Billionaire Behind the Mask

by Andrea Laurence

  “Please stop,” she gasped and pressed against his head to push him away. Lauren wasn’t sure she could take a third orgasm so soon.

  He relented, lowering her legs and allowing them to fall like limp noodles over the edge of the table. “You’ve had enough?” he asked.

  “Enough of that. Now I want you. Or are you going to keep me waiting?”

  He stood up, resting his hands on her shaky knees. “Not too much longer. I’ve just got to take care of one, important, final detail.”

  Lauren watched as the dark shape of his body moved across the room to where he’d left his tuxedo jacket. He dug around in the pockets for a moment before returning to her still-trembling body.

  Stepping back between her thighs, he put something on the pool table beside her bare hip. The moonlight caught the foil packaging to reveal the condom he’d sought out. Thankfully, he planned for things like this. It was so unlike Lauren to do something like this that she never would’ve had condoms in her purse.

  She heard the clinking of his belt and the buzz of him undoing his zipper. Felt him reach for the condom to put it on. Then his hands gripped her hips and he entered her in one, slow, steady stroke. The hard heat of him sinking into her welcoming body was a pleasure she’d long denied herself. Building her business hadn’t allowed her much of a social life. She dated now and then, but nothing serious. How could she date in a town where all her peers thought she was a joke? It wasn’t impossible, but it had been so long, she almost couldn’t believe it was really happening.

  Lauren pushed herself upright on the edge of the table, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Pressing her satin-covered breasts against the wall of his chest, she leaned in and whispered, “I need you so badly,” before gently biting at his earlobe.

  He must’ve liked it because he shuddered in her arms and stilled himself, perhaps to regain control. She was pretty sure he was fighting a losing battle, because this fantasy had them both riding the razor edge of desire. He gripped her back and pulled Lauren so close to the precipice that she might have fallen without his support. Then he gave her what she’d asked for. He filled her again and again, pounding hard into her quaking body.

  He didn’t know her name or anything about her, but he seemed to know exactly what Lauren needed from him. She didn’t think it was possible to respond to him so quickly, but she was on the edge of coming apart again. She clung to her big, bad wolf, gasping and whimpering into his shoulder.

  As Lauren’s release came closer, her body tensed and her cries sharpened. He responded by redoubling his efforts and thrusting harder than ever before. She instantly unraveled, shattering into climax as she bit into the flesh of his shoulder to silence her screams. When she was finally silent and still, he thrust hard one last time and finished with a deep groan of satisfaction.

  They collapsed back onto the pool table together, and after a moment he rolled off to the side to rest beside her and catch his breath. It was strange to lie there together in the pitch-darkness of the room, hearing the voices and music from the great room just feet down the hall from where they were.

  She expected the wolf to say something, but they both seemed comfortable enough in the silence. Perhaps too comfortable. After a few minutes, his breathing was steady and even. He’d fallen asleep beside her. She was tempted to curl against him and give in to the lure of sleep, too. But she needed to go.

  The morning would bring nothing but disappointment for them both. Lauren knew it deep down. She was not the glamorous seductress she’d pretended to be tonight. She’d never acted more out of character in her whole life. Staying behind meant that her lover would learn the truth. And that would ruin everything.

  Moving as quietly as she could, Lauren slipped off the table. She shimmied her dress down her legs and then sought out her things in the darkness.

  Looking back over her shoulder, she could see he was still fast asleep on the table. She pulled her mask off and tossed it onto the felt beside him. A little memento for him to remember her by.

  With that done, she opened the door and crept out into the hallway and out of his life.

  * * *

  “What the—”

  Sutton groaned and pushed up onto his elbows. Every muscle in his body ached in a way he’d never felt before and he’d been awakened by a pain in his lower back that was strong enough to rouse him. It felt like he’d been sleeping on a wooden plank or something. Looking around the dark room, it all came back to him. He was still in the club billiard room and he had, in fact, been sleeping on a wooden plank. He’d fallen asleep on the pool table after making love to his dance partner. He lifted his wrist and squinted in the dark at the face of his Rolex. It was four thirty in the morning.

  He turned his head toward the spot where she’d lain beside him. The room was still dark, but he couldn’t make out the shape of her there. He stretched his arm out across the soft, felt surface of the table, but it just kept going. The surface was cold, with no trace of her warm, supple body beside him. Then his fingertips brushed against something.

  Sitting up, Sutton slid off the table and crossed the room to switch on the light. He winced for a moment before his eyes adjusted and he could see what was left behind on the table. It was her mask. He walked over to pick it up and, once he did, he held it in his hands for a moment.

  He knew then that Red was long gone. And he had no way of ever knowing who she was or how to find her again.

  Dammit.

  With her gone, the novelty of the darkness and anonymity of their encounter wasn’t as exciting. Now it was just frustrating as hell. That woman—that red-gowned goddess—was the greatest thing to happen to him in a long time. They had a connection unlike anything he’d felt with another woman before. And now he had nothing to show for their encounter but a stiff back and an ornate, black mask.

