Page 31 of Spooks & Specters

Cautiously he looked around.

Music filled the air as couples glided across the dance floor. In a moment that seemed almost destined, the crowd split. A stream of moonlight from a nearby window bathed a stranger in its glow.

Fierce.

Intimidating.

Dark and dangerous.

He had hair as black as night and eyes like burnished coal. They looked into his soul, seeing all of his closely guarded secrets. He was dressed as a dashing rogue, his black eyes a sharp contrast to the golden demon mask with horns that spiraled above his head. His breath caught. Whoever he was, he was an incredibly sexy demon.

But even that wasn’t an adequate description. The stranger was so much more. In fact, this was his dream man, and there he was, standing across the room from him. He couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be held in those strong arms and kissed incessantly. His heart beat faster.

In response, the stranger’s lips twisted into a smirk, and he raised his champagne glass in an elaborate toast.

He gulped. There was… there was no way the other man could have possibly known what he was thinking. Such abilities didn’t exist outside of fiction books.

Besides, he was too far away, and his face was partially covered with the mask he wore. There was simply nowaythisbeautiful demon could see the blush that covered his face or hear how his heart hammered.

Right?

He was jostled, his focus abruptly diverted. Murmured apologies floated to him as the one who bumped him drifted off. Turning back, he searched for his sexy stranger, but the crowd had closed ranks, and the other man was lost to his gaze.

Need prodded him to go look, to find his sexy demon.

His?

He hadn’t met the man even, and yet his writer brain had already claimed the stranger as his. Instead of embarking on such folly, he drained his champagne and set it on the tray of a passing waiter.

This was ridiculous.Thiswas real life, not one of his romance books. People didn’t lock gazes from across a crowded room and fall in love. Things didn’t happen like that, at least not for him.

He needed to snap out of it and get back to doing what he came here for—networking.

AS THE night unfolded, there were moments when the itch between his shoulder blades was nearly impossible to ignore and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

But no matter how he searched, he couldn’t find who was staring at him. Nor did he see his handsome stranger again.

His feet hurt from the constant dancing, and his cheeks ached from smiling so much. Networking and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous were a pain in his ass. But it had to be done.

Dinner had passed, and with it, his patience dwindled. He’d received more propositions than he could count. Yet the one invitation he truly desired had not arrived. The enigmatic figure in the mask had vanished.

It was as though he had disappeared into the shadows.

With dinner concluded, he departed the ballroom and made his way to the secluded moonlit garden. Sighing, he sat on a stone bench. The masquerade ball’s lively buzz persisted in the distance. Here, away from prying eyes, he removed his mask.

In the quiet of the garden, the moon cast its silvery glow through the leaves of ancient trees. Each ray of moonlight was like a delicate thread, weaving through the foliage, creating a tapestry of light and shadow on the ground below.

The leaves filtered the light, diffusing it into a luminescent haze that bathed him in an ethereal glow.

Finally, he could breathe.

The light of the moon, cool and serene, seemed to hold the whispers of the night and the secrets of the stars. Promised peace was what it offered.

He shook his head—these flights of fancy were ridiculous. He was there to do a job, not chase shadows. What heshoulddo was return inside. No deals were going to be cut out here, that was for sure. At least not the ones he was interested in. Still, he hesitated. How long had it been since he’d taken a walk in the woods at night under the gentle light of the moon?

It called to him.

He missed the rustle of leaves underfoot, the distant call of an owl, and the soft whisper of the wind through the trees that created a sense of peace. Standing, he walked through the manicured garden toward the woods. Before him, the moonlight filtering through the canopy created a silver path to guide his steps… if he dared to enter.

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