Five Masks of Sin

by Kelli Callahan

  “An arrogant one too, it sounds like.” I lifted my glass of wine to my lips as I tried to suppress a smile.

  “It’s okay to be a cocky bastard if you back it up.” He smirked and leaned close to me. “And believe me, princess, I back it up.”

  Damn it, I’m supposed to be the one seducing him.

  “Why don’t you dance with me, then?” I put my wine glass on the counter. “If you have some good moves, I might ask for your pin.”

  “Like you aren’t going to ask for it anyway.” He stood up and extended his hand. “Fine—m’lady.”

  “You don’t get to America much do you?” I took his hand and let him help me up. “My generation ruined that phrase for everyone.”

  “Fine.” He smiled and nodded. “My princess.”

  “Yeah, that works.” I grinned and followed him out onto the dance floor.

  Regardless of my confidence, I hadn’t learned to magically dance since I arrived at the World Ball. I was really starting to wish I had taken lessons. It was hard to be seductive when I was stumbling over my own feet and being pulled through the steps by a man who had been dancing elegantly his whole life. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind. He carried me through several songs until my feet were quite sore. We undressed each other with our eyes. We said what we wanted without saying very much at all. By the time the music started to die down after the third song, I was pulling him towards the door.

  “Give me your pin.” I removed mine from my dress.

  “So demanding.” He chuckled, but his hands went to his pin.

  I didn’t take Prince Harland back to Maximo’s suite. I wanted him all to myself. I hoped they would understand once they realized who I had managed to land on my own, without any help from Simon. Prince Harland guided me to the elevators once we were outside the Grand Ballroom and pushed his card into the slot that would take us to the suites. His suite was on a much higher floor that Maximo’s and when we got there I realized why—his suite was the floor. The doors opened onto a corridor and when he opened the only door in front of us, I saw a remarkable view of New York from the windows that lined the room. He removed his mask and I did the same, not that either of them did much to cover our faces.

  “Wow, this is incredible.” I blinked in surprise as I walked into the room.

  “It should be, considering how much it cost me.” He pushed the door closed and took off his jacket.

  “Can I just be a dorky fangirl for one second before we do this?” I bit down on my lip and smiled.

  “Sure.” He nodded. “Everyone wants that moment.”

  “I used to write about you in my diary.” I laughed and put my hand up to my mouth. “I used to write about my royal wedding to Prince Harland as if it really happened—and of course, I didn’t ignore the wedding night, although it was very G rated.”

  “Well, this is no fairy tale.” He walked up and put his hands on my hips. “I don’t wait until the wedding night.”

  He pulled me close and we kissed. It was unbelievable. He could have been the worst kisser in the world and I would have melted just because Prince Harland was crushing my lips beneath his. His hands slid across my shoulders and started pushing the straps of my dress down. I pushed his coat off his shoulders as he continued to kiss me. His tongue explored my mouth with the kiss getting more passionate as our lips formed a perfect seal. My mind was spinning. I was actually kissing Prince Harland. I never thought that would be anything more than an entry in my diary. His hands moved behind my back, tugging at the zipper until my dress fell to the floor. He pulled back from our kiss, breathing heavy as he looked into my eyes.

  “God, you’re so beautiful.” He squeezed my breasts through my bra. “If you were my queen, I would make the entire kingdom worship you.”

  “I didn’t think you were going to be king.” I bit down on my lip and smiled. “That’s why you get to be such a playboy.”

  “Eh, things might change.” He shrugged and moved his hands behind my back, unsnapping my bra.

  “Oh, will there be a royal scandal?” I tilted my head to the side as he reached down and pushed his hand into my panties.

  “Only this one.” He pressed his finger into my wetness. “Prince Harland and the fake princess from America.”

  “I like that story.” I threw my head back and gasped when he pushed his finger deep inside me.

