by Ashley Blake
I looked at her like she was crazy. “No! I have no idea who he is.”
“Well if he was at this party he is definitely somebody. If he had been all over me the way he was with you, Eva, I would go out with him in a heartbeat.” Brielle gave me a quick wink.
“Why are we even talking about this? He didn’t even tell me his name. Anyway, changing the subject now ladies. Does anyone have anything fun planned for the week?”
Thankfully the chatter turned to more mundane discussion and the girls got off my back about the guy that I didn’t even know. We finished chatting and we all left together. The other girls scattered and Brielle and I were left walking together.
“Do you need a ride? I’m parked right there in the parking lot.” She pointed to her car and I was just about to accept when I heard a deep voice behind us.
“I’ll give her a ride home.”
We both turned to see Zorro, still in full costume, standing in front of the banquet hall. I felt giddiness and apprehension at the same time. Had he been waiting for me the whole time? I quickly came back down to earth as I realized the guy was a virtual stranger. He could have been an axe murderer for all I knew, so I figured it wasn’t a good idea to get in the car with him.
“Um, no thanks. I’ll take a ride from my girlfriend.” I turned to Brielle and motioned for her to walk toward her car.
“Eva.”
I stopped in my tracks. How did he know my name? I slowly turned to look at him, my heart hammering against my chest. He was leaning against the building, his arms casually crossed over his chest.
“Yes?”
“I will drive you home. I’m harmless, I promise.”
I don’t know what it was about him, but the butterflies went crazy in my belly as those blue eyes held my gaze. I hesitated and Brielle whispered in my ear.
“If it was me, I would go with him in a heartbeat.” She slipped a piece of paper in my purse. “If something goes wrong, call me.”
She gently nudged me in his direction and I had to tell my feet to move. I slowly walked toward him and looked back at Brielle. She smiled, winked at me and mouthed, ‘have fun’.
I turned around and was met with Mr. Beautiful’s gorgeous smile.
“How did you know my name?”
“I make it my business to know what I want to know about the woman I want. And I want you.”
I cocked my head to the side, my eyes slowly searching his. “So you said earlier. You don’t even know me and I definitely don’t know you. In fact, I don’t even know your name.” I raised my eyebrows at him, waiting for him to respond.
His blue eyes sparkled at me and he seemed thoroughly amused.
"There will be plenty of time for that later. Why don't you let me take you home and we can get to know each other a little bit better.”
I put my hand on my hip and held his gaze.
"I am not going anywhere with you until you tell me your name. You already made my ride leave me so please tell me what I want to know so that you can take me home.”
His lips turned up in a sexy smirk and I wanted to yank that mask off of his face. I got it, he was trying to be mysterious and sexy, and it was working…but I really wanted to see his whole face.
“Mark Rogers.”
“Mark Rogers, it is nice to meet you.”
“Can I take you home now, Eva?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“My car is over here.”
For whatever reason I felt completely comfortable with him. I didn’t have one red flag going off in my brain, and believe me I checked. As weird as it may sound, as we walked toward his car, I felt like we had done it a million times.
A man dressed in a driver’s uniform, complete with a cap, opened the back door of the sleek black sedan, and Mark and I got in.
This is fancy. I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye and my eyes trailed along his strong jaw line up to his full lips and I wanted to suck on them so badly. I couldn’t even see his whole face but I did know that he was easily the sexiest man I had ever laid eyes on. He was wearing an expensive watch and his hands were large and masculine. He looked like money head to toe. Who is this guy? My mind wandered off as I imagined those hands caressing my body and those lips following every move his hands made.
My eyes wandered over his mask and I was met with his beautiful blue eyes watching me look at him. I nearly jumped from the surprise and was instantly embarrassed. Great, he caught me staring at him.
“I hope you like what you see, Eva.” That sexy smirk was right there teasing me.
Somehow, some way I mustered the courage to utter my next words.
“Maybe I would if I could see your whole face. The party is over Mark. Why don’t you take off your mask?”
He seemed a little taken aback by my bluntness but I didn’t care. I was beginning to find it ridiculous that he was still wearing that thing.
“Not yet. I’ll reveal myself when the time is right. So tell me something interesting about you.”
His tone was pretty firm so I decided to drop the mask thing. I would see his face the next time we got together, if there was a next time. I paused for a second and realized how much I wanted there to be a next time.
“Hmmm, something interesting? I just graduated from college.”
He looked at me and seemed genuinely interested. “Really? What do you want to do next?”
