Nostalgia ran in my veins as I made my way through the ballroom, listening to the sounds of the string orchestra. Once a year, my mother and I would go listen to the New York Philharmonic. We’d gone for twenty years and I could still remember the way my mother closed her eyes as she let the music take her away. Those had been some of the best moments I’d had with her. I had never been able to lose myself as deeply as she had in the music, but classical music always took me back to those happy memories with her. I adjusted my mask and looked out at the crowds of people, most of whom I didn’t recognize under their masks. It had been David’s idea to make this a masquerade ball, and it seemed to have gone over well. The guests were pretty much all in disguise and enjoying the fact that they had some anonymity in the room. I was seeing hands groping and caressing, with people being bolder due to their disguises. I was studying one couple in a corner when I saw a woman in a deep purple gown hurrying across the room. My heart stopped as I stared at the expanse of her back and I walked toward her quickly, needing to see if it was who I thought it was. She paused for a second and bent down to adjust her right heel; her long brown hair cascading to the side in big bouncy curls. My fingers itched to touch her smooth back, and I longed to watch her eyes widen in surprise and delight as those fingers made their way down to her ample bottom. She’d gasp as I’d pull her close to me and lean in to say hello. I’d let my lips lightly brush hers and tease her. Her eyes would stare into mine in shock as we’d look at each other from behind our masks. My skin felt warm as I approached her, my excitement growing in every step that I took. I didn’t think about what I was doing. I didn’t want to analyze why I wanted to kiss Bianca London so much or why I wanted to feel her heartbeat as my fingers caressed her skin. I was just a few inches away when she turned around and my heart dropped. The lady in the purple dress was not Bianca. Disappointment flooded me as this lady, this stranger, looked me up and down and smiled. I turned away, angry at myself for getting carried away and for hoping so badly that she would be Bianca.
“There you are, Jakob!” David’s voice boomed across the room as he walked toward me with a statuesque woman by his side. “This is my girlfriend, Roma.” David held her arm proudly as he introduced me to the beauty by his side. I shook her hand and smiled at her, noting that her blue eyes were calculating as she smiled back at me tightly. She was well put together, with not a hair out of place, and I wondered what her story was.
“Nice to meet you, Roma.” I bowed my head at her.
“You too, Jakob.” She took her gold and blue mask off and gazed down the length of my suit and back up again, a coquettish smile on her face as she peered at me through her long lashes. “I do hope we will become better acquainted. I’ve been telling David I’ve wanted to meet you for months.”
“Why is that?” I tilted my head and glanced at the tops of her breasts as she licked her lips slowly, flirting with me so subtly that a fool like David wouldn’t even know it was happening.
“You’re his brother. I wanted to meet his family.”
“Oh, but we’re not brothers in the full sense of the word.”
“Meaning you don’t share?” She smiled sweetly.
“There is nothing we need to share.” I shrugged and gazed at David’s face, so smug and confident.
“No, I suppose there isn’t.” She nodded. “You seem to be the sort of guy who takes what he wants.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I don’t hesitate to go after what I want.”
“Neither do I?” she said simply, and looked pointedly at my crotch again. “Life is too short to just sit back and wait.”
I said nothing in response. I knew what she was intimating. My hands up her skirt, pulling her panties down and fucking her hard. It wasn’t an altogether displeasing idea. She was hot and my body was attracted to her. My cock was already hardening in my pants at her gaze, and it didn’t hurt that her hand had casually grazed my crotch. Roma was obviously a woman of the world. I could already tell she had a story. She was someone for David to be wary of, but I didn’t care. He could fight his own battles when it came to women.
David was the sort of man who always put himself and his money first. He would never let a woman get close enough to completely take him, because he was already distrustful as it was. Our father had done that to him. It was one of the reasons I didn’t envy him for being the heir to the Bradley throne. Jeremiah Bradley had been so paranoid in his dealings, likely because he knew how he’d come across his riches. He’d ingrained in his son a paranoia and worry that I was glad I didn’t carry. Though of course I had my own concerns. My mother had made me wary, but for a completely different reason. The pain and concern I carried around wasn’t influenced by how much money I had but by how many users had tried to get close to me for it. My pain existed because my mother had been used and discarded as if she didn’t matter. My pain existed because my mother had died due to that heartache. She’d died without getting to see me take down the people who had ruined her life. Maybe they hadn’t foreseen what was going to happen to my mother, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t care what they did or didn’t know. I didn’t care what their intentions had been. The simple fact was that my mother had lived most of her life heartbroken due to a few key people, and they were going to pay. I looked at Roma and wondered if she thought I trusted her. I wondered if she knew that I knew her secrets. I wondered if she knew all of the information my mother had given me before she’d died. Yes, my mother’s life had been ruined, but it wasn’t going to be in vain. I’d play along with the charade until I was ready to pounce.
“I’m going to get a drink.” My hand caught Roma’s as David turned around to talk to someone else. “Would you like anything?”
“Sex on the Beach,” she said simply, her eyes flashing at me as she pushed her shoulders back. I looked down at the top of her dress, the tops and sides of her breasts exposed in a daring fashion with the plunging neckline.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“You can make it happen, right?” She grinned at me as she took a step forward. “You have an island, right?”
“I do.” I nodded, my eyes not leaving hers. The moment was fraught with tension and I wondered why I was still standing here, talking to this woman. She was beautiful, but there was an air surrounding her that felt dark and heavy. I didn’t like this woman, even though a part of her excited the primal part of me.
“So what are you two talking about?” David turned back around and glanced back and forth at us, his eyes narrowed as he studied our body language.
“Sex.” I grinned at him, watching the mask of displeasure cloak his face for a few seconds.