Masked Definitions (15 page)

He slams home, pushing in to the base so that his hips are fully against mine.

“Why do you feel so fucking good?” His words are an angry hiss.

“More,” I beg and tug on his hair.

A groan escapes him when I bite onto the curve of his neck and use my hands to help him thrust into me harder and faster.

My orgasm is building but after my first, I’m stuck in the burning tingle stage that makes your body jerk. It feels amazing but it’s frustrating.

My core clenches down and I move my hips up and down, praying that I come soon or I’ll be frustrated for days.

“Enna,” he breathes, panting loudly in between his grunts and moans. “You’re mine.” I bite his neck harder. “Yes. Say it… say that you’re mine; you’re my little fuck toy. You’ll be there whenever I want in this delicious pussy.”

He pulls my thigh higher up his hip and slows his thrusts.

“Last… time…” I pant through my delirium, unsure what is real and what isn’t anymore.

“Say it, promise me, or I won’t let you come.”

This definitely gets my attention. “No… this is the last time.”

I hear the door rattle and freeze. Elijah continues unfazed. “Say it.”

“Elijah,” I try to scramble up the couch but he keeps me pinned, his cock still buried inside me. He flexes it and I close my eyes at the feeling it creates. This is torture. I need to come. I need to go. We’re going to get caught.

“Promise me.”

“No.”

The door rattles again. I try to twist to see it but Elijah grips my jaw and locks my face in place. His icy grey eyes flash like silver in the dark. “I want you over my desk in my office. On the couch in my living room. On my lap in the car.” He presses his lips to mine. “I want you until we’re both so sore we can hardly stand but even then, I doubt that will be enough.”

“Please…”

“Say it. I know you want it. I know you want this as much as I do.”

“Fine,” I bite out, panicking when the door rattles again. How are we going to explain being in here alone together?

I feel his smile right before I feel him pulse. “Fuck, not yet,” he cries loudly, so loudly I’ll be surprised if they didn’t hear him through the door. “Not yet… Enna…” His hips begin to piston quickly in and out. The fullness I feel, coupled with the speed and the thrill of being caught, tips me over. No longer am I in the limbo before orgasm.

I inhale a hoarse breath and cling to him as my body clenches with pleasure. I can’t cope with this. It’s too much.

“Oh, god!” I yell into his neck to smother the sound of my voice. I’ve never felt so out of control of my body.

“Quickly.” I’m pulled to my feet, still clenching and tingling. Elijah grabs me around the waist and drags me through the room. I gasp when light spills across the pink couch we were just fucking on as the rattling door opens. We turn a corner and close another door before I see who it was seeking entrance.

Both of us lean against it, panting, our clothes a mess and our hair even more so. At least there’s some light in here, a lamp in the corner glowing dimly.

“Holy fuck,” I whisper, my eyes wide. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

Elijah runs his hands through his hair and stares ahead as if I’m not here.

“We’ve been gone too long.”

“I know,” he grits, a frown marring his handsome face.

I stare at his profile though he doesn’t look at me.

We both begin to straighten out our clothes in silence. I wince when I feel the mess between my legs. “Do you make a habit of having sex with people without a condom?”

He quirks a brow. “Do you?”

I swallow when his hands turn me and help to sort out the mess that is my hair. My lips feel swollen and bruised and I have no idea how I’m going to pull off walking when I feel so horrible down below.

“No,” I admit. “Just you.”

“I assume you’re on birth control?”

I nod and turn to help him straighten his shirt and bowtie. He knocks my hands away and does it himself.

“If you take that door and follow the hall down, the third door on the right is a bathroom.”

He knows his way around here yet he still fucked me in a room where we were likely to get caught?

“Get yourself cleaned up and then re-join the party.” His eyes remain on the door as he takes off towards it.

“Where’s my thong?” I ask, my voice a loud whisper.

He points to the lapel of his jacket so I’m assuming it’s in the inside pocket. There’s no point in me asking for it back as it’s in tatters anyway after he ripped it from my body.

“Elijah…” I say before he opens the door. He stills, his hand on the door handle. “I’m not a bad person. Am I?”

I watch him turn and stride towards me. My eyes widen when he extends an arm and hooks his hand around the back of my neck. Before I can register what he’s doing, his lips are on mine and his tongue is pushing into my mouth.

After a moment he pulls back and presses his forehead to mine, his eyes squeezed shut.

He murmurs, “We both are.” Then he heads towards the door again.

I don’t hesitate to race after him but instead of following him through a door on the left, I head towards the bathroom, praying that I don’t bump into anyone on the way.

Fortunately, I don’t. The hall is empty save for odd statues on pedestals lining the walls. The eyes of the armless men and women cast judgemental glares that follow me as I pass.

It’s not until I’m in the safety of the bathroom that I finally blow out a breath of relief. It’s a single room as opposed to a room with multiple cubicles. Locking the door, I press my back against it before unattractively sitting on the tub to wash away any evidence of my adultery. Unprotected sex is not only dangerous, it’s not very glamorous either.

I spend a good amount of time washing myself before finally plucking up the courage to fix myself in the mirror.

My lips are a swollen mess; my hair isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but my foundation has streaked where my face perspired.

This is gross. I’m disgusting.

Wetting my hands, I try to fix my face, wishing I’d brought back up make-up with me. I’m fully aware that I’m taking too long so I inhale deeply and quickly exit the bathroom.

My body hits a warm wall and unfamiliar arms come around me to steady my footing.

“I am so sorry,” I gasp as I right myself.

He releases me and smiles kindly, though one hand remains on my elbow as I pull my dress back into place. “Are you okay?”