“I want to go into interior design. I am waiting to hear back about interviews with a bunch of firms, but I am dying to work at Locke Designs.”
“Why is that?”
I looked at him like he was crazy. “They are the best interior design firm in Chicago.”
“I guess I have heard of them. I hope you get the job that you want.”
“Thanks, Mark. So what about you? What do you do?”
“I do a little bit of everything.”
I didn’t push him because he was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to share more than that. I told myself I could live with that for the moment, because eventually I would get more info out of him. It was crazy that I was assuming I would see him again because I didn’t even know him, but every ounce of my being wanted to know more.
“So, I have a question for you, Mark. Why did you approach me the way you did at the party tonight?”
He turned his body toward me, gently laced his fingers through my hair, his thumb softly caressing my cheek as his eyes held mine.
“Because you are the sexiest woman I have ever seen in my life and I have to have you. I want to know everything about you, Eva.”
Before I could say anything he leaned in toward me, and before I knew what was happening I felt his soft lips on mine. The fireworks came out of nowhere and actually scared me a little bit. I mean the light up the sky, a million going off at once type of fireworks. I let out a soft moan as his tongue slid over my lips and then plunged into my mouth. He kissed me like no one had ever kissed me before and I didn’t fight it. I instinctively wrapped my arms around him, lacing my fingers through his thick dark hair, and pressed my body against his. His lips skimmed my neck and his tongue left a line of fire as he trailed up to flick my earlobe.
“Let’s go back to your place,” his husky voice whispered.
“We can’t, I live with my parents.” I could barely get the words out.
He trailed soft kisses down my neck and over to my other ear and flicked my earlobe. My breath was coming in pants and I became increasingly aware of how wet he made me. In that moment in his car I wanted to straddle him and ride him until neither of us could walk. It shocked me how turned on I was because I barely knew the guy. But we had a physical connection that was like nothing I had ever experienced.
“Come home with me.” His words were barely a whisper and I could tell that he was straining to control himself.
Normally I would never even entertain the thought of going home with a guy I had just met, but I was horny as hell and he was sexy as hell. It was the perfect
combination for me to throw all common sense out of the window and live in the moment for once.
“Okay, let’s go.”
I think he was surprised by my answer because he hesitated for just a second before instructing his driver to take us to his place. He kissed me all the way there and when I felt the car stop I pulled away from him and looked around. I knew that neighborhood. It was the Gold Coast and we were on Astor Street. When we stepped out of the car he linked his fingers through mine and led me to the front door.
My mouth nearly fell to the ground as I looked up at his mansion and suddenly I felt super intimidated.
“This is your house?”
“Yes, come inside.”
It was enormous. What was I doing? The house was huge and I had no idea who that guy was. I could easily disappear and who would know where to look for me. No, going inside was not a good idea. At least, not yet.
I looked up at him, and slowly backed away.
He reached out to try to stop me and I side-stepped his reach.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I should go home, Mark.”
“Oh come on, I don’t bite. Come on in, I want to spend more time with you.”
I looked at him and searched his beautiful blue eyes.
“Take off that mask.”
He leaned against his doorframe, a tiny smirk touching his mouth.
“All in good time.”
I gave him a soft smile and gently touched his cheek.
“It was nice to meet you.” I then turned and walked away, hailing the first cab I saw.
Chapter Two
I lingered in bed a little bit longer than normal the next morning, reliving the events of the previous night in my head. I was so caught up in my attraction for Mark I was not thinking straight and I was happy that at the last minute I decided to go home. I hoped he didn’t think I was leading him on because that was not my intention, but I had never had a one night stand and I definitely wasn’t going to do it if I couldn’t even see the guy’s face! I ripped the covers off of me in frustration as his sexy smirk wouldn’t leave my mind and I got ready for the day.
I was drinking my coffee and checking email when I saw two emails requesting a job interview. I had sent my resume to at least 50 interior design firms so I was pretty excited that someone actually responded. I quickly scrolled to the bottom of each hoping to see my dream firm, Locke Designs, requesting an interview, and I was briefly disappointed when I didn’t see them. I had just sent my resumes out so I told myself that I still had plenty of time to get that dream interview.
I had a job at a small trendy boutique and while it was great experience my long-term goal was not to stay there. I had worked there part-time most of college and for the past year the manager allowed me to design all of the display windows. I really appreciated her trusting my design ideas but I wanted big things for myself and the only way those would happen was if I went to a big design firm. When I arrived at work that day, I put my things down in the back and my friend Paige walked in as I was touching up my makeup.
