Page 52 of Phantom Mine

“Keep it. It looks better on you than it does on me.”

“I couldn’t possibly—”

“Yes, you can. And if you really feel like you can’t, then buy me a latte or something when we meet up for lunch.”

“I will.” With a smile, I tell her. “I have to go, but it was great meeting you. I’ll see you soon?”

She waves. “Bye, Valentina.”

I head out with the lipstick and her card clutched in my hand and a bright smile on my face, excited for future plans with a new friend. Adriana is going to love Dagny, I’m sure of it. They have similar energies.

I push the door open with a decided shove and stalk out just as I realize I’ve forgotten my mask. My brain fires a signal to my body to turn around and go get it. The result of the conflicting directions has my legs tangling with each other and me tripping over my own feet.

Before I know it, I’m hurtling towards the floor. My eyes close as I brace myself for the inevitable pain of the fall. When my shoulder hits the surface, it’s much softer than I expected.

Much warmer too.

It’s only when thick arms close around my waist and pull me into a broad chest, that I realize I haven’t actually hit the floor.

My eyes open and a breathy gasp falls from my lips when I find myself staring up into a face partially obscured by a maskresembling the one from thePhantom of the Opera, except with more coverage.

Dark eyes shine down at me beneath it. The dimness of the hallway adds an element of mystery, the infrequent strobe lights from the main area intermittently piercing the darkness and highlighting what few features of his I can see. Curved, full lips center a straight, chiseled jaw, his mouth tipped at the corners in a confident smirk at me.

He holds me inches off the floor, his body extended in a partial lunge, his torso bent over me. Warmth blooms in my stomach at the way his eyes stare unwaveringly down at me. His nostrils flare in a primal, predatory display as he inhales me. My pulse goes through the roof in response and an aching tension curls itself around my organs.

There’s a strain in his voice when he speaks, his words sending a powerful rush of heat through me.

“You sure know how to make an entrance.”

???

Matteo

With one look, I’m gone.

The air itself shifts, the world spins a little slower, and the space between my heartbeat stretches.

Seeing her face for the first time does something incomprehensible to my insides, twisting and turning them every which way.

High cheekbones sit beneath hazel eyes with hints of green that disappear and reappear under different kinds of light. She has thick eyebrows, bronzed skin and a mass of hair I need wrapped around my fist immediately.

She’s more gorgeous than my imagination could have ever conjured. Beauty like hers exists only in the minds of master artists tasked with translating her splendor on canvas for the ordinary masses to gaze upon in awe.

But she’s no Venus or Aphrodite. She’sreal.

She fits perfectly in my arms. I would never have said that previous women didn’t fit but now that I hold her, I realize what it feels like when it feels right.

It’s different because now I know how it feels to hold the person whobelongsthere. The certainty that burrows into my bones that she’s meant to be in my arms is instantaneous.

“What can I say, I’m desperate for attention,” she quips, plush lips now painted an appetizing color of red since the last time I saw her.

“You’ve got mine,cara mia. You’ve had it from the moment you walked into this club.”

She startles, her eyes widening. “Really?” She looks coyly up at me from beneath her lashes. “What will your attention get me?”

I push her up against the wall and flatten my palms to either side of her. A smug grin appears on my lips at her suggestive tone. “My undying devotion, naturally.”

“And what am I supposed to do with a masked stranger’s undying devotion?”

---