CinderEli (4 page)

By the time we made it to the landing at the
top of the stairs, my arm was starting to sweat where Maya’s
touched it, and I was trying to think of a polite way to extricate
myself from her hold. “This is going to be so much fun,” I told
her, pulling my arm out of hers and clapping my hands together.
Then I set both hands on the banister and leaned over to survey the
foyer below.

At the bottom of the stairs, partygoers were
already milling about, moving from one downstairs room to another,
exploring. Still more guests were arriving—some servant, or
caterer, or whatever, I didn’t recognize was opening the door every
few seconds it seemed like, to allow another group to enter.

“Hey hey, beautiful!” Brad’s voice sounded
from somewhere behind me.

I closed my eyes and counted to three, hoping
that when I opened them and turned around, Brad wouldn’t be there.
Maybe if I wished hard enough, he wouldn’t even be here at the
party. Inviting him had been a mistake. I knew that when I did it,
but even if I hadn’t invited him, he would have come anyway. Brad
was like that, too cocky to realize when he wasn’t wanted. And he
definitely wasn’t wanted. If I could have been rid of him
completely when we broke up however many months ago, I would have
been perfectly happy. But I just couldn’t seem to shake him.

Sure enough, when I turned around, there he
stood, dressed as a vampire, complete with fake blood at the
corners of his mouth. “Brad. You do know it’s a masquerade
right?”

“Chyeah, totally. That’s why I’m wearing this
costume.” He posed proudly, voguing the way he must think a vampire
would with hands on hips, feet askance, and fangs showing.

What did I ever see in him?

“Ooh, who is that?” Maya’s question drew my
attention away from my mistake of an ex-boyfriend and toward the
front door. The guy standing in my foyer hadn’t drawn only Maya’s
attention, but also the attention of several of the other kids
loitering in the entryway. And with good reason. He was dressed
head to toe in black, from his scuffed motorcycle boots to his
black denim pants to his black T-shirt under a black leather
jacket. And he’d topped it all with a black motorcycle helmet,
aviator sunglasses, and a black half-mask over his mouth. He was
impossibly tall and lanky, but his lean build didn’t make him any
less imposing. His look, his whole countenance was both alluring
and dangerous at the same time.

“So, babe, when’s the music going to start?
I’m saving my best dance moves for you.”

Ugh. Brad.

“Yeah, yeah. Later.” I waved him off like a
pesky mosquito and made for the stairs, making sure to place each
step carefully, with purpose. A few minutes ago, my heels had
seemed so perfect; now they seemed ridiculous because they were
keeping me from getting downstairs to figure out who this
mysterious bad boy was.

I kept my eyes glued to him as I descended,
and my heart sank when he started toward the
great-room-turned-temporary-ballroom. A quick scan of the room
ahead of him proved that it was already overcrowded. If he made it
in there before I could get to him, it would take me quite some
time to find him again. I picked up the pace, practically racing
down the final few steps. On the last one, my right heel caught in
the hem of my gown. I grabbed tight to the banister and lifted my
foot to remove my heel from my dress.

By the time I’d extricated my foot from the
lace, my mystery guest had disappeared into the crowd beyond the
foyer.

“Hey, Katie! Great party,” Amanda Simpkins
sidled up to me and wrapped me in a hug. Her too-large nest of
teased red curls tickled my nose in an unpleasant way, smothering
me with the scent of too much hair product. “Happy birthday,
Bestie!”

Bestie? We were barely friends. She must have
been trying to impress whoever she was with. I didn’t bother trying
to figure out who she was trying to dazzle. Instead, I pulled out
of her hug, patted her on the shoulder and took off for the
ballroom, dodging other partiers on my way there.

The room was even more crowded than I’d
thought; I realized that as soon as I stepped through the arched
entry. I skirted friends and acquaintances, stretching to see over
their heads. Anything to possibly catch a glimpse of my mysterious
biker.
When did I start thinking of him as
my
biker?

It didn’t matter. I’d lost him.

