But as I thought those thoughts, the hand on the door loosened, falling away. He took a step back, giving me some space and saying, “Or go, if that’s what you really want to do. I’m not going to stop you, but I want you to stay.”
He was a stranger. He didn’t really care. He just wanted to get his dick wet. But… I supposed that was just it. That’s what I wanted, wasn’t it? A nameless guy to help me see that being physical with someone, getting intimate with them, didn’t have to hurt. That it could feel good. To help show me what bodies were capable of.
Closing my eyes, I was measured in turning around. When I opened them, I found the man standing halfway between me and the bed. He was busy staring at me as if he could see right through me. I didn’t say anything as I walked to the bed, my fingers flexing in my gloves.
I didn’t like the attention being on me, so I said, “I told you, now it’s your turn to tell me something. How often do you come here? Is this a normal night for you?” If I got the attention off me, I’d stop thinking about that awful night and focus on the man with me.
“If you really must know, this is my second time here,” he said, moving to stand before me as I sat down on the edge of the bed. “A place like this… it’s not where I’d normally frequent.” His hands were in his pockets, his green eyes twinkling down on me.
“Oh, yeah? And where would you normally frequent?”
The corner of his lips quirked into a smirk. “Trying to figure out who I am, are you? That’s against the rules, you know.”
I adjusted the mask on my face. “I don’t care who you are. I just want to know if you’re experienced in this whole thing. I’m… well, obviously I’m not, so—” It was only when I talked about sex that I sounded like an unsure girl who didn’t know what she wanted. In every other aspect of my life? I liked to think I held myself together a little better.
“Trust me, I’m exactly what you need, princess.” He took a step toward me, pulling his hands out of his pockets. “And you are exactly what I need.”
“And why’s that?” For someone who was supposed to be a fuck and nothing more, he sure had a way with words… or maybe it was this place, the atmosphere. Maybe it was the fact that I knew what we were about to do, and I wasn’t going to try to run again. Maybe it was because I felt some kind of connection with this masked man—stupid, I knew, but I couldn’t help it. Something about him called out to me, drew me in.
The man lowered himself to his knees before me. Even though I sat on the bed, his head was at the same level as mine when he was on his knees. “Can’t you feel it? It’s magnetic, almost.” One of his hands ran up my leg, just his fingertips, enough to make me shiver and itch a little.
It felt good, but it also felt a bit wrong. I had the feeling I’d be wrestling with two opposite feelings the entire time, which sucked. I had to learn to focus on the good, the pleasure, the slow and gentle way he touched me.
Not like he owned me. Not like he deserved to have me all to himself for a night. No, with him, it was more like he was simply showing me how much he wanted me.
Which was ridiculous, because we didn’t know each other’s identity, but that didn’t matter.
His hands dropped to my heels, and he slowly slid them off my feet, setting them aside. He hardly broke eye contact with me, especially when he went for my hands. “Are you sure you want this?” he whispered, fingers running over my gloves.
My first instinct was to pull away from him. I had to work to remain still, let his hands hold mine. I had to swallow down everything I wanted to do in order to remain rooted in place. I appreciated that he’d asked, that he was taking his time—and that he took what I’d told him seriously.
I nodded.
The man pulled off my gloves, one by one, dropping them near my heels. He went to take my hands back into his, but I moved them just out of his reach when another possibility came into my head. “You don’t have a wife, do you? Or a girlfriend?” This might be meaningless to him, but I would not be the other woman. I wouldn’t help someone cheat. Not again.
“No,” he said. “Neither.”
A relieved sigh escaped me, and I moved my hands back, allowing him to take them into his. He ran his thumbs over my bare knuckles, causing another shiver to zip through me. The feeling of his hands on mine… I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to it. Such an intimate thing for me, and yet to a normal person, it was nothing at all.
We remained like that for a while, and then he pulled away, standing up. His hands let go of mine, and I was about to ask him what he was doing, but then I watched him untuck his shirt. His fingers moved to the top button of his shirt, and he began to undo them, one by one. My breath caught in the back of my throat, and suddenly I wished for a glass of water. Something to drink. Anything.
Button by button, he worked on his shirt, and when every button was undone, he took it off, letting it fall to the floor. My eyes raked over his shirtless torso, taking in his finely-sculpted chest and abdomen muscles, along with the defined musculature on his arms. A black tattoo of a dragon sat on his upper pectorals, an intricate tribal design that immediately drew my attention. It stood out against his white skin.
I knew men’s bodies could look like this. I just never thought I’d see one this close. Never thought I’d actually want to.
He must’ve known what I was thinking, because he whispered, “You can touch me, if you want.” An invitation to explore his muscles, to feel that dragon tattoo for myself. He still wore his shoes, his pants, and his belt, not to mention the mask, and yet he might as well have been naked with the way I stared at him.
I scooted to the edge of the bed, barely still sitting on it. He inched toward me, not saying another word, simply watching me as I lifted a hand. I brought that hand to his abdomen, laying it flat on his six-pack. The skin underneath my fingers tensed, and I heard his breathing harden, but I was too focused on touching him to pay much attention to his reaction.
Seriously. A man like this… what was he doing here? Although, I supposed someone could ask the same thing of me. Zander had. I was Miguel Santos’s daughter, and here I was, at a sex club, giving myself to a nameless man in a mask.
I got to my feet, moving my hand up from his abdomen, to his chest, where the dragon tattoo was. He said not a single thing, letting me do what I wanted, letting me take my time in exploring his top half.
His chest was hairless. Smooth and hard in all the right places. He was the exact definition of a man, and without my heels on, he was even taller than me. His body could easily swallow mine. Such a strange thing, what I felt inside. I… I think I was attracted to him, even though I couldn’t see his entire face.
Was that weird? Hmm. None of this was normal, so I had my doubts.
Eventually, I took a step back from him, sitting on the bed once more. My own breathing had finally caught up, and it was like I couldn’t quite catch it. Like, just by touching this man’s body had stolen the air out of my lungs.