As she ran her eyes down him critically, she realized he truly seemed a steady man. Large, but by no means fat, he filled out his black pants and black shirt rather well. A knee-length cape covered much of his body from her view but the smiling dark brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair softened the full black of his costume. Nothing, however, could hide his impressive width and height. This was a man one could romp with and not be afraid of. It wasn’t until she saw the tricorn that she felt a twinge of doubt.
Had she met him before? Did she know him? Did he recognize her?
“I know I’m a highwayman but I promise not to ask you to stand and deliver your goods. I merely wanted to join you on the dance floor.”
Lily laughed. “I’m sorry, I was just…surprised. Do I know you?”
This time it was the highwayman who laughed. “Now, what fun would a masked ball be if one gave out one’s name?” Taking her hand he began to negotiate their way onto the huge dance area. Lily frowned, but had been much too eager to get onto the floor to bother complaining now.
“That doesn’t really answer my question.” She laughed, enjoying the quickness of his wit. Obviously the man wasn’t a doofus, or extremely young, like the jester.
“I wasn’t aware this was a game of twenty questions,” he remarked. Lily laughed as he swung them into a leisurely waltz. The music was slow and so she couldn’t complain about the way he held her closely. As soon as the music picks up I’ll free myself and begin to truly jive, she promised herself.
“So, fair maiden,” he continued, “what brings you here?”
Lily smiled, dazzled by his dancing skills. The man might be a highwayman and look similar to the man in her flash with the mask yesterday but, boy, could he lead a girl around the dance floor.
“I know Susy from way back. I contacted her when I decided I wanted a break from work and decided to take a vacation. I figured everyone should experience a real Mardi Gras down here in New Orleans and here I am. Besides, it seemed like Fate taking a hand when I called some of the local hotels and there had been a last minute cancellation the week before the Mardi Gras.” Lily couldn’t help but smile at Fate and Luck taking a hand in her impromptu holiday. She couldn’t help her pride and satisfaction at how well and easily everything had turned out. “How about yourself?”
“I also decided I needed a break from work, but came here by pure luck. Thankfully, my luck seems to have held in finding you.”
Lily laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. There seems to be some sort of magic floating about during the Mardi Gras, don’t you think? Something sparkling in the air, or so I could easily believe.”
The man smiled down at her and she noticed a slight dimple in his cheek. It managed to make him look mischievous and sexy at the same time. Lily swallowed. The man could be dynamite if he chose to be.
“Yes,” he huskily agreed with her. It took her a moment to remember what he agreed with. “I do think there might be some magic or witchery sparkling in the air. You seem to have cast a fair dose of it over me.”
Lily merely smiled and tried not to let it widen into a face-splitting grin. No sense in letting the man know she felt weak in the knees just yet.
Just then the slow music came to an end and the band struck up a faster number. Regretfully, Lily pulled herself from his tight embrace and let the rhythm and beat sink into her soul. Raising her arms, she swung her hips and enjoyed the fast beat pounding through her body. Her dance companion stayed close, but thankfully wasn’t macho enough to try and hold her again. He, too, swung his hips and began to dance to the energetic beat of the music.
In the bliss only brought by releasing one’s tension and energy through music, Lily closed her eyes, let her head fall back and truly enjoyed the music and dance floor.
After a number of more upbeat tunes, a slower song struck up and Lily’s highwayman stepped closer and took her into his arms again.
“You sure know how to dance, sweetheart. Lucky for me, I’m a guy with confidence or you might have made me feel self-conscious.”
Lily looked up to his masked face, dark brown eyes gleaming with laughter, dimple showing underneath his simple black mask. When she felt her face blush slightly, she saw his grin widen and she laughed.
“I don’t think anything could shake your confidence.” Grinning back at him, she knew her mischievous and naughty thoughts would be shining in her own light brown eyes.
Her highwayman grinned back at her and pulled her closer. She could feel a massive erection straining against his pants. Lily drew in a quick breath, feeling her blush come back again. It had been so long since she had let herself indulge in some nooky. Yet now that the chance was before her, she hesitated.
Thankfully, her highwayman was in no way concerned, nor did he seem uncommonly eager to push her. Or so she thought.
“Shall we take a stroll around Susy’s gardens? We can stay on the back patio if you like. Not even a desperate highwayman would ravish a young lady with a dozen or more people around him.”
Lily smiled. Never having had exhibitionist fantasies, she wasn’t keen to be seduced physically on the back patio, where much of the party had spilled out to, yet neither was she completely adverse to a bit of nooky with said highwayman.
“You said I had cast a spell over you. Well, you seem to have a good bit of that old magic yourself. Let’s go.”
Pulling herself from his embrace, even though he tried to tighten his arm around her, she took his hand and led him out toward the large French doors, open to the patio.
Passing one of the many waiters wandering around with trays of drinks, they both grabbed a flute of champagne on their way out. Lily mentally commended her highwayman on being able to negotiate the crowd with his arm still around her all the while holding his glass and not spilling a drop.
No two ways about it, the man had talent and style. Her very own James Bond, or a bad-boy James Bond-turned-highwayman. Seated by the edge of the garden, looking in at the massive party in full swing, Lily breathed in deeply, enjoying the scents of freshly mown grass and flowers in full bloom.