  He fingered me for a couple of minutes before we finally started towards the bedroom. Once he removed the rest of his clothes, I realized that the stories about the men from the Southern Isles wasn’t an exaggeration, at least where he was concerned. His cock was enormous—the biggest one I had ever seen. It had more girth than any of the other guys and was at least two inches longer. It looked like a beast roaring to life as it engorged with his lust. He opened the drawer next to his bed and pulled out a condom that had the words Magnum XL on the side. He ripped it open and when he started rolling it on his shaft, it still seemed to be so tight that it threatened to break before he even got it fully unrolled.

  “I would offer my tongue, but you were so wet when I put my finger inside you that I think I would just be licking a lake.” He chuckled as he climbed on the bed and lifted my legs.

  “Yeah, you might be responsible for every drop of that lake.” I nodded and grinned.

  He started to force his cock inside me and even though I was wet, I wasn’t used to his girth. He pulled back and gave me a few hard thrusts, pushing until I was stretched. Once it was halfway in, he shifted his weight and let that carry him the rest of the way to nirvana. I felt my eyes bulging out of my head when I felt how deep he went. He started to lift his hips and drive them down, putting his whole body into every thrust. He suspended himself on his palms and on his toes with his powerful muscles flexed as he literally did push-ups while he hammered my pussy. I kept my legs pointed towards the ceiling and my toes curled when I felt his girth doing things to my g-spot that none of the others had done.

  “I thought American girls were loose.” He gasped and exhaled sharply. “I can barely keep the momentum going, you’re so tight.”

  “I was recently a virgin.” I choked on my words as I felt him go deep again.

  “I can believe that.” He nodded and struggled to keep his rhythm.

  Prince Harland was an amazing lover. It was like an athletic display as every muscle flexed while he slammed himself into me. I adjusted to his girth after a few dozen of his hard thrusts and then I was locked in bliss. I didn’t even need an orgasm to feel the electricity surging through me. The energy just flowed from his cock, into my pussy, and then lit sparks against my flesh. Every thrust was divine. He pillaged me, but it was so good that I didn’t care. I just gasped and moaned while he descended on me like a savage chasing his release. The pressure inside me built to the point of no return and I started to shake with the bliss that he created. He kept going, ignoring what was going on beneath him.

  “I’m gonna cum!” I started to draw quick breaths, exhaling so fast it felt like I was hyperventilating.

  “Guess you don’t know everything about men from the Southern Isles.” He smiled and picked up the pace. “One is just the beginning.”

  I thought he was just being arrogant, but the spasms that desperately massaged his cock did nothing to change his rhythm. He kept thrusting as if it didn’t faze him. Within a couple of minutes, I was orgasming for the second time. A few minutes later, the third one threatened to tear my muscles apart. I was spent, feeling weak and weary, but he was still going like an engine that thrived on my climax. The fourth hit me like a sledgehammer. The fifth brought the sledgehammer down onto battered flesh that didn’t feel nothing but the engulfing despair when I realized it wasn’t going to be the last. I didn’t think it was possible to orgasm again, but he kept going, not losing his stride at all.

  “How the fuck are you still going.” I muttered and my lips trembled against each other. “Am I not doing it for you?”

  “Oh, I can cum anytime I w
ant.” He laughed and kept the rhythm going. “It’s all about the journey, not the destination.”

  I lost count of how many times he made my body convulse into an orgasmic fit. My head fell to the side and I could barely move. He started to thrust into me harder and after a dozen of his thunderous thrusts, I felt his cock throb. He threw his head back and roared with a primal growl as he started to pulsate inside me. I didn’t have the energy for another orgasm, but my body didn’t care. He forced it out of me as he started to ejaculate. His pulsation were almost as powerful as the spasms that surged within me when the last one threatened to send me into shock. He fucked my pussy even faster as he blew his load into the condom and when he finally started to withdraw, I thought I was going to sink through the mattress, the floor, and hit the foundation of the hotel before the world stopped spinning.

