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“Did you have fun tonight?” I ask lightly once I release her lips.
Bianka nods, releasing an effervescent giggle that makes my cock twitch inside her at the feel of her muscles tightening around me. Her eyes flutter closed, and she moans deliciously in response. Then her eyes open as she looks at me once again.
“It’s kind of nice to act like a normal person sometimes, to go have fun somewhere people don’t know who I’m related to–or who you’re related to, for that matter,” she explains.
“I agree. Having to date in the everyday world, to act like normal people, has only made me enjoy you more because we have real conversations. There are so few distractions and fancy things to get in the way.”
“We should keep doing it. Even after we don’t need to hide our relationship anymore,” she says.
I smile warmly, giving her gorgeous ass a sultry squeeze. “Definitely.”
“Time to head home?” she suggests, a hint of regret in her tone.
“I was thinking so. Maybe for a round two,” I add, bouncing her playfully.
Bianka giggles once again, her face lighting with delight. And as she leans in to kiss me, I’m not so sure we’ll make it home before round two starts.
34
BIANKA
It’s closing night ofRomeo and Juliet, and I’m uncharacteristically nervous, seeing as both Cassio’s family and mine have picked tonight to come to watch. The previous three performances have gone off without a hitch and received raucous applause. But despite that, I’m beyond jittery to perform my first on-stage kiss in front of Ilya, his fiancee, Whitney, and Cassio’s entire family.
“You’ll be great,” Ellie reassures me as she adds the finishing touches to my makeup. “Now, come on. Let’s get out there and break a leg.”
Cassio looks exceedingly dashing in his medieval attire, stage sword, and a dagger strapped to his hip, reminding me of his expert knowledge of how to wield a blade.
“Good luck, ladies,” he says affectionately as we join him backstage.
I’m aching to reach out and give his hand a squeeze, but I don’t, knowing Hannah Fiore’s eyes are never far and always watching, along with plenty of others who might whisper the information to their fathers so it will get back to Lorenzo Marchetti.
Thankfully, the lights from the stage are blinding enough that I only manage to find Ilya and Whitney in the crowd before I’m too wrapped up in my performance to focus on where in the audience I might find Don Lorenzo.
The masquerade has been something of a fascinating scene to revisit over the last few weeks. It’s close enough to the real ball the Arts Department threw that it took me time to find my character in the performance once again. But having Cassio there with me, taking my hand as Romeo takes Juliet’s for the first time, helps ground me.
It also leaves me challenged to remain rooted in reality when Cassio kisses me again and again throughout the play, our lips meeting electrically each time we’re on stage. It doesn’t matter how many times we practiced before the performance. Kissing him in front of a live audience sends a thrill through me that I simply can’t explain.
The death scene has proven by far the most potent, however. Since our safe return from New York, I can feel the difference in Cassio’s performance and hear the real, lived experience of the fear and horror he must have felt at watching me be taken. Because the passion with which he delivers his final lines is heart-wrenching.
“O my love, my wife! Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty,” he professes, his warm hands cupping my face with such tenderness it makes my closed eyes sting with fresh tears every time.
“I will stay with thee,” Cassio promises with an aching sadness. “And never from this palace of dim night depart again. Here, here will I remain…”
Hearing him speak of his own relief in death makes my heart pulse, and it takes all my self-restraint to stop myself from touching him, to bring him comfort. It makes me think about what might have happened if Cassio hadn’t found Ellie and me in time.
“And, lips, o you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death!”
My lips tingle as Cassio draws near; his kiss is soft, lingering, and sinfully sweet.
And then comes his closing words that make my heart slam against the prison of my chest. Raising his vial of poison in a toast, he says, “Here’s to my love. O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”
It’s agony to rise a moment later, coming back to life just shy of saving Romeo’s life. It’s worse now to envision Cassio’s death. As I wake and find him lifeless next to me, I know it’s not far from exactly what would have happened if Ilya and Nicolo hadn’t come to our aid. Only I probably wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to say goodbye then.
“What’s here?” I ask with very real horror. “A cup closed in my true love’s hand? Poison I see hath been his timeless end. O churl, drink all and left no friendly drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them.” Leaning in, I kiss Cassio desperately, and shudder as he does far too good a job of remaining still and lifeless. “Thy lips are warm,” I stage whisper, though real tears fall from my eyes.
I pause long enough for my fellow actors to exchange their lines as the watchman comes to investigate. And it gives me just enough time to look down upon Cassio’s strikingly handsome face. I can still see the thin line of his scar, though it’s been covered with enough makeup so as not to appear visible to the audience.
He looks pale in the stage’s lighting, and my heart quivers as I’m forced to live through my worst fear for what feels like the hundredth time. Never again will I perform this scene with Cassio. I don’t think I can stand the sight of him dead before me another night, not after what we’ve endured together.