I glanced over at her. “Hey, how was your weekend?”
She turned and smiled at me. “It was good, Steven finally took me to that new club on Ontario that opened a few weeks ago. We had a great time. Have you been there?”
“Yeah, we went there a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty cool. I’m glad Steven finally took you somewhere you wanted to go.”
“I know, right? How was your weekend?”
“Pretty good. I picked up a part-time job at a banquet hall and they had a cool masquerade party Saturday night.” I left out the part about the mystery man with the gorgeous eyes.
“Oh, fun!”
We chatted for a few more minutes and then went out on the floor. It was a pretty standard day at work and after work that day I stopped by Carrie’s apartment to see how she was feeling.
“Hey, I brought you some chicken noodle soup. My mom made it for you and hopes you feel better soon.”
“Thanks, Eva, I love your mom. She’s so sweet.”
“Well, you know she thinks of you as a second daughter since we practically grew up together.”
Carrie and I had known each other since we were five years old and we had gone to school together since kindergarten.
“Yeah, she’s my second mom. Soooo, how was Saturday night? Did you like working the masquerade party?”
“Oh my gosh, Carrie, it was like nothing I had ever seen. I made so much tip money and I am so grateful that you put in a good word for me.”
“Oh good! I’m just happy that you finally decided to give it a try after begging you to do it with me for months.”
I hung my head and then looked at her and smiled. “I know, I know. I was being stubborn for some stupid reason. I guess I thought it was going to be too much work for not enough money. When you told me the pay was seven bucks an hour, I think that turned me off.”
“I know, but I told you about the tips…you just didn’t believe me.”
“Yeah, it just sounded too good to be true. But you were right and I should have listened to you much sooner!”
“Was there anyone interesting there?”
“Okay, so I wasn’t going to say anything because nothing really happened but there was someone that I met.”
Her eyes got wide as she scooted a little closer to me on the couch.
“Who was it?”
“Mark Rogers. Have you heard of him?”
“Hmmm, I don’t think so. What does he look like?”
“Well, that’s part of why I wasn’t going to say anything. I’m not really sure what he looks like.”
“Wait, what do you mean you’re not sure what he looks like?”
“He never took off his mask but, Carrie, there was something about him. He was so sexy and I almost did something stupid but I came to my senses at the last minute.”
“Did you go home with him?”
“Kind of.”
“Huh?” She looked totally confused.
“I made it to his doorstep but changed my mind about going in because he wouldn’t take off his mask. But I did let him kiss me and, Carrie, I am not joking, it was the sexiest, best kiss I have ever had.”
She sat there with her mouth open just staring at me for a minute and then she said something.
“Okay, first of all, who are you and what have you done with my normally very reserved best friend? Second, oh my gosh, Eva, we have to find out who he is!”
“What? No! He is totally not the guy for me. He wouldn’t even take off his mask so I could see his face! He likes to play games and I’m not into that at all. It was just a fun encounter for a night, that’s all.”
I could tell that Carrie was ignoring my protests when I saw that familiar gleam in her eye that told me she was on a mission.
“Was Brielle there?” I could see her wheels spinning.
“Yeah, she was nice.”
“She’ll know who he is. She knows who everyone is.”
“Carrie…”
“Just let me find out who he is. I am really curious.”
“Fine, but don’t tell me because he’s not the type of guy I want.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
I knew she was lying. As soon as she found out who he was she was going to do her typical meddling. I didn’t make a big deal about it because she was coming from a good place. Carrie had a huge heart and didn’t have a malicious or jealous bone in her body. She genuinely wanted people to happy, and if you were her friend? She always went the extra mile for you. I decided not to give her a hard time on her investigation and it was time to change the subject.
“So, how are you feeling?”
“A lot better than a couple of days ago. Hey, let’s dig into that soup your mom made. Thank her again for me because I love anything she makes.”
I hung out with her for a while and then went home. The first thing I did when I walked in was check my email and I saw three mo
re interview requests and that made me feel really good. Still nothing from my dream job, though.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful until I got a call from Mr. De Luca asking me to work a wedding Saturday night. I called Carrie to see if she was going to be able to work and she said she was since she was feeling much better, so I was really looking forward to working with her. The banquet parties were such easy money, so by the end of the summer I was definitely going to be able to move out. My mom didn’t like to hear me talk about that because she said she wanted me to live with her forever, but I was dying to have my own place. I had a great relationship with my parents, they were my biggest supporter, but it was time for me to spread my wings.