Six

Haley

“I forgot my phone,” Haley said, skipping the pleasantries and barging into the apartment past David.

“Hello, Sunshine,” he said, using his usual mocking tone. “Would you like to come in?”

“I’m just picking up my phone and then I’m gone.”

“You mean this?”

Haley stopped halfway toward Scott’s room and turned around. David stood there looking at her with an arrogant, self-satisfied face that demanded to be slapped. An infuriating lopsided grin was stamped on his cruel lips. He must’ve picked up her phone from somewhere because he was wiggling it tantalizingly between his thumb and index finger.

She marched back to where he was standing. “Give it back.” Haley made to grab the phone, but he raised his arms over his head, way out of her reach.

Damn basketball players and their being super tall—or ex-basketball players, in this case.

“Say please,” David taunted.

Haley gave up the fight to reach the phone and stared him down. “David, stop it. I need to call my mom; I don’t want her to worry.”

“Miranda? Looovely lady.”

“How do you know my mother’s name?”

“Before you got here, she’d already called three times and, as you said, we wouldn’t want the lovely Miranda to get worried, so I picked up and acted voicemail. You’re welcome.”

“You looked into my phone?”

David scoffed. “Don’t worry; your lovey-dovey, emoji-filled texts with my brother would be too boring for me to spy on.”

“I want my phone back.”

He took a step forward so that now he was towering over her, crowding her space, his gaze intense. “Say. Please.”

A familiar scent Haley couldn’t quite place—one associated with a positive memory—filled her nostrils. Confused, Haley backed away instinctively. “Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?” David asked, acting all innocent.

“The flirty eyes thing, and the charming act… I want nothing to do with you.”

His eyes flared bluer, if that was even possible. “Now,” he said, tossing her the phone. Haley caught it and quickly texted her mom to say she’d call her later. All the while David kept talking. “There’s really no need to be rude. If you’re mad you can’t withstand my charms, that’s your problem, darling.”

“Your charms?” Haley hissed, pressing Send and fixing her narrowed gaze on him. “What charms? Yeah, you’ve pretty eyes and a pretty face, but that’s it. You’re mean and cruel for no reason. The way you hurt Madison makes me sick, you—”

“Your friend is just another stupid girl in love with my soppy brother. Madison didn’t care about me enough for me to really hurt her. She used me as a rebound, same as I did her. But speaking of hurting Blondie…” David snapped his fingers, then pointed one at her. “I bet your relationship with dear old Scotty is doing more damage to her right now than I ever could.”

A blow too close to home. Haley was at a loss for words.

“Ooh.” David smiled, satisfied. “Seems I’ve touched a sore point. I apologize, Sunshine.”

Rage flared in Haley’s chest. “You don’t even try to deny you used her. How can you be so arrogant after everything you’ve done? You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“You confuse me for someone who cares about your opinion, little miss ‘I like to judge.’” His next words came out in a low hiss. “None of this matters to me. None of it.”

“Then why do you even bother to tease me all the time?”

“Oh, that?” David asked, his voice mocking again. “That’s just for fun. I enjoy watching how hard you try to deny the obvious chemistry between us.”

“There’s no chemistry between us,” Haley spat. “I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole if you were the last guy on earth.”

“Might be too late for that, my dear.”

“What do you mean?”

David started walking toward her, slowly, deliberately. Haley backed away until her shoulders came in contact with the living room wall. David stopped a few steps short of where she was standing and covered the top half of his face with his hands. He lifted the index finger of each hand to show only his eyes through the narrow gap, giving the impression he was looking at her through a mask.

And then he bowed.

***

“Would you do me the honor of this dance?”

The guy bowing in front of Haley was staring up at her through an elaborate black mask. His eyes were a dazzling electric blue and the corner of his mouth was turned up in a lopsided grin that promised danger.

“But of course.” Haley did a coy little curtsy and took the stranger’s hand. “Mister…?”

“Giving you my name would defy the purpose of us wearing masks,” the man said, taking her hand and straightening his back. He was remarkably tall, a good full head taller than Haley.

“My gentle sir, you find me at a disadvantage,” she said, keeping up the pretense of speaking like gents and dames while he led her toward the dance floor. “How is it fair when my face is practically bare and yours almost entirely covered?”

Haley’s mask for the Venetian Masquerade Ball consisted of a few strategically placed stick-on Swarovski crystals scattered around her eyes. But the stranger’s mask covered the majority of his face, leaving only his lips visible. And those sparkly blue eyes.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Then I’m all the luckier for it.”

If the costume party had been dull up until the mysterious man’s appearance—and definitely not worth the investment in her rented princess gown or the ticket’s cost—it seemed the night could still turn around.

Keeping at the edges of the dancing crowd, they started swirling in time with the music. Neither of them had a clear idea of what they were doing, but Haley hoped her long skirt made enough of a show to cover for their poor dancing skills. Not that she cared much, anyway; she was too entranced by the blue eyes of the man leading her so inexpertly in what had officially become the most romantic dance of her life.

Not being able to see the guy’s face was both enticing and infuriating. He could be anyone and no one. And the only detail the mask didn’t leave to the imagination—his full lips—didn’t help steady Haley’s breath. A hot flush warmed her skin; she had become too sensitive to the touch of one of his hands on the small of her back. And to his other hand holding hers, to the way sharp electric tingles shot down her arm from where their skin touched.

