Talk about a dream job, right?
But Anya hadn’t been kidding at all about the interview. She really had used her connections in the world of the royal elites to get me a sit-down interview to replace Prince Luke’s former PA. Not with him, of course, but I’d gone in for three fairly grueling interviews that almost felt like court-trial cross examinations.
The thoroughness I got though. Luke Snow was an actual, honest-to-goodness prince after all.
He was also young, wealthy beyond belief, and criminally gorgeous.
…Not that I was thinking about that during the entire interview process or anything.
However, four weeks later with no word, I’d basically assumed I hadn’t gotten the position. That is, until I’d randomly checked my email, and almost forgotten how to breathe.
I’d gotten it.
Me.
I was going to be the very full-time, very hands-on, very in-over-her-head personal assistant to one of the sexiest, richest men on the planet.
I couldn’t tell if I was about to jump up and down for sheer joy or have a full-blown panic attack.
Emma chose option A — shrieking and jumping up and down as she threw her arms around me excitedly.
“Oh my GOD, you’re serious?”
I nodded, my head still whirling from trying to process this.
“Well, we’re celebrating tonight, obviously.”
I snapped out of my daze, and grinned at my roommate. I pushed aside the fear of how the hell I was going to jump into the deep end with this job and decided to focus on the immediate: I had a kick ass new job, and even if my new boss was known for being a little cold, stern, and anti-social, he was also absolutely gorgeous.
On top of that, he was going to be paying me a small fortune to work for him.
Yeah, the fear and uncertainty I could deal with later. For now, Emma was right; we were definitely celebrating.
“Yes!” I beamed at her excitedly. “Wok N’ Eggroll delivery and a Gilmore Girls marathon?”
Emma cringed. “Uh, no. I was thinking we might try not being totally lame.”
“Hey!” I poked her in the arm. “We like doing that!”
“Well, yeah, no kidding, but c’mon, Jules,” She made a face. “We are a little lame sometimes.”
She was right, I just hated to admit it. We’d moved in together six months before, after I’d broken up with Dan. And since she’d broken up with Bryan, our place has been a spinster’s paradise. Hanging in with wine, takeout food, and a good movie was kind of our thing, and we loved doing it, but she was right.
If we kept this up, all we’d need would be a dozen or so cats and a lottery addiction and we’d be the crazy single-ladies from a bad movie.
Emma was right; we needed to go out to celebrate tonight.
“Dinner?” I shrugged. “We could go out to that new Spanish Tapas place on—”
“Jules, no.” Emma rolled her eyes. “Think bigger. Thing wilder.”
I arched a brow. “Wilder, huh? Clubbing?”
She laughed. “I don’t think anyone says ’clubbing’ anymore. But yeah, let’s go out out. In fact…” she trailed off.
“What?”
She grinned mischievously.
“I may already have a spot for us?”
“Oh really?”
“Oh,” she bit her lip. “Really. And I promise, you’re going to love it. Just, you know, dress up a little.”
“How dressed up are we talking?”
“The kind of dressed up where you’re not dressing in much.”
I grinned, blushing and looking away. “I don’t know…” I trailed off and shrugged. “I don’t think I’m—”
“Jules,” my friend crossed the room to me and put her hands on my shoulders. “We need to get back out there. Both of us.”
Emma had an annoying way of being right a lot. Since she’d walked in on Bryan with her step-sister (I mean, how trashy is that?), Emma had gone out on all of one date with one guy, which she’d left early because he was creeping her out. I was worse. I’d been on zero dates since Dan.
On top of that, neither of us were the “one-night” types. A few months back, we both downloaded Tinder just to see what it was about, but after the deluge of dick pics and “hey BB” messages, we’d deleted it from our phones.
I didn’t know what I was looking for post-Dan, but it sure wasn’t that. Just the same, going out out did seem fun. Hey, if nothing else, we could dress up, dance, and have a great time. I doubted either of us was going to find true love wherever she was planning on going where I needed to “dress up by not dressing in much,” but that was fine.
I was going to celebrate my awesome new job tonight with my best friend, and that was good enough for me.
I sighed.
“Okay, okay, I relent.”
Emma cheered.
“So, where are we going?”
Her grin turned downright wicked.
“Emma?”
“Look, don’t worry.” She waved me off, turning to check something on her phone.
“Where exactly are you taking us?”
“It’s a new spot.” She turned back, sighing and rolling her eyes. “Oh my God, Jules, you’re going to have a blast, I promise. Just go get ready and I’ll open some pre-evening wine.”
“You’re a nut,” I muttered as I turned to go poke through my closet.
“Oh, and Jules?”
I glanced back at my roommate.
“Whatever you wear, just make sure it goes with black.”
I frowned. “What? Why?”
Emma bit her lip, looking at me with a mixture of fear and excitement in her eyes.
“Because that’s what color the masks are.”
I stared at her.
“What? Emma, what masks?”
“The ones we’re wearing tonight at Masquerade Night.”
2
Julia
I shivered, slightly uncomfortable by the way the doorman’s eyes lingered on my body as he glanced us over. I was wearing a short — scandalously short, if we’re being honest — black cocktail dress and four-inch heels, my hair down and my favorite shade of pinkish red on my lips.
