Page 26 of Midnight Salvation

“What did you ever see in me? You could have had your choice of a hundred different men.”

A smile curved my lips. “I never wanted anyone but you. It was love at first sight, and who am I to fight against the forces of the ancient gods?”

“I’ll end up breaking you, and then you’ll never forgive me.”

I shook my head and kissed him, his mouth moving under mine as if we were magnets that attracted each other. “We are two parts of the same whole, Ash. There is nothing that you could ever do that would make me walk away from you.”

Even as the words left my mouth, a shot of fear pulsed down my spine. This world was filled with people determined to hurt Ash. I might never walk away, but what if I was left alone because he had been taken from me by the hand of death?

***

Chapter Nine

Lucrezia

My heart pounded a tribal beat in my ears as I stared at the stranger in the mirror. Three days Ash had kept us hidden from the world while he organised our lives via his phone. Three nights that he belonged to me alone. Now we were re-emerging and this was our last night together until he neutralised the threat.

Ash had chosen my outfit and left it on our bed. We were back at our townhouse in London since he had to meet his dad tomorrow and be introduced to his shiny new fiancée. My skin was covered in red lace and the softest silk I’d ever felt. My dress was red crushed silk that clung to every curve on my body, dipping low to expose the tops of my breasts. A slit up each side allowed my legs freedom for me to walk. My hair fell around my face in soft curls. The mask he had bought me sat on the counter to my left.

Ash had wandered past me earlier in a black suit, shirt, and tie. He made my heart race and mouth go dry. Why did men look so damned good in a tailored suit?

I wandered downstairs with my mask in my hand since I needed him to tie it in place.

“Will I do?” I asked from the doorway, holding my hands up to allow him to see my outfit.

A slow, sensual smile crept over his full lips. He prowled across the room with the feline grace of a predator on the hunt. His hands landed on my hips to tug me into his strength.

“I think we should stay at home,” he said, his lips hovered over mine.

“You promised,” I replied with a pout.

His kiss was a gentle whisper so he didn’t damage my lipstick. “I can’t bear the thought of any man watching you tonight.”

“A thousand men can watch, but only one is allowed to touch,” I replied, and a shiver of lust spiralled through me at the thought. I’d never wanted to be an exhibitionist, but the more I heard about these clubs designed for anonymous pleasure, the more I’d been intrigued. The fact that my husband co-owned them made me want to try, just so I understood his world more.

He kissed the end of my nose before he took the delicate lace mask from my fingers and tied it in place. Ash tipped my face up with his fingers under my chin. “Stay close to me tonight. It is a masquerade event and that will protect you, but it also means that some men think that everyone is fair game.”

For the first time ever, I wore my rings in public. I finally felt like a married woman with her husband beside her. It didn’t matter that no one could see who we were—I knew and that’s all that mattered.

Ash drove his black jaguar, settling me in before he slid behind the driver’s seat. As co-owner, he had a parking space and route into the building that avoided questioning gazes. We emerged from a panel at the side of an elaborate mantlepiece.

People mingled together in the room and in the majestic entrance hall outside this drawing room. They were all dressed in beautiful gowns and expensive suits, their masks hiding their faces from detection.

I doubted anyone would know who I was, but Ash was distinctive with his height and build and the dark blond tone of his hair. My fingers gripped his arm and I tried to match my pace to his.

“We can leave anytime you want,” he said in a low tone for only me to hear.

“Can we at least explore a little first?”

There was something wicked and decadent about being in a place dedicated to sex. Tonight there were no boundaries or even names. We were all just people who wanted to experience the ultimate sexual high.

I noticed the way people were extremely tactile here when they talked, touching each other, their hands sliding down arms or landing on chests. It was an intricate dance like the mating call of an exotic bird in a foreign forest.

Ash led me through the building, his strength helping me take a step at a time. I would never have the confidence to be here without him beside me. In my head, I had envisaged a sex den with creepy characters lurking, but this was the opposite of that and reminded me of a high society ball. Ash lifted two glasses of champagne from a silver tray that a waiter presented to us, winking at me in a private joke since neither of the two of us liked the drink.

His cufflinks had been part of the wedding collection I designed for us, and they glinted in the light of the massive chandeliers overhead when he lifted his glass in a silent salute. I clinked my glass against his and pretended to take a sip.

A sweeping staircase wound up either side of the hallway, with doorways present under the balcony where they met at midpoint and flared back out again to the next story of the building. The landing at the top of the staircases had a wide hallway with people gathering for the event.

---