s about to pounce or bite. But he doesn’t let me go far. Both of us have a firm hold on my coat.
“Stay here. With me. Colt is a great guy, but if you leave with him, I’ll be forced to do something really dumb to a good friend. Because I’m going fucking crazy thinking about him seeing you the way I saw you earlier. In a damn corset with your breasts spilling out. Because you’re not the pretty pink one. You’re too beautiful to even put into words.”
Alex spits that last sentence like it’s a fact he hates but believes wholeheartedly.
He makes me want to believe it.
So I give in and release the coat from my grasp.
He searches my eyes, and without speaking, I grant this stuffy closet to hold our secret for one night.
The light disappears. His touch against my shoulder is enhanced by my eyesight being dulled. Hands wrap behind my neck, scolding my warm skin. A thumb brushes underneath my chin.
Alex walks me backward. I hit the wall right as his mouth comes down on mine, his body pressing into my front with so much momentum I thought we’d crash through the obstruction.
We’d be able to get out of this room that way, but it wouldn’t change what was happening. The match has been struck, and it can’t be stopped.
I push into him, a ferocious need taking over me. Desperation from the wonder that has been ignited by Alex. I tell myself it’s the mystery and location and the sounds of a party on the other side of the wall that stirs these crazy, unfamiliar, and arousing emotions.
This is passion.
Boundless desire that I’ve never experienced. The overwhelming state of something new and forbidden.
Not every kiss feels this good. But this one does, and I seize it.
I let my head fall to the side. Alex takes advantage by widening my parted lips and swiping his tongue along my bottom. He’s slow, patient. He nips once, twice. Then I’m split open, and he’s devouring me like a starving man.
I give as good as I take. Parrying with his hot, slick tongue. He moans his approval, and I feel it rush through me. My center is firing off an array of sparks.
One of his hands runs over the side of my breast, around my waist, and doesn’t end until it’s gripping my ass. Alex thrust his hips into mine. I’m pushed further against the wall. I feel every hard part of him grinding into me. He does it again, and the thick, solid swell of his cock hits the hot, sensitive spot between my legs at just the right angle. I gasp into his mouth, a surprised and satisfied sound accompanying it.
Alex drags his anxious hand to the opening of my dress. The slit brushes aside as fingers skim the surface of my thigh at a torturous speed. Chills scatter along my revealing skin as he makes his way to the back once again.
“Temptress,” he whispers on my parted lips when he finds the thin strap of my thong, thumbing the band.
He barely touches me, the tips of his fingers graze the strip of fabric that falls between my cheeks, but I crave it like a wild, wanton woman.
“Right from the start,” he goes on. “Completely unavailable, but so tempting.”
“Alex,” I sigh. His touch brushes over my hip and wraps around my thigh.
“Spread,” he commands.
I abide.
A finger runs along the outside of my panties. Alex mutters a curse into the curve of my neck when he meets the wetness I know saturates the front. Then his palm flattens on my stomach, sliding down until he’s underneath the slip of silk.
My neck extends as his lips trace above my pulse. The beat of my heart pounds, skipping just at that moment when he touches…
The door handle rattles.
We freeze. Alex’s warm breath wraps around my ear.
I my open eyes, returning to reality. My hand made its way into Alex’s thick hair at some point. I stroke the nape, a soft tangle of the short strands slide through my grasp.
He makes a happy, content noise and I smile.
But we’re jolted from this euphoria when voices come from the other side.
“I locked it before break. No one was back here.”
“Please just check. She was supposed to meet me after getting her coat.”
Colt.
Oh, God.
A key slips into the lock, turning. The deafening click of its mechanism ruptures the lust filling my head and body.
Alex pushes off, disappearing behind the nearest rack. My skirt falls into place, the loose and wispy bottom billowing to the ground to cover what I bared to him and this room of secrets. The material is still swaying when the door swings open.
Light from the hall bleeds into darkness, causing me to squint after being without it for so long.
Two heads peek through the doorway.
“Chelsea,” Colt exclaims once recognizing me.
“Oh crap,” the young girl sputters, disappearing for a second. The ceiling light flickers on.
I’m in a state of shock. I resemble someone numb, unable to move.
But I feel just the opposite. My body has never felt more alive. Alex touched and kissed me in ways I’m not ready to comprehend. I’m not a stranger to desire, but that…that was something else.
That was passion.
Recovering with what I hope is believable, I sigh and say, “Finally. I thought I was going to be stuck in here all night.”
“Miss, I’m so sorry!”
“No harm done.” I bend down for my forgotten coat, eyes hidden from the others and searching for who I know is shrouded behind the racks of coats.
“I was concerned. Thought it was a long shot, but I guess my instincts were dead on. You were trapped in the coat closet.”
“I’ve been in here awhile. Mind if I run to the ladies room before we take that walk?” I don’t even care to go anymore, but I can’t be rude. He came looking for me.
“No, of course. Though, we’ll have to postpone the walk. The auction is about to begin. They’re calling everyone to find their tables.”
We step out of the doorway. I’m the last one through.
With one final glance inside, I look for any sign of Alex. All is quiet, and there’s not one trace of evidence that another person was trapped in here with me.
That was the deal, though. That dark room will forever hold the secret that Alex and I kissed and almost did a whole lot more. I wouldn’t have stopped him.