by Peyton Bogue
The dress she’s wearing is tight and pulled taut against her curves. It flatters her body, accentuating her breasts, and he feels himself flush deeper when his eyes sweep over her. The way the dress clings to her is nothing short of provocative and sultry, and the black shine of her skintight bodice is something she’s clearly comfortable in.
She’s wearing golden jewelry to fit with their golden theme, and a small but flattering pendant adorns her neck, which only draws even more attention to her plump breasts.
Hazel is clearly comfortable in her own skin.
Sage clears his throat, aware that he’d been staring. “You look great,” he tries again, clearing his throat once more.
The look Hazel fixes him with is predatory and flirty, and she flashes her white teeth at him, giving him a small chuckle. She’s obviously pleased at his reaction, enjoying the effect she thinks she’s had on him.
While she’s not entirely wrong, Sage is mostly embarrassed at the fact that he’d told Rhys not to be jealous, but deep down, that reassurance he’d had is slipping. The effect she thinks she’s had on him certainly isn’t positive. Hazel has obviously tried hard to get a sort of reaction out of him, and while he can admit that she does look beautiful, there’s no way that Rhys is going to take a look at them and not get jealous at the sight of them together.
Sage isn’t looking at Hazel because he likes what he sees. He’s looking at Hazel because he knows what they’ll look like together at the masquerade, with those perfectly manicured hands on him, and when Rhys sees them together, he might lose it, and that is not what needs to happen tonight.
Another part of him is uncomfortable. Hazel knows that he’s in a committed relationship, yet she’s also clearly trying to act as some sort of temptation for him, even though it’s not working. Sage hadn’t really found her beautiful before, although he knew that, realistically, all of the male detectives in the precinct, including Kai, had thought of her as attractive.
But Sage has Rhys for a boyfriend, who’s the most beautiful person Sage ever seen. He can’t reasonably look at Hazel and find her appealing to him at all. Rhys has absolutely ruined him for anyone else.
Hazel tucks a lock of her curled hair back behind her shoulder, and he’s so shocked at seeing her actually look like this because he’s so used to seeing her with her long hair plain and slicked back into a ponytail that he watches as she giggles at him, actually giggles at him, and says, “Thank you. You look amazing, Sage.”
Her words have no effect on him, not like how Rhys’s had. Rhys had made fire erupt in Sage's veins. Hazel doesn’t ignite anything in him.
Her eyes sweep over his body, that predatory glint shining brightly behind her mask. The way she looks at him makes him uncomfortable. He’d barely been able to stop himself from flushing at Rhys’s gaze. Rhys’s eyes had made him feel hot all over. Hazel’s gaze has him fighting to hold back a grimace.
“Thank you," Sage tells her politely. "Sorry I’m a little late,” he continues apologetically. “I lost track of time.”
His excuse has him shifting his weight slightly, overcome with thoughts of why he was late. The phantom touch of Rhys’s mouth on his neck makes Sage blush again, and his cotton dress shirt scrapes lightly over the new bruise on his collarbone, and it throbs at the pressure, sending a thrill down his spine.
Hazel waves a dismissive hand at him, oblivious to his thoughts, and says, “You’re fine, Sage. There’s nothing to apologize for. We’ll still get there in time.”
Sage nods at her, trying to hide his flushed cheeks, and says, “Okay. Thank you. Are you ready to go?”
She nods, turning around inside the doorway and grabbing a small clutch purse, black like her dress, and closes the door, swiftly locking it. She smiles at him and says, “Lead the way, Detective.”
The drive is full of tense silence for a while. Hazel doesn’t say anything to him as he walks her back to the Camaro, and he opens the door for her because he’s polite and then closes it before walking to the driver’s side. She briefly smiles at him when he sits down, and Sage gives her a small grin that he hopes comes off as friendly instead of discomforting, but she doesn’t say anything to him as he pulls off of the street.
It’s not until ten tense minutes have passed before he feels her eyes on him again, and he glances at her out of the corner of his eye before she quickly looks away, her cheeks coloring at having been caught.
