t in front of Taylor and the
other men.
“A glass of champagne before we go?”
“Please,” I murmur, far too quickly.
Christian nods to Taylor who heads into the foyer with
his three cohorts.
In the great room, Christian retrieves a bottle of
champagne from the fridge.
“Security team?” I ask.
“Close protection. They’re under Taylor’s control.
He’s trained in that, too.” Christian hands me a champagne
flute.
“He’s very versatile.”
“Yes, he is.” Christian smiles. “You look lovely,
Anastasia. Cheers.” He raises his glass, and I clink it with
mine. The champagne is a pale rose color. It tastes
deliciously crisp and light.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, his eyes heated.
“Fine, thank you.” I smile sweetly, giving nothing away,
knowing full well he’s referring to the silver balls.
He smirks at me.
“Here, you’re going to need this.” He hands me a large
velvet pouch that was resting on the kitchen island. “Open
it,” he says between sips of champagne. Intrigued, I reach
into the bag and pull out an intricate silver masquerade
mask with cobalt blue feathers in a plume crowning the
top.
“It’s a masked ball,” he states matter-of-factly.
“I see.” The mask is beautiful. A silver ribbon is
threaded around the edges and exquisite silver filigree is
etched around the eyes.
“This will show off your beautiful eyes, Anastasia.”
I grin at him, shyly.
“Are you wearing one?”
“Of course. They’re very liberating in a way,” he adds,
raising an eyebrow, and he smirks.
Oh. This is going to be fun.
“Come. I want to show you something.” Holding out
“Come. I want to show you something.” Holding out
his hand, he leads me out into the hallway and to a door
beside the stairs. He opens it, revealing a large room
roughly the same size as his playroom, which must be
directly above us. This one is filled with books. Wow, a
library, every wall crammed floor to ceiling. In the center is
a full-size billiard table illuminated by a long triangularprism-
shaped Tiffany lamp.
“You ha一ve a library!” I squeak in aw
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