Unmasked (Godmother Security Book 1) (5 page)

Cindy turned to look out over the city again.  “I don’t blame you.  It’s gorgeous.”

“Ella, I have something to tell you.”

“What’s that?” She asked, turning back to him.

His eyes were dark and his voice was deep and husky when he said, “I have every intention of taking advantage of having you alone.”

Before Cindy could react, he cupped her face with both hands and lowered his mouth to hers. 

The moment their lips touched Cindy’s brain misfired.  She had one brief moment of ‘I shouldn’t do this’ and her hands flew up to his chest in protest.  But when her palms came into contact with warm, bare flesh, she was totally lost.  Her eyes fluttered closed as she relaxed into him, sinking into the kiss and letting her hands slide over the taught muscles of his abdomen and around to his back. 

Heat sizzled every point of skin to skin contact, and flared out until warmth had flooded every poor of Cindy’s body.  Then the tip of Sebastian’s tongue skimmed across her bottom lip, tracing it, and the tiny sparks of lust exploded into a conflagration.  She sighed as the flames engulfed her, and Sebastian took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, slipping his tongue inside to explore and taste her.

The kiss had started off intense, but with every passing moment it got hotter and hotter, until Cindy wouldn’t have been at all surprised to open her eyes and find the world burning around them.  She couldn’t think. She could barely breathe.  The only thing she could do well was feel; and everything felt so incredible.  Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew this wasn’t a good idea, but she couldn’t muster the strength to care.

Sebastian’s hands slid from her face down her neck and shoulders and upper back, touching every bit of exposed flesh.  His mouth tore away from hers to follow his hands.  He trailed his lips and tongue over her jaw, traced her ear, then down her throat and collar bone.  Cindy gasped for air and clung to him, her nails biting into the hard muscles of his back under his shirt. 

Just as his lips touched the flesh just above the neckline of her dress, Cindy became aware of a strange buzzing.  At first she thought it was coming from her own head, then she realized it was coming from inside the apartment. 

“I think your doorbell is buzzing,” she said, weakly.

“Hmmm?”

“Someone’s at the door,” she said, pushing against his shoulder.

Sebastian raised his head.  “Damn it.”  He let her go and stepped back.  “I’m sorry, excuse me a minute.”  He turned and stalked inside the apartment, buttoning his shirt on the way.

Cindy stood there a moment letting the chilly night air cool her down and bring her back to reality.  On shaky legs, she followed Sebastian and heard Gus’s voice.

“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but the event coordinator is looking for you.  She said it’s time for your speech and the unmasking.”

“Damn.  Okay, give me one moment.”  Sebastian shut the door and turned to Cindy as she came to stand behind him.  “I’m sorry, I have to go do this. “

“It’s okay.  Probably for the best, actually.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to get this dress back on once it comes off.”  Cindy gave him a teasing smile, surprised her voice didn’t shake.

His eyes smoldering behind his mask, he gave a low growl.  “That wasn’t really incentive to go downstairs.”

“Responsibility sucks sometimes,” she said, meaning it more than he could possibly know.

“Too true.  Are you ready?”

She glanced at herself in the huge gilded mirror on the wall near the door.  Her skin was flushed and her lips were slightly swollen, but thankfully, Faye had insisted on smudge proof lipstick. The red on her lips wasn’t smeared across her face, or Sebastian’s. 

“I’m good,” she said, and followed him out of the suite, keeping her head down so she didn’t meet Gus’s eyes. 

As they stepped out of the elevator on the ground level, Gus touched the bluetooth earpiece and said, “We are on our way.  Copy.”  He turned to Sebastian.  “Sir, they want us to go through the back so we don’t cut through the ballroom on the way to the podium.”

Crap.  Cindy’s mind jumped into overdrive.  If she went with them she would be by Sebastian’s side during his speech and the unmasking.  That wasn’t a good idea for a myriad of reasons.  She had to slip away before the masks came off.  As they passed a short hallway tucked discretely off to one side of the lobby, an idea came to her.  “You go ahead, I need to powder my nose.”

Sebastian stopped.  “We can wait.”

“Sir, I wouldn’t advise that,” Gus warned.

“No, it’s okay.  I’ll just be a moment, and I’ll see you when you’re finished,” Cindy lied smoothly.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” Sebastian said, dropping a kiss on her cheek beneath her mask.

A huge knot formed in the base of Cindy’s stomach.  She felt like a complete asshole for lying to him, but felt even worse because she wouldn’t be able to see him again, at least not as Ella. 

