7

CHAPTER FOUR

“Tell me you’re nervous because of the party and not because you’re finally meeting Love,” Grayson said. He stood next to me at the mouth of the ballroom, Holden on my other side, the massive space now completely filled with Hooked users. “If you’re acting all fidgety because you’re about to meet Love, I’m going to think you’re getting soft on me.”

“He’s allowed to be nervous about Love,” Holden announced before I had a chance to respond. “He’s about to meet his perfect match. Shit, that’s huge.”

“But since he started talking to her, our dude’s been acting different.”

I adjusted my mask, making sure it was secure. “I haven’t been acting different, asshole.” The murmurs from our guests, the warm lighting, the decor—it was all finally settling in and giving me a buzz. “I’m just trying to balance things. We’ve got a lot going on, more than we anticipated. Love is only adding to that, and yeah, I like her. Sue me.”

“And she’s making you soft as fuck,” Grayson countered. “You’ve never let a woman affect you since I’ve known you.”

I tore my stare away from the party and looked at my best friend. “You’re right.”

“I know.”

“Now, can you take a look around and actually appreciate what we’ve done here? Or are you so focused on me, you’re going to waste the whole night obsessed with my softness?”

Grayson’s hand went to my shoulder. “We have put together one hell of a party, I’m not going to deny that.”

“You can say that again,” Holden said. “I mean, things only kicked off about half an hour ago and everyone seems to already be having a blast.”

We’d instructed the party planner to go with a luxury-meets-fantasy theme. She had outfitted the entire room in black and red, draping the walls in velvet and the ceiling in feathers, with spotlights shining through from above, creating this rich, dark lighting that was a mood of its own. And when you added in the costumes and masks and our guests’ anonymity, that only gave it a more mysterious, enticing, and extremely sexy vibe.

Our hope was that after tonight, the videos and pictures of the party would go viral, creating even more awareness for our brand. Now that I saw the way everything had turned out, I had no doubt that would happen.

But aside from what this event would do for Hooked, tonight was also about Love.

Every time I thought about her and what I was going to do to her body, my hands clenched, and my dick got hard as fuck. I didn’t know what it was about her, but a feeling of excitement grew each time we texted, when I learned something new about her—a connection that was endlessly taunting me.

I wanted her.

And, fortunately, I didn’t have to wait any longer to have her because I’d already spotted her on the other side of the bar. Since guests were given name tags with their usernames when they checked in at the door, I’d already verified that it was her when I’d walked by a few minutes ago, during my final loop of checking out the ballroom.

The details I’d picked up on in her photo, even the ones I’d seen in all my dreams, were confirmed now that I was in her presence. Each one made me more breathless, something I hadn’t expected to happen tonight, but as I took her in, as my gaze traveled the length of her gorgeous body, I couldn’t help it. What the picture hadn’t shown was that Love was petite, the perfect height to lean down and kiss. Her thin frame still had plenty of curves, the dress hugging each one, showing tits that were just a handful and a narrow waist that begged to be grabbed. Her dark hair hung long and curled, a length that I could easily wrap around my wrist and tug.

Aside from being skintight, the dress was a crimson that reminded me of lipstick, made fully of lace, and the same material covered her face, with cutouts for her eyes and pouty lips. She held her drink with one hand, the other arm resting across the top of the bar while she spoke to two women I assumed were her friends.

While I moved closer, slowly scanning her body, I felt a weakness. Another sensation I wasn’t expecting, but it made me clutch my vodka on the rocks; it made me suck in the deepest breath; and it made me tame the thoughts feeding my hard-on.

I stopped in front of the trio, looking at her name tag one more time before I said, “Love,” and held out my hand.

I just wanted to touch her, even if that meant only her fingers.

“Mr. Boston,” she said back, her lips pulling into a smile. A sight I couldn’t get enough of. “Finally.”

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Maybe not a long time, but it’s felt like an eternity.”

The mask made it impossible to see anything besides her gaze and grin.

But I felt them.

All over my fucking body.

Our hands stayed linked for several seconds, the warmth of her skin moving through me at a speed I couldn’t control. “Well, I’m here now, and I’ll make up for lost time.” I looked at her friends, introducing myself, hearing their responses, but not absorbing a single word. “Can I buy you ladies a drink?”

Love dangled her glass in the air. “Just got one—we all did.”

I needed her full attention.

I needed her alone.

“Then I’m stealing you away.” I reclasped our hands and said to her friends, “I’ll return her later. Safely, I promise.”

Well fucked, but in one piece, I thought.

With our fingers locked, I brought her to the edge of the ballroom, where the music wasn’t as loud and the crowd wasn’t as thick. “It’s quieter over here. Makes it easier for us to talk.”

She let out a small, soft laugh. “You’re so tall and broad and”—she wiggled her fingers out of mine and touched the whiskers on my chin and jaw—“I see so much handsomeness even though you’re only showing very little of your face.”