43. When Will You Learn?
Chapter forty-three
When Will You Learn?
NOAH
Ipushed through the crowd, struggling to make it through the thick masses of people without bumping someone or something.
A lady with similar eyes to Silas spun around on me.
“Watch where you’re walking, Hansen.” She emphasized my name with a curl of her lip.
With difficulty, I mumbled, “Sorry.” I tried to hold back my rising temper in front of all of the guests.
As soon as I was out of hearing range, I blurted, “Fucking asshole…” My mom was right; the Thorne’s were being total dicks. And I had seemed to find every member of the damn family except the one that I was looking for.
Delane was lost among the masses too.
I collapsed into a free chair with a sigh, feeling a bit lightheaded. How could one red headed beauty be so hard to find?
What if Silas finds her before I do?
Then I scoffed. What if I was worried for nothing, and he wasn’t even here? I hadn’t known him to ever be a dancer, anyway.
As I sat there, I felt many eyes on me. Noah Hansen, the young, dumb son of the renowned Chief of Police that everyone adored. I knew I was a hot button topic, which is why I was trying to be on my best behavior. My track record wasn’t exactly a secret to the public.
One stare in particular stood out from all of the rest. It caught my gaze and caused me to focus a bit more intently.
There were tons of people in the way on the dance floor, but I could see the man’s mask: white in color the shape of a skull, framed around his features and head.
Unlike most masks that fit just above the nose, this one covered the majority of the stranger’s face and hair.
The only thing that was exposed was his lips, unmoving and firm.
His eyes peered from the other side of the disguise, unfeeling and distant.
I continued to stare at him. Could that be?
Silas?
Staring me down.
I could’ve sworn the man behind the mask smirked.
I stood instantly to get a better look, and the man took off into the crowd.
Cursing, I followed, maneuvering through the masked faces once again.
I was trying desperately not to lose the back of the other’s head, finding it extremely difficult to keep my eye on the moving figure.
I thought of calling out to him, but then decided that shouting out Silas’s name would cause more of a commotion than unassumingly pursuing him.
As I feared, I lost him, leaving myself stranded in the middle of a herd of dancers.
The lights inside dimmed, and another slow song began to play. The floor lit up bright blue and purple fluorescent beams, and I eased myself out of the crowd without too much trouble.
I backed away from the throng of masqueraders, into a corner on the far west wall of the dance floor. I pressed my face to my hands. I had to find Delane soon or she was going to think that I left her on purpose. I needed to stop worrying about everything else.
Maybe I was just imagining it.
Maybe I hadn’t seen anything.
A faint chuckle ghosted by my earlobe, and in that instant, I knew the presence behind me was anything but conceived.
“Hey babe,” the voice behind me whispered. “Miss me?”
I tensed. Silas.
I turned, expecting to see the pallid skull disguise from before, but instead was greeted with a mask that blended in with the shadows, gloomy and sinister. Silas’s grey eyes were searing, perfectly encased in a thick, black mask adorned with dragon scales.
Then who had been in the white mask?
The lights rose in the center of the ballroom and revealed yet another potentially problematic situation.
Delane.
The crowds parted and there she was, standing in the open, searching for me. Her red hair was easy to notice now, and I feared that if I didn’t do something quickly, I wouldn’t be the only one who spotted her. She was standing out like a sore thumb.
Thinking fast, I grabbed Silas’s arm. “Come with me,” I urged, hoping that Silas would trail behind me without question.
Silas smirked, doing exactly that. “Sure thing.”
I ambled us off into a quieter area down the hall. From this vantage point, the dance floor was still visible, so I guided him into a large coat closet on our right.
I shut the door behind us, watching the light diminish to a small sliver, and stood there in the silence.
What now?
I was trying to think of a method to keep Silas in the closet for the remainder of the night when he suddenly broke the silence.
“Thanks for inviting me to your family get together,” he growled.
Called it. I could’ve won a bet with that one. He was definitely pissed.
“Hmm? Was I supposed to invite you?”
Play it cool, you knew this was going to pop up sooner or later. As long as he hasn’t seen Delane, all will be fine.
“You could have given me a notice or something like that,” he complained.
“Well, you’re here now, aren’t you?” I could feel my tone growing increasingly strained the more frustrated I became. I had no solution to this. Having both Silas and Delane here at the same time was my literal nightmare. I was beginning to think I’d have to stay hidden the whole party.
“Mind telling me what we are doing in the closet, Noah?” Silas asked cutely, hand gliding up the small of my back to rest on my neckline.