  “And that, fake princess, is how a prince from the Southern Isles does it.” He leaned forward, kissed my sweat covered forehead, and dropped down onto the bed next to me.

  I’m just going to lay here for eternity. It’ll take me that long to recover.

  I WOKE UP A COUPLE of times in Harland’s arms during the night, but I was still too spent to move. I felt happy just being there with the man that had consumed my fantasies as a teenager. I also felt like the journey to my sexual awakening was complete. I had gone from a timid virgin to a woman that had lost every shred of my innocence, to the literal embodiment of what I once thought the perfect man was. When morning came and I stared at the ceiling, my only thoughts were of Maximo and the others. I didn’t think it was possible for me to desire another man after having a night with Prince Harland. He was a dream brought to life, born from the confident woman Maximo and the others created.

  Now I need to go back to them. I did this on my own, without cheating or relying on anyone else. I think I officially won Maximo’s twisted game.

  I pushed Prince Harland’s arm off of me and sat up in the bed. He was delicious to look at, even when he was sleeping. As amazing as he was, he wasn’t real life. He was just a moment in time that I would cherish. I was a princess for one night in the arms of a real prince, but I couldn’t exist in that world. I needed Maximo and the others. I needed Simon’s firm hand of discipline. I needed Lenny’s ridiculous outlook on life. I need Dane’s selfless dedication to my pleasure. Most of all, I needed Maximo. I needed to help him get what his grandfather had taken from him with the ridiculous condition on his inheritance.

  “You’re awake.” Harland opened his eyes slowly and reached out for me.

  “Yeah, I should probably go.” I rolled to the side of the bed.

  Before I could put my feet on the floor, there was a loud noise, almost like an explosion. Harland sat up with his eyes shifting back and forth. He leapt from the bed to the floor and grabbed his pants. The noise got louder. I pulled the top sheet from the bed and wrapped it around me. I could tell by the way he moved towards the entrance of the bedroom that it wasn’t expected. The noise got louder and then there was what I could only describe as an explosion. Harland ran into the main part of his suite and I followed behind him. I saw two figures in black enter his room and then I saw something roll across the floor. It stopped a few feet from me and then it started bellowing smoke. It wasn’t just smoke, though. It was something that choked me and made my eyes burn.

  “What the fuck?” I heard Harland’s voice but he was gasping for air.

  “Get the prince.” A gruff voice echoed through the fog.

  “What about the girl?” Another voice spoke with a similar tone.

  “Take her, too.” The first voice spoke a second time.

  I felt hands on my arms. I struggled, but I was choking, gasping for air, and I couldn’t see very well. I could see an outline of the figures and it looked like they were wearing gas masks, which explained why their voice sounded distorted. I saw Harland’s face for a second through the fog when we got to the entrance of his suite and there was a wound near his right temple. He was knocked out and being carried. I felt something slam into my head as well, and then the fog faded to darkness.

  Chapter 15: Maximo

  “What the hell is going on?” I woke up to the sound of explosions and then the lights went out.

  “Maximo? Uh, something isn’t right.” I heard Simon’s voice from the other room.

  “Where’s Lyric? Did she not come back last night?” I walked into the living room and rubbed my eyes.

  “No.” Dane shook his head.

  “That sounded like TNT or some shit.” The bathroom door opened and Lenny stepped out. “Almost like a bomb. I swear the toilet shook.”

  I ran to the door and opened it to find several other people out in the hallway. They all had the same concerned look on their face that we had. I asked if anyone in the hallway knew what was going on. None of them did. I walked back into my suite and grabbed my cell phone, but there was no service. I rushed to the phone and found that it was dead as well. I dropped it down on the base and looked at the other guys in the room. Something definitely wasn’t right. It wasn’t a blackout or a power surge. There was definitely an explosion, and it was in our building. My mind flashed back to 9/11 when the towers fell. I ran to the window and looked out, but I didn’t see anything that looked suspicious.

  “We have to find Lyric.” I looked back at the others.

