Page 3 of Twilight Mask

He shrugs, tilting his jackal-face from side to side. “I wouldn’t say that. I just liked the view, and I’m a competitive person.”

“Would you do it now?” I ask him, the idea strangely appealing. “If I went to the edge, would you hold me down?”

He turns and stares at me. His eyes are gray, a strange light blue, almost like a slate. It’s disconcerting, the contrast between that color and the deep black and gold of his jackal face.

“You don’t know me. Are you sure you want to take that risk?”

No. Yes. Absolutely fucking not. But more than anything in the world. My heart’s skipping beats at the idea of looking out over the city backward, hanging over nothing.

“Yes. I am.” I walk away from him, over to the edge, and get down on my knees. I feel a moment of dizziness rush over my head as I look down. Cage is a tall building, even though it’s only three floors, with enormous ceilings. Falling from this height onto the concrete parking lot below would definitely kill me.

I hear Jackal coming up behind me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and I nearly scream. I haven’t been touched by a stranger in a very, very long time, but for some reason his fingers send an excited shiver down my spine. Maybe it’s how vulnerable I am, or maybe it’s the masks, but either way I don’t recoil from him the way I might’ve under any other circumstances.

It’s strange and intoxicating, being able to be touched for the first time since I was a teenager.

“On your back, little demon,” he whispers.

And, god, I obey him. I turn around, wriggling my hips, and lie down so I’m staring up at the stars. I feel the edge of the building at the top of my head, my ram horns jutting out into the space behind me. His knees rest on my ankles and his hands touch my legs, and I’m aware that my tight bodycon dress is pulled up to my hips, but I don’t care.

I wriggle backward. My head goes over first and Jackal shifts his weight and his hands until they’re on my hips, pushing me down. I pause for a moment as vertigo hits me.

“You can stop,” he says gently. There’s no malice or judgment. “You don’t have to keep going.”

I don’t listen. I shimmy forward, my head spinning at the mind-bending view. The buildings, the stars, the sky, and the feeling of gravity trying to pull me down. My core activates and I hold myself up as I go further, my shoulders over, the middle of my back. The edge scrapes my spine, but I don’t care.

I see the entire universe above me. The tops of the buildings are at the bottom of my view, but the stars, god, all the stars, even though there are so few in the city sky at night, they still feel infinite. Skyscrapers are nothing, entire blocks are nothing, the highway system and the arteries of this entire country are nothing compared to the gaps between those stars, and I feel like nothing, like a piece of dust floating in an empty room, like an atom at the tip of a microscopic hair.

Jackal’s weight is on my middle. His hands grip my hips and the snout of his mask presses against my belly. My bare thighs are wrapped around him, and my core is pressed into his chest, and I’m pulsing with excitement, both erotic and existential. I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before, my life in the hands of this total stranger, the weight of the galaxy pressing down on my brain, making me go haywire.

I start to move out further, but Jackal stops me. “No more.”

“You went further,” I say, gasping. My mask starts to slip and I have to hold it in place. Hair falls free, dangling over the drop. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I had at least five people making sure I didn’t fall. I’d be very unhappy if you dropped to your death, little demon.”

“Then make sure I don’t.” I start to shimmy again, but he holds me tight.

“No more.” His voice isn’t afraid, but there’s a firm note in his tone. Like this isn’t a command anymore. “Stay right there for as long as you want. I’ll hold you. But no more.”

I sit up, abs working hard, and I look at him, suspended in the air. He’s staring at me, face unreadable behind the mask, gray eyes shining in the city light behind us. I’m tempted to tell him off, to make him let me go. I could drop fast and hard and for a few seconds, I’d be happy.

Instead, I reach out and touch one of his ceramic ears. “Pull me back.”

He doesn’t hesitate. His strong arms drag me toward him until we’re back on the roof together, our bodies tangled, his arms around me and I’m lying on top of him, hands on his chest.

His heart is surprisingly steady. We stay like that for a few seconds and my core’s burning with desire as his hands remain on my hips, way too close to my ass. Nobody’s touched me like this, not for a very, very long time, and I don’t know what to do. I like it, but it scares me, and I want more, but I’m terrified. If we weren’t wearing masks, I’d press my mouth to his and kiss him hard enough to make his lips bleed, but if we weren’t wearing masks I would’ve run away a long time ago.

“That was interesting, watching you like that, but I like this position better, little demon.” His voice is soft and there’s no mocking in it.

I let myself stay for another few heartbeats before I push him back and move to the side. He sits up as I get to my feet and pull my dress down, doing my best to make myself look remotely presentable.

“I get why you played that game.” I take a few steps away from him toward the fire door.

He rises to his feet. “It feels good, doesn’t it? When you’re hanging over the edge, upside-down, completely aware of the drop but too stunned by the view to care. You almost want to fall, don’t you?”

How the hell does he know that’s exactly what I’m thinking? I pause, one hand on the knob, and stare at him as my heart hammers in my chest. I want to ask who he is, and I want to run away and never see him again, but something just happened between us. He had my life in his hands, and he didn’t let me down. No, more than that, he had my body in his hands, and I didn’t want him to stop touching me.

I didn’t know I could be touched without losing my mind.

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