Authors: Kate Evangelista
represented.
He nodded. “If you still want me to answer all your questions, I’ll do it then.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Masks
The next day, I spent most of the morning in bed—thinking. A dangerous past time. When
I couldn’t stay prone anymore staring at the ceiling, I scrambled out of bed and into the
shower.
Hair still dripping, I moved around my quarters, not really doing anything. Finally, out of
my mind at this point from all my thinking, I sat on the couch staring at the dress Luka had
given me. My knee bounced as I gnawed on my thumbnail.
Deidra had hung it on the back of my bathroom sliding door. Its full skirt was lustrous
from all the shiny black feathers. The corset still looked uncomfortable, but I didn’t mind
wearing it the whole day of the shoot. To be honest, I loved the dress. I didn’t tell anyone
about loving the dress, so Luka giving it to me as a present baffled me. How could he have
known?
After telling me he’d answer all my questions at the New Year’s Eve party, he left and I
hadn’t seen him until I got up at dawn to pee. He’d crawled into my bed again like he
belonged there. I didn’t have the heart to kick him out. He just slept on his side, not once
rolling over to my side or invading my personal space. The guy didn’t even cop a feel, which
sent my insecurities on overdrive. While awake he certainly made his attraction obvious, but
when it counted the most he kept his paws to himself.
Okay, I didn’t understand my logic either. Hence the inordinate amount of useless
thinking. I should be working on Luka’s shoot. I needed to find a mask, yet I spent most of
the day in my room staring at the damn dress.
I wanted answers, sure. I wanted to see what this was between Luka and myself. The
chemistry was there. The sexual tension definitely crackled like static. When we’d kissed, I
nearly lost my mind. I hated the state of limbo he’d put me in. Never once had I allowed a guy to treat me this way. I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Short of tying him up the way he did to me, all I could do was wait until the last day of my stay at Lunar Manor.
Oh, we would have it all out alright. I’d leave this place having made up my mind about
him. Besides the physical, I couldn’t be sure of my attraction to him emotionally. Luka
seemed like a lot of work. A relationship with him might be one of the only things impossible
in this universe. Did I really want to put myself in that sort of situation?
I bit down on my thumbnail hard. The pain centered me. Why’d I even let myself think
this way? For all I knew, Luka saw me as nothing more than a plaything. He certainly put my
emotions through a rollercoaster. For a person who mostly accepted her lot in life and did her best in everything she set out to do, living with someone as unpredictable as Luka slowly
changed something in me. It scared me. It scared the hell out of me.
“Well, you’re out of bed, at least,” Deidra said when she entered my room. She deposited
her ever present food tray.
I snorted. “How did I live before you came along? I’m pretty sure I knew how to feed
myself, now I can’t see myself eating if you don’t bring something for me.” I picked up a tiny sandwich triangle and popped it into my mouth. My stomach gurgled, having been ignored
for most of the day.
“I do live to serve.”
“How’s the prep for the party going?”
Deidra massaged her temples. “Insane. Yana wants a carnevale theme.”
“Isn’t that the celebration they have in Venice?”
“You don’t know the half of it. All the furniture on the ground floor is being put in storage, to be replaced with theme appropriate fixtures.”
A small ray of hope glimmered in my gut. “Does this mean no mandatory dinners?”
I barely kept the cheer inside my throat when Deidra nodded. “Because of the massive
preparations, everyone is asked to stay out of the way. The band will be at the studio all week anyway, so that’s not a problem. Since you seem to be acting the hermit and staying in your
quarters, I don’t have to worry about you except for the occasional feeding.”
“Gee, thanks. Should I wag my tail every time you enter the room?”
“That is preferred but not necessary.” She grinned cheekily at me. Ah, I loved Deidra to bits
and would miss her horribly when I left. I pushed aside the pinch in my chest the thought
brought.
So the band would be at the studio. I had to put my shoot for Luka together if I wanted to
get everything done before the thirty-first. Through the course of the month, I’d amassed
enough photos for the introspective. All I needed now was Luka’s contribution. The theme of
the party distracted me from my mindless contemplation of what went on between me and
the band’s bassist. Work always got me through. Now, I counted on it again to ground me in
reality.
“Doesn’t carnevale use masks?”
Deidra rolled her eyes at that. “Yana just had hundreds of them shipped in. Everything has
to be authentic.”
“I get the feeling you’re not enjoying this.”
“Oh, but I am. It’s just sometimes things can get tedious. But when you see the final
product, it’s magnificent. A couple years back they had a Cirque de Soleil theme. Had flying
acrobats and all that. Crazy, but beautiful. Most of the staff were on the brink of a nervous
breakdown by the time guests started to arrive.”
I laughed at Deidra’s distressed expression more than her story. “I can just imagine.”
“No.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t think you can.”
Setting aside the teasing, I said, “Where are the masks?”
“They’re being stored in the library for now. Why?”
Pushing off the couch, I rubbed my hands over my thighs to rid them of crumbs. “I need to
find the perfect one for Luka’s shoot.”
“Well, just make sure you stay out of the way.” Deidra picked up the tray and sashayed out
of the room.
How bad could servants running around be?
***
and slinked out of my room, I wished I hadn’t left its safety. When Deidra said they were
moving out all the furniture, she literally meant it. The sitting rooms were emptied out. The
servants running around with throw pillows and vases and Fabergé eggs reminded me of the
time I came home to Luka’s temper tantrum. Yet another thing I didn’t understand about
him. But I’d let that go—I just kept forgetting that I did.
Three times since leaving my room, I’d been asked to get out of the way. Quite rudely too.
Gone were the polite servants. Hopped up on stress, they were snappy sons of bitches now.