  “Agreed.” Simon nodded. “It’s a long way down those stairs, but we should go to the lobby.”

  “Yeah.” Lenny nodded as well.

  The four of us made our way to the stairs, and when we pushed the door open, we realized that whatever sound we heard must have originated in the staircase. The air above us was rancid, but it was better once we went down several flights of stairs. There were others in the stairwell and we had to keep moving to avoid a stampede as more joined in from other floors. I wasn’t out of shape by any means, but after sprinting down so many flights I lost count, I was feeling winded. We were clutching our chests when we finally pushed our way into the lobby. We were greeted by the same confused looks on others and a man from the hotel trying to calm down the crowd. I pushed through those that were in my way, looking around to see if I could find Lyric.

  “Lyric!” I yelled out, just hoping she might find my voice.

  “Everyone, please calm down, we’re trying to figure out what happened. There was an incident on one of the top floors. The police will be here shortly.” The man from the hotel held his hands up, but it did nothing to calm the crowd.

  Waiting was torture. We were confined to the bottom floor while police officers swarmed the building in riot gear. The hotel bar was packed with people, but I still pushed through and ordered drinks for everyone. There was so much chaos that they were just handing them out for free. After nearly an hour of confusion and concern about Lyric, the lights came on. A television in the bar flashed to life and I saw our hotel on the screen with the words World Ball Explosion on the bottom of the screen. Everyone quietened down as the volume was turned up. The news anchor seemed to be getting information into her ear piece and after nodding a couple of times she began to speak.

  “We’re just getting word that the explosion at the hotel hosting the World Ball took place outside of a room that belonged to Prince Harland of the Southern Isles. He’s currently missing, but if you have any information on him or a woman by the name of Lyric Edwards, please contact the number at the bottom of the screen.”

  My heart sank into my stomach, soured in the churning bile, and then shattered into a million pieces. I turned to the others and saw a similar expression on their face. The television screen switched to a picture of a police officer in riot gear that was holding up two pins. Lyric’s name was on one of them. I looked around and saw that it was a live feed. The officer was right outside the hotel. I motioned for the others and pushed my way through the crowd again, assisted by them. Two armed policemen were standing at the hotel exit and stepped forward when we rushed towards them.

  “Sir, I’m
sorry. We’ve been asked to keep everyone inside the hotel for now.” The larger of the two held up his hand.

  “We know the girl—Lyric.” I practically choked on my words as I spoke. “She’s been staying with me—us.”

  “Hold on one second.” He put his hand over his mouth and there were muffled words before he pulled it away. “Okay, come with me.”

  We were ushered into a small conference room and a couple of detectives entered. I quickly realized after a couple of questions that I really didn’t have much information to offer. I knew who she was, where she was from, but that was information they already had. I knew nothing about Prince Harland of the Southern Isles, who appeared to be the target for the kidnapping. The only thing that the conversation did confirm was that they believed the two of them were alive, but they had no idea where they were. After they realized that our information was limited, they sent us back into the main part of the lobby.

  “We have to do something.” I looked at the group.

  “Who the fuck would come into a hotel, blow a door off someone’s room, and kidnap them in broad daylight—not to mention doing it to a fucking prince.” Simon shook his head in bewilderment.

  “Terrorists.” Lenny grunted. “This is just like the shit that happens overseas.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a nightmare on American soil.” Dane gritted his teeth. “I agree. We have to do something.”

  “My cell phone is working again. I’m going to make some calls.” I walked away from the group and dialed a number on my phone.

  The good thing about being wealthy and having a lot of money locked away for the future, was that I had plenty of friends in high places courtesy of the charity work I had done. Through the network I had built over the years, I was able to find out a lot about Prince Harland and his monarchy. It didn’t tell me who would have wanted to kidnap him or why they would have taken Lyric, but I figured that there would be a random demand, even before the news came on and confirmed it. A terrorist organization had taken credit for the kidnapping, and their price was high. They wanted a billion dollars for his release.