EPILOGUE
NIGHT OF THE MASQUERADE BALL
KAGE
God, she looks divine tonight. Her hair’s pinned high, revealing the delicate line of her collarbones, the very ones I want to trace with my tongue until I reach her sweet, lush lips.
The crimson ball gown clings to her every curve, and my dick strains in the middle of the crowd. I shift my stance, palming myself, desperate to hide what she does to me.
Pathetic? Maybe. But if she noticed, I’d turn her laughter into moans within seconds.
Sadly, I’ve never truly desired sex. For me, it’s always been tied to numbness and dissociation, a body conditioned since I was sixteen to perform but not to feel.
I accepted that long ago. But when I look at her, my cock twitches in my pants.
It’s new. It’s sharp. It gives me hope that sex isn’t only a weapon or a transaction but something more.
More of it. More of her. More of us.
And I’m more than willing to let every pulsing throb remind me she isn’t an empty fantasy. She isn’t a ghost I cling to while I move through another body. She isn’t a dream. She isn’t an illusion. She’s real. And I need her to know that I’m real too.
I watch her as she admires the ballroom that she brought to life, oblivious to me prowling in the crowd, waiting for her to acknowledge my presence.
I wasn’t going to do this, but I had to bring the Phantom back to remind her of what she can’t forget. To remind her of who awakened her desires. Because the truth is, she awakened mine, too.
I want her to notice me, to feel her body stiffen under the chandelier’s lights. To see her fight the pull between us, knowing she can’t forget me any more than I can forget her. I crave that resistance. It proves that what I feel is real.
But then I see it, her gaze is locked on me.
Thank God, because I would hate to have to punish her here.
Those green, doe-like eyes burn through the black and red mask. They carry fire. Vengeance. She's pissed I'm here. I’ve pushed her too far already. I always do.
I’ve watched her, not as a stalker but as someone who cared. I needed to know where she was, who touched her, and if she was safe. Call it obsession. Call it protection. Either way, I won’t let the monster who ruined me touch her.
Because of Volkov, that murdering psychopath, the moment I was ready to tell her who I really was… was utterly shattered. I had made my decision that morning when I saw her with Clint, and I knew I had to do it when Beck took her in his arms and dared to dance with her.
But the second her fingers brushed my scar, Volkov came roaring back, a ghost I could never bury. He was in my head, reminding me of everything I wanted to forget. He was dragging me back to a childhood that broke me piece by piece.
I didn’t want her to see that. I didn’t want her to watch the walls I had fought to keep standing collapse in front of her, exposing the pain I swore I’d never show.
So I left. I disappeared. I severed the cord between us. But something about her keeps me coming back… Always. I left that other mask behind to stop hiding, to give her the real me. Yet here I am again. New mask. Same story .
I smirk as her face goes still, her eyes locked on me like I’m the ghost from Halloween night. A low chuckle slips from me, barely audible, because in a way, I guess I am.
The thought twists inside me, and my lips curve into something darker.
I can see it in her gaze, the memory flickering back to life, pulling her straight into our night. The night everything changed. The night love struck like a bullet, piercing straight through my ice-cold heart.
The room where she set me on fire and rewrote my fate.
She wears her facade well tonight, but I know my Princess.
I call her that not because she was dressed as Rapunzel at the party, but because of the battles she’s fought and survived. That’s what makes her royalty. She doesn’t need a man. But God, I hope she wants one. I hope she wants me even if I don’t deserve her.
Lila is the reason for my being. The words written within my pages. The heartbeat in my story.
She’s perfect. I’m not perfect for her, but everything in me wants to lock her away in that tower I found her in and keep her all to myself.
My Lila. My need. The one thing I never believed I could have...
Until she walked into my room.