Raising my face, I stared up at him. He had on his mask, and I couldn’t make out his eyes. I couldn’t speak. He grasped my chin in his hand. “What is it?”
“Th-there’s someone up there. On th-the walkway. They tried to grab me.”
“What?” His entire body stiffened. Moving back, he scanned the walkway high above us, slowly and carefully, before he shook his head, looking back down at me. “Raine. There’s no one there.”
My whole body trembled in his grip, and he pulled me into him. I rested my head against his solid chest, my heart rate slowly returning to normal.
He lowered his head to my ear. “Do you want me to go up and check?”
Shaking my head, I threaded my arms around his waist, realising I was still clutching my keys in my hand. I felt him sigh against me, and then he let go of me, tugging on my arms so I released him. Reaching down, he took my hand in his and began weaving us through the crowds. I kept a tight grip on my keys, every masked figure suddenly seeming like a threat, as they ran in and out of the dancing bodies, throwing the paint bombs at unsuspecting partygoers. One hit me square in the chest, and I gasped with shock as the cold blue paint trickled down between my breasts. Carter never let up his stride, though, so I didn’t even have a chance to stop and wipe off the paint. After what had just happened, I didn’t want to leave him. As much as he’d upset me earlier, and despite the way he acted a lot of the time, he felt safe. I felt safe with him. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
Leading me into the warehouse foyer, he stopped and tugged his mask off. “I’m taking you home.”
“But I don’t want to go.” I folded my arms, tilting my chin up stubbornly and glaring at him. Somehow, I managed to block out what had happened up on the walkway and chose to focus on the here and now. It was actually easy to do when I was in Carter’s presence. He commanded my full attention, and everything else faded into insignificance.
My reply just made him smile. “You’ve had enough fun for tonight, don’t you think?” His gaze lowered, his eyes darkening as he took in my paint-covered cleavage. “You’re all covered in paint.” One finger came up, dipping into the still-wet paint and trailing it up, over my collarbone. “So fucking gorgeous,” he said softly, his voice so low that I could barely hear him.
I barely repressed the delicious shiver that ran down my spine. Stepping closer, I ran my hand up his chest, feeling the alternating combination of his soft cotton T-shirt and dried paint under my palm. “I don’t want to go,” I said again.
He swept his fingers down into the wet paint again, sending goosebumps popping all over my body. Dragging his hand up until he was lightly gripping my throat, he leaned closer. “What do you want, then?”
“Hmm?” I was distracted by his touch and his mouth so close to mine. Just a few millimetres closer and our lips would be touching.
“I said, what do you want?” His breath was hot on my lips.
Before I could reply, someone bumped into us, with a muttered, “Sorry, mate,” and Carter seemed to remember where we were. His head came up, and he glanced around us. I could see indecision playing across his face, and then he seemed to come to a decision. Letting go of me, he stalked over to a door off to the side of the foyer, throwing it open.
“Get out,” he commanded to whoever was inside, and the next minute a couple walked out, the guy zipping up the fly of his jeans and the girl straightening her hair, her lipstick smudged around her mouth. The guy gave me a curious look, but the girl blushed, rushing out of the foyer to the outside.
Once they were gone, Carter crooked a finger at me, a smirk playing across his lips as I walked over to him on shaking legs. Closing the door behind me, he locked it. “Idiots didn’t even bother locking the door,” he muttered with an eye-roll, presumably talking about the couple who had just left. Once he returned to me, he lifted my hand and pried the keys from my grip, tossing them on the desk at the side of the room, along with his mask. “You don’t need those anymore.”
Okay, then. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I placed it on the desk with my keys, then looked at him, unsure. He grinned at me, a sudden change, pulling a few paint-filled water balloons from his pockets, adding them to the items already on the table. I took him in. Standing there in front of me, his hair all mussed up and his body decorated with splats of paint, he suddenly looked playful. And that smile…his smile. It gave me full-on butterflies.
I licked my lips nervously, backing up against the desk, and he prowled towards me. “Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, you were going to tell me what you wanted.” Planting his hands either side of me, much like he’d done in his bedroom the evening I’d been c
oerced into helping him with his essay, he leaned down so our faces were level. “Are you gonna tell me what you want, Rai?”
My eyes flew to his in shock. “Y-you called me Rai.”
He pressed closer. “I did.”
“What was all that about, earlier?” I finally gathered the courage to ask the question that I really, really needed an answer for.
“Anastasia.” His face hardened, and I stared at him.
“What?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I have my suspicions that she might have been behind the money theft.”
“What?” was all I could repeat.
“Yeah. She…she didn’t take it well when I left her, and I think she sees you as a threat.” His eyes met mine, the gold flecks sparking. He licked his lips. “She’s tried to scare off other girls I’m interested in already.”
“You’re interested in me?” I whispered shakily.
His eyes darkened, and he reached up, cupping the back of my head. “What do you think?”
Before I could even formulate a response, he closed the final bit of distance between us, and his lips came down on mine.