I felt nervous, but also way excited to be out in public dressed like this. I mean, elegant and yet borderline slutty clubwear wasn’t exactly my normal go-to wardrobe. It wasn’t for Emma either, actually, but I had to say, she looked fantastic. Her dress was a similar style to mine, fitted, cut low, and short, though her emerald green one brought out the fire in her red hair and the soft pale glow of her skin.
The bouncer looked us over again, definitely taking our clothes off with his creepy eyes before he finally nodded and smirked.
“That’s fifty bucks each, ladies.”
I blanched.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously,” he grinned. “You wanna pay some other way though, we can definitely talk.”
I swallowed the sour taste in my mouth as I opened my clutch. “Yeah, cash is fine, thanks.”
“Creep,” Emma muttered as we stepped into the small entrance room. A thumping pulsing rhythm of sexy dance music came from the other side of the door, inside the club.
“Ladies?”
A dark-haired girl with sleeve tattoos smiled at us as she handed us two blacks masks. I shivered again, this time in a sort of nervous excitement as I took it from her and ran my hand over it.
“So, we have to keep these on the whole time we’re here?”
She gave me a funny look. “Uh, no?” She shrugged. “You can take them off whenever, it’s just a theme night.”
The casual way she shrugged off the question took a little of the “sexy-dangerous” mystery out of the place, but I pushed that out of mind.
I was going to enjoy tonight. And I was definitely going to keep this mask on, if only because it pushed me a little outside my comfort zone, and maybe that’s exactly what I needed right then.
I blinked behind the mask
as I straightened it on my face, turning to see that Emma had hers on as well. I grinned.
“Ready for this?”
She nodded eagerly. “Definitely.”
I started to turn for the main door, when she grabbed my arm.
“I think we should get wild tonight.”
I grinned. “Wild, huh?”
“I’m being serious! We never do stuff like this, and I think we both need a night of just cutting loose, getting wild, and pretending our actions don’t have consequences.”
I laughed deeply. “Wow! Watch out world, Emma Vale is out for blood tonight!”
She rolled her eyes behind her mask. “No, c’mon you know what I mean. Let’s have one drink more than we should, dance until our feet are killing us, and kiss some hot boys.” She grinned wickedly. “And maybe we can see what happens after kissing.”
I grinned back, the excitement from earlier spiking through me. I doubted either of us were really going to get that nuts tonight, but it was the mindset that counted, and that, we had in spades.
“Let’s do this,” I said eagerly as I turned and yanked the door open.
Thundering bass music washed over us, the room absolutely packed with people dancing, sweating, grinding, drinking, kissing, and panting to the music.
“No regrets, right?” I glanced quickly at Emma, seeing her nod.
“No regrets.”
We stepped into the swirling, grinding crowd as the doors shut behind us.
I was halfway through my cocktail, half-heartedly swaying to the music by the bar while Emma told me some juicy gossip about work when I saw him.
The fire in those dark eyes across the club as they burned into me told me he’d seen me long before I saw him though.
Whoa.
The man was absolutely gorgeous, in that surreal, perfect, magazine-model way. His blond hair was cropped short, his high cheekbones and strong jaw chiseled out of iron, and the confident, cocky smirk on his face did very interesting things to my pulse. He wore a mask, like me, but I could still see the glint of something wicked in his eyes behind it.
“Holy crap,” Emma muttered next to me, leaning in as she sipped her drink through her straw.
“Okay, that is exactly what we need.”
I laughed. “We, huh?”
“Fine, you. He’s pulling your panties off with his eyes right now anyways.”
I blushed as I rolled my eyes at her.
“He is not.”
“He’s literally having sex with you, right now, from across the whole club.”
I laughed, as if brushing her off, but when I turned back to him, the laugh caught in my throat. My pulse skipped, and a hot flush creeped over my body.
Emma was right — he was tearing my clothes off with his eyes as he smirked that cool, cocky grin at me. I swallowed, quickly taking a big sip of my cocktail and then choking on it slightly as the man started to stalk across the dance floor towards me.
His eyes never left mine.
“I think I should go use the bathroom,” Emma said quickly, turning to leave.
“Wait, don’t you dare leave me!”
“Have fuuuuun,” she giggled in a sing-song voice. “Get wild!”
She ducked away from my poking finger and pushed her way through the bar crowd.
“Oh you get wild,” I muttered at her disappearing back.
“Maybe I will.”
I gasped at the sound of the deep, velvety baritone voice in my ear. I whirled, and my heart jumped into my throat as I looked up into the gorgeous, captivating, panty-melting face of my dark stranger.
“Get wild, that is.” He grinned, a brow cocking behind his mask as I looked up into his face. “I might need some help though.”
I felt the heat creep into my face as he stepped closer to me, those eyes still locked on me.
He wore grey, expensive looking slacks and a crisp, white, tailored shirt that stretched across his broad muscled shoulders — tucked in, unbuttoned at the neck, with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows of his muscled arms.
“Oh, that—” I bit my lip, falling into those eyes. “That’s just my friend. It’s this joke we have.”