  He sighed and tossed the mask onto the pool table. Then he focused on gathering up the rest of his clothes and putting them back on. His own mask was on the floor with his tie. He picked it up and threw it into the trash can. He wasn’t going to hide anymore. Not from the small-minded people in town who wanted to believe the worst of him and not from anyone else. His desire to escape from reality, even for just one night, had cost him his chance to have something...special. Maybe the kind of relationship he’d never had before.

  As crazy as it sounded, somehow he knew it was true. His playboy reputation in Royal was well earned, but last night was different. She was different. He didn’t wake up satiated and ready to tackle the next challenge. Rather, he felt like he’d been robbed in his sleep. He’d already lost his home and fortune, but somehow this hurt even worse. He wasn’t used to this feeling. To losing. But it was all he seemed to do lately.

  Sutton picked up her mask and looked at it again. A part of him wanted to throw it out along with his own. It was probably better that he forget all about tonight and about her. He and his family had enough to deal with right now without him adding unnecessary drama. But he couldn’t bring himself to toss it away. It was all he had left of her. Instead, he stuffed it into his pocket and headed to the door. He needed to take a cue from Cinderella and get out of here before he had to do the walk of shame through a lobby full of folks who were there to play an early-morning round of golf.

  As he stepped out into the hallway, he found the rest of the club was as dark and quiet as the room he’d come from. The party had ended a long time ago. Some dim lighting around the bar area highlighted the broken-down tables and equipment that were stacked up to be carried off in the morning. It also highlighted a familiar, slumped figure sitting at the bar.

  “Sebastian? Is that you?”

  The figure turned toward him and lifted his mask up so that it sat on top of his head. Yes, it was his twin brother, Sebastian, looking exhausted and depressed as he clutched a glass of something in his hand. “Sutton?” He frowned i
n confusion. “What are you doing here so late?”

  “I just woke up. I passed out in the billiard room. Why are you still here?”

  His twin shook his head and sighed sadly. “I was with a woman tonight. An amazing woman. A dream in red that I would marry on the spot if she’d have me. But she disappeared before I could even get her name.”

  Sutton frowned at the all-too-familiar story. What were the odds that both of them would have an incredible night with a woman in red that fled at the first chance? It was an uncanny coincidence, but perhaps it was just that kind of a night. Maybe there was something in the air. “Okay, but why are you sitting at the bar at this hour instead of going home?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “Well, when I woke up alone, I came back to the bar to pour myself a drink and commiserate over my bad luck with women. So I’ve just been sitting here thinking about everything that happened tonight. About her and how captivating she was. I’ve never met another woman like her, Sutton.” He shook his head sadly. “And then I started thinking about everything going on with the company and the feds. Time got away from me, I guess.”

  “We’ve both got a lot on our minds.”

  His brother nodded and then turned to look at him curiously. “How did you fall asleep in the billiard room?” he asked, as though he’d finally processed his brother’s words from minutes before.

  “I was back there with a woman. She ran off, too. Seems we both had amazing nights with women who would rather we not call them the next day.”

  “Do you ever call them the next day?”

  Sutton frowned at his brother. When it came to romance, he and his twin couldn’t be more different. “I resent that implication. There are many women around town that may have loved and lost me over the years, dear brother, but I was always a gentleman in the end. I’ve never left a woman scorned.”

  Sebastian looked at him as though he didn’t quite believe Sutton’s version of events, but shook his head before saying so. “Well, it sounds like you got a little bit of your own medicine tonight. She left you wanting more for once, huh?”

  That was an understatement. But it was too late to be philosophizing about dating karma and how it had made its way back to Sutton with a vengeance.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Sebastian shrugged. “I guess I could eat. All those appetizers didn’t really add up to dinner.”

  He slapped his brother on the back and fished his keys out of his suit-coat pocket. “Come on, then. I’ll drive us to the Royal Diner and treat you to an early breakfast before we head home. Maybe we can beat the sunrise.”

  Three

  “Looks like someone had a good time last night.”

  Lauren winced at the daylight that flooded into the food truck as Amy opened the door and climbed inside. She regarded her employee for a moment and then returned to her steaming-hot cup of coffee. “I guess.”

  “You were out late,” Amy noted. “Drinking and schmoozing with Royal’s elite, no doubt.”

  “Yes. I got home very late and I had several martinis. So you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not leaping for joy this morning. I’m exhausted, I have a headache and my feet still hurt from the ridiculous heels that woman picked out for me. I should’ve just worn my Converse under the dress. No one would’ve seen them but me.”

  “Well, even hungover you still look amazing,” her friend told her. “That makeover they gave you was something else. If it wasn’t for that early-morning sneer I recognize, I couldn’t be certain it was really you.”

  It was too early and Lauren was too tired to be flattered by Amy’s backward compliment. “Very funny. I suppose I do clean up alright, but looking hot doesn’t do me any good when it comes to being a chef.”

  “I don’t know about that. I’d say you’re hot enough to get a Food Network show, now.”

  Lauren perked up in her seat at the ridiculous statement. “A TV show? I can’t even get the capital raised for a restaurant. No network executive is going to be interested in giving me a television platform.”