“I’ve never seen eyes as green as yours,” he said.

Haley wanted to reply that the blue of his was no joke either, but it seemed corny to repeat the same compliment he’d just paid her. “You have pretty eyes, too,” she said, almost out of breath.

His gaze was so intense it was squeezing the air out of Haley’s lungs. They didn’t say much afterward; in fact, they didn’t speak at all. Haley and her masked stranger stared wordlessly into each other’s eyes, green into blue, while they kept doing a poor impression of a waltz.

Haley wasn’t able to explain the force of the insta-connection, the way it made her pulse race and her breath short. The music, the costumes, the elegant hall; it all seemed to disappear, reducing Haley’s world to those blue eyes and full lips and the thousand faces that could be hiding under the black mask.

Maybe love at first sight was a thing. Even if it turned out she had no idea who this man was, she still felt an ease, a sense of belonging, that she’d hardly ever experienced with any of her exes.

Distracted by her own thoughts, Haley stepped on the stranger’s toes.

He winced under the mask and said, “What do you say we take a stroll outside? It’s getting scorching hot in here.” He rolled a finger on the inside of his shirt’s collar. “And we’ve demonstrated our awful dancing skills enough for one night.”

Haley swatted him playfully. “Who are you calling an awful dancer?”

He smiled wickedly and offered her his elbow. Haley linked their arms together and followed him outside, where the temperature was a bit cooler thanks to a crisp evening breeze abating the late summer heat.

The villa where the party was being hosted resembled more a European palace out of a fairy tale than a countryside mansion in Massachusetts. With its imposing size, light brick architecture, turrets, and large windows, it was more castle than house. And its gardens were just as stylish, a mix of flower beds and shrubs organized in symmetric geometrical patterns and lit with a thousand fairy lights.

There was a small gazebo in the center of the garden, a wrought iron structure covered in white roses silhouetted against the dark night sky. Without speaking, they both headed toward the flowery cage. It seemed like a good place to talk—or not talk.

When they stopped underneath the arch, the tension in Haley’s body spiked. She felt edgier than the first time she’d kissed someone.

“You make me nervous,” she told the stranger.

He held both her hands close to his chest as he faced her. “Good nervous or bad nervous?”

“Good, I think.”

He tilted his head at her questioningly, and Haley started to over-talk. “I don’t know your name or what your face looks like, but I feel like I’ve known you forever. Can you at least tell me if you’re from around here? Will I see you again after tonight?”

“I go to school in Cambridge. I’m about to start senior year.”

“Me too. You go to Harvard? What’s your major?”

“Shh…” He pressed a finger to her lips. “So many questions…”

Haley kissed the finger in what she hoped was a sensual gesture, then guided his hand down to rest on her waist. “So little answers…”

The charming stranger joined both his hands behind her back and pulled her against his body. Less than an inch separated their faces now. For the first time, Haley’s nostrils filled with his scent—a mix of sun-kissed skin and a citrus aroma, bergamot or orange. A fragrance that was woody, citrusy, and salty at the same time. It made her think of a sunny day on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean. It’s what Haley imagined all those male models from D&G perfume commercials must smell like.

The mysterious man spared her the time to take another ragged breath before he closed the distance between them. Their lips finally connected, and despite them not dancing anymore, the world still seemed to spin around them. She clung to him—to his chest, to his shoulders, to his neck—the only firm point in a dizzy, swaying universe. The kiss didn’t start softly or tentatively; like everything else between them so far, it was forceful right from the beginning. Not just intense, but deep, powerful, passionate… and somewhat more meaningful than every kiss Haley had ever given or received. In the arms of this mysterious man, Haley felt helpless and secure at the same time.

When he let go of her mouth, he left a trail of gentle kisses down her neck, then brushed a thumb down her cheek and over her lower lip. Haley wasn’t sure she was made of flesh and bones any longer; she was worried her body might melt under the stranger’s touch.

She was about to pull his face down to hers once more when angry shouts and a crashing sound reached them from inside the house. Haley turned to check what the commotion was and caught sight of several security guards running after another impressively tall guy. The “fugitive” was heading in their direction.

“Oh-ho,” the masked stranger said, “looks like we’ve been found out.”

“Why? You know that guy?”

“Yep, we came together.”

“What did you do?”

“We aren’t exactly invited guests to this party.”

“How did you even get in??” Haley asked.

“Climbed over the fence. And now I have to go.”

“But—” Haley began. Her mystery man cut her off by pulling her into a passionate but hurried kiss. She was still collecting herself when he winked, stepped away, and walked backward toward the gate.

The runaway friend had now almost reached them; as he raced toward the gazebo, he yelled, “We gotta beat it, my man!”

The masked stranger bowed one more time to Haley, wearing that impossibly sexy, wicked grin, and then he was running away.

“Wait!” she shouted as she watched him go. “You haven’t even told me your name…”

Still running, the unknown man who had stolen Haley’s heart turned his head and smiled again, his lips forming an answer, the sound of which got lost among the shouts of the security guards chasing after him…