Keep Me (Rebel Hearts Heists #2) - M. Sinclair Page 0,55

but what made me stutter is the green hue of his artfully tousled hair and the fucking makeup on his face. There’s no other way to say it, River is dressed like The Joker from Batman. The Heath Ledger version to be more precise.

In a way, I guess nothing should ever surprise me about River at this point but I’m seriously wondering what the fuck made him decide to dress this way.

He looks totally unfazed by my reaction. “What? They didn’t tell you, Kitten? Tonight’s a—”

“Masquerade ball, Rivs. Not fancy dress. You wear your tux or ball gown and then you wear a mask. Mask, not costume.” Royce smirks, handing me a flat, black box. “That’s for you, Princess.”

A silver lace mask lays inside the box, shimmering in its delicate, almost ethereal beauty.

Royce picks it up, making it look more fragile in his huge hangs, and steps behind me tying the silk strings to the back of my head.

“You look stunning, Honey Bunny.” Blaine places a soft kiss on my temple and then turns to his brother to receive a mask for himself. He and Kaden have simple black silk masks that just cover their eyes while Royce has a white mask that covers the left half of his face Phantom Of The Opera style.

“Well shit, I had a mask for you too, River but I guess you won’t be needing it?”

And that’s one of the things I love about River: he doesn’t give a shit. He is who he is and the rest of the world can equally take it or leave it and it doesn’t make much of a difference to him. River smirks and confirms that he’s just fine as The Joker.

We all pile into the elevator and as soon as we get to the ground floor and leave the foyer of the hotel, we find a white limo waiting to take us to the private little marina reserved for the yachts owned by the hotel guests.

Or better, reserved for the small boats and tenders that ferry the hotel guests to their mega yachts anchored a little further out of the port.

The small docks are extremely busy tonight, with several tenders picking up guests and delivering them to the white monstrosity owned by Kronin.

I’m not even sure if I could call that a yacht or a mega yacht, it looks more like a small cruise liner with four levels of decks that right now are lit brighter than the strip in Vegas.

I take a seat between River and Blaine on the tender and the latter whispers to me not to leave their side tonight. “Honey Bunny, make sure that one of us is with you at all times. Especially if Kronin insists on showing you the art pieces he has in his private quarters. We don’t think that he’d try anything weird during a huge party, but you never know.”

I snuggle tighter into Blaine’s side as the tender picks up speed and the cold sea breeze makes the naked skin of my arms break out in goosebumps, and I promise him that I won’t leave their side tonight.

As our tender arrives, a muscled deck hand helps me out of the small boat and onto the lower deck of the mega yacht and I don’t miss the way all my guys immediately tense up. I smile because even though they have absolutely no reason to feel jealous, they’re hella cute when they get all alpha possessive on me. Especially because they stopped doing it among each other.

We are ushered into the main formal room that wouldn’t be out of place at the Kremlin, the tzar’s winter palace, or in any European royal palace to be honest. It looks like a grand ballroom, all wooden floors, full-length mirrors on the walls and a huge wrought iron and mosaic glass sky dome. The vibe of the room is totally old aristocracy belle époque, designed to intimidate the guests with an imposing grandeur that makes you forget that you’re actually on a boat.

I immediately spot Alicia and VDB greeting the arriving guests in the middle of the room but right now there’s no sign of Kronin. Blaine’s mother and her fiancé are the only people in the room who aren’t wearing masks and I examine their appearance as we walk toward them.

Alicia is dressed more as if she were preparing to attend a funeral rather than her own rehearsal dinner, in a floor-length, black gown that is completely covered with black