Before either of them could say anything else, she turned into the hallway and went into the Ladies’ room.  Leaning against the door, she took several deep breaths, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the consequences of the kiss she and Sebastian had shared.  It was midnight and she had to go.

She peeked around the corner to make sure the coast was clear.  A few hotel guests milled around in the lobby, but there was no sign of Sebastian.  She hurried across the lobby and out to the street.  Limousines were starting to line up in front of the hotel, but as promised her aunt’s driver, Frank, stood next to a black stretch limo at the front of the line.

“Take three or four blocks, will you?  It’s going to take some doing to get me out of this dress,” she told Frank as he helped her climb into the back of the limo.

“No problem.”  He gave her a quick wink before shutting the door. 

Within minutes the car had pulled into traffic and was slowly moving down the road.  Cindy sat back for a moment, going over the evening in her mind and just how close to sleeping with a client she’d come.  She wasn’t the naive, gullible type.  She didn’t fall for the uber-charming lines of slick ladies men like Sebastian Prince.  She just didn’t.  Until she did.  Thank God Gus had knocked on the door when he had.  She wasn’t sure she would have come to her senses otherwise.

Nothing to do about it now.  With any luck Faye wouldn’t need her for this case after tonight.  If she did, well, then Cindy would just have to face the consequences.  She wasn’t afraid of what Faye would say.  After all, Faye had put her in the role of seductress. 

Her worry was Sebastian.  She’d lied to him the entire night, and he had every right to be angry with her.  That shouldn’t bother her as it was her job, and she hadn’t been the one to initiate the kiss.  Yet, she’d enjoyed his company.  Some deluded part of her had hoped… Hell, she didn’t know what she’d hoped.  It didn’t matter.  Sebastian Prince was sought after by every eligible woman in the country.  When he couldn’t find ‘Ella’ after the ball he’d no doubt find some other willing woman to fill his bed, and will have forgotten about ‘Ella’ by morning.

That thought didn’t cheer Cindy at all.  She shook her head to clear it.  She couldn’t sit and dwell.  She still had several hours of work to do tonight. 

She’d told Frank to take extra blocks because she’d wanted to clear her head, but as it turned out, she actually did need the extra time to get out of the dress.  It had been comically difficult to extract herself from the corset and layers of lace and tulle.  She was infinitely grateful Faye didn’t have a surveillance camera in the limo to catch her rolling around trying to remove the dress.  Even without the near nudity it would have gone viral on Youtube.

Once divested of the dress and shoes, Cindy pulled the large gym bag from the seat opposite her, looked inside, and groaned.  The clothes Faye had sent was running gear.  After pulling on the jogging pants, sports bra, tank top, and running shoes, she hit the intercom button.  “Frank, I’m going to need you to do an extra loop and let me off a few blocks from the hotel.  Looks like Faye wants me to have a bit of a work out.”

Ignoring the laughter in her voice as he agreed, Cindy started pulling her hair down.  What seemed like thousands of pins later, her hair fell around her shoulders and she pulled the mask off and tossed it aside.  She was herself again, though she still felt a little out of sorts.

Rummaging through the gym bag she found a brush.  After several attempts to tame her teased and lacquered hair, she pulled it up into a messy bun, and wrapped it with the scrunchy Faye had wrapped around the brush handle.  Next she grabbed makeup wipes—Faye had thought of everything—and wiped away the dark eye shadow and red lipstick.  Holding up a small mirror, Cindy saw Ella had been completely wiped away, and she looked like a woman on her way to the gym; with the exception of the diamond heart earrings.

Cindy pulled the earrings off and dropped them into the small box Faye had provided.  Next she put her hand to her throat and gasped.  Her necklace was gone.  Tears welled in her eyes.  How? Where?

It must have fallen off at the ball at some point.  She’d never worn it before, perhaps the clasp was faulty.  She tried to push back the sadness that threatened to overwhelm her.  In contrast to the jewels other women had been wearing tonight, the necklace wasn’t valuable to anyone but her.  If she’d dropped it at the ball and someone found it they would turn it in to the hotel.  But what if a janitor found it?  It was worth pawning for a couple hundred bucks.  No, she wouldn’t think that way.  Despite the evil she’d seen in her job, she believed in the innate goodness in most people.  Besides, a couple hundred bucks wasn’t worth losing a job over.  If a maid or janitor or other employee found it, they would turn it in.  She had to believe that.

