The Reporter’s office wasn’t too far from Time’s Square and a thirty-minute walk from my apartment. I’d considered having my driver chauffeur us around, but because it was Christmas week, getting anywhere would take twice the usual time. So, like a true New Yorker, I’d bundled up and walked through the wintry streets.
Snow scented the air, and Manhattan was awash with wide-eyed tourists. Christmas trees decked the streets and holiday lights illuminated the evening sky. When was the last time I’d felt so fucking pumped about the holiday season? I couldn’t remember. I’d never been one to enjoy the holidays, but this year excitement fizzed through my veins.
Maybe because tonight I’d make one of Paige’s childhood dreams come true. I hoped that doing that would help soften the blow when I told her the truth.
All day, my deception had eaten me up. If we stood a chance at any semblance of a relationship, whether that be friendship or more, she needed to know I was the masked man. She needed to know I was the man who’d fingered her to orgasm and spanked her ass. The man whose cock she’d deep-throated.
Sure, she was no innocent victim. But my hiding behind the mask and taking advantage of her desire was much worse than the story she’d planned to write.
I was being underhanded and was doing exactly what Linda had done. Too many years had passed since I’d found out the truth about the woman I’d loved, but now it was time to move on. Moving on wouldn’t be easy, and it wasn’t just a matter of putting a period at the end of that chapter. Defrosting my frozen heart would take a while, but for the first time in years, I had hope. If anyone could fucking shatter the ice, Paige could.
What would it be like to have a relationship without contractual obligations? To have a woman be with me, without set times and guidelines? I had no idea but, much to my surprise, I was ready to find out.
To keep out the cold, I shifted from foot to foot outside of the newspaper offices, and people watched while I waited. My phone rang, and I glanced down at the screen. Vivian. Again.
For the past day and a half, she’d been calling and texting me nonstop, begging for forgiveness. She said she deeply regretted selling her invitation. But, for me, throwing a temper tantrum and selling her invitation was the best thing she could have done. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met Paige.
I’d have to deal with her sooner rather than later, preferably later. Our contract was slated to end on New Year’s Day, but as far as I was concerned, it was already over. For now, I shoved the matter to the back of my mind. I had better things to focus on right now.
When Paige stepped out of the glass-fronted skyscraper, she lit up the night. Her blonde hair spilled from a black bobble hat and onto the shoulders of her quilted coat. Mittens covered her hands, and her fuck-me boots hugged her legs.
She looked up at the sky as snowflakes began to drift down. They caught in her hair and a wonder-filled smile showed off her dimples. I’d never seen a more beautiful sight in my life, and my heart and cock felt like they would explode from her beauty.
When she saw me, her smile widened as if she was genuinely happy I was there. She came towards me, and I bent down to place a kiss on her cheek. My lips lingered on her soft skin longer than they should have, and I inhaled her delicate vanilla perfume.
I wanted to kiss her lips. I wanted to show her how deeply my passion for her ran, but that would be a mistake. As far as she was concerned, I was the man she’d interviewed and nothing more. I wasn’t the man who’d commanded her to undress or the man who spanked and flogged her ass.
Besides, kissing was too intimate and not something I ever did. At least, not anymore.
Paige jumped back, and as she did, our lips brushed against each other’s. My cock instantly hardened, and I was sorely tempted to deepen the kiss, but I didn’t.
Treating her like I didn’t have intimate knowledge of her body wouldn’t be easy.
“Good day at the office, honey?” I asked, teasing her.
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Alec ripped me a new one. He isn’t happy with the first draft. He said I should have stuck to the questions he’d prepared for me. If he’d wanted a fluff piece, he would have asked for one. He doesn’t think I was hard enough on you.”
“I guess you’ll have to come back to the apartment to interview me again. Next time you can be as hard as you want.”
She raised an eyebrow and gave me a gentle push. “I told you yesterday, Mr. Palmer. Flirting won’t work on me.”
“Fine,” I said and laughed. “No more flirting.”
“So, where are we going on this snowy night?”
“Fulfilling a childhood dream.”
“Okay,” she said, drawing out the syllables.
In comfortable silence, we wandered past cafes and bars and throngs of sightseers. She threaded her arm through mine, and we occasionally broke the silence to chit chat about life, hopes, and dreams.
“Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” I asked, genuinely curious. “You’re a beautiful and intelligent woman. And, no, I’m not flirting, I’m telling the truth.”
“I’m thinking you don’t know how to open your mouth without flirting. I don’t have time for a boyfriend. And anyway, I’m at this weird turning point where I’m figuring some things out.”
“Care to elaborate?” I asked as we turned the corner onto 6th Avenue.
She shrugged and sighed. “Just things. I discovered something I didn’t know I wanted and now I have to decide if I’m going to follow through.”
“I’m intrigued.” She wanted the lifestyle, but I could tell that accepting that she wanted it was tearing her in two.
“Nothing intriguing, really. I have a few things to think about, is all. It’s a big step. One I’m not sure I’m ready to take.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“Fear,” she said noncommittally. She paused for a few beats before continuing. “Making a mistake. Humiliation. Self-loathing.”
“Any positives?”
She giggled, and a blush spread across her cheeks. “A few.”
“Like what?” I kept my tone playful, but I was pushing her to admit what she wanted.
“There are a lot of positives, but I don’t want to go into those. It’s like, I have this image in my head of me being a strong, independent woman and if I go after this thing, that image will shatter. Maybe I’ve been fooling myself all these years, and I’m not strong or independent.”
“Do you desire this thing?”
“More than I ever thought I would, but it’s complicated.” She gave a theatrical groan and shook her head. “I can’t even think about it anymore. My head hurts weighing up the pros and cons.”