  “Not with that frown. But you should’ve hit up some of those people at the party last night to see if they wanted to invest.” Amy slapped down the Sunday paper onto the stainless steel counter with a chuckle. “It seems like it was quite the shindig. They raised a fortune for the Wingate Charity. Those rich folks know how to party. And write checks. You should’ve held your hand out.”

  Lauren reached for the paper and scanned the article on the front page about the masquerade ball. Most of it was about the charity and the good works they were planning with the funds raised at the event. The photo above the fold was of the event coordinator, Beth Wingate, and a man in a familiar wolf mask identified by the article’s author as her brother and the CEO of Wingate Enterprises, Sebastian Wingate.

  The information hit her gut with a dull thud that threatened to send her coffee back up. She’d thought she might never know the identity of the man she’d been with last night. And had figured that perhaps it was better that way. After all, last night was a moment in time between two people that could never be replicated. Trying to would only ruin the memory of what they’d shared.

  And yet, now that she’d looked down at the name in black-and-white print, she couldn’t ignore what she’d seen. The genie wouldn’t go back into the bottle once it was out. Her mysterious lover was none other than the man at the center of all the town drama lately. Lauren didn’t know much about the Wingates and couldn’t pick them out of a lineup if her life depended on it, but she’d heard the name more than a few times recently. The family had been accused of drug smuggling and other ugly things and the whole town was buzzing about it.

  No wonder her mystery man had looked so irritated on the phone when she’d first laid eyes on him.

  That was just Lauren’s luck. She has a whirlwind romance with a rich, successful guy and it turns out that he’s really broke and on his way to federal prison. She should’ve taken the hint when her suitor was wearing a wolf’s mask. No good could come from that. Every fairy tale proved that much.

  “So tell me everything,” Amy pressed.

  “I’d rather hear about how things went with the trucks last night.” Lauren had left her two precious Street Eats food trucks in her trusted employee’s hands on the busiest night of the week. That was a far more important topic to discuss.

  “Well, Javier’s truck got robbed at gunpoint and my undercooked shrimp gave ten people food poisoning, but I think it went well enough, all things considered.”

  Lauren looked at her friend and the deadly serious expression on her face. She knew it meant nothing—Amy was notorious for messing with her. “Seriously. Come on, now.”

  “Everything went fine.” Amy relented with a heavy sigh. “The biggest drama of the night was running out of chicken kebabs pretty early. Other than that, things went smoothly and Javier made the nightly deposit, no problems. Now, tell me about this fancy shindig. I’m dying to know how it went for you.”

  “We’re not here to gossip. We’re here to head over to the farmers market to get fresh produce for this afternoon’s menu.”

  The other woman just shrugged. “There’s no rule that says you can’t spill your guts while we peruse the day’s vegetables. Come on, I entered you in that contest. No fair to go and not share every delicious detail with me.”

  “You should’ve come as my plus-one if you were so interested,” Lauren said as she picked up her coffee and shopping list. She stopped by the door to grab her foldable handcart so she could haul back vegetables.

  “Someone had to run the trucks,” Amy sassed from over her shoulder. “And besides that, no one has ever gotten into the good kind of trouble with their friend clinging on.”

  They climbed out of the food truck and Lauren slammed and locked the door behind them. “Whatever,” she muttered, turning in the dire
ction of the farmers market and pointedly ignoring that Amy had been absolutely right in her assessment.

  “Whatever? That’s all I get?” Amy kept her pace at Lauren’s side, her long, blond ponytail swinging in the breeze as they walked. “You know I’m not letting this go, right?”

  “Have you ever?”

  “No,” Amy quipped.

  That was about right. Amy was a dog with a bone and she always seemed to think she knew what was right for Lauren. She stayed out of the business affairs and let Lauren take full rein over the menu, but when it came to her personal life, her best friend had a lot to say about it.

  Thankfully, the farmers market was busy and loud. “When we’re done,” she promised. “I’m not talking about it here. Pick out a nice crate of sweet potatoes and a couple bushels of tomatoes and onions. I’m going to get broccoli, cauliflower and check out the apples.”

  They met up about fifteen minutes later near the booth of one of the local ranchers. They usually had a nice selection of locally raised, harvested and smoked meats, and today was no exception. Lauren got a dozen eggs, a large pork shoulder, chicken breasts and some nice, thick-cut bacon.

  “What’s on the menu for today?” Amy asked as they hauled their wares back to the trucks.

  “I don’t know yet,” Lauren admitted. She had to see what looked good and what was seasonally at peak. Then she would find a way to combine it all into a few dishes for the next day or so. “I was thinking of some chipotle sweet potato fries for a start. Maybe pair it with barbecue chicken kebabs since they did so well yesterday. I might change up the spices a little. Carnitas tacos with a bacon crema and fresh tomato salsa. Perhaps some spicy deep-fried broccoli and cauliflower to go with it. Apple hand pies for dessert. I’ll have to look at what we have and think on it some more.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Once everything was hauled into the truck, they started cleaning and prepping for the day. Lauren was relieved to fall into the familiar drudgery of her work routine and not have to think about last night for a little while longer. They were up to their elbows in a crate of sweet potatoes when they heard a knock at the window.