Anthology - Behind the Mask

by Joey W Hill, Lacey Alexander

  Andrew opened his mouth as she climbed out of the bed and began to hunt around for her clothes.

  “Lily, it’s not like that and you know it. I want you to be part of my life but I don’t see why we should make such a big deal out of something that’s only just beginning. What’s the problem with taking small steps at the start?”

  Andrew watched as Lily pulled her gown down over her head. Even crinkled and squashed from a night on the floor, she still looked amazing.

  Lily sighed. “You’re right. I know you are. I just think I need to go back to my hotel, soak alone in my bath and change into some jeans. What say we meet up for lunch before you head back to work tomorrow?”

  Andrew ran an agitated hand through his hair. He felt frustrated at the feeling of losing control of the situation. He hadn’t been planning on leaving until late tomorrow evening but maybe a bit of breathing space would do them both good. Once they brought their affair back into the real world, instead of the glitzy, glamorous world of the Mardi Gras, everything would hopefully settle back down.

  Taking her arm and leading her to the door, he kissed her. Running his tongue across her plump lower lip, he enjoyed her taste, the taste of himself on her.

  Finally pulling back, forcing himself to open the door and let go of her arm, he named a well-known café halfway between their hotels. “Let’s meet up for a late lunch in, say, two hours. That should give us both plenty of time to cool down and see where we want to go. I seriously doubt there will be many people around anyway—the Mardi Gras went well into the late hours of the morning. We shouldn’t have any trouble getting a table.”

  Lily smiled and ran a hand down his chest, arrowing toward his cock.

  “Yeah. Maybe a bit of air will clear everything up.”

  Winking and swishing her hips as she walked down the corridor, Andrew watched his woman leave and questioned his sanity. No one else had ever had him standing naked watching a gorgeous woman leave his hotel room, uncaring if the entire world would come and watch his stupidity. Thankfully the corridor was deserted after such a long night.

  He probably should have seduced her, forced her to listen to him while they both lay sated in his big bed. Yet he didn’t want to push his skittish woman; more than likely it would only serve to make her dig in her heels even more.

  Sighing, he closed the door and sank against it. He desperately needed that shower. Not only to wash the sweat and smell of sex from his body, but also to relieve some of the tenseness from the muscles in his arms and legs that seemed determined to cramp.

  He had two hours to lay out his plan of attack and, at the moment, he didn’t have a clue as to what to do to convince Lily to commit to him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lily sat in the corner booth of the old style café and fiddled with her double chocolate mocha latte. Wrinkling her nose, she tried to sort out her thoughts again. Sure, Andrew was a splendidly built man, bulky and muscular in all the right places, lean and lithe in all the other right places. Yet she wasn’t sure she felt ready to commit to one man just yet. The magic and fantasy of the Mardi Gras had seemed to penetrate her brain and make her crazy.

  Stupidly, she had hoped by pushing him to commit she would scare him off. How could she have known it wouldn’t have worked? It certainly was enough for any other man of her experience! Try to get a commitment out of any other breathing male and they ran a mile. Yet Andrew was happy to commit, only he wanted to move slowly. For a moment she had wondered if she was still dreaming or if she had suddenly become the commitment-shy male and he the commitment-hungry female.

  She didn’t know too much about Andrew back in their normal lives. She didn’t know where he lived, whether he rented or owned, or even if he wanted to own his own house. She didn’t know anything about his family, how close he was to his siblings or parents, or even how he felt about children! Their masquerade ball had circumnavigated all the usual dating issues and they had landed squarely in bed in the one night stand basket.

  As Lily had fallen asleep after their mini-romp in the bondage arena, she had planned on waking up after a brief nap, dressing herself and sneaking out of the hotel room. It would have been easy to avoid any of Andrew’s attempts to regain contact and then pretend nothing had happened.