He shrugged casually, that grin of his still making me warm all over.
“Well, joke or not, you strike me as a girl who could get a little wild.”
I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Trust me, you have no idea how wrong you are.”
“Well, I mean you dressed up, you look fucking fantastic—”
I blushed as he continued.
“You came out to a Masquerade night, and you’re drinking a martini.” He winked at me. “My kind of girl, actually.”
“Oh, trust me, this is not me.”
“Well, it suits you.”
I grinned.
“I’m starting this crazy new job tomorrow and…” I trailed off. “I’m just out celebrating I guess.”
“Well let’s celebrate then.”
I shivered as he moved closer, my back against the bar with this gorgeous, perfect man towering over me — his smokey eyes and his panty-melting grin sending a buzz through my body.
“I’m Matthew.”
“Julia.”
“Dance with me, Julia.”
It wasn’t a question, it was a request. His hand took mine and he pulled me — heart racing and body tingling — after him into the mass of grinding dancing people.
I gasped as he pulled me into him and let our bodies come together. Thudding music pulled us into the deep sway of the bass, and my whole body melted against his — shivering — as we started to dance.
“You know what?” Matthew purred into my ear, his muscled body rippling against mine as we swayed to the sexy beats. His hands slid up and down my sides, making me gasp a little and making that tingling electric feeling pulse deep in my core.
“I think I like you wild.”
“I’m not being all that wild,” I whispered back, swaying my hips and feeling sexier and sexier by the minute as this insanely gorgeous man pulled me tight against his body. I could feel his hard erection pulsing against my thigh — a lot of my thigh actually, and I bit my lip to keep from moaning.
“You’re getting pretty close to a total stranger. That’s fairly wild.”
“You seem friendly enough to me,” I said with a small grin.
His eyes burned fiercely for a second as he leaned close.
“Maybe that’s just how I lure you in.”
I shivered, swallowing as his hands slipped around my waist, pulling me tight against him. I suppose I could have been scared, or put off. But instead, all I felt was alive.
Alive and very, very turned on.
“Well, it seems to be working then.”
Matthew ginned. “And what’s that?”
“You being charming to lure me in,” I said, my voice low. “Because you seem to have done just that.”
We were so close that if we weren’t wearing clothes, there’s a good chance he’d already be inside me — already thrusting deep and making me scream as his thick cock filled me to the—
I blinked quickly, shaking my head and pulling back from him just a little.
God, what was getting into me? This was not me at all. Not the club, not the skimpy dress, and certainly not dancing like this with a man I’d just met — however insanely hot he was.
“Well, I may have lured you in, but I think the wild streak is all you, even if it’s new for you.”
I wet my lips, eyeing him and trying to act cool.
“What makes you think me being wild is something new for me?”
“Everything,” he growled, pulling me tight to him in one quick yank.
I gasped, my hands dropping to his chest and feeling the coiled muscle beneath his crisp dress shirt. My pulse skipped, my breath caught.
My pussy throbbed, my thighs squeezing together.
“Maybe I lied. Maybe I get wild like this all the time,” I said flippantly, still trying to act like this was normal f
or me.
Matthew grinned, clearly not buying it, but maybe amused that I was keeping up this charade. He leaned in, and I shivered as I felt his breath on my neck.
“We’ll see,” he growled lowly before pulling away. His hips swayed, and I gasped as his leg moved between mine. He pulled me close, his hips still swaying as his thigh slowly spread mine, moving between them until my hot little pussy was right against his leg through his pants and my tiny dress.
He swayed to the music, and I let my eyes flutter shut as I felt his leg muscle flex right against me.
“I can get—” I gasped as his hand dropped to my ass, his strong fingers squeezing me possessively and pulling me tight against his thigh.
“I can get plenty wild.”
“That a fact?” he groaned into my ear, his cock throbbing hard against my thigh.
“Uh-huh,” I managed to tumble out, my whole body shivering, the last of my reservations falling around him.
“How wild?”
I gasped, loudly, and my eyes flew open at the second voice that suddenly growled into my ear. It was deep, and darkly edged and it sent something like fire blazing through my body deep into my core. Matthew held me tight, but I quickly darted my head around to suddenly lock gazes with the most intensely dark set of eyes I’d ever seen.
My body tightened, the blood pumping hotter.
He was gorgeous. Dark, longish hair, a squared, chiseled jaw, and a fierce, hungry look in those dark eyes. He towered above me — probably a few inches taller than Matthew even, and before I could say a word, he moved right against me. I shivered before I could help myself, the feel of his thick, muscled body pressing right against my back. His big hands immediately went to my waist, and as he pressed himself against me, I gasped as I felt something hard and huge press right against my ass.
I froze, my body absolutely melting between the two beautiful, muscled strangers, before suddenly, I snapped out of it.
“Um, I’m—” I shook my head, twisting to look up at this new dark stranger.
“I’m dancing with someone?”
Yeah, no shit.
I immediately cringed at what a stupid, obvious thing it was to say. But then, this guy had just walked right over and put his hands on me, despite the fact that I was clearly dancing extremely close with Matthew.