Much like any garden, private or public, in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras, it was well maintained with lush green grass, flowers spread everywhere and a number of trees. While it didn’t exactly look like the scene she had experienced in her “vision”, neither did it look dissimilar to it.
Lily smiled.
She would love to cast off her responsible side and run naked through the trees with her highwayman chasing her, only to let him catch and seduce her. But something inside her rebelled at acting purely out of a fantasy she had. Why not create her own memories, instead of enacting others?
“That’s a mighty big grin you have there, my dear. Care to share the joke?”
Looking at him, really looking at him, Lily pondered her two choices. To seduce or not to seduce. Lily took in his eyes, the set of his body, the casual, yet slightly tense way he held himself. Lily easily came to her decision.
She didn’t know him exactly but she could only see kindness in his eyes, could only see the tension in his body of a man waiting for a woman. The sort of tension that meant, with the woman’s approval, he would pounce. Nodding to herself, she smiled and leaned closer, so no one else on the patio could overhear her naughty comment.
“I was just deciding to take you back to the hotel with me. I’m not really one for a quickie out in the backyard; I think we’re both a little old for that. But I’m not adverse to a one night stand, back at my hotel.”
The dimple came back as her highwayman smiled.
“A one night stand? Who says I won’t rock your world and you’ll want to marry me and chain me to your bed?”
Laughing, Lily placed her flute of champagne on the thick concrete rail that surrounded the patio. Noticing her highwayman also set aside his glass and turned to face her gave her courage.
He is definitely interested in me too, she silently acknowledged to herself.
Glasses di
spensed of, she moved even closer into him as he slid his arm around her shoulders, creating a strange intimacy between them. Even among fully a dozen couples on a cramped back patio, there seemed to be only the two of them in their own little world.
“Well, having my own personal sex slave chained to my bed twenty-four seven is quite a dream come true. But I think we both have our own lives and I intend to go back to mine after my holiday here is over.”
“Mmm,” he muttered, leaning in so his lips rested just above hers.
She smiled as the thought, Here comes the pounce, rushed through her brain.
“Let’s discuss tomorrow when tomorrow comes, hmm? I’d much rather enjoy you and this night right now.”
He bent down and took her mouth in a fierce kiss. Barely giving her time to orient herself, he opened her mouth and his tongue gave her his taste. She sucked on his tongue, enjoying the jerk of surprise she felt go through his system.
In the background, she could hear the ballroom go quiet, as she heard Susy ordering the waiters to give everyone a glass of champagne for the countdown to the official beginning of the Carnival.
Lily wanted to pull away, wanted to watch the clock tick over, but her highwayman was invading her senses. She felt as if she drowned in his scent, in his heat, in the fierce possessiveness she could feel in his kiss.
In the back of her mind, Lily heard the waiter chuckle and pass them by.
“Don’t look like you two need a glass of bubbly,” he commented and continued to pass around the glasses of celebratory champagne.
Her highwayman grunted and nipped at her lips, demanding her attention. Lily wrapped her arms around his neck and lost herself in his heat and passion.
All too soon streamers were released and whistles blew. Lily relaxed into the kiss as midnight clocked over. Recalled to their surroundings, Lily unwound her arms and rested her hands against her partner’s large chest. Leaning into him she began to nip at his lips, demanding to be released.
Finally, once he had taken his time, she felt his arms let go and he pulled back, sucking at the air.
“Now that was a Mardi Gras start-up to remember.”
Grinning, Lily couldn’t help but agree. She took a step, and then two backwards, and held out her hand to her highwayman in invitation.
“Care to be taken home by a strange Regency England woman?”
He grinned, his dimple showing, “Damn straight, if you can cope with being taken by a highwayman.”
She smiled, enjoying the easy camaraderie between them. “Oh, I think I can handle being taken by a highwayman. I always enjoy a good ride.”
Chuckling, she let herself be led away by her new partner.
Chapter Three
Andrew had to keep himself from grinning manically as he led Lily out of the huge mansion still in the middle of its reveling. He finally had his Lily-girl just where he wanted her. For too many months he had been ogling her in his rare spare time at their workplace. As badly as he wanted to ask her out, the right time and place just never seemed to come up. Either he had been just returning or just heading out on the road, or she had been working on a major project and looking far too frazzled and stressed for him to want to try his luck.
He could still remember the instant lust and falling-out-of-the-sky feeling he had experienced the first time he had seen her, a number of months ago.
He had been headhunted from a rival company and basically dropped into a sea of internal company problems. Simply keeping his head above water, metaphorically speaking, had kept him busy for weeks. He only had seen tantalizing glimpses of Lily after that first casual, all-too-brief introduction and exchange of names by the CEO.
Lily had been in the middle of a crisis, and had barely paid attention to him at the time. Not that she had any reason to be more than superficially polite. She worked in a different division and so he had no reason for a follow-up coffee, or more personal contact. Yet just seeing her pass in the corridor sporadically had been enough to brighten his day.