Ah, shit. I really didn’t think this one through.
Silas inched closer—I could feel him. “Noah?”
I eyed the thin light illuminating from the bottom of the door with anxiety. Delane was somewhere out there, waiting for me. I couldn’t focus. “Hmm?”
“Why are we here?” Silas stressed.
I chuckled nervously, hoping to ease Silas’s growing curiosity. “I just wanted to talk to you alone.”
“Did you, now? I’m listening.”
I gasped softly at the feel of Silas’s hands sliding down my sides. He tugged me farther into the back closet, rotating me around so we were facing.
“It’s dark in here,” he stated with a wicked laugh. “I can hardly see you.”
Fuck…
Why did it seem that all of the decisions I ever made were idiotic ones?
“I forgot what I was going to say…” I murmured quietly. I realized that we were in a compromising position.
“Perhaps, you brought me here to discuss your breakup?”
Like a car smashing into a brick wall, any coherent thought I might have had was destroyed. “My—what?”
“Your breakup? With your boyfriend, Alex?” I could picture his tiny head tilt and raised eyebrows as he asked me a question for which he already knew the answer.
There were no words I could use to respond. I was taken aback that Silas even knew about the little facade.
“Serenity had a lot to tell me about that one. You took him to the movies and strung him along? How shameful.”
“I—”
“Go on, because I’d love to hear it.”
“It was a lie…” I confessed, unsure if Silas was angry or just wanting to understand my reasoning.
“Oh? A lie?” His hands outlined my suit, coming to rest on my chest. “Why did you need a pretend boyfriend, hmm?”
“A girl at my school…she…was too much.” I was careful of the information I shared. I didn’t want to reveal details about Delane’s friends or anyone associated with her. “I didn’t want her to think I was available. So Alex pretended to be my boyfriend so she wouldn’t hit on me.”
Silas laughed at that. “But you are available, no?”
This was the first time that the answer didn’t roll off my tongue with ease. This almost sounded like a trick question. I wasn’t in a relationship with anyone, but I knew that Silas wouldn’t want to hear that. His ego was too big.
I could tell from the way he snarled out his next words that they were meant to hurt me. “You turning down free pussy? Who even are you?”
He was pissed at me for lying and wanted to get under my skin.
In a way, it worked, because I was about to match his same energy.
I didn’t need a lecture about being a sex addict from a literal man whore.
I clenched my teeth together. “I could have that girl at any time, if I want to. I am bound to no one, and I don’t have to explain anything else to you! ”
“Good, you can stop,” Silas avowed. “Because there is something I need to do.”
I stiffened. “And what’s that?”
Silas’s fingers slipped onto my face, tracing the pattern of my mask until he found the string and pushed back, gliding it off. “I love your little disguise.”
His pivoting emotions caused my head to spin. He was a fucking whirlwind.
“Couldn’t fool me, though,” he purred.
“Nothing gets past you, huh?”
Silas’s hand found its way to my throat, enclosing it tightly. “Come here,” he demanded, pulling me in.
The next moment our tongues were mingling. It felt wrong, especially knowing I was here with someone else. I had brought Delane into this mess, and I knew how afraid she was of Silas.
And here we were, in the closet together.
“Mm– not here,” I mumbled, breaking away from him.
Silas still persisted, his hands taking hold of my face. He was breathing hard. “Shut up. You’re about to be punished.”
Normally, I’d be intrigued by such a threat. “Oh? Am I?”
His chuckle was deep and throaty. “You have no idea.”
It was quiet for a long time.
“Silas?” I asked softly, actually finding myself a bit worried.
There was a quick shuffle as Silas took a step back. I unthinkingly reached out. “W-Where did you go?”
Silas’s command reverberated around the cramped room. “Don’t move.”
His voice came from below me now, and it took me a split second to understand that he was on his knees. His strong hands dug into my hips.
“What the hell–” I exclaimed.
I staggered backwards, tumbling into all of the junk that was loaded into the closet. Several items flew off one of the top shelves, clattering to the ground, making a shitload of noise. The closet wasn’t as big as I thought.
“Easy,” Silas quietly mocked, obviously amused by my reaction. He forced me back against a cluttered wall of God knows what.
I could feel his breath through the thin material of my shirt. I’ll be damned if this was going to happen right now. He took hold of my hips again, and I nearly had a full-blown panic attack.
“What are you doing, Silas?” I squirmed in his grasp.