As much as I didn’t want to, I let the subject drop. Telling her the truth would make her decision easier, and the sooner I told her, the better for both of us.
We continued walking in silence, and when we reached 59th and 6th, I said, “We’re here.”
“Are we going to Central Park?” Her eyes lit up. “I love this place in the snow.”
“Remember when I said I was fulfilling a childhood dream.”
I took her hand in mine, and we crossed the road. She didn’t withdraw her hand.
“Whose childhood dream?”
“Wait and see.”
After a few minutes, we stopped outside an illuminated but empty Wollman Rink. Paige looked at me, then the rink, and back to me again.
“Wish fulfilled,” I said gesturing toward the ice.
“You did this for me? You don’t even know me.”
“Oh, but I do know you, Paige.” Little Mouse sat on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. “I wanted to make one of your dreams come true.”
She squealed, threw her arms around my neck, and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“Thank you. I can’t believe this.”
“And look,” I told her, walking over to a skate rental booth I had the key to. “This is so you can actually skate.”
“Wow,” she said, sounding impressed as she chose skates in her size. “You really planned ahead.”
I sure had. And it helped that having money could make anything happen.
She put on her skates, and when she didn’t see me do the same, she asked. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
“This is your dream. I’ll watch from the sidelines.”
“Come on.” She pulled my hands, and said, “It’ll be more fun with the two of us.”
“Don’t laugh when I fall and crack my skull open.”
I reached over the counter to choose my own skate size from those that lined the racks. It seemed impossible to say no to her.
“As long as you don’t laugh when I fall tits over ass.”
Neither of us were skaters, and we spent more time on our asses than we did upright, but I didn’t care if I looked like a fool because the sight and sound of her happiness was more than I could have hoped for.
“I’m going to have bruises on top of the bruises on my backside,” she said, pushing herself up from the ice after her hundredth fall.
“You have bruises on your butt? How’d that happen?” I laughed to myself, remembering exactly how that happened.
“I don’t have any bruises,” she said too quickly. “Bad choice of words.”
She skated away before I could ask anything more.
When we finished skating, we strolled through the park towards The Lovehouse— a restaurant in the middle of Central Park.
Paige nuzzled her cheek against my shoulder. “I can’t thank you enough. Do you want to know why it was one of my childhood dreams?”
I touched my nose to the top of her head and inhale the scent of her floral shampoo. “Why?”
“Before my dad died, we would come here every year. We used to joke about how one year he’d surprise me by renting out the rink for just us. I know it sounds silly, but I felt him with me tonight.”
A wave of emotion washed over me, and I was glad she couldn’t see my face. I was supposed to be a Dom, an alpha male in control of his emotions, but this girl with her open heart and mind was turning me into a marshmallow.
“Does, m’lady have any other unfulfilled childhood dreams she’d like to share?”
“Let’s see. A house from chocolate. A horse carriage ride around the city at dawn. A trip to Oz.”
“As in Australia?
“As in the Yellow Brick Road.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“I wonder,” she began, tapping her finger against her lips, “Are you trying to impress me, Mr. Palmer, or get into my pants?”
I laughed and flashed her a smile. No matter how much she thought this was a ploy to get into her pants, and in a way it was, her happiness gave me a sense of satisfaction.
“What makes you think I’m trying to do either one?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Renting an ice rink, a romantic stroll through Central Park before bringing me to a restaurant with a year-long waiting list. Offering to make my other childhood dreams come true.”
“Are you impressed?”
“A little.”
“Am I getting inside your pants?”
“It’s complicated.”
“The thing?” I asked.
“The thing,” she agreed.
I had to admit I was glad she was thinking of me, even if she only knew “me” as the man in the mask. It showed the experience had meant as much to her as it had to me.
When we reached the outside of the restaurant, I heard a woman’s voice call my name. Not just any woman. Vivian.
I turned around and saw her dressed in her signature red.
“Who’s that?” Paige asked, her eyes moving rapidly between Vivian and me.
Every muscle in my body tensed. “Someone I used to be involved with.”
“Your very own stalker.” She smiled, but there was no humor behind it.
“Please excuse me,” I said and walked to where Vivian stood.
“What can I do for you, Vivian?”
She bowed her head and lowered her eyes. “I came to ask for forgiveness, Master. I’m sorry. So sorry. I wanted to teach you a lesson by not going to the party. I wanted to make you realize what you had with me.”
“What we had was for a contracted amount of time, and you violated that arrangement,” I told her. “We’re done.”
“Master, please. What we had was good. We could have so much more.”
“Go home. We’re over.” Frustration at her refusal to leave— and at the fact that she had even appeared in the first place— laced my voice.
“We’re not over.” She pushed past me and strode towards Paige.
“Leave now,” I warned.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she spat. “You’re not my Master anymore, remember.”
Vivian put her hands on her hips and stood directly in front of Paige.
“So, you’re the one who bought my invitation. I asked Mike to get it back for me because I’d changed my mind, but he said he couldn’t because he’d sold it to an old friend’s daughter. I’ve enjoyed your money, but now I want Wyatt back.”
Paige stared me down, and her expression showed me she was unraveling the truth. “I… I don’t understand.”
I grabbed Vivian by the bicep and spun her around until she faced me. A ball of hot anger expanded inside of me, but I told myself to calm down. Now wasn’t the time for a confrontation with a spurned ex. That would come.
“Go home, Vivian. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Vivian looked over her shoulder and glared at Paige. “If I can’t have him, neither can you. I’ll make sure of it.”
Without another word, she shook her arm free and stormed off.
All I could manage was, “Paige, I can explain.”
The confusion on her face morphed into realization.
“It’s you. You’re him. The masked man.”
Now her face clouded over with a look that showed me she was not happy about this development. I just hoped I could make her understand.