He found it ironic the only reason he had taken on the position in the company had been to earn enough money to nest egg for a mortgage in the suburbs. He had decided it was time for him to settle down, maybe open his own much smaller consulting firm. It was well past time for him to settle down and start thinking of his own family, a wife and kids, maybe a dog and cat or two plus all the trimmings.
Yet the months had seemed to flit by and still he came no closer to introducing himself to Lily, or even setting up a few casual getting-to-know-you-better dinners. Time just seemed to slip away from him and every time he thought he solved one problem and could ask Lily out, another problem cropped up and he had to either leave to go fix it or, worse, bury himself in paperwork and solve the issues himself.
He smiled as he recalled his fierce determination two weeks ago. He had cleared his calendar, even been toying with the idea of taking annual leave so they could escape for a romantic week away and get to know each other properly. He had seen her talking to a workmate over the watercooler, gesticulating excitedly.
Feeling like a sneak, he had walked close enough to hear what she was talking about. Even coming in halfway through the conversation as he had, her excitement to her friend had bubbled over him and all his plans easily clicked together.
“…and don’t you think everyone should experience at least one real Mardi Gras down in New Orleans? And what better way than to go to Susy’s masquerade ball? All the excitement, romance and mystery, with none of the ramifications! I can go pick up a masked stud, have my wicked way with him and still have a week to recuperate! Trust me, Darla, annual leave was invented for weeks like these.”
Andrew tightened his hold on Lily’s hand as his memories came to a halt. Oh yeah, he had spent the last two weeks plotting and planning this night, and hopefully the following week of fantastic sex and intimate getting-to-know-you time. He shied away from the mental question of why he was going to so much trouble for one woman and one week of sex. He didn’t want to think about the long-term. He felt far too eager to enjoy the next week.
“Your hotel room, my dear, or mine?” That’s it, he patted himself mentally on the back, keep it in the present. No knowing how long this will last.
He paused just outside Susy’s huge plantation-style home, letting Lily make the decision with no pressure. It honestly didn’t make any difference to him whether they used his room or hers; all he felt interested in was stripping them both bare and plunging balls-deep inside her. He had been wearing his hard-on since the moment they had been introduced. The following months of trying to set something up between them had been a slow burning foreplay session peppered by casual smiles and intense fantasies.
He was more than eager now to start the real seduction and see where they ended up.
Lily looked at him a moment, then surprised him.
“What’s your name? Much as I enjoy calling you my highwayman, I think I’d prefer a name for a man I’m about to ’sleep’ with.” Andrew could only smile at the emphasis on the word sleep. Both of them knew damn well not much sleeping would occur.
The highwayman, who until he had discovered this costume he had no realization resided inside himself, grinned charmingly. “I’m Andrew,” he said.
Lily smiled back. “I’m Lily.”
They solemnly shook hands and then both laughed simultaneously. “It does seem slightly bizarre to introduce yourself to the woman you’re about to have mind-blowing sex with, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Lily agreed, shivering slightly at his not-so-subtle hint at the heat and intensity of the sex to come. “I was just thinking the same thing myself.” Andrew smiled as she looked up and down the crowded street, filled with revelers enjoying the carnival atmosphere. “Where are you staying?” she continued.
Andrew pointed in the direction he knew was close to Lily’s own hotel, and named a well-known hotel branch. He had purposely chosen a hotel close to Lily’s, but not close enough to arouse her
suspicions. Lily appeared to think a moment, then nod her head with the decision she had made.
“Let’s use your hotel then.”
Andrew held out his arm in an old, courtly gesture, totally at odds with his highwayman costume and his raging desires. They turned to begin the short walk back to his room.
As they chatted, Andrew carefully watched Lily. He wanted as much warning as possible if she felt any tension about taking a “stranger” to her bed. Her posture seemed calm enough and her voice didn’t shake but he could see a little bit of tension in her arms.
Looking carefully into her eyes, even masked as she was, he could see the deep hunger buried in their brown depths. They glittered in the street light, reflecting the dozens of colors shining from the beads, stars and moon from the gaily lit city.
Oh yeah, the heat from that gaze could burn a lesser man than I, he admitted. She felt the same attraction he had been slowly burning from for months now. She might not consciously know who he was but, deep inside herself, she must know she either knew him, or recognized him from somewhere.
He breathed in deeply, wishing he could already smell the tang of her desire. He knew he would have to wait until they reached the hotel room for that. But aching as he was, he could hardly wait.
Instead, they chatted about social niceties, the weather, how long they were staying in the city. As they strolled casually, in absolutely no hurry, they then moved on to restaurants, shops and arcades they had each visited and could recommend.
Andrew, desperately trying to ignore the double entendres Lily teased him with, enjoyed the fresh night air, the definite sense of “party” on the streets as houses were thrown open, loud music playing everywhere and parties spilling onto the streets. While nowhere near as crowded as when the main parade came through, the streets were still full of partiers even now, after midnight.
He slowly wound them along to his hotel, tipping the doorman, who had a profusion of beads, stars and streamers covering his uniform as he held the door open for them both. The doorman, Tom, grinned at them, tipping his hat and rattling his beads.
Anthology - Behind the Mask Page 26