I shivered, slightly uncomfortable by the way the doorman’s eyes lingered on my body as he glanced us over. I was wearing a short — scandalously short, if we’re being honest — black cocktail dress and four-inch heels, my hair down and my favorite shade of pinkish red on my lips.
I felt nervous, but also way excited to be out in public dressed like this. I mean, elegant and yet borderline slutty clubwear wasn’t exactly my normal go-to wardrobe. It wasn’t for Emma either, actually, but I had to say, she looked fantastic. Her dress was a similar style to mine, fitted, cut low, and short, though her emerald green one brought out the fire in her red hair and the soft pale glow of her skin.
The bouncer looked us over again, definitely taking our clothes off with his creepy eyes before he finally nodded and smirked.
“That’s fifty bucks each, ladies.”
I blanched.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously,” he grinned. “You wanna pay some other way though, we can definitely talk.”
I swallowed the sour taste in my mouth as I opened my clutch. “Yeah, cash is fine, thanks.”
“Creep,” Emma muttered as we stepped into the small entrance room. A thumping pulsing rhythm of sexy dance music came from the other side of the door, inside the club.
“Ladies?”
A dark-haired girl with sleeve tattoos smiled at us as she handed us two blacks masks. I shivered again, this time in a sort of nervous excitement as I took it from her and ran my hand over it.
“So, we have to keep these on the whole time we’re here?”
She gave me a funny look. “Uh, no?” She shrugged. “You can take them off whenever, it’s just a theme night.”
The casual way she shrugged off the question took a little of the “sexy-dangerous” mystery out of the place, but I pushed that out of mind.
I was going to enjoy tonight. And I was definitely going to keep this mask on, if only because it pushed me a little outside my comfort zone, and maybe that’s exactly what I needed right then.
I blinked behind the mask as I straightened it on my face, turning to see that Emma had hers on as well. I grinned.
“Ready for this?”
She nodded eagerly. “Definitely.”
I started to turn for the main door, when she grabbed my arm.
“I think we should get wild tonight.”
I grinned. “Wild, huh?”
“I’m being serious! We never do stuff like this, and I think we both need a night of just cutting loose, getting wild, and pretending our actions don’t have consequences.”
I laughed deeply. “Wow! Watch out world, Emma Vale is out for blood tonight!”
She rolled her eyes behind her mask. “No, c’mon you know what I mean. Let’s have one drink more than we should, dance until our feet are killing us, and kiss some hot boys.” She grinned wickedly. “And maybe we can see what happens after kissing.”
I grinned back, the excitement from earlier spiking through me. I doubted either of us were really going to get that nuts tonight, but it was the mindset that counted, and that, we had in spades.
“Let’s do this,” I said eagerly as I turned and yanked the door open.
Thundering bass music washed over us, the room absolutely packed with people dancing, sweating, grinding, drinking, kissing, and panting to the music.
“No regrets, right?” I glanced quickly at Emma, seeing her nod.
“No regrets.”
We stepped into the swirling, grinding crowd as the doors shut behind us.
I was halfway through my cocktail, half-heartedly swaying to the music by the bar while Emma told me some juicy gossip about work when I saw him.
The fire in those dark eyes across the club as they burned into me told me he’d seen me long before I saw him though.
Whoa.
The man was absolutely gorgeous, in that surreal, perfect, magazine-model way. His blond hair was cropped short, his high cheekbones and strong jaw chiseled out of iron, and the confident, cocky smirk on his face did very interesting things to my pulse. He wore a mask, like me, but I could still see the glint of something wicked in his eyes behind it.
“Holy crap,” Emma muttered next to me, leaning in as she sipped her drink through her straw.
“Okay, that is exactly what we need.”
I laughed. “We, huh?”
“Fine, you. He’s pulling your panties off with his eyes right now anyways.”
I blushed as I rolled my eyes at her.
“He is not.”
“He’s literally having sex with you, right now, from across the whole club.”
I laughed, as if brushing her off, but when I turned back to him, the laugh caught in my throat. My pulse skipped, and a hot flush creeped over my body.
Emma was right — he was tearing my clothes off with his eyes as he smirked that cool, cocky grin at me. I swallowed, quickly taking a big sip of my cocktail and then choking on it slightly as the man started to stalk across the dance floor towards me.
His eyes never left mine.
“I think I should go use the bathroom,” Emma said quickly, turning to leave.
“Wait, don’t you dare leave me!”
“Have fuuuuun,” she giggled in a sing-song voice. “Get wild!”
She ducked away from my poking finger and pushed her way through the bar crowd.
“Oh you get wild,” I muttered at her disappearing back.
“Maybe I will.”
I gasped at the sound of the deep, velvety baritone voice in my ear. I whirled, and my heart jumped into my throat as I looked up into the gorgeous, captivating, panty-melting face of my dark stranger.
“Get wild, that is.” He grinned, a brow cocking behind his mask as I looked up into his face. “I might need some help though.”
I felt the heat creep into my face as he stepped closer to me, those eyes still locked on me.
He wore grey, expensive looking slacks and a crisp, white, tailored shirt that stretched across his broad muscled shoulders — tucked in, unbuttoned at the neck, with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows of his muscled arms.
“Oh, that—” I bit my lip, falling into those eyes. “That’s just my friend. It’s this joke we have.”
He shrugged casually, that grin of his still making me warm all over.
“Well, joke or not, you strike me as a girl who could get a little wild.”
I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Trust me, you have no idea how wrong you are.”
“Well, I mean you dressed up, you look fucking fantastic—”
I blushed as he continued.
“You came out to a Masquerade night, and you’re drinking a martini.” He winked at me. “My kind of girl, actually.”
“Oh, trust me, this is not me.”
“Well, it suits you.”
I grinned.
“I’m starting this crazy new job tomorrow and…” I trailed off. “I’m just out celebrating I guess.”
“Well let’s celebrate then.”
I shivered as he moved closer, my back against the bar with this gorgeous, perfect man towering over me — his smokey eyes and his panty-melting grin sending a buzz through my body.
“I’m Matthew.”
“Julia.”
“Dance with me, Julia.”