  But no. He had to wake up first. Not even asking the classically annoying, taboo-morning-after-questions had dampened his enthusiasm. And now she had no idea how she felt. She didn’t know if she wanted to turn their fantasy into a reality. Most women would rush to grasp this opportunity with both hands, yet Lily found herself hesitating.

  She knew herself well enough to know that, after the incredible sex the previous night, there was no way could she move back to the platonic “getting-to-know-you” stage that began many relationships. Yet neither could she jump from one night of fantasy and incredible sex into a serious, committed relationship.

  The problem she faced seemed to be how to work a relationship where one had begun in the middle? They had skipped past the usual icebreaking questions of how many siblings and what sort of relationship with their family one had, and dived directly into the screaming, make-your-panties-wet orgasmic sex side of a relationship.

  Stewing in her own questions and doubts for the past two hours hadn’t really helped Lily either.

  She had changed into one of her oldest pair of well-worn jeans. The soft denim molded her ass and had long ago become frayed at the cuffs. The denim was almost bare at the knees and ass. Only a whim of thinking she needed something comfortable to travel in had made her pack them. Lily wasn’t a happy flyer. She wasn’t scared but neither did she enjoy traveling by means other than car. They were the perfect comfort-and-thinking pair of jeans. While not indecent, she made sure to be careful how she bent over.

  Lily hadn’t cared about decency this morning; she simply wanted to be as comfortable as possible. With her already donned favorite pair of jeans, she pulled on her oldest and most stretched Winnie-the-Pooh navy blue T-shirt and a ratty woolen sweater.

  Taking a spoonful of the frothy milk from the top of her latte, Lily pondered whether she would be able to bear drinking it if she added any more sugar.

  More sugar at this point would possibly make her think better but the alternate reaction her body might give would have her bouncing off the walls, or even going into cardiac arrest from sugar overload.

  Before she could make up her mind, she could feel her highwayman enter the café.

  Andrew. She reminded herself. He wasn’t her highwayman any longer; he was simply a man who worked in the same company as she. Andrew.

  Lily looked up from her latte and felt her breath catch. Not your highwayman, hmm? Her brain mocked her earlier determination.

  Andrew passed the other customers, not even glancing at them. He seemed purely focused on her. He wore fresh black jeans, with no stains, no apparent wearing and a designer label she would bet large amounts of money would be sewn in on the back pocket. A dark navy blue shirt gave some light to his dark hair, still wet from his recent shower. Squirming, Lily felt slightly underdressed.

  Immediately, she straightened in her seat, proud in her appearance. She might not be as spick-and-span as the man looming over her table but she looked mostly neat and presentable with the ratty sweater, which she had removed after her walk, resting on her lap. As long as she didn’t split her jeans open later in the day, she might be able to pass off merely being hung over and looking for comfort, instead of heartsick and on a binge.

  “Hey there, Andrew,” she greeted the man, idly waving one hand toward the empty seat opposite her in the booth. “I’ve just got my chocolate mocha— Oh, here she is,” she mumbled as the waitress fairly knocked the other patrons down in her eagerness to come and serve the new studly customer.

  Spooning some more of the frothy milk into her mouth and sucking on the spoon, Lily watched, amused, as the young girl stammered and drooled all over Andrew. Seems like some people didn’t get lucky last night at the car
nival, she snickered to herself.

  The busty waitress did everything to make Andrew pay attention to her exceptionally large cleavage except actually pull her shirt off for the poor man. Lily felt relieved when Andrew smiled and replied to her enquiries politely, and then ordered a short black. Realizing her time here was over, the waitress huskily informed Andrew, “If there’s anything else you’d like to order…?”

  Andrew smiled politely, much to Lily’s amusement, and said they’d like to wait to order their lunch until after their drinks. The waitress slinked away, making sure to add an extra swing in her hips as she negotiated the tables.

  Lily laughed. “‘If there’s anything else you want…’” she teased softly, running her finger along the rim of her cup suggestively.

  Andrew leaned in, crowding Lily and giving her a whiff of his spicy cologne.

