Page 25 of The Billionaire's Masquerade Ball

He grinned and gave her a knowing look, staring at her black clothes. He knew.

“My bad,” he said, before disappearing down the hall.

She was so busted. He totally noticed that she had changed from a gown into work clothes. Hopefully he wasn’t someone working the event on Xander’s side. Normally, she would know the whole team, but Gail had been the only person who had contact with Xander and his people. She could only hope that he wasn’t someone working for Xander. Or that he wouldn’t tell.

What else could go wrong tonight?

Plenty, she found out when she got back to the kitchen. An argument had broken out between the catering company and the servers. The smell of alcohol was heavy in the air. This was precisely why Cynder and her father had been so choosy with the list of people they worked with. A few bad servers could have a ripple effect on a whole event.

If it was bad in back, that meant it was probably worse out front. Cynder couldn’t control what was happening out there. Hopefully Gail, Eliza, Crystal, and Patrick were taking care of things. Doubtful, from what she had seen. Things were probably winding down anyway, so it was too late to salvage anything that had gone wrong.

The only good thing was that she was so busy that Cynder didn’t have time to let her thoughts unravel about everything that had happened. She was washing green icing off a Waterford serving platter when she heard Patrick’s voice.

“Cyndil! Just the woman I was looking for.”

The hair on the back of her neck stood up at the sound. At least she was in the busy kitchen, with people running in and out. She had the strong feeling that being caught alone by Patrick wasn’t the best idea.

Cynder started to turn, then realized that Patrick wasn’t alone. He was flanked by Xander, still in his mask. Reflexively, she touched the messy bun she had put her hair into. Would he recognize her? Cynder spun back to the sink.

“Patrick. How can I help you?” she said, going back to washing.

“We’ve had some issues at the front of house and I just wanted to see where the screwup was. Any ideas?”

Cynder heard him advancing toward her, but she still jumped when Patrick’s fingers traced a line down her spine, stopping just below the waistline of her pants. The Waterford platter dropped from her hands and shattered on the counter. The other staff in the room moved away and several of them cleared out even though Cynder knew they didn’t have any jobs outside of the room.

Her hands were shaking.

“Uh oh,” Patrick said in a voice that made her stomach twist. His tone dripped with innuendo and his boozy breath was suddenly at her cheek. “Looks like someone’s about to be in trouble.”

His hand grabbed at her hip. The fact that Xander was likely still in the room behind her back somewhere made Cynder’s temper flare.

“Get your hands off me, Patrick,” Cynder said. She jerked away just as a strong hand pulled Patrick away from her.

“I was just—” Patrick started.

“You were just leaving,” Xander’s voice boomed. Patrick fought Xander’s grip on his arm and the two scuffled for a moment by the counter. Cynder backed up a few steps, too shocked to know how to respond.

Patrick stopped fighting and Xander pushed him toward the door. “Get out. Now.”

Cynder closed her eyes, trying to keep her face tilted away from Xander and from Patrick. She didn’t want Xander to possibly recognize her and she didn’t want either of them to see the hot tears in her eyes. Patrick had always been a creep, but he just majorly overstepped boundaries. Probably because of the alcohol that was clearly in his system, but that wasn’t an excuse. She felt sick and angry.

At least Xander was gone. Every moment he spent with her was more time he could figure out who she was. Looking Glass was probably already in deep trouble. Things weren’t going well out there. Add what just happened with Patrick and the fact that she sneaked into the event and talked badly about it and about Xander—this wouldn’t mean going down in flames. It would be a nuclear explosion.

But even besides that, Cynder feared what would happen to her heart if she spent any more time with Xander.

“Are you okay?” Xander’s voice was so close that she almost jumped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m fine,” Cynder said. “Thank you for that.”

“Is he always like that?”

“More now that he’s soaked in alcohol.”

Xander made a face. He had been looking straight at her since he came in the room and didn’t seem to recognize her. Yet. It’s not like he would expect someone to dress up for the gala and then head back to the kitchen to serve. She relaxed slightly.

Motion caught her eye and she realized that something was dripping from his sleeve. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed his arm. He winced.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

---