When he tried to act the role of Lucas Steel, there was absolutely no sign of the latent easy dominance he was giving me now. He was a natural if he could just learn to trust that and stop trying to pretend.

“What?” I bit my lip in a show of fake innocence. “Last time you seemed so desperate to know, so I spared you the mystery tonight.”

If he kept looking at me like that while holding his suspenders, I was going to fuck him on my living room floor and that was a bad plan. “Let’s get going. We can talk about protocol on the way.”

I pulled a leather trench coat on over my dress that I wasn’t worried about getting a little lube on and we got in Alex’s car.

“The party is at Reaper’s house. He’s a central part of the scene and throws the wildest but most exclusive parties at his place. You have to be personally approved by him to be on the list.” When he looked like he was going to interrupt, I explained, “You’re with me, so you’ll be fine. It’s not a masquerade, but you won’t be the only one in a mask. There’s a strict no-cameras, no-phones policy, but it’s better to play it safe. This goes beyond roughening up your image. It’s possible some people will make the connection between us, but it’s a group that values privacy.

“Don’t touch anyone, don’t engage with anyone unless necessary, and defer to me. You don’t know protocol and if you offend someone it’ll reflect poorly on me. Please don’t make me regret trusting you.”

“Yes, my lady,” he said earnestly, surprising me.

I considered how to explain Reaper, the man who’d both helped me to learn who I was and then stripped it away by breaking my heart. I hoped we wouldn’t run into him, but since the party was at his house, that was a long shot. Alex didn’t need to know the details. “About Reaper…I don’t even know where to start. Avoid interacting with him if you can, but you’ll be the hottest person there and thus a magnet for our illustrious host. Reaper is basically what would happen if David Bowie had a love child with a Disney villain.”

“Is he into dudes?” he asked, giving away just how limited his view of sexuality was.

“He would best be described as aggressively pansexual. Just try not to draw too much attention to yourself and whatever you do, don’t make a scene.”

22

Alex

We approached the entrance of a massive house that was on enough property that it was a hike to get there. It was just enough time to sink comfortably into my public persona. That meant my posture was relaxed at all times regardless of how I was feeling. And right then I was feeling thoroughly nervous, not because of what I thought I might see, but because I might accidentally embarrass Elena without meaning to. She was trusting me, and I wanted to honor that.