  “From you, my dear, I might just take you up on that offer, so be careful what you say.”

  Lily sat back in the booth. “Well, at least you have a sense of humor.”

  “Afraid I wouldn’t?”

  Lily frowned and considered the question seriously. “I was just thinking before you came in. We seemed to have missed the ’getting-to-know-you’ stage most relationships have. We seemed to have jumped into the middle without actually realizing what sort of relationship we have.”

  Andrew leaned back into the booth and stretched his legs out beneath the table. Lily felt his jeans-clad leg brush past hers. Shocked at the current that ran from him to her, she lifted one leg and crossed it underneath her.

  “Well,” he said, eyes twinkling merrily, “that’s an awful lot of big words for so early in the day.”

  Lily snorted. “It’s early afternoon.”

  Andrew smiled as the busty waitress placed his coffee in front of him, making sure to shove her breasts as close to his face as she dared.

  “Yes, but as you know, darling, neither of us slept much last night.”

  Lily felt a blush creep across her face as the waitress shot her an envious glance. Lily kept her mouth closed until the poor girl had sashayed over to a group of four snappishly grumpy men in one corner, obviously still hung over from their party last night.

  “Okay, okay,” she sighed. “You’re a stud-muffin. I certainly know it, the poor waitress knows it, every woman with blood and breath in her body would know it. My point is, where do we go from here?”

  “I tried to answer that last question and it had you freaking out on me. How about this time you offer a solution?”

  Lily sipped her drink, enjoying the mingled tastes of coffee and chocolate. She needed to be careful here. She wanted to entice Andrew into continuing their sexual affair, but give herself time and room to breathe.

  “How about we continue the affair, but try to keep it quiet? If we can keep the sexual side away from work, we can probably start to date during our lunch breaks without raising much suspicion or angst from work. That way, we can get to know one another, but also continue the incredible sexual side of what we have. What do you think?”

  Lily found herself holding her breath as Andrew looked at her. After a moment, when she felt sure he was going to tear her plan to shreds, he smiled, picked up his tiny cup and took a sip of his coffee.

  “That sounds perfect.”

  Feeling a huge grin spread across her face, Lily felt her spirits lighten like never before. “Fantastic. Let’s get your little waitress over again. Suddenly I am ravenous. Man, I could eat a whole cow right now.”

  Laughing, they picked up their menus and started chatting. Lily had never laughed as much as she did with Andrew. He had a wicked sense of humor and she found a surprisingly large number of points they agreed on.

  The extra large chicken and pineapple pizza with barbeque sauce, which they bought to share, quickly disappeared as they laughed and talked and shared their opinions and details. Lily enjoyed the surprisingly mature and romantic outlook on life Andrew seemed to have. The time and pizza easily slipped away and, before she knew it, she was beating him by mere seconds to the last slice of pizza, literally snatching it just out of his grasp.

  She laughed as she took a giant-sized bite out of it and offered him a bite.

  “I need to keep my energy up,” he complained good-naturedly. “How am I supposed to keep up with you if you steal the last slice?”

  Lily smiled around the slice, taking her time. Enjoying the dilating of his pupils, she slowly, slowly opened her lips, slid her mouth along the slice, then bit down gently into the soft dough. Moving her lips away, she began to chew, daintily flicking her tongue out to pick up any of the sauce that might have escaped.

  Lily enjoyed watching Andrew squirm and groan at her naughty play. Biting into the crust, she rubbed her sneaker-clad foot against his strong leg.

  “We need to go for a walk,” he insisted, bringing out his wallet and leaving a number of bills on their table. Lily happily popped the last of the slice into her mouth and wiped her hands on a napkin.

  He easily caught her hand and helped her out of the booth, half-dragging her out of the small café.

  Laughing, she let him lead her wherever he wanted—for now.

