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“I know what’s expected,” I replied demurely, giving the impression I wouldn’t fight his decision in public. If provoked, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t make a scene, especially if I had to endure Carlo’s company all night.
“Ah, Bianca,mia nipote.” His voice held an edge of warning, as if he could read my thoughts. “Remember your obligation to family.”
It took everything I had not to shout his sordid secrets to everyone in attendance. My grandfather didn’t make his choices for the good of the family but for self-preservation and gratification.
Carlo steered me away with a smirk, leading us inside, where the live musicians played in crisp black tuxedos, beginning the night with a traditional waltz. Carlo swept me onto the dance floor, refusing to allow me an opportunity to flee. He dominated every minute of the night until I began stepping on his feet with my heels, smiling when I leaned all my weight onto him.
In retaliation, he stroked the bare skin of my back with his fingers, nearly slipping the strap off one shoulder. I hissed at him to stop, but his roaming hands continued. More than once, I shoved them from my ass and tried to step away.
Just when I thought I couldn’t stand another second of this ball, something in the air shifted. The cold, empty feeling in my chest disappeared.
I felt his presence before I saw Benny. Heat from his gaze found me, followed by his striking silver eyes. His warm, seductive perusal swept over me, hungry, seething with anger as another man held my hand and gripped my waist.
When he emerged from the shadows, I caught the fierceness of his silvery gaze before a dark wave of black rolled across it. Handsome and deadly, I forgot everyone in the room but him, mesmerized by the way he prowled across the floor in my direction.
His appearance surprised and pleased me. Benny wore a charcoal gray suit with a white button-down shirt beneath it and a dark sapphire tie that matched my dress. How did he know what I would wear? Did my Phantom sneak into my room and scan the closet?
My lips parted in shock, wondering how long he had been here before I noticed him. I couldn’t help licking my lips, eager to press my body against his and run away from this nightmare.
His hand landed on Carlo’s shoulder and physically moved him an inch. “Mine,” he uttered with a growl before stepping in and whisking me away. We glided across the dance floor as a smug smile lifted Benny’s lips. His gaze shot to Carlo, who glared at us from across the room. “I can’t wait to watch him bleed.”
The comment, spoken with finality in a subdued tone, shattered the fear I felt since seeing Carlo outside my room.
“That’s Carlo—,” I began.
“I know who he is,” Benny assured me, “and he’ll pay for putting his hands on you. Not just for tonight.”
I didn’t know what to say and remained silent. My gaze swept the ballroom and all the guests watching us. Dozens of elaborate silver, gold, red, and green masks stared back. Expensive jewels glistened in the candlelight as the costumes of the rich draped the ballroom in a vulgar display of wealth.
Spotting mynonno, I refused to acknowledge the fury on his face, blooming into his cheeks like rouge.
“I didn’t know you could dance,” I murmured as I met the silvery depths of Benny’s eyes.
“My grandmother taught me many years ago.”
His grandmother? He never mentioned her before now.
The silent question must have been evident because he elaborated as he pulled me tighter against him. “She died when I was nine. A year before I lost my father.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not important. Not tonight.”
I wasn’t sure how my feet remembered the steps or how I moved without faltering. All my concentration focused on Benny, how his hand pressed to my lower back, how his sambuca and mint scent enveloped me, and the vivid hunger he didn’t hide, blazing like starlight in his eyes. My core clenched, and I felt the pink thong I wore already dampening from my arousal.
“You’re breathtaking,amore mio.”
His right eye sparkled as the words left his mouth. The left twinkled but didn’t carry the same brightness. The difference always intrigued me. Like the sides of his soul battling to find balance. The Phantom, demon of the night, and the biker outlaw warring with one another to find peace.
“Thank you.”
I knew which of Benny’s personas he adopted based on the mask that he wore. The black skeletal mask that formed around his face and fit close, hiding most of his features? The biker outlaw Manic and my protector. The bone-white death’s head mask that concealed the damaged left side of his face? The Phantom, my demon of the night. No mask? The rare, unhidden, vulnerable face of my Benny, the man I loved.
Which one did I prefer? All and none. Each persona appealed to a different part of me, but they all overlapped, combining into the man I had fallen deeply in love with. There was no one else for me. Only Benezio De Santo.
Murmurs grew in the crowd as Benny continued to dance with me, finally pausing to bow as the song ended. He didn’t hide his appreciation as he stood still, tilting my chin up. Something in his expression darkened.
No one knew the identity of the bold man who assessed me so openly, but I would recognize him anywhere, even with my eyes closed—a fact I kept to myself and coveted.
