Lexi slipped on the black silk mask and made sure it was securely zipped in the back. It covered three-quarters of her face and some of her blonde hair, coming from mid-forehead, and ending just above her lips. There was no chance of this slipping off.

She settled into her own skin, her breathing becoming easier as she once again looked at her reflection. The person staring back at her was Alexandra, successful co-owner of SilverSystems, forty-year-old widow and sexual submissive.

One of these things is not like the others…

Lexi could hear the children’s song playing through her mind and closed her eyes. She was Alexandra, was the successful co-owner of SilverSystems, and a sexual submissive.

But she wasn’t Alexandra Silver. She was Alexandra Durham, called Lexi by damned near everyone her whole life. She was twenty-three, not forty, and she wasn’t a widow.

Alexandra Silver, Lexi’s friend and business partner, would never set foot in a BDSM club, at least not since her husband had died. But she hadn’t minded when Lexi hadn’t corrected anyone when they assumed she was Alexandra Silver rather than Alexandra Durham. Both women were the same general body type, had blonde hair, and with the mask it really was difficult to know Lexi wasn’t Alexandra.

Lexi had been racked with guilt after the initial deception and had confessed to Alexandra with tears at her house the next day. Alexandra had just laughed.

“Honey, if a bunch of people can see your naked body and think that’s me, then please, go back every night you possibly can. Where a neon sign stating you’re Alexandra Silver.”

Lexi hadn’t, but neither had she corrected people when they assumed that the Alexandra who worked at SilverSystems was Alexandra Silver. They shouldn’t assume.

Alexandra also knew the true reason Lexi was going to the BDSM clubs on mask nights. To catch a glimpse of Jackson Calder.

Or, more realistically, to make sure he caught a glance of her.

Jackson Calder. The man she been fantasizing about since she was sixteen years old, when he’d shown up at their house one Christmas. Her older brother's best friend. 

He’d been just as tall and strong then as he was now. Thick brown hair and tanned skin that were in stark contrast to piercing blue of his eyes. A strong chin and carved jaw completed the near-perfect package.

And downright lickable abs. She’d been dreaming about them for years.

She offered herself to him four years ago. Had wanted him, and knew he wanted her too. Knew he loved her. But he'd left, convinced not only that he was too old for her, but that she couldn't handle him. Couldn't handle his sexual needs.

Then, that had probably been true. Now? She could handle anything he wanted to throw at her.

Or in her.

She spent the past four years making herself into a woman she could be proud of. She finished college early, started a wonderful business with the other Alexandra, and had made a concerted effort to understand her own sexuality.

If she expected to be able to hold someone like Jackson, she had to know who she was and love herself.

Lexi was now that woman. And sometime on this ship the mask was coming off. If Jackson, like everyone else, assumed she was Alexandra Silver, then Lexi was about to prove him wrong. 

Regardless of who he thought she was, the two of them had been circling each other for six months. He now knew she showed up at every masked event at one of the exclusive Los Angeles BDSM clubs. He'd started showing up for every masked night too. They'd never scened together, had never even talked to one another alone, but they were always aware of each other. How many times had she found herself on a spanking bench, only to look over and see him at the front of the crowd, watching? 

And he wasn't the only one who watched. Lexi took great pleasure in seeing him use a leather flogger on another willing submissive until she'd begged him to let her come, and he'd taken her right there in front of everyone.

The woman's eyes had literally rolled back in her head, she'd come so hard. Lexi herself had been dripping by the time it was done, wishing so much it had been Jackson’s cock inside her.

And when she'd watched Jackson and his friend Donovan take a woman together at the club – the woman stuffed on either end with both men’s massive dicks – she’d had to excuse herself so she could go masturbate in one of the private rooms. Making it home without touching herself hadn’t even been an option.

She wanted Jackson. Her Virgo wanted his Aries in every possible way.

The letters… The letters she wrote him were just her way to tease. To express all the hot, dirty thoughts he evoked in her. She would never have the nerve to say things like that to him out loud, mask or no mask. But writing them? Her absolute pleasure.

She loved creating those letters for him. Loved how the only physical contact they had was how their hands touched when she passed the letter to him each time they saw one another at the club twice a month. How his eyes flared when he saw the cream envelope with gold trim.

He loved reading her scenarios as much as she loved writing them. Stories about naughty subs or subs been taken by two men at once, or being tied up and treated like a pet.

He'd made sure she knew he liked them. Would he still like them when he found out they were written by Little Lexi rather than Alexandra Silver?

It was her job to prove a little Lexi didn't even exist anymore. She glanced in the mirror again, adjusting the black leather harness outfit she wore. It started at the neck, then crossed in an X over her torso and her back, leaving her breasts exposed. The leather then circled her waist, before running down the outside of her hips and legs. Material then molded to the tops of her thighs and knees. Her ass and pussy were completely visible. Accessible.

O-rings were sewn into the leather at strategic points: The front and back of her neck, her waist, her thighs and knees. It was an outfit meant for submission.

And she hoped Jackson would take advantage of it tonight.

She arranged her thigh-high stockings more perfectly, then slipped on her leather over-the-knee boots. 

She was ready to seduce the hell out of Jackson Calder. Although tonight, only in the public scening area, and only with a mask on.

Because Lexi wasn't here just to seduce Jackson. She also had a job to do. There was a problem here on the ship with the software SilverSystems had installed. But it wasn't just a glitch. Someone was trying to steal from Calder Enterprises, and was using a link through their software to do it.

That was unacceptable to Lexi on multiple levels. Professionally, because SilverSystems was her baby. She was the brains behind all the hospitality programs and software they sold. So someone using her software for theft? Completely unacceptable and she had a plan to catch whoever was behind it.

But also she wanted to catch the thief because he or she was stealing from Jackson. Lexi wasn't going to allow that to happen. So tonight she was going to lay an electronic trap for whoever was trying to use SilverSystems programming to skim from him.

Catch a crook, come out of the BDSM closet, and seduce the man she'd loved for years.

It was going to be an interesting cruise.