Sage just continues to drive, trying not to show how nervous he is as each mile draws them closer and closer to the gallery.
“What’s Rhys doing tonight?” Hazel asks after another silent minute passes, and Sage glances at her in surprise, having not expected her to ask him that.
Sage clears his throat before responding. “He’s ah—at home,” he settles on after a split second of hesitating. He’s not entirely sure why she’s asking.
Hazel nods, glancing out of the window. “Does he know what we’re doing tonight?” she asks, and Sage glances at her again, his brow furrowing. What we’re doing tonight, she’d said, as if that somehow made their situation better.
“Yes,” Sage replies, gripping the steering wheel. “He knows we’re going to a ball, but he doesn’t know why. I can only tell him so much about an ongoing investigation.”
It’s partly a lie, but Sage doesn’t even blink as he says it to her.
“Did he have any issues with you going on a date with someone else?” Hazel asks, and this time he can feel her look over at him, like she’s actually curious to know the answer.
“It’s a pretend date,” Sage says slowly, noting how her eyes quickly dart away. Like she’s trying not to roll her eyes. “Rhys understands our job. He knows the limits we’ll go to at times. Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Hazel assures him quickly. “I’m just trying to make conversation. You seem a little anxious.”
Sage looks at her quickly, flipping his indicator down so he can turn left towards the art museum. There are cars everywhere, but he steers the Camaro into the direction of the adjacent parking lot. There’s a line for valet parking, but Sage stays clear of it. He doesn’t particularly want to hand his keys over to a stranger, and if security catches on to them, they all might need to get away quickly before they’re caught.
“Besides,” Hazel says suddenly as he pulls into a parking spot, “if I was the person you were in a relationship with, I’d probably have a problem with you attending a ball with someone else. Especially with the way you look tonight.”
She’s out of the car before he can respond, but Sage still looks over towards the passenger seat in shock. Hazel has never outright said anything like that before. She’s never commented on his appearance, although, objectively, he knows she at least likes the way he looks. Her lingering stares have told him enough about how much she appreciates his body.
Sage feels uncomfortable again as he grabs his mask, quickly placing it onto his face and tying it behind his head. He can’t keep letting her say things like that to him. He shouldn’t have waited this long to politely ask her to stop flirting with him. Hazel isn’t even saying anything provocative or inappropriate, but the tone she’s telling him these compliments with is downright sultry, and all she’s doing is making him feel even more awkward. Hazel knows how serious his relationship is with Rhys; there’s no hiding how Sage feels about him. Everything Hazel is trying to do is ultimately so that she can act as some sort of wedge between them, and it’s not going to work.
Sage fixes his mask to sit more comfortably around the bridge of his nose and pulls his keys from the ignition. He sighs before opening the door, stepping out and fixing his suit jacket absentmindedly to help him feel more level-headed and calm. He can’t let Hazel’s actions get to him too much. He’ll deal with her tomorrow. They just need to get through tonight.
Hazel smiles at him when he walks around the rear of the car to meet her, and he quickly locks the Camaro and tuck his keys into his pocket. He feels himself recoil a little at
the thought of taking Hazel’s hand so they can assume their coupley roles, but he reaches out for her despite his unwillingness to do so, and she takes his hand enthusiastically, eyeing him with that same predatory glint.
He doesn’t say anything to her as they wade through the cars and doesn’t acknowledge the slight tension between them. He gently pats the small of his back to make sure that his gun is secure as they reach the entrance of the building, and he immediately tenses when he sees the security guards and all of the remaining couples waiting to enter the building.
They’ve made it to the masquerade at the time they were supposed to, and Sage doesn’t see Kai or Mikalina waiting outside as he and Hazel walk up the steps to join the line of guests, which means that they are most likely already inside.
Hazel eyes the security guards a tad nervously and tightens her grip on his arm when they make their way to the top of the stairs. Sage leans down and gives her a reassuring squeeze, saying quietly, “Relax.”
She nods at him, giving him a tentative smile. He continues, “Don’t draw attention to yourself. Sound confident when they ask you for your name.”
