Page 1 of Unmasking You

Chapter 1

Jamie

When the past and present collide, it’s never a good thing, especially when it means locking lips with your school bully. And to make it worse—you like it.

I shake my head, rubbing my tired eyes, and lean back on the chair. I’m too old to be spending my nights solving coding issues, but that’s what I’m good at—and what makes me rich—so I’m not stopping anytime soon.

Usually, coding keeps me so busy I can’t think about my life, or what’s missing in it. But with Shane Campbell’s face appearing in my mind’s eye every few minutes, bringing with it the rage that follows soon after, I’m constantly distracted. So much so that what I’m doing is taking me days rather than hours.

I’m expecting a call soon from Alexi, my best friend and partner in this venture. When it comes, I’ll have to spill the beans about something I’ve been able to keep out of our conversations for the last two months. Not because he hasn’t tried to make me talk, but because I haven’t had the time to process everything that happened at the ball. Not yet.

I look at the black and green screen, willing the machine to give me answers, but it just stares back at me without giving me any clues. The lines go blurry when I try to refocus on it, and I close my eyes again to give them some rest.

My mind goes immediately back to the moments I want to forget.

The last couple of months have been a nightmare. Nothing is working, and I’m not concentrating enough to get the job done. I have a contract to respect, or rather my company has a contract to respect, and this app I’m working on should have been ready for testing two weeks ago. Instead, I’m still pulling all-nighters because my brain can’t focus enough to produce.

Fucking Shane Campbell.

Two months and I still can’t forget his lips on mine or his hands on my body.

What do I have to do to purge my mind of those feelings? He doesn’t deserve them. Not a single one. He deserves my hatred, and that’s what I should be feeling for him. What Ifeelfor him.

Why did I ever choose to go to that ball? I’m a magician when I need to avoid those kinds of situations. I had so many reasons not to be there. I could have wired the money and been done with it. Or sent Alexi… I giggle. He would have complained about being restricted in a suit more than I did. Instead, I went to the ball, dressed like a penguin, convinced a mask could hide everything I am—and was.

I want to scream my frustration, but then the final moments of that evening filter into my mind. The shoving until Shane was sitting on his arse on the ground. The joy I felt in that moment, for the small revenge I got.

For the first time in my life, I came close to actually hitting someone. Only respect for myself and my abhorrence of violence stopped me from kicking and punching him. I loved how shocked his face was when he hit the floor, and even more when I was looming over him, as if no one had ever had the chance to loom over Shane Campbell before I did. I loved it even more when I removed my mask and shouted my name close to his face, reminding him of who I was.

So close our lips nearlytouched.

Oh, for all the gay deities… I’m back thinking about him and savouring his taste on my lips.

What the heck is wrong with me?

I should kick myself in the head so that I get some sleep and maybe wake up with a brain that actually functions.

The familiar sound of paws hitting the floor makes my lips turn up, and I open my eyes and turn my head to welcome the recent addition to the family. I love the smile and the feeling her presence gives me. My little queen.

With her long white coat, two small black-as-the-night eyes, and a red ribbon adorning her small face, she appears at the bedroom door. She looks at me, and after a wag of her tail, she goes on, sniffing everything in the room, almost as if she’s looking for another scent so she can claim ownership of the place.

“Queen Lizzie.” My smile gets bigger when she raises her nose, like a real queen, and continues ignoring me as if I’m not worthy of her attention.

She replies with something that’s a mix of a bark and a quack.

My smile deepens. “Darling, come here.” I try coaxing her with my sweet words, but she ignores me once again.

It could be because I smell. When work absorbs all my attention, I even forget to shower. I couldn’t ignore her barking, though, or her nips at my ankles to demand attention when she needed to eat. I ignored her when she wanted to go out, and now she’s doing the same to me.

“Come on. Let’s get something to eat,” I say to my little lady when my stomach rumbles.

She doesn’t ignore me this time. Instead, she comes closer and presses her head against my hand.

“Oh, now you like me, girl.” As I stand, the tiredness I felt before is nothing compared to what it is now that I’m no longer sitting. I need food and sleep.

I open the fridge, and my thoughts go back to Shane and all the reasons I have to hate him. My fridge is full of high-end meals for one from Waitrose and half-empty bottles of sauce because I don’t want them to go off before I can get through them.

I could eat out or order in, but that’s even sadder because people would know how pathetic my life is and how lonely I am. Notwithstanding the money I have and the himbos I could buy with it. I’ve never been one for that, and even if I was once, it had been pulled out of me with kicks and punches.

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