Masquerade Read Free

said it aloud
until the cabbie offered her a ride. “I don’t have any money to pay you with,”
she said.
    “That’s alright, Miss.
Next time you catch a cab, you tip extra big.”
    Relief dissolved her
anxiety and Beth took her first deep breath of the day. For the first time
since she’d boarded the train this morning, she began
to feel hopeful.
    The cabbie waited for an
answer. A smile was the only way Beth could pay him back, and she flashed him
one that was beyond grateful. “I will pay it forward. Definitely.”
    Fifteen minutes later,
they arrived at the address. The timing was uncanny as she’d managed to arrive just prior to the hour the invitation mentioned—4:00 p.m.
    The cab seat, sticky warm
though it was, felt like a haven. A huge part of Beth didn’t want to get out and she sat glued to the seat.
    “Miss?” Baer, as the cabbie had introduced himself , looked at
her in the rearview mirror. “Are you all right?”
    Not as certain of herself
now, she nodded. “I think so,” then stepped to the sidewalk, her legs shaking
almost as hard as her heart pounded.
    “Umm, Miss?”
    “Hmmm?” Beth answered, still trying to tamp down her queasy stomach.
    “Do you have a change of
clothes?”
    She held up the small bag she’d packed. “Yes.”
    “You might want to
change.” Baer said, pointing at her.
    Beth ran her hands over
her hips and found a huge gash in the denim on one cheek of her ass. Any nerves
that had settled down now flared with embarrassment. Color-infused warmth
flooded her face as she clamped a hand over the gaping hole in her jeans. Her brand new I-feel-sexy-in-them jeans. The ones she’d bought just before purchasing her first ever thong.
The thong that now revealed flesh that had never seen sunlight, peeking out
through fingers that couldn’t quite cover the denim-free
area. Could this day get any worse?
    She backed up until the
building stopped her.
    Baer leaned toward the
passenger window. “You sure this is where you want to go?”
    She looked again at the
piece of paper. “Yes. I have to.”
    Beth could see he didn’t want to leave, but she waved him on. “Go. You’ve got to work. I’ll be okay.”
    She watched as he pulled
away, then turned to stare at the building in front of
her, one hand firmly covering as much of her ass-cheek as she could. Her
parting words to Baer echoed in her head. I’ll be fine.
    Maybe.

Chapter Two
     
    A bar?
    Beth stared at the garish
neon that seemed out of place in the mid-afternoon heat. Her mysterious
benefactor had sent her to a bar? For the trillionth
time, she wondered why she had answered that ad. For that matter, why had she
even picked up the magazine at the grocery store? She never read Cosmo.
    She wasn’t frigid. She just had some issues to work out. Who wouldn’t ?
The first guy she slept with ditched her. And Steve? Her ex was nothing if not blunt about how cold
and unimaginative she was in bed. Her sex-drive had simply taken a very long
vacation.
    Logic failed at that
point because Beth didn’t have a clue about how to get
it to come home. She’d spent many nights in her empty
apartment trying to figure that out. A year later, she managed to replace the
furniture Steve had taken when he moved, but not her libido .
Sending in the application had seemed like a joke until she’d received the acceptance letter, giving her one week to request vacation and prepare.
    It had been the most
nerve-wracking week of her life.
    Now here she stood. Back
in a city she swore she’d never return to with no
purse, her ass hanging out for the world to see, standing in front of a brick
façade painted with ornate masks.
    Masquerade.
    Leave your identity, not your manners, at the door.
    What had she gotten
herself into ? Once again, the urge to run threatened
to turn Beth around. She rubbed her sandal-clad foot along the back of her
other leg, wondering if she really could go through with this.
    She knew nothing about
this mysterious