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fingers pulled on the threads, unknotting them and drawing them through the grommets with deliberate, aching leisure.
    She kept expecting to feel his lips on her shoulder, on the column of her neck, or at the place where fabric met her skin. But the longer he held back, and the longer her skin burned for his touch, the crazier it drove her.
    Yes, he was a master at this anticipation game. Among other things. When she finally got him naked and under her, she’d show him a thing or two.
    Except she still wasn’t sure they were headed for the bedroom. It was disorienting to have her temporary, surface-level liaison morph into something undefinable. Something so much more than a quick fix for loneliness.
    So what was it?
    Finally, after an eternity, the laces pulled free from the bodice, loosening the corset and spilling her breasts partially over the neckline of the dress, and he still hadn’t made a move.
    “It, uh, has to come over my head,” she said without turning around. She raised her arms. “Can you...?”
    He grasped the bodice but she was sitting on the skirt, so she wiggled and he pulled, until the yards and yards of lace tulle eased past her waist. The mask popped up onto her forehead, but she repositioned it before the skirt fully came off.
    Then she was naked except for her thong. And the mask. What would he do first? The way he’d answered that question back on the balcony had been maddeningly vague.
    He draped her dress over the back of the couch. She faced the canal, away from Matt, and he had yet to say a word. Screaming sexual tension whipped through all her nerves until she thought she’d pass out.
    “So. What did you want to talk about?”
    His soft laugh settled inside her. “I’m wondering about this.”
    He traced the trail of eight notes tattooed in a string at the small of her back. The smooth touch unleashed a tremor she couldn’t control. “It’s a tattoo.”
    “The notes are all the colors of the rainbow. I like it.”
    No one had ever noticed that before. “Music is important to me.”
    It was more than she’d meant to say and communicated none of the shock of pure grief the words had unearthed. She shoved the grief back, like she always did, shoved back the longing for a voice to express the pain. If she had a voice, she’d have no pain to express. It was a cruel, vicious circle she couldn’t escape.
    Except this was one night she didn’t have to face the darkness alone. “Matt.”
    “Angie.”
    The smile in his voice warmed her. “Just making sure you’re still there. Are we going to talk some more or is there something you’d like to do instead?”
    “Was that a line?”
    “Yes. It was.” The ache at her core spread, and only the man behind her could ease it. She’d never wanted to be with someone more. What did she have to do to get him to make a move? “Obviously not a good one since you’re still sitting there like yo—”
    “Stand up and turn around, Angie.”
    She did slowly.
    His hooded gaze swept her from head to toe, lingering along the way and unleashing a delicious tingle in all the places his eyes touched.
    “You are the most beautiful woman alive. Come here.”
    He grasped both her hands and stood to meet her. In one breath, he drew her into his arms and kissed her.
    Flames exploded at their joined mouths, between their bodies, crackling down the length of her bare skin where the soft fabric of his suit brushed it. Oh, how wrong she’d been. He was a man who took what he wanted. And he wanted to consume her whole.
    She wanted to let him.
    They connected . On every level.
    When he tilted her head back to access her throat with his firm, gorgeous mouth, their masks caught at the corners. Patiently, he disentangled them and glanced down into her eyes, suddenly still. “No expectations. Does this feel right?”
    Without warning, he skated a hand down her spine and fanned it at the small of her back, cradling the tattooed music notes in his capable hand