The masked stranger (1)

A YEAR EARLIER

The note the masked stranger gave me contained an address, date, and time. He wanted me to meet him somewhere else when I was ready. He said he would be expecting me. 

I was angry at first that he left me naked and vulnerable, and then I finally came to my senses. I was about to give myself to a stranger who had kinky tastes in bed. What if he had hurt me? Why did I trust him so much when I didn’t know anything about him? 

God, I was stupid. A man was more perceptive than I was. Thank God he was, or else I would have found myself in a situation I wasn’t supposed to be in. 

But if I was so relieved, then why did it dampen my mood to think about never seeing him again? I hadn’t seen his face, and I already felt like I had known him for a long time. I couldn’t explain why I felt like that.

One thing I was sure of, however, was that I was never going to see that man again. Not if I could help it. I didn’t know what I was thinking. The sex club was not a place I belonged in. 

I crumpled the note and threw it in the trash. I wouldn’t give in to my desires. It didn’t matter that the man looked like he could give me the best sex I had ever had. I had to exercise a level of self-control.

I got into the elevator and went down. This time, I kept my eyes on the ground as I walked through the hallway and left the club. I grabbed my coat near the entrance, rushed to my car, and locked it. 

Only then did I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. I pulled out a mirror and gasped when I saw my reflection. I was flushed, my lipstick was smudged a little, and my hair was disheveled. 

There were faint marks on my neck. He gave me hickeys, and I was too lost in the moment to realize it. A twisted part of me didn’t want them to fade. It was a reminder of a night I didn’t expect. 

Thankfully, I had sobered up. Just thinking I walked through the club looking like a mess made me feel embarrassed. Then I realized it was better in the grand scheme of things. People had sex in there. 

The drive home was full of thoughts spiralling in my mind. I was sure I would never forget that night. I would never forget the man with the body of a Greek god and the eyes of a man who had seduced more women than he could count in his lifetime.

I showered and tried to sleep, but I was restless. I hated New York. It was crowded, and it never slept. Ireland was serene and peaceful, and it felt like home. There was just something about New York that made me feel like I didn’t belong. 

That didn’t stop me from visiting the city from time to time. I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I had only been in New York for two days, and I had almost gotten myself in trouble with a stranger. 

The city made me feel more confident and liberated than I was. Maybe the only reason I hated it was that it made me confront what I really wanted to do with my life rather than what I was forced to become. 

It was a weird thing for a twenty-four-year-old to say, but it was how I felt. 

That night, I didn’t sleep. The stranger became a permanent thought in my head. I couldn’t erase him no matter how much I wanted to. I may have discarded the note he gave me, but I memorized every single word he wrote. 

The surprising part was that I hadn’t seen him write it. In fact, I hadn’t seen him holding a pen or paper. I skirted around the idea that he had written it before he approached me at the bar. 

Either way, I didn’t need the note to know where I was supposed to go and when. And when the day came only two days later, I already knew the resolve I had when I was left in that room alone would fade.

I knew I would go. Only when I was in New York did I take risks. Despite not knowing who the man in the mask was, I knew he would give me what I wanted. I needed it before I married a man I didn’t know. 

An arranged marriage in the twenty-first century to a man I hated. How novel-coded! 

“Someone special?” Loreta, my housekeeper, asked. I always hired her to keep my penthouse clean when I was in New York. She was more of a friend anyway since she was my age. 

“No…” I blushed as I looked down. 

“You’re wearing a black lace dress and nothing underneath, Tally. You are going to see someone special. You’ve only been here for four days. Who is this guy?”

Loreta cared for me, but I didn’t want her reminding me how much of a bad idea it was to go and see a man whose face I had yet to see. A man whose name I didn’t know or even had an interest in knowing.

“Don’t worry. I’ve known him for a long time.” The lie slipped through my tongue effortlessly. I was so used to it that sometimes I forgot the concept of reality. 

“If you say so,” she said, sounding a little unsure, “You look very good. That’s a very lucky man tonight.”

I had skipped my makeup and only done my skincare, and my long dirty blonde hair was in a bun. I had on a short black lace dress. I paired it with black open-toe heels and skipped the jewelry.

The note said to go at night. I knew what was going on there for, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I turned off my thoughts as I gave an Uber driver the address and walked into the building he dropped me in front of.

The address was of a penthouse suite of a hotel. I walked in and told the receptionist I was going to the penthouse. She made a call, and I was allowed in without any problems.

As soon as I got in the elevator, I put on the mask I had on the other night. My nerves were getting the best of me; my palms were sweating, and my heart was racing. I didn’t know what to expect.

As soon as the elevator door opened into the penthouse, I knew I was done for.