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“I dress you and you dress me?” Amusement brushed aside the surprise.
“I’d prefer to keep us naked, but if we have to get dressed…”
I laughed, but that humor was fleeting.
He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to brief you on the politics and the people…” I made a face. “I’m also going to call Tally over to help. She knowseveryone.”
With a slow nod, Milo cut into the omelet that Marlene had made him. He didn’t ask any questions yet and I reveled in the trust. Still, even as I went back to skimming the news, I couldn’t escape the shiver of apprehension. Nothing about the masquerades had ever been fun when I was younger, and I somehow doubted that had changed now.
ChapterEleven
MILO
The drive felt good. I hadn’t left the city in a while and frankly, I’d half-forgotten what it was like to not climb in the back of a car or have a driver pick me up and deliver me somewhere. Getting too comfortable, Hardigan. Far too comfortable.
For now though, I was heading south from Manhattan, through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. The GPS said the drive would take a couple of hours. So far, the drive out via the tunnel had gone well, without any of the choked traffic I half-expected.
Hopefully, the return drive would be as easy. As it was, I kept the speedometer pegged at the limit or just barely above. I also kept my head on a swivel for a possible tail. I’d planned to rent a car, but Mayhem spotted the reservation on my screen. Without comment, she’d left the library then returned with three sets of keys.
Lexus.
Stingray.
Porsche. Granted it was a Porsche SUV, but it was still a Porsche.
“Help yourself to any of them.”
“Mayhem,” I’d growled as she headed back to her seat. “You can’t keep just giving me things.”
“Pretty Boy,” she said, a slow smile curving her lips that promised me she was going to do whatever she wanted. “I said you could drive them, not keep them.”
I frowned.
“Or don’t,” she continued, with the barest lift of her shoulder as she returned her attention to the spreadsheet she’d been working on for the last hour. I didn’t think she was as blasé as she pretended. “Might be simpler to not have a paper trail. But then, maybe you want to pick something different.”
It wasn’t the point and I sighed. So here I was behind the wheel of the Lexus, eating up the highway. What I wanted to drive was that Stingray. I had a feeling it would give Kellan a hard-on if I showed up in it. Too bad he wasn’t going to be there. I picked up a tail just outside of the tunnel, but they disappeared when I got “lost” in Trenton.
Once I was back on the highway, my escort seemed to have fucked off. Mayhem was at the dressmaker’s today. She and Tally were going for fittings then making a day of it. The fact this ball wasn’t justfancydress but actual costumes had been a bit of a shock. How was this my life?
I had to see a tailor in a couple of days, or I should say a tailor was coming to me, for the full-fitting. Mayhem didn’t want anyone to see my choices until the night of the ball.
“I know it seems silly,” she told me. “But half the fun is no one knows who anyone is. Unless you recognize a voice, you can be anyone, and talk to anyone. So it’s important no one knows who we are…”
“You want to take advantage of the anonymity…” To spy, to eavesdrop, or maybe just to enjoy.
Head tilted, she’d considered me. “Something like that. There’s a freedom when no one knows who you are and an expectation when they do—you’re going to knock their socks off, Pretty Boy. Trust me.”
The only socks I wanted off were hers, but I kept that thought to myself. The woman was already in my blood and my bones. I couldn’t get enough of her. I didn’t think I ever would. So much, I’d agreed to all the lace and velvet with their ridiculous high collars and elaborate decoration.
If my guys could see me—
Well, they wouldn’t, but I’d get a picture with Mayhem for Ivy.
She would enjoy it and I’d have to live with all the shit they’d give me.
Two hours and forty-five minutes after I left Manhattan, I pulled into the parking lot of the shipping warehouse after double-checking the address. A challenge at the gate from security made me wait until they cleared me in. Thankfully, the reason I drove all this way was striding out of the warehouse as I parked next to a standard, black SUV.