I gave up my search and wove my way through
the mob of dancing teenagers toward the edge of the room. They were
suffocatingly close, and I needed space right then. The party had
only just started, and already I needed fresh air. When I turned
back to face the room, I spotted Brad and Maya both standing at the
doorway to the foyer scanning the room for me.

I ducked out onto the terrace before they
spied me.

Six

Roman

Katie was alone on
the terrace when I stepped
through the doors. My stomach twisted in a fit of nerves the second
I saw her, and I ducked into the shadows behind the french doors.
 Now, not only was I awkward and shy, but creepy, too. I
couldn’t bring myself to step out into the light, though. What if
she turned around and saw me? What if she recognized me behind the
old motorcycle gear and two-sizes-too-big-for-me leather boots I’d
pilfered from my father’s closet? I removed the helmet and checked
the mask over my face, testing its security and position under my
sunglasses, then relaxed once I’d reassured myself my face was
still mostly hidden.

The music spilled out through the open doors,
a soft, slow number that existed in perfect harmony with the beauty
and peace of the dark terrace. The setting was like a world all our
own. I let my gaze rove over her in a way I wouldn’t have had she
known I was there—committing her every feature, every curve to
memory. I fought the urge to remove my sunglasses to get a better
look at her. I needed that extra layer of protection, even if for
my own comfort. She was like a princess with the moonlight shining
down on her, giving her blonde waves a silvery tone and lighting
her skin as if the moon was a spotlight designed just for her. Even
though she was facing away from me, looking down at the pool area,
I could almost picture her soft, full lips with their pink pout,
her gray-blue eyes with their exotic tear-drop shape, her button
nose, and high cheekbones. She was perfection. And I was
unworthy.

I shouldn’t have come; I didn’t belong here.
Doubts crowded in on me, and I shuffled back toward the entrance to
the ballroom. Maybe I could escape quickly, and she would never
know I’d been here. My too-large boot scuffed the ground, and I
froze, hoping she hadn’t heard.

She whirled with a startled smile, probably
ready to greet whoever she found there. Her smile faltered when she
saw me, but was back in full force when she spotted the helmet in
my hand. “Hi!” She called and lifted her hand in a small wave.

“Hi,” I repeated. I hadn’t intended to use a
lower register, but my voice sounded deeper, more gravelly. Maybe
it was from a subconscious effort to disguise any defining detail
about myself. I didn’t belong here. I wasn’t one of the cool kids.
Sure, she’d invited me, but Brad had driven the point home that I
just didn’t fit in with Katie’s crowd. She was so far out of my
league, we weren’t even playing the same sport.

Katie tilted her head to the side, giving my
person a slow perusal from head to toe and back again. I needed to
say something, anything, to distract her from what was clearly an
attempt to identify me. “Like what you see?” I bit my tongue the
second the words were out of my mouth. What was wrong with me? I
didn’t talk like that.

Katie smiled that slightly crooked grin of
hers. “And what if I do?”

Her words sent a little thrill through me,
chasing away the worst of my nerves. Maybe I could pull this off. I
was pretty well disguised, after all. Maybe, just for tonight, I
could pretend I really was this devil-may-care biker. I could talk
to Katie—flirt with Katie—like I couldn’t do when I was just me. I
set my helmet down, checked the position of my mask over my face
again, and pushed my sunglasses a little higher on my nose. Then I
took a step toward her. “Well, then I would say the feeling is
mutual.”

Her smile softened into an almost
self-conscious smirk, and she lifted a hand to tuck a stray strand
of hair behind her ear. She smoothed the other hand down the fabric
of her dress. “Who are—”

“Want to dance?” I cut her question off
before she could ask it, avoiding the awkward place it would have
left us when I tried not to answer. I held out my hand like I
expected her to say yes.

She didn’t disappoint, crossing the terrace
in graceful steps and placing a small hand in mine. I pulled her
into my arms in a move I’d only ever seen in movies—and never
imagined I’d actually use myself. She seemed to melt against me,
molding her body to mine, and laying her cheek to my chest.

Then she took a deep breath and released it
on a soft sigh. “You smell really good,” She whispered the words
against my jacket. It was all the invitation I needed. I tightened
my arms around her and began a gentle sway to the beat of the
music. Katie followed my lead, moving with me as if we were one
person, fluid, coordinated, perfectly in time with one another.