“I wasn’t looking.” I realise that I haven’t answered his question. His kind smile is as unfamiliar as his arms. I remember seeing him speaking to the Duke in the main room not long after we arrived. They seemed close but I wasn’t standing near enough to warrant an introduction. “But I’m okay. Are you?” I look him up and down, making sure that I haven’t marked his divine grey suit in any way.

“All good.” He dips his head and I can’t help but admire how handsome he is. What is it with all of these tall, dark and handsome men? Do the upper class have magic water or something? “My name is Tobias Lockhart.”

“Oh, I’m Olivia Corbin.”

His head tilts as he tries to draw my name and face from his memory. “We haven’t met?”

“Not yet. I’m here with my husband, the Duke and his wife Penelope.”

“Ah, Corbin… the Duke’s cousin?”

I nod.

“Well I shan’t keep you.” He smiles once more and steps to the side to allow me passage. “Enjoy your evening, Mrs Corbin.”

“You too, Mr Lockhart.”

Then he’s gone and I’m practically running to the main room in heels. It’s not a good idea but I’ve already wasted too much time. Max will be having a fit.

I slip quietly back into the room, glad that I didn’t burst in as there seems to be some kind of auction happening. At the moment the lot being bid on is a stunning pearlescent vase. I don’t spend much time admiring it though as Max and Penelope are both waving me over from a table in the centre of the room. Elijah is sat looking through a folder before him. He doesn’t look up and I don’t remove my eyes from my husband, who doesn’t look impressed with me in the slightest.

“Where have you been?” Max hisses as the auctioneer calls fifteen thousand. Holy fuck. For a vase?

“I drank on an empty stomach; it didn’t agree with me.” I lie. Though it seems to appease Penelope, it doesn’t appease Max. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”

“Are you feeling okay now?” Penelope asks kindly.

I nod, unable to look her in the eye. “I’ll be better after a shower.”

Elijah’s eyes do come to me this time, heated and narrowed. I wonder if it’s at the thought of me naked and dripping wet in his shower back at his palace. The thought of being in such a state, with him behind me, running his large, lathered hands all over my body…

There is something seriously wrong with me.

“It’s not like I left you on purpose, Max,” I sigh after five minutes of his sulking. “Stop being such a child. You can live without me for twenty minutes.”

He scrunches his nose up but doesn’t say anything else. Elijah rolls his eyes at the display and Penelope gives me a sympathetic smile.

“Twenty-two thousand, going once…” My mouth drops open as the vase is sold to a lady that Penelope introduced me to earlier in the evening. That’s insane.

Elijah places the folder down that he was flicking through. It seems to be a booklet of all of the items donated for auction.

I slide it towards me and flick through it. There are some beautiful paintings and statues for auction and it seems this is going to be a long evening. In the end it isn’t a statue or a painting that catches my eye, it’s the strangest pendent I’ve ever laid eyes on. It’s so sparkly, covered in thousands of tiny gems that take the shape of a peacock. It’s clever how the gems have been worked to make the head and body before fanning out into the tail.

“I wonder how much that one will go for,” Max says quietly as I run my finger over the laminated image, still entranced. I’ve never wished for a fortune before in my life. I’ve always been happy with what I have, but now I want this.

I feel like a magpie.

If the pendent was within reach, I couldn’t trust myself not to steal it.

Max pulls the folder out from under me and flicks through, disinterested. I feel a foot tap against mine under the table and my eyes shoot to Elijah in question.

Before I can question him with my eyes, Penelope is raising her hand to bid on a cute designer handbag. I look to where she sits, completely relaxed, raising her hand every few moments. She doesn’t even look like she wants the bag; her face is blank and unreadable. I again envy how pretty she is.

The foot taps against mine again.

“What?” I mouth at him silently.

He winks, his shoe stroking my ankle.

Blink.

Is he crazy?

I look away and move my legs to the side. He smiles a secret smile that I don’t acknowledge.

Penelope doesn’t win the bag. She apparently refuses to pay more than ten thousand for something she can buy in store for less than two thousand, be it for a good cause or not.

Elijah doesn’t agree or disagree; he just watches the stage.

“And now we have a stunning family heirloom, donated by the very generous Rico Longoria.” My eyes are on it in a flash. It’s smaller than I thought it would be, but even prettier than the image, resting on a dark red pillow. A camera points down at it and we see the enlarged version on the screen behind the auctioneer. “We’ll start the bidding at eighteen thousand.”

I choke on my glass of water.

I guess I’m definitely not bidding on that.

“Twenty.”

I see Elijah raise his hand. Penelope shoots him a look of shock, as do I. Well, at least if he wins it I’ll get to see it up close.

Unfortunately, two others are racing him for it too. One of them I see is the man I bumped into outside the bathroom.

“Twenty-eight.” Elijah raises his hand, pushing the amount up to thirty.

“This is mental,” Max whispers and I nod my agreement.

“Thirty-two,” the auctioneer calls, looking around the room. Finally, the others have stopped bidding. Elijah rests back in his chair knowing he has the pendent. A small smile plays at his lips. “Sold to his Grace, the Lord Duke, for thirty-two thousand pounds.”

“Holy crap,” I whisper as he looks around and raises a glass to the previous owner of the pendant.

Penelope quirks a brow at her husband and remarks bitterly, “Oh that’ll go so well with the bite on your neck.” I for real feel nauseous.

Elijah glares at his wife. “You’re going to chastise me?” She folds her arms protectively over her chest but says nothing. “That’s what I thought.”

Sure enough, there is just the edge of a bite mark rising above the collar of Elijah’s shirt. She knows he’s fucked someone.

What if she suspects me?

Hopefully she thinks the bite mark was already there.