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“Good night, Lauren.” Sebastian raised his hand in parting and walked back to his BMW.
She watched him drive away before closing and locking her door. Stepping inside, Lauren kicked out of her heels in disgust. She walked over to her junk drawer on the kitchen island, where she kept a collection of pens, batteries, loose change and hair ties. Without hesitation, she swept the shoulder-length strands of her hair back off her face and into its usual bun on the top of her head. It looked nice down with the new highlights, at least her stylist had said so, but it just got in her way. She was pretty sure she got some butternut squash soup in it earlier. Sexy.
With it out of the way, she went over to her Sub-Zero refrigerator and removed a bottle of her favorite sparkling water. Then she pulled out a stool and sat at the large quartz island to think. The kitchen, and this kitchen in particular, was her happy place. There was something soothing about the stainless steel appliances, the cool stone countertops and the sleek white cabinets that calmed her nerves and cleared her mind. She wasn’t remotely hungry, but she thought about getting up and cooking something.
After a moment of resting her toes, Lauren got up and unzipped the shift dress she’d worn to dinner. She let it slink into a puddle at her feet and stepped out, leaving it there. In her bra and panties, she went to the pantry and pulled out an apron. She returned to the island a moment later with an armful of vegetables and set to work cleaning and chopping.
It would become either soup or a frittata in the morning, she hadn’t decided yet. But for now, she would chop.
The therapeutic rhythm pounded through her brain and when the last pepper was obliterated, she set down her knife and took a deep breath.
She never should’ve sought out Sebastian Wingate. She knew that now. He was a perfectly nice guy, even more handsome than she imagined he would be under the mask. But that night at the club had been special. A once-in-a-lifetime kind of night. And in trying to locate him, in reaching out to him in real life without masks and the late-night haze of vodka, it just wasn’t the same.
Lauren would go with him to Dallas. She would see it through because she’d said she would. But she needed to accept the fact that it would probably end there. She would never have another enchanting night in the arms of her masked suitor. She hadn’t given much thought to what a physical relationship with Sebastian would be like, but she knew in her heart it wouldn’t be anything like what they’d already shared.
The spell was broken. The stroke of midnight brought all that to an end. And now Cinderella and the lovely fantasy that came along with it had turned back into a big, old pumpkin and some mice.
* * *
“For someone who just got home from a date, you look positively miserable.”
Sutton looked down at his watch and then back at his brother as he came through the front door and tugged loose his tie. “Then again, it’s nine o’clock. Not a good sign to be home this early.”
Sebastian frowned at him and shook his head. “Thanks for the blow-by-blow commentary on how badly my date went. I should’ve brought you along to narrate.”
His brother dropped his keys onto the coffee table and flopped down on the couch beside Sutton, who had been watching a college football game. “Beer?” he offered.
“Hell yeah.”
Sutton got up and grabbed two fresh beers from the kitchen. He popped the tops and carried them back into the living room. They both took a few sips and silently watched football until it went to a commercial break. Sutton took the opportunity to press his brother for information. “So what happened?”
Sebastian shook his head. “I wish I knew. On paper, it should be perfect. And yet, it’s nothing like before. If she didn’t show up on my doorstep insisting she was the woman I met before, I wouldn’t believe it.”
Sutton frowned. He and his brother hadn’t had many conversations of depth recently. Too much had been going on in their lives. But he’d obviously missed something major and he needed the pieces filled in. “Back up. Who is this woman again?”
“Her name is Lauren Roberts. She’s the owner and chef of the Street Eats food trucks that are usually parked around downtown.”
Sutton recognized the name. He’d even eaten at Street Eats a couple times. The food was really good and it was quick for when he was moving from one meeting to the next without time to sit down for a meal. “Where did you meet her?”
“Well, that’s not so simple. I met her at the masquerade ball. I think. Then she showed up a few days later to introduce herself and apologize for acting out of character that night. At first, I was ecstatic. Now...not so much.”
“I get the feeling you’re skimming over the important stuff. Go back to the party. What happened there?”
“What didn’t?” Sebastian said with a sigh. “I don’t know what it was. Something about that night was different. She was different. Beautiful and exotic looking. With our masks we could pretend to be other people. I got caught up in it.”
“I know what you mean,” he admitted. It hadn’t felt like the typical club party. He’d met women at those things before. He’d danced the night away with them. He’d even left with one before. But it wasn’t like this. She hadn’t lingered in his mind the way Red had. “It had to be the masks.”
Sebastian nodded. “You know that I’m not the kind to get caught up with a lady at something like that. But she was entrancing. Yet somehow familiar.” He sighed. “I felt so comfortable around her, I guess I let my guard down...and touching her was almost a religious experience. I can’t even describe it. We had an extraordinary connection. And then the party ended, she was gone and I thought she was out of my life for good.”
Sutton’s nose wrinkled at his brother’s words. While they were twins, they rarely did anything alike. They were night and day. And yet, they seemed to have had very similar experiences at the masquerade ball.
“I felt like such a fool for letting her get away. No name,” Sebastian lamented. “No way to contact her. I hadn’t even seen her face without the mask on. I spent the nights after the party lying in bed beating myself up for how I handled things. Something good finally happens to me and I let her slip through my fingers.”
“It was an honest mistake,” Sutton said. He’d made the same one. His masked temptress had run out while he slept and he only had her mask to show for it. He’d held it in his hands as he sat on the edge of his bed thinking about what a fool he’d been. On the plus side, misery loved company. He and Sebastian could lament their stupidity together.
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“Then she showed up on our doorstep and I thought I’d been given a second chance with the woman of my dreams.”