His eyes dart towards the three security guards in front of them as the guards patiently watch the couple in front of Sage and Hazel. The couple animatedly tries to engage the guards in conversation, but the three guards stare back at them with stoic expressions and remain tight-lipped. They don’t seem like the type to look too closely unless provoked, but Sage tries to relax his posture anyway. He doesn’t want them to look too closely at either him or Hazel.
His efforts prove true. None of the security guards so much as blink at them as a burly one asks for their names, and Sage confidently answers back with their aliases as the man quickly darts his eyes over the guest list. A stocky one asks Hazel to open her clutch, which she does without a second thought, showing him the contents. He just nods when she’s finished, glancing at the third man, who mutters something into his wrist where Sage assumes a microphone to his radio is hidden.
The burly man in front of Sage looks up at them after finding their names, saying curtly, “Enjoy the benefit, sir,” and then to Hazel, “miss.”
Sage nods at him in acknowledgement, quickly stepping forward and away from the security guards.
He’s immediately met with an elegant silver foyer once he and Hazel step into the brick building. It’s clearly been decorated to fit with a certain theme of the night, and two more security guards direct them to the left of the foyer, where they enter the open space of the gallery.
All of the artwork on display are classic renderings of Renaissance paintings. They clearly aren’t originals, but instead painted in the style that insinuates the future depicted from the past. There are night skies painted to resemble a cloudy face, buildings rendered in pastel to show the current lack of human space in society, and dozens of different paintings of abstract art. Sage eyes each of them carefully as they walk deeper into the gallery.
The music that’s playing is a contrast to the classical artwork around them. A deep, sensual beat reverberates through his chest as they delve deeper throughout the room. The majority of the couples are dancing in the middle of the gallery, with only a few stray guests drinking champagne flutes and chatting with other partygoers around small tables off to the side of the paintings.
Every individual is wearing a mask as Sage and Hazel pass, and each one of them is dressed exquisitely in cocktail dresses, full piece suits, and elegant ball gowns. Waiters roam in between the dancing couples with drinks and small platters full of what looks like hors d'oeuvres, and each one of them is adorned with an elegant but plain silver mask. They’re obviously meant to be looked over. Each of them are dressed the same in matching suits, and both the female and male waiters are wearing bowties with fitted blazers.
The entire building flows in accordance with the elegant silver theme. The frames of the paintings are silver and sleek, and each security guard standing against the brick walls seem to fade in with the many waiters with their own silver masks.
A few balls of light illuminate the gallery, along with colored lanterns dangling from the arches of the brick ceiling, but it’s otherwise dimly lit in the middle of the room. The ceiling above them is punctuated with chandeliers of swirled, colored glass, illuminating the artwork hanging on the old bricks of the gallery.
Sage feels Hazel tug lightly on his arm, and when he looks towards where she’s pulling him, he sees a man across from them with his head thrown back in laughter. He’s wearing an intricate black mask, and the designs on it draw attention to his feline smile as he pulls a woman closer to him by her waist. The woman in front of him places a gentle hand on his chest in amusement, her eyes bright behind her navy mask as she watches him. The man is clearly Aleksander Kharkovy.
Sage nods at Hazel to acknowledge that he sees Kharkovy too, and he sweeps his eyes around the room, scanning the rest of the crowd.
All of the guests seem oblivious to his gaze, but Sage tries to subtly search the rest of the gallery for any sign of Steele. If Steele isn’t in the gallery, there’s no point in Rhys coming here.
Sage’s eyes glaze over the bar, where a man in a dark suit is sipping at a glass full of dark liquid. He’s already staring at Sage when Sage looks over at him, and Sage’s heart accelerates in his chest when their eyes meet. He knows the man leaning against the bar is Steele.
Part of Sage wants to walk over to him right then, where Steele is alone and by himself at the bar, but Hazel tugs on his arm again, and he looks down at her. She pulls him back towards the far side of the gallery, where Sage can clearly see Kai and Mikalina waiting for them by the Roman exhibit.
