Page 27 of The Billionaire's Masquerade Ball

“Are you done?” He almost sounded disappointed and his lip jutted out in a pout.

“I think so. I’m not sure how else I could wrap it up without it being very cumbersome or overkill. It will probably scar, but it will be a nice one.”

“One to remember you by,” he said, smiling.

Her face flushed and she looked down. She wanted his words to mean something, but she couldn’t help but remember that he didn’t know she was the same woman from the balcony that he had almost kissed less than an hour ago. She couldn’t let herself feel something for this man.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

She hesitated. But it’s not like she was hiding behind a mask anymore. “Cyndil,” she said.

“Cyndil. I like it. Where did it come from? It sounds like it might be … Irish?”

She smiled, but kept her eyes down on the first aid kit, which she was organizing. It made her look busy and kept him sitting there.

“Funny story. My parents got the name from this old Star Wars spinoff movie called The Ewok Adventure. The main character was a girl named Cyndil. They just really loved it. I think it was spelled differently in the movie though.”

“Are your parents big into Star Wars?”

Cynder hesitated. “They weren’t. It was just one of those random things they shared.” She tried to gloss over using the past tense before he could say something. She didn’t think she could handle the emotion of talking about losing her parents right now. “I like the name, but most people call me Cynder. People I like, anyway.”

“That explains Patrick calling you Cyndil.”

“Ugh. Yes.”

He had still held her hand and now curled his fingers around hers. The rush of her heartbeat was entirely too large a reaction for the slight touch. Gently, he moved his thumb over the skin of her hand. She remembered him doing the same thing upstairs. The thought made her stomach lurch and she pulled her hand away. He looked down like he was surprised he had been holding her hand at all.

“Will you tell your boss about Patrick? I’m sure there are policies in place, legally speaking.”

Cynder snorted a laugh. “My boss wouldn’t do anything to Patrick. Trust me.”

He touched her arm. “So, you’ll just take it, then? Let him get away with treating you like that?”

Cynder wanted to jerk her arm away from his but found that she couldn’t. Despite herself, she loved every small touch from him.

“I didn’t do that,” she said. But he was right—she had never done anything about Patrick, other than telling him clearly to stay away from her. It’s not like Gail would do anything about her son. “I don’t have a lot of choices right now.”

“There’s always a choice,” Xander said. “Maybe I could do something? I could talk to his boss. I know her.”

The idea of Xander talking to Gail on her behalf was chivalrous, but misplaced. “Please don’t. It would only make things worse.”

When she looked up, she saw that he had taken off his mask. He ran a hand through his brown hair and smiled. Cynder froze.

“About time to lose this, don’t you think?” he asked.

Two thoughts traveled together through her mind. One was that his whole face was much more handsome than she could have imagined.

The other thought was that Xander was the man she had seen in the cemetery the day before.

The clang of the metal kitchen door hitting the wall startled them both. His head swung toward the door and Cynder used the interruption to walk away. Matt came through the door with a few other servers behind him. Two girls were giggling and stumbling a little and another guy was booming a laugh. Their black trays were empty.

Matt’s mouth looked tight. Cynder approached him, feeling Xander’s eyes on her back. This was the third time she had run from him tonight. This time, she really had to get away. If she didn’t, her heart might not stay intact. She felt certain he would have the power to obliterate it. He had already started to without even knowing it.

“Everything okay?” Cynder asked.

“Depends on your definition of okay,” Matt muttered. “A lot of the staff is intoxicated. Who is this group? You haven’t worked with them before.”

“I didn’t hire them.” Cynder shook her head. “I’ll take care of it.”

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