Not that I could blame them. A carnevale themed party in less than five days? Yana drove
them to madness.
I found safety in hugging the walls. So long as I didn’t use the middle of the hallways,
which were the main thoroughfares at the moment, I’d be fine. It took me twice as long to get
to the library, but since I arrived in one piece, I thanked God for small miracles.
I slipped in and closed the door on the pandemonium outside. The room was eerily quiet
compared to the clamor I’d just slogged through. I’d read books where writers described
chaos as a warzone. Clearly they hadn’t seen true chaos like the dustup at Lunar Manor
before New Year’s Eve. Deidra’s nervous breakdown comment finally made sense.
Speaking of breakdowns, would Luka tell me the truth if I asked him during the New
Year’s Eve confessional he had planned? I didn’t know the parameters of “finding answers.”
So far as I was concerned, he’d set none.
Making a point to ask him about his meltdown when the time came, I pushed off the door
and inched closer to the long study tables the servants used to lay the masks on. There must
have been close to a hundred of them, lined side by side on the tables. Most of them had
white bases and were decorated with swirls of paint or glitter and feathers. Some had gems
attached to their cheeks. There were harlequin masks. Plague doctor’s masks with long noses.
There were half masks too. Basically, any form you could think of lay in front of me.
I scanned each one, searching for the one I had in mind for Luka’s shoot. Of all the
members of Vicious, he wore the most masks. He had multiple personas. Juggling all those
personalities must be exhausting. I certainly couldn’t do it.
I picked up a gold mask with red trimming and brought it to my face. Something about
seeing things through its eye slit choked the breath in me. I quickly put it down and moved
on. Some masks were simple while others were so ornate they resembled headdresses. I’d
only seen pictures of carnevale on the internet. To actually be at a party with it as a theme
excited me. A grin spread over my lips while I made a mental note to clear all the files in my memory card for that night. I needed all the space for pictures I’d need.
Eerily, the masks on the tables resembled people’s faces. I got on my knees and took a
picture of them from a low eyelevel. It creeped me out. At some point I imagined the masks
floating off the tabletops and start dancing around me.
Unable to stay in the library any longer—the quiet unnerving—I scanned the last table at
the back. My gaze landed on a pure white mask with black lips, black outline for the eyes, and a single black tear falling from its left eye. I picked it up and tilted it up then down.
Suddenly, the whole shoot came to life in my head. The simplicity of the mask created the
perfect counterpoint for the complexity of the man behind it. I imagined black lipstick on
Luka, black nail polish, heavy kohl eyeliner. I needed stark contrasts.
My heart drummed an ecstatic beat inside my chest. Yes. With the mask in my hands,
everything fell into place. My introspective solidified for me.
Hugging the mask to my chest, I rushed to the door. When my hand fell on the knob, I
took a deep breath, girding my loins for the fray I was about to jump into again. I had to find Luka. I needed to tell him about the shoot and carve out time in his schedule for it.
I pushed into the hallway and was almost blindsided by a servant carrying a pedestal.
Yelping, I flattened myself against the wall again. The stairs to the studio was several yards from the library, which was totally heaven sent for me.
Thoughts heavily occupied by the poses I imagined in my head, I wasn’t paying attention
until I pushed into the studio. The hush in the room whipped my head up. No one but
Phoenix and Luka were behind the glass where the instruments were and the two guys who
operated the sound board were missing. Where were the rest of the band and Yana?
Shouldn’t they be recording today?
Not knowing what to do, I raised my hand to get Luka’s or Phoenix’s attention until
Phoenix slapped Luka across the face. I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand. Since the
speakers weren’t on, I couldn’t hear what they were arguing about behind the glass wall.
Luka’s face crumpled into a scowl. He screamed something at Phoenix’s back. Whirling
around, Phoenix pushed at his chest, screaming something back. Luka pointed downward
several times. From the way he moved, it seemed like he stabbed the floor instead of just
pointing at it. Phoenix waved her hands in the air, a terrible knot forming on her brow. Her
eyes were wild.
A part of me wanted to hear what they were arguing about. But the saner part of me
listened to my self-preservation instincts. Clearly, they didn’t want anyone to know about this argument or the rest of the band would have been with them. I walked in on something I
shouldn’t have.
Since it looked like Phoenix and Luka wouldn’t be done any time soon, I slowly backed
away toward the exit. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t paying attention and knocked over a mic
stand. It fell over and hit a button on the sound board. A piercing note rang out, startling
everyone. At the same time, Luka and Phoenix looked toward where I stood.
Caught spying—no matter how unintentional—forced my heart to punch a hole through
my chest. Luka took a step toward me, his gaze intense. Phoenix wrapped her arms around
herself, a look of guilt in her expression. I didn’t want to know what Luka had planned to do
when he reached me, so I turned around and ran out. Immature move, but what more could
you ask for considering what I’d walked into?
Telling him about the shoot could wait.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bassist
Luka didn’t sleep in my room for the next two nights. I’d gotten so used to him hanging
around that not having him there actually unnerved me. When I looked for him so I could set
up the shoot, it seemed like he’d vanished. The servants were no help at all since they grew
more stressed the closer we got to the party. Deidra only had time to feed me, and sometimes
she walked in with just tea, completely forgetting the sandwiches in the kitchen, and had to
double back through the chaos for them. Poor thing. I told her I could fend for myself, but
she refused to have it, like I’d insulted her.
Demitri wasn’t in his study both times I’d walked that far to ask him where Luka could be.
Dray worked in his lab all day, which meant he hadn’t seen Luka at all. Yana was on the
phone ordering gondolas…of all things. And Phoenix wouldn’t see anyone. That I didn’t get.
Why would she lock herself in her bedroom and refuse to come out?