Page 22 of Ella's Masquerade
Burning.
Need.
I swallowed, my eyes drifting closed. This wasn’t supposed to happen. No, thiscouldn’thappen. I needed to wake the heck up, to push him away just like I did with Dash and Charlie. Trayton Nacht was not into me. This—
“Ella,” he whispered, his tongue tracing the column of my neck up to my ear and dismantling my focus once more.
I’m so screwed.
“This might not be a real date, but there’s something between us,” he continued, nipping my earlobe and stealing my ability to speak. Not that I would know how to reply to him. “We’re going to walk down those stairs so everyone can see the princess beneath the façade. And by the time we’re done with these miscreants, they’ll all bow at your feet.”
He palmed my cheek to guide my gaze up to his, that alluring mouth of his far too close to my own. “Are you ready?” he asked.
I couldn’t seem to breathe properly, so I just nodded. We needed to get this over with so I could go home. Quickly.
A “rip off the Band-Aid” sort of approach. Like, right now. And run. Run far—
He lightly touched his lips to the edge of my mouth, short-circuiting my thoughts again. And then released me.
A retort caught in my throat, the words gibberish by the time I forced them into my mouth. So I swallowed them and shook my head, trying to knock some sense back into myself.
This guy was potent.
A walking hazard who scrambled my brain cells.
A threat I needed to get far away from. Which was precisely the opposite thing that I did as he extended his elbow. My body acted of its own volition, my arm treacherously looping through his as he led me toward the platform.
What is happening to me?I wondered, feeling lighter than air on my heels.He kissed me.
What a ludicrous thought. Why should that matter? Dash had kissed me, too. Several times. But I never felt likethisafterward.
And, wait, Tray really didn’t kiss me. Not passionately.
So why the heck was I floating on cloud nine over here? Because a cute guy touched me? I frowned. That cute guy also tried to drown me this week. And I wasn’t buying his protection act for a minute.
My stupid body just hadn’t received the mental memo yet.
Hence my legs moving us down the stairs into the ballroom below.
Where half my class seemed to be standing, all of their eyes round and on us. Great. Tray would be making his scene any second now.
“You’re stunning,” he whispered against my ear. “And now everyone knows it.”
I didn’t bother replying to that. Impressing me would take a whole hell of a lot more than a few measly compliments. And this dress. And the limo. And everything else he’d done tonight.
Shaking myself once more, I refocused on our surroundings. Ryan stood beside a scowling Dash, her expression souring as she took in my blue gown. Carmen appeared behind her with an equally irritated look. Very different from my last dance, where they’d positively beamed at my entrance.
So what was different about tonight?
Tray steered me away from them and toward the center of the room, his lips falling to my ear again. “Dance with me.”
“Why?” I asked, shivering from his nearness and the multitude of eyes on me. I thought I could do this, face all my classmates and essentially tell them to go screw themselves. But Tray had unnerved me, his touch confusing my sensibilities.
“Because everyone is staring at us and I want to give them something to really look at,” he replied, swinging me into his arms in an expert move that my feet automatically followed.
Ballroom dancing was an elective course at the academy. But that wasn’t how I knew how to respond. My mother had taught me the formal movements at a very young age. She’d also enrolled me in ballet—my favorite activity until my step-monster took it from me.Chores are more important than gallivanting around in slippers, she’d said.
My heart ached at the thought. But my pulse quickly escalated as Tray nudged my hips in a way I hadn’t felt in years.
