Page 196 of Fighting Chance

His lip twitches. “Care to share what scene you’re remembering that’s making your cheeks flush?”

“No!”

“So thereisa book.”

I quickly shove the mask over my face, hiding my reactions. “Good luck using your superpower on me now, Ashford.”

He steps forward slowly, his eyes eating me up, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think he could see all the way down to my soul if I weren’t wearing a mask.

I tip my head back, waiting with baited breath as Kieran ever so slowly lifts the matching Ghostface mask and slides it on, cocking his head. The move has a jolt of heat zapping down my core.

Goosebumps pebble my flesh.

“I don’t need to see your face to know when you’re turned on, Layla.” He reaches out, his finger caressing the raised skin of my arm. “You’re my favorite book to read. Even if some chapters are missing I know them by heart.”

Bella comes rushing around the corner. “Layla!”

Jumping apart, I spin in time to see my best friend look atKieran standing behind me in the Ghostface mask then to me breathing heavily in a matching mask.

She points between us. “My timing is bad, isn’t it?”

“Fucking horrendous,” Kieran drawls dryly.

“Whoopsies.” Shrugging, she wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Well, the moment’s gone now so I’m going to steal you. I found the perfect outfit for you, and it’s absolutely going to match that mask.” Bella lifts her gaze over my shoulder to Kieran. “And will make you not hate me for what I just interrupted.”

He huffs. “I fucking hope so.”

Grayson rounds the corner wearing a white chef’s hat and the goofiest grin on his face I can’t help but laugh. “What the hell are you going as?”

He throws his arms out to his sides. “Ratatouille!” he declares.

Chapter 43

Kieran

Google Search

Q: How the fuck do I not blow a load when she looks like that?

I’ve been sporting a hard-on since the moment Layla stepped out of the dressing room in…that. It takes everything in me not to bite my fist because I need to fucking bite something—preferably her.

I’m in all black, a fitted sleeveless shirt with jeans and of course the Ghostface mask. I’m plain, boring, simple, and I wouldn’t have it any other way because that means Laylashines.

She’s wearing a tight-fitted black corset, along with something I think Bella called fishnets, as well as those garter belts and black boots that make her usually short frame a bit taller. The corset pushes her tits up so high it’s hard to know where to look. With the matching Ghostface mask covering her face, I can’t look in her eyes. But I’m also wearing a mask, hiding my gaze, and that’s why I’m acting like a dog and memorizingeveryinch of her.

I swear she knows, though. The second my eyes linger on the swell of her breasts, she shivers, as if she can feel my gaze like a physical caress.

The difference in our costumes is hilarious. Grayson and Bella have dressed up as the characters fromRatatouille. I laughed my ass off when Grayson appeared in a chef’s outfit, only for Bella to round the corner in a skimpy rat costume.

Don’t even get me started on how hard Grayson and I laughed to see Cindy and O’Connor step out of their car as Fred and Daphne fromScooby-Doo. It wasn’t the costumes, though, it was the fact Cindy managed to get O’Connor to carry around a Scooby-Doo teddy under his arm.

Although that man would do anything for her. Always has and always will.

Whereas Layla and I look like we’ve stepped out of one of her dark romance books, and I could tell the second I said yes to the costume that this is something she has fantasized about before.

Standing in line for the haunted house, as Grayson dips to capture Bella’s lips and O’Connor looks like he’s two seconds away from devouring Cindy, Layla turns to me, cocking her hip along with her head. I can just picture the fire igniting behind her eyes, the way they only flare for me.

“Yes, my sunshine?” I drawl.