When the song ended and another began, I
didn’t skip a beat, just shifted into a new sway, a new set of slow
moves with her in my arms. I would dance like this all night if
Katie let me, but I wanted more. I wanted to live this fantasy to
the fullest.

I wanted to kiss her.

I was a man on a mission, expertly guiding
our dance steps toward the shadows until I had Katie safe within
the darkness behind the patio doors. I slowed my dance moves and
softly pressed Katie against the brick wall behind her. I couldn’t
see her face through my sunglasses, and I took a chance that it
would be dark enough to hide my features if I lifted them out of
the way, setting them on top of my head. With the glasses out of
the way, I still couldn’t make out the details of her face.
Hopefully, that meant that she couldn’t make out mine either.

Emboldened by that idea, I slipped my
half-mask down under my chin. The air was cool on my face, sending
little prickles of awareness across my lips as I imagined pressing
them against Katie’s. Finally, I worked up the nerve to make my
move.

I dipped my head and laid the softest of
kisses across her mouth. I wanted more, wanted to show her in my
kiss exactly how I felt about her, but I didn’t have the guts for
that. So, I moved slow, came in for a second soft kiss, and slipped
my tongue out to tease over her lips. She parted them on a gasp,
and I took that as my cue to deepen the kiss.

Kissing Katie was like coming home, it was
comfort and sweetness and exhilaration all at once. I swirled my
tongue over hers, and she reciprocated, giving as much as she was
taking. When I finally pulled back, she nipped playfully at my
bottom lip.

“You’re a good… dancer.” She broke the
silence, but her soft voice didn’t break the mood.

I chuckled at her compliment. “Back at
ya.”

Eventually, the beat picked up, and unable to
justify holding her close anymore, I let my arms fall away from
her. I was quick to move my mask back into place and pull my
sunglasses down over my eyes before I took a step back.

Katie’s expression was almost regretful as
she removed her hands from behind my neck and I widened the space
between us. “Do I know you?” she asked, eyeing my person with more
than just passing scrutiny.

The idea that she could figure out who I was
set off a firestorm of nervous energy in my veins, and I shoved my
hands deep into my pockets to keep from fidgeting. “No,” I told
her, and I wasn’t entirely lying. She didn’t really know anything
about me.

“What’s your name?” She stepped forward, and
I instinctively took a step backward.

“Eli.” I gave her my middle name, also not a
lie.

“Eli…” she repeated, watching me
consideringly. “Are you sure we haven’t met? You seem so
familiar.”

I had to get out of there before she figured
me out. “I, uh, gotta hit the road, but thanks for the dance,
princess.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I spun on my
heels and all but ran for the terrace doors, snatching my helmet up
and shoving it onto my head as I fled. I zig-zagged through the
crowd inside the ersatz ballroom, and was out the front door and
racing down the marathon of steps in no time flat.

“Wait, Eli!” Katie’s voice sounded from
somewhere behind me, somewhere too close for comfort. I was only
about halfway to the bottom, and I lost my concentration—and my
footing. My foot slid out of my boot, and I stumbled down a handful
of steps before catching myself.

I froze, unsure if I should go back from my
boot or just keep going. The click-clacking of Katie’s heels on the
stone steps as she descended after me made up my mind for me. I
righted myself and took off again, limping my way down the stairs
two at a time. Dad’s motorcycle seemed a hundred miles away, but I
finally made it. I swung a leg over and kicked it upright in one
smooth move. The engine turned over easily, and revved dramatically
when I took off. I tried hard not to look at Katie on my way by,
but my gaze drifted to her without my consent. She stood at the
bottom of the steps, her expression both sad and confused, and for
a moment, I considered staying, telling her the truth, risking my
heart for the possibility that she might feel the same way about me
as I felt about her.

But at the last second, I caught site of Brad
coming down the steps behind her, and his arrival on the scene
knocked me back into my place. Katie and I were from two different
worlds, and I’d made a huge mistake forgetting that.