“I paid,” I breathe. “I paid for everything.”
“Not yet.” He slides his fingers higher and strokes along my wet panties. “But you will.” When he finds my clit and uses his finger to press against it, I jolt. The tiger gets to its feet, perhaps sensing my alarm or the carnal need that swirls inside me.
I can’t think, can only feel his unforgiving finger as he caresses me, caging me right along with the tiger that’s far too close.
And then, when I’m almost at the edge of an orgasm, his fingers retreat, though I can still feel his hard length pressed against my lower back.
“I’m coming for payment tonight.”
The cat stalks toward me, its fangs on display.
“Please,” I keen.
A burst of laughter sounds behind us, and then his weight lifts. I push back from the tiger, and when I turn, there are several men standing around, talking and laughing.
He’s there. He has to be. One of these men is my loan shark, my tormentor. But all of them are in masks. Just like me.
But he found me, didn’t he? In this fairytale forest and under my disguise—he knew it was me. I’ll never escape him. Not until I pay what I owe. Unless I can find out who he is, and then … then maybe I can make him pay.
2
Clark
She stares at each of us in turn, her light blue eyes peering at us through our masks. Perhaps she lingers on me for a little longer than the others, but I can’t be sure.
Unsatisfied, she storms from the room and back to her pathetic prince, the man she’s sold herself for. I watch every move, every toss of her hair, the way she walks, the impeccable balance in her too-high heels with the red bottoms.
I follow. Just as I have from the first moment I saw her tentative post in a kink forum. She was looking for a sugar daddy. But she wasn’t being honest. Not at all. She was looking for a mark, someone she could use to climb to greater heights. Someone like Graves Duverin, whose family has generations of wealth just waiting to be plundered.
I take my time and ease out into the foyer, music swelling all around and giving the place a hint of total fantasy. But I’m not imagining things. My feet are firmly on the ground. I spot my princess quickly. She hangs on the arm of her foolish beaux. He smiles and laughs at every joke from his friends whether it’s funny or not.
He’s a boy.
I’m a man.
My Lily is a princess who thinks she wants to wed the prince, drain him dry, then leave him lonely. But that’s not what she needs.
I bring my fingers to my lips and sample her taste. A groan threatens to break free from me, and my cock has long been engaged in battle with my fly. Ever since I saw her in her short dress, her silver mask, and her seeming innocence.
She knew what my terms were when we made our first deal, then our second, and more and more until here we are. I’ve been playing with my food, stalking her like the cat in the cage. But there are no bars around me, nothing to keep the monster inside me contained.
Lily thought she was setting a trap when she posed as a silly girl looking for a rich man. But I’m the one who caught her in my jaws. She won’t escape. Not until I’ve tasted every bit of our bargain.
“Hi.” My date returns to my arm, her dancer’s body molding to my side. “I wondered where you’d gotten off to. This place is huge, and the Constantines aren’t fucking around. I saw Caroline earlier, but she’s already been through three costume changes. Can you imagine? Each one has to cost a fortune and she …”
Carissa prattles on as I keep my eyes on my prize.
Graves leads her into the grand ballroom. I ease Carissa in that direction, and she comes along with me, still gossiping about the Constantines and the Morellis, the dirt and the lies.
“I think they killed Lane, don’t you?” she stage whispers.
“Who?” I’m half listening as I follow my little princess who shimmers only for me.
“The Morellis, of course. They killed him. They’ve had beef for so long, that Brian Morelli decided it was time to take out the competition.” She yanks on my arm. “Don’t you think?”
I glance at her. “That gossip is stale, my dear.”
“Not at all.” She leans closer. “Or maybe it was Caroline. I mean, she—”
I whirl on her and grab her arms, gripping her hard. “Shh.”
“What?” Her voice already trembles. She’s used to being hit, used, and thrown aside. Not by me. I don’t care enough to get angered by anything she says or does. But I can already see the tremor in her chin, the way she tries to cringe away from me.
“Take care, my dear. The walls have ears, and speaking ill of a Constantine in their home is never a good idea.” I release her and turn to keep Lily in my sights.
She’s dancing with Graves, her body swaying to a deep beat that pulses through the ballroom. The crowd is massive, thicker in here, but still not oppressive. Some famous DJ spins tracks as coke, booze, and any number of vices float through the room on trays.
“Sorry,” Carissa whispers.
“I’m only trying to protect you.” I let her take my arm again.
She bounces back almost immediately, her smile returning. “Want to do some?” She’s looking at a mirror tray of coke in the center of some partiers.
“Help yourself.” I stare down at her. “And behave.”
“Y-yes.” She nods, then hurries away, fear in her steps.
I tend to have that effect. Something in the way I look or the tone of my voice, or perhaps the fact that my reputation for dark deals and murder often precede me. But no one becomes an underworld king from good behavior.
Returning my attention to my newest target, I revel in her. I could take her life, snuff it out like a match between my fingers. But I won’t. I’ll take everything else.
She stops shaking her ass and tries to pull Graves to the side of the gilded ballroom, but he refuses and keeps dancing. Giving up, she hurries to the side door, then looks over her shoulder, scanning the impossible crowd. Looking for me. And then she glances up at the décor, the chandelier, the paintings that are worth more than anything she’ll ever touch.
Even behind the mask, Lily’s eyes are full of too much wonder to ever fit in with these people. She’s been to this estate before. As a maid. But she’s never been here like this, seen the true excess of the wealthy. I take pleasure in her response to it, to the flashy and soft, the feathery and the fake. Soon enough she’ll feel the granite underneath, the unyielding strength of the families who rule Bishop’s Landing. But for now, she’s enchanted.
And I want her to stay that way right up until I take every last bit of her, wrecking her body the way she’s wrecked my mind over the past month. And the best part? The best part is, she’ll never even know who I am.
3
Lily
“Why did you leave school?” That voice. Every nerve ending in my body snaps to attention.
I whirl and find him behind me, his steps quiet for such a large man. “What?”
He leans against the arbor that’s covered with wisteria, the purple blooms making a fluffy roof over our heads. People pass by, some giggling, others crying, and still others silently disappearing into the darkness of the estate to do desperate deeds.