Page 35 of His Two Hidden Masks

“Is someone joining us?” I said.

“Yes.” James nodded over my shoulder. “And, of course, he is late.”

“Who is late?” I spun around in my chair to see a man crossing the piazza. He looked just like James, but was wearing a long, light grey, winter coat.

Mouth gaping, my stomach twisted into knots of confusion. “What the fuck is going on?” I said, head spinning between James at the table and this doppelgänger.

“I believe you know him,” James said, his lips in a tight line. He actually picked up his phone and appeared to be distracted by a text. “That is my brother, Dylan.”

I spun around in my seat, soaking in the frame, the face, the body of this man named Dylan as he strode across the piazza. His eyes caught mine and he smiled.

There was a spark of recognition. He knew me. This man knew me. Suddenly, it all made sense, the awkward morning, the stilted tone in James’s voice. I had known him and not known him.

“Hello, brother,” James said, as his double approached our table. “I believe you two have met before.”

“Yes, good evening, my clever Bella,” Dylan said, a smile creeping across his face. He sat down next to James.

My breath caught in my throat. Dylan’s playful and wicked smile was just as I remembered. His arrogant and edgy sexuality was as hard hitting as the crash of our bodies colliding in the street. Damn. Within ten seconds, this man had me undone, again.

My eyes darted between the brothers. “What the fuck is this?”

“Give her a moment,” James said, glancing up from his phone, unsmiling. He looked irritated. And his brother? Well, they both shared an alpha arrogance, but Dylan had a smile that suggested he was quite pleased with himself.

“Talk,” I said, fixing my gaze on Dylan. “What is going on here?”

Dylan shrugged. “Per usual, I have been a very naughty boy.”

Naughty boy. Lord, help me, just hearing those words made me think of his body hovering above mine and his hard dicksliding deep into my wet pussy. How was I going to get through this conversation without melting into a puddle?

James sighed and looked up from his phone. “Isabella, my brother would like to apologize to you. Can you please do a proper apology to this lovely woman, Dylan?”

Had James, the real James, just called me lovely?

“Of course,” Dylan said. “I am sorry for the confusion our evening caused you.

The waiter returned to the table with a bottle of Dom in a bucket and my Aperol Spritz. I took the orange cocktail from his hand and drained it while he popped the champagne and filled all of our glasses.

“So, you two are twins,” I said, setting my empty spritz glass on the table.

“You got it,” Dylan said, touching his nose.

“I’m older by six minutes,” James said, looking up from his phone. “In case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t. And last night,” I chose my words carefully. “I went back to the Mia Sorella with you for a one-night-stand.”

I held my finger in the air, moving it between their identical faces, stopping on Dylan’s. “It was you,” I said, “not you.” I pointed at James.

“Indeed,” James said. “Last night, I was working while my little brother here was roaming the streets of Venice, looking for a midnight espresso.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Dylan said. “I didn’t lie about that, Bella. I expected to find coffee last night, but I didn’t expect to find you.” He took a sip of his champagne, that sexy know-it-all smile still on his face.

You lied to me last night.” Lowering my voice to a whisper, I leaned across the table. “Why did you do that? Why did you say you were James? What is wrong with you?”

“So many questions and so many things are wrong with me,” Dylan said, sipping his champagne. “How much time do you have?”

“She’s got you there, brother,” James said.

“Let’s not forget that you kept a few secrets from me, as well, clever Bella,” Dylan said. He held his champagne glass up to the light and swirled it, the pale gold liquid sloshing in circles.

---