  Chapter Twelve

  Andrew looked out onto the half-dead street. Everywhere there were signs of the Carnival last night. Streamers, beads and stars were scattered everywhere. Strange how he hadn’t noticed them earlier, when he walked from his hotel room to the café to meet Lily.

  Lily.

  She had taken over his mind, taken over his heart and soul sometime over the last few days or months when he hadn’t been looking. She had just been teasing him with the pizza, yet he now had the intense desire to take her, brand her, make her his in every way.

  There were a few people roaming the street, one or two couples who seemed to be only now heading home from a full night and day of partying.

  Andrew smiled, he could well understand the feeling. If he hadn’t been so desperate for Lily, both then and now, he, too, might have spent over twenty-four hours at a party.

  Turning away from the direction of both their hotels, Andrew led Lily across the street and down the block. He knew from his research there should be a secluded park a few blocks away. He had intended to take one of the recommended nature trails if things hadn’t worked out.

  Now, he could think of a few perfectly natural things to show and do with Lily. Even though it was the middle of the day, the city seemed quite deserted, licking its wounds and recovering from the incredible party last night, and the one to surely follow later tonight after the sun set.

  Andrew grinned and bent down to retrieve one of the many strings of beads.

  Looping it over Lily’s head, he smiled as she grinned back at him.

  “Where are we going, hot stuff?” she easily inquired.

  “Why, the park, sexy,” he just as easily replied.

  For a moment, Lily’s eyes widened and he wondered what it was he had said to cause that reaction. A smile quickly replaced the flare of surprise and…desire? Anticipation? He couldn’t really put his finger on it.

  “Sounds good,” she laughingly said, causing his stomach to flip.

  Andrew shook his head and held her hand. If they only had the rest of the day and night, he wanted to use as much of it as possible to convince her they belonged together, forever.

  * * * * *

  Lily didn’t know what it was exactly about the park, or more accurately, nature paths that reminded her of…something…but they did seem vaguely familiar. Obviously the Council had wanted to bring in some of the native plants and agriculture into the middle of the city and a winding, bending group of walks had been the result. They were green and lush, yet compact enough to only take up a half block of room or so.

  They were beautiful, yet Lily knew she had never been here.

  Shaking her head, she smiled, knowing she probably just felt the excitement and magic of the moment and being with Andrew.

  They chose a path at random, a
nd meandered their way along the soft trail, stopping every now and then to pause and read the description of a certain flower or tree. When they were well out of sight of a casual passerby, Andrew let go of her hand.

  Turning in surprise, Lily opened her mouth to ask what he was doing. Before she could ask, however, he bent forward and kissed her.

  “Run, Lily,” he whispered to her.

  “Huh?” Blinking, trying to focus her cloudy, lust-riddled thoughts, she couldn’t understand what he meant.

  “I want to chase you. You do know how to play Chase, right? You run, I run after you and when I catch you I can do what I want to you.”

  Lily smiled. “Confident you’ll catch me, huh?”

  The smile that Andrew gave her was in itself answer enough. Lily arched an eyebrow, amused at how confident he felt.

  “I’ll always catch you, Lily-girl, remember that—always.”

  Her eyebrow raised even further at such male arrogance, Lily made a face at him, then turned and ran off into the trees. Dodging and weaving, she felt laughter bubble up in her throat.

  Stopping behind a tree, Lily turned and peered around the thick trunk. She could hear Andrew nearby, his feet crunching between the twigs and dried leaves. Deciding to tease him a little, she called out to her lover.

  “If I can hide from you, does this mean I can tie you up again and make you my sex slave?”

  Knowing her taunting would give him an indication of where she hid, she carefully moved to a different tree, watching her feet, trying not to give away her movements.

  There was a pause for a moment, then two. Lily looked around. Not seeing Andrew boosted her confidence, until he replied to her earlier jeer.

  “Does that mean when I catch you, you will be my sexual slave for the night?”

  The absolute conviction and masculine assurance in the words halted Lily. How the hell does a modern, confident woman respond to such a challenge?