Page 14 of Hale's Pawn
“Mmhmm. It’d be odd to not pick up on some things when I’m right here.”
Ainslee just stares at me but says nothing. After a stare that’s gone too long, she clears her throat and goes back to her work station. Ainslee is now avoiding eye contact. Oh, when will she learn?
Ainslee has been avoidingme all week. She’s been trying to act discreet about it, but it's me, you can’t really hide that from me. Just like now, for some reason I can’t sleep. I sigh and I turn to watch her as she sleeps so close to the edge on her side of the bed. I don’t know why she keeps doing that, the bed is big enough. Ever since I woke her up by touching her back, she’s been doing that and then like clockwork, she turns, unconsciously searching for warmth. I always wake up with her holding me like I’m the one who needs comfort. I shake my head as I move a bit closer to her. Ainslee finds what she’s searching for in her sleep and this time she’s restless until she’s literally sleeping on top of me. She relaxes and I know she’s not going to wake up again. I glare at her damned head, but I don’t bother moving, there’s no point. I bend my arm under my head and I stare at the ceiling. Ainslee’s fingers find their way into my hair and she plays with it. I swear she needs to get checked for doing weird shit in her sleep, but her fingers playing in my hair cause me to fall asleep.
“Jag, do you feel funny?” I ask him. We’re at this Unknown Elites location party. They always change locations and I don’t like going all the time but this time, Jagger convinced me.
“What I feel is that you need to fix your mask before they know who you are. You want to be in the damned gossip column tomorrow morning?” he says as he makes sure his black mask covers half of his face. I know it's him because we’re close but others who don’t know us won’t know.
I fix my mask. Jagger had it custom made for me and when I saw it, I smiled. It was sort of a twist on the Man in the Iron Mask. Half of my face is obscured but you can see my eyes, lips, and I can breathe. If someone knows the story, not the movie version of it, they’ll get it, especially the black velvet exterior. My phone pings from the app and we look at it. “I got room B and my dare is to kiss whoever walks out the other door.”
“Hesitating?” Jagger asks.
I should be but there’s some excitement in my body. I shake my head. “Nah, this might be fun. It’s just a kiss.”
“Cool. I got Room E and I have to get them to confess to something by using my fingers only.”
That’s the thing about the Unknown Elites. It’s sort of like a moving sex club for people who want to do things and not have it traced back to them. You set your limits in the app before registering. Once that’s done, there’s a time and location, but it's hard to track down who the owners are because they use different IP addresses and VPNs that bounce off each other. I’m not that invested to find out. Jagger and I just had one too many drinks one night and decided to research it.
I down the rest of my drink and I get up from the club area where everyone is dancing and partying. I head towards the elevator. Once I climb in, there’s a girl there. At that time, I didn’t know who she was. She had deep blue eyes and porcelain skin that I could see from the part of her face that stuck out, but I didn’t recognize her. I shrug as I get off before her and I walk towards Room B. Once I enter, the door on the other side opens as well. I lock the door and so does she. These are the rules so that nobody comes in. We stare at each other. She has gray eyes like I do. She smiles at me and I give her a smile as well. She walks up to me in her tiny shorts, long sleeve shirt, and sneakers. She’s a small thing. So damned tiny compared to me. “Maybe I should stand on the bed, I didn’t know you’d be this tall,” she chuckles.
“ I got you.” I reply and I scoop her up, placing her on the bed. She’s still shorter but there is some leverage.
“Okay, let's do this.” She grabs my t-shirt and pulls me closer to her. She gets on the tip of her toes and kisses me.
I don’t know what it is. Could be the drinks or something, but I groan. I kiss her back just as quickly as she kissed me. I don’t really know what takes over, but I know that I’m kissing her like I’m eating her pussy. My tongue takes control as it licks her lips while kissing her passionately. I don’t think I’ve ever kissed anyone this damned way. I groan and pull away. “Shit,” I say.
“Fuck. I thought…” she says but then stops. “I thought this was going to be so simple. Where did you learn to kiss like that?” she asks.
I chuckle and shrug. “I’m just good at whatever I do.”
She laughs. She observes me and looks at my mask, gasping in awe. “Marchioly.”
I grin at her reference. “The fact that you got it is so amazing. But why is your mask so simple? Seems like you could’ve gone anywhere with it.”
“Yeah, I switched with my friend because she said hers was itching her face. I had the Phantom of the Opera but with a Venetian twist to it.”
“Damn.”
“Damn is right,” she replies.
I don’t know what happened next to trigger us to get hot and heavy, but we ended up fucking. I took her virginity and she let me. She told me she wasn’t waiting for anyone in particular. I was horny as fuck and a little out of it. We fucked with our masks on, never taking them off, but we stared into each other’s eyes the whole time. Eyes similar in color to mine but off by the brown flecks.
I jolt awake. What the hell did I dream about that night for? I shake my head, disoriented as hell. Ainslee is not in bed, which means she’s probably getting ready for Jagger and Karessa’s wedding. I get out of bed, trying to ignore it all, especially the dream. Those gray eyes with the brown in them is triggering a memory. I get in the shower, shutting my eyes as the water hits my body.
“What’s that on your back?” I ask her.
She turns, facing me. “Please, don’t… Don’t ask me.” She looks like she’s ready to bolt.
“Wait! Wait. I won’t hurt you or tell anybody. We’re not allowed to, remember? It just looks painful.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not painful. Not anymore.”
I lay back on the bed. “Come to me.” She doesn’t hesitate as she gets closer to me and she lays on top of me. “Can I touch it? I won’t hurt you.”
She nods but says nothing. I softly caress her back, rubbing up and down. The marks are in the middle of her back. Red and angry on her beautiful, light caramel skin. It's ugly compared to the rest of her soft and beautiful skin. I can feel her tears on my bare chest and it tugs at me. I don’t like tears. It reminds me of my mom, and those memories are painful as fuck. “Who did this to you?”
“The woman who was meant to love me,” she answers. “Please, don’t ask me anymore. That’s all I can tell you.”