“We’re here,” Frank’s voice sounded over the intercom. 

Sighing, Cindy pulled her phone and ID from the tiny purse she’d had over her shoulder all night. Faye had put the promised hotel key card into a jogger’s armband.  Cindy slipped her phone and ID in next to it and strapped on the band.  She plugged ear-buds into her phone and put them in her ears, but didn’t turn on any music.  She stuffed the dress and shoes into the gym bag and left it on the seat.  “Okay, Frank.  Thanks for the ride,” she said into the intercom, then climbed out of the car. 

She was in an alley, and she knew Frank would follow her at a distance until she entered the hotel where Faye had surveillance set up.  She did a couple of stretches, reveling at the feel of the sneakers after having her feet in torturous, unnatural angles in heels all night.  Then she took off.

Running felt incredible, and by the time she’d made it the four blocks to the hotel’s back entrance she wished she could keep running for several more miles.  But, duty called.  She used the key card to let herself into the back entrance.  Instead of taking the elevator up to the sixth floor where Faye waited, she ran up the stairs.  She didn’t meet anyone, but if she had she knew she looked like a business traveler working in a late night run. 

“What took you so long?” Faye asked the moment Cindy opened the door to the hotel room.

“You try getting out of a corset like that in the back of a car.  I think I might have sprained something.”

Faye laughed.  “Oh, honey, that was nothing.  The stories I could tell you.  Did I ever tell you about the time Frank and I…” 

“No.  And don’t tell me either, I don’t want to be scarred for life.” Cindy cut her off, laughing.  Although her aunt swore there was nothing romantic between them, Cindy knew better.  Faye and Frank had worked together in the CIA years ago, and when Faye started Godmother Security he’d come to work for her as her personal driver and guy-Friday.  Frank looked at Faye the way Cindy never dreamed a man would look at her - like she was precious.  If Faye truly thought there was nothing between her and Frank, then Cindy needed to get her aunt’s eyes checked.

“Har, har!  Okay, debrief time.”

While they set up the surveillance equipment Faye had brought up in suitcases Cindy detailed her evening, leaving out the kiss on the terrace.  Faye didn’t need to know that.

“You didn’t see anything at all out of the ordinary?” Faye asked once Cindy had finished her story.

“No.  Prince seemed to know everyone he spoke with.  Even with the masks, they all knew who he was.  There was a woman in a hot pink dress that looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place her.  But, she never came anywhere near Sebastian.”

“Well, let’s see who comes out.”

They spent the next two hours photographing party goers as they left the hotel and got into waiting cars.  The woman in fuchsia never came out and Cindy wondered if she had a room in the hotel or had gone out another exit.

“Jack and Gus will cover Prince this weekend, but I’ll need you at his office first thing Monday morning,” Faye said as they packed up the equipment.

“You want me to sit in with building security?”  Cindy asked, hopefully.  Usually with clients that worked in well secured facilities the day guard sat in the video surveillance room, if one was available.  That way they had eyes on the whole building.

“No, I’ll have Frank in there.  I want someone no more than 10 feet from Prince at all times.  Closer if he’s in public.  We want as few people as possible to know who you are, so you will be going in as his personal assistant’s substitute.”

“You want me to act as personal assistant to the president of a multi-million dollar corporation?”

“Relax.  I swear, you’d think you were new to this business.  It’s your cover.  The real assistant will be working from home.  He has a secretary that screens calls and takes care of most things.  The cover is just so that you can sit in the room with him at all times, even during meetings.”

“I knew that.  I, um, Faye?”

“Yes?”

“If Prince doesn’t recognize me can we not tell him I was the person he danced with all evening?”  Cindy felt a red hot flush creep up her neck to her cheeks.

Faye eyed her thoughtfully for a moment, then said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay, then.  We don’t have to tell him,” Faye said.  “Come on, Frank’s in the parking garage waiting for us.”  

Cindy grabbed a suitcase and followed her aunt, thankful that Faye hadn’t pried.

As they waited for the elevator Faye took Cindy’s free hand in hers and said, “If you do need to talk, you know I’m here.  Right?”

Tears sprang to Cindy’s eyes for the second time.  So many years she hadn’t had anyone to talk to, to count on.  Words couldn’t express how grateful she was to have Faye. “I do,” she said simply, and squeezed Faye’s hand back.

“Okay, good.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m starved. I think we should make Frank find us an all-night diner where we can get some chili cheese fries.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cindy laughed and followed her aunt into the elevator.