As if she were a different person, she took a step over the edge she felt she’d been teetering on all night. Would she fly or fall?
She lifted her finger and brushed it gently down the muzzle of the wolf’s mask.
‘Oh, what big eyes you have,’ she said laughing as she dipped her head and then looked up at him through her eyelashes.
Would he play along? She could laugh this off if he didn’t want to. But, if he did… Excitement fizzed in her stomach along with the alcohol that she’d drunk. For one night could she pretend that she and Gee could be more? She’d missed her chance back at university, had been too scared. But she could tonight. Even if he wasn’t the man she had listed in her Google doc. In this minute, it didn’t matter. For one night only, she would try and see how Gee lived.
But what would happen tomorrow? No. She drowned that thought with another mouthful of a Sugar Snake.
Say something, Gee, she thought, anything. But what she wanted him to say she didn’t know. If he said her name and broke the illusion would she be upset or relieved?
The wolf had frozen when she’d flirted. But then he tilted his head to one side before a slow grin spread across the part of the face she could see.
‘All the better to see you with.’ He leant down to say it in her ear.
She shivered in relief and excitement.
They were going to do this. She was going to flirt with him as if he were a stranger and not the guy she went home with every night. Her best friend for ten years.
Okay, she could do this. Lewis was right, she was out of practice. He was safe to practice with, wasn’t he?
Standing on her tiptoes, she whispered in his ear.
‘What big teeth you have…’ She wanted to giggle and laugh at the absurdity with him, but she also wanted to melt in his arms.
‘All the better to…’ But instead of finishing the sentence, he leant down and captured her ear lobe with his teeth and with very little pressure, bit her.
Oh. Wow.
Sparks raced up and down her skin. She felt both numb and over-sensitised. That small tug on her ear, his hot breath on her neck – she had never felt so alive.
She swallowed hard against the moan she could feel growing in her throat.
Emma couldn’t help it. She rested her forehead on his shoulder and shuddered. Her arms came up and wrapped themselves round him.
Without a word, he took her drink from her, setting it on the bar. His arms came around her. One high on her back between her shoulder blades, the other in the small of her back. The first kiss he pressed to her neck, she wondered if she was imaging it. With the second she moved so he had better access. He delicately tasted her skin. It was glorious, freeing, terrifying. She wanted it to stop and she never wanted it to end.
She pushed back slightly, he pulled back until they were staring down at each other.
Was there still time to pull back from this? Before they took a step they couldn’t recover from?
‘What’s the time, Mr Wolf?’ she found herself saying, asking him more. Seeing what he made of it.
‘Red time,’ he whispered, his hazel eyes glinting in the slits of the mask. He pushed it up enough that it uncovered more of his mouth and then bent down, his lips in hers.
If she had felt sparks before, now as they kissed she felt fire. It engulfed her.
Was this what she’d been missing? And then she stopped thinking, sank into the sensations. Like coming home in a blaze of glory, they fitted together like jigsaw pieces. She could feel something click and lock in place as he held her tighter. She could feel his body against hers, and for the first time she allowed herself to mould to it. To fit herself against all his hard planes and angles, his curved muscles.
Music was blaring around them but all she heard was the sound of her heart racing in her ears. A small moan escaped from Gee’s, no, Mr Wolf’s mouth. If she let herself think that this was him…
He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers.
‘Em…’ he said, his breathing heavy.
‘No.’ Her voice was shaking. He couldn’t. If she thought too much, if he reminded her that there was an Emma that existed somewhere outside of this here and now, then she’d have to wear her mask again. Have to go back to preparing for the rest of her life and her plan.
‘But, Em.’
‘No, here and now. This was between Mr Wolf and Red. I don’t know who those other people are…’ She was pleading with him to go with her. For once could he go with her stories and spin?
She couldn’t see his eyes behind his mask, couldn’t see his eyebrows but she knew they’d be furrowed. She could see that from the stubborn thrust of his chin. He was going to be difficult.
The fizz and magic of the kiss started to fade, she could feel her mask start to slip back in place. The flying feeling she’d had as she’d taken that step off the edge was beginning to flounder, she could feel the ground get closer as she fell.
‘Please…’ She couldn’t help but reach up with a finger to trace his lips. Had she really fulfilled her teen fantasy of kissing Gee Knightley? No, she’d fulfilled her grown up fantasy of kissing her friend, Gee.
She needed to leave before she hit the floor. This was why she didn’t go off script. The highs were high, but they never lasted.
‘But…’ he started again. She impulsively reached up, and brushed her lips against his. She wanted to taste him for the last time. Tuck that memory away to take out and relive, when no one else would know.
It hurt. Feeling his warmth and tasting him only this once.
His arms tightened as though he wasn’t going to let her go. Maybe she could have a little longer. But then it would be too hard.
She could feel him taking a breath to say something. She couldn’t let him. This was the right here, right now. Only existing for this night, anything he said couldn’t be taken away.
She felt something knock into her, loosening his arms. The cow was back and still not in control of its appendages. She took the chance to slip out of his arms. His fingers tried to grasp her but the satin feel of the cloak thwarted him. She slipped into the crowd.
It was as if she were leaving part of herself behind.
No. This was silly. It was a moment in time. He was wearing a mask and for once she wasn’t wearing hers. Tomorrow. Well, they’d deal with that then but tonight she needed to get her life together again.
Emma took off her cape and tucked it under her arm, the red of it hidden so that if anyone were trying to find her they couldn’t. But he wouldn’t come, because he knew it was just an aberration. She reasoned with herself, she would slip home and be the normal Emma again.
Stopping at the top of the stairs, before leaving the bar, she turned back.
There, almost spot lit by the bar was Mr Wolf, the white of his wig glinting in the light. She watched as his fingers touched his lips. He tilted his masked head towards the door where she was standing. Could he see her? She wasn’t sure but his hand came up from his mouth and touched his forehead in what seemed to be a salute.
Everything in her yearned to run back and throw herself in his arms. To feel that completeness that she’d felt for that one moment. She’d felt safe but also alive.
But what would happen when he didn’t want to do it anymore. She could almost feel the emptiness, the chaos it would leave behind.
No. This was a one off. It couldn’t happen again.
Please, don’t let it change anything, she thought as she hurried out.
At home, she took the red cape and folded it carefully before burying it at the back of her wardrobe, piling other clothes on top of it so not even a glimpse of red could be seen.