Kai meets his gaze when he and Hazel are close enough, and Sage tilts his head back towards the bar before taking a step closer to Hazel, darting his eyes quickly back towards Steele. Kai tracks his movements, taking a sip from a glass that Sage knows is most likely water meant to be disguised as vodka, and looks towards the bar. He immediately meets Sage’s eyes again, giving him a subtle shake of his head. He knows that Steele is here, too.
“You both look amazing,” Hazel says to Mikalina and Kai, smiling widely.
Mikalina is wearing a tight, dark navy dress that hugs her body in a way that makes Sage’s cheeks darken. While he might not find Hazel attractive, he objectively does think that Mikalina is very beautiful. She looks good next to Kai, who’s in a dark suit not unlike Sage’s, and his navy tie goes well with the color of her dress. They’re both wearing cream colored masks, and the fiery red of Mikalina’s loose locks are a stark contrast against the plastic, but she looks amazing even in the dim lighting of the exhibit. Kai has a small smile on his face as he glances at Mikalina, but he quickly darts his eyes away from her when Sage catches his gaze, and he takes another sip of his water.
“You both clean up nice,” Mikalina says in response, her lips curled into her usual smirk.
“I told you that you’d be the best dressed tonight, hot damn, partner!” Kai says, taking a step closer to Sage and pulling him into a one armed hug. He leans in close to Sage’s ear and says quietly, “Your man on his way home, yet?”
Kai is really asking if Rhys has arrived and is waiting for them on the second level, but Sage has no idea if he’s here or not yet, so he lifts his shoulders slightly in response, but Kai just takes it in stride, leaning back swiftly. “I think we might have entered the Twilight Zone,” Sage mutters to him as Kai glances over his shoulder.
Sage doesn’t need to follow Kai's gaze to know that Kai is looking over at where Steele is sitting. He also knows that Kai understands what he’s trying to tell him: Steele is watching us.
The only tactic they've got working for them right now is that Steele has no idea that they know that he’s the omega. They don’t want to tip him off and have him leaving before Sage can corner him, so the best thing Sage and Kai can do right now until Rhys gets there is to act normal. They have to assume that Steele can hear them over the music and lively
conversations of the crowd, so Sage and Kai both need to stick to their usual undercover codes.
Kai leans away from him and gives Sage an easy smile before stepping back to Mikalina’s side, where he gently wraps his arm around her waist. Mikalina doesn’t react at the contact, and Sage watches with a raised brow as she continues to watch the crowd, unbothered by Kai’s closeness.
“Distracting Kharkovy doesn’t seem to be a problem,” she says as she nods her head to where Kharkovy is still chatting with the woman in the navy mask, oblivious to their conversation. “Looks like he’s got his hands full.”
“Do we know when Kharkovy is supposed to hand over the check?” Hazel asks quietly.
Mikalina shrugs. “Could be anytime now. We’ve all gotten here late, like we’d planned. He’ll hand it over sometime before nine o’clock, when he’s supposed to make his introductory speech.”
An hour. Sage has an hour to try to corner Steele before he’s supposed to be at Hazel’s side when she takes the check.
“What do we do until then?” he asks.
Even behind her mask, Sage can see the way Mikalina raises her eyebrows at him questioningly. “Dance,” she suggests, but she doesn’t take her eyes off of Kharkovy. “Eat something. Blend in.”
Sage balks at her, but Hazel turns to him and grins. “Want to dance?” she asks, a salacious grin on her face.
“Um,” Sage says, a tad panicked. “I was actually going to suggest that we—um—”
“Oh, come on, Sage,” Hazel chuckles at him. “We can’t intervene until Kharkovy makes his speech. We might as well blend in, right?”
Sage looks at her blankly. He can’t exactly say that he’s going to need to sneak Rhys in at any moment because he can’t let her know that Rhys is even going to be here. She arches her eyebrows at him in question, and he stifles a sigh, nodding somewhat resignedly. She squeals a little before she tightens her hold on his arm and drags him to the middle of the dancing couples.