Jin Starck stood on the balcony of the mezzanine floor of the elegant ballroom of White Rock Mansion, one of the estates owned by Starck Corp. in Illinois. He was dressed in a black tuxedo and a black leather mask over his eyes. His dark copper brown hair was combed back neatly, without a strand of out of place. Like everything he does… nothing must be out of place.The Morgan-Murphies, a prominent political family in Chicago, held an exclusive masquerade party in honor of its matriarch’s sixtieth birthday and the privacy of their hotel property was most suitable for the event. It was outside the city, large enough to house its two hundred guests privately, but not too big to have to share it with other people.Some of the guests who could not travel back to the city opted to stay in one of the hotel rooms.The family hosting the event was too important, with their patriarch aiming for the presidency, Jin could not leave anything to chance. He had t

Julianne gathered her bags very early in the morning. Outside her window, wind, rain, thunder and lightning were having a showdown. It was pitch dark outside, like it was only midnight.Her phone’s signal slowly dwindled due to the thunderstorm. If only she had woken up earlier, she could have made it home. But it was already late, and the storm had hit town. If she sends for the car, her driver might get stuck somewhere.She had planned to leave early—before the sun was up. But as a result, she fell asleep and did not wake up until after noontime.This is all Jin Starck’s fault!He had the nerve to kiss me! Knowing now that she was who she was… Gian Sanders’s twin sister, Justin Adams’s cousin… Adrienne’s cousin-in-law. He dared ravage her lips…Julianne sighed in frustration.How dare I kiss him back?Shit!While Jas Mathieu was every

True to his word, the hotel reception called Julianne to tell her that it was clear to open the door. Room service was outside with a cart containing her food.“Mister Starck would like you to know that Mister McAllister had already left the property,” the room service staff informed her.She breathed in relief. It’s good to know she doesn’t need to be a prisoner in this room for the rest of her stay.Only when she saw the sumptuous food on the cart did she realize that she was famished.“This is a lot? Who arranged for this much?” she asked when she saw that they had given her a piece of almost everything on the menu. There was fish, chicken, beef, vegetables, and a lot of dessert. There were at least three choices for beverage, plus wine.“Mister Starck wanted to ensure you were given the best choices in the house.”“Okay, thank you.”She watched the news while she ate. The

Julianne slowly turned around to face Jin. He was standing too close. She could feel his warm breath against her face.“I named this place The Arabella when I was building it,” he continued.  “And that’s also why I have to tear it down.”She bit her lip as tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt his hands on both sides of her cheeks. His face descended towards hers as he took her lips in one chaste kiss.“Jin…” she started saying.“Arabella…” he whispered against her lips. His voice was low, but thick with emotions. “Just this once. Please… choose me.”He sounded sincere… and desperate. And it broke Julianne’s heart even more. She remembered the time that she would have given everything to stay with this man. If she had the freedom then… if she hadn’t been scared of what her father or McAllister would do to him… she w

That morning, the signals had been restored when they woke up. After dressing up, Jin called the security to rescue them from the glass house. He escorted her back to her room. They were both quiet, each one lost in their own thoughts.Before she went to her room, she thanked him and he just nodded at her. The look on his face was serious, somewhat dark and humorless, and she had no idea what was going on in his mind. He looked different from the man she slept with last night. He looked cold and reserved now when he had been so unguarded last night.As soon as she got inside her room, she checked her phone for messages or missed calls. There was none. She decided to call Adrienne.“Is Jared okay?”“Yeah. How about you? Everything okay? Is the weather better there?”“Yeah. I’m coming home,” she replied.“Okay, no worries. Everything is under control here. We’re doing fine. Jared is doing f