This club wasn't so bad, Lanoir could admit, that they had pretty good music and the club was very spacious. Lanoir sat on a bar stool, sipping her ginger ale, watching over the dancing crowd. More like grinding crowd. Well, she couldn't blame the hot blooded people for taking hot blooded opportunities.

She wore a cream colored silk dress, It was floor length and had a deadly side part down the middle.Showcasing her thick carmel thigh. While the top has thin spaghetti straps and a V- neck bust line.Lanoir added some white pearl to her neck she didn't need to much jewelry because she wore a mask. The party required a mask and thanks to the golden swirled mask, she felt more daring. Her mask itself was a thing of beauty of gold and silvers that faded into swirls of black in between, covering the upper half of her face completely, giving her lined eyes a more smoldering look and leaving her blood red lips bare. She felt good and wanted to enjoy her time here , she wanted to get over the mall scare she had , had earlier.

Getting ready, she had waited for him to come till the last minute, but her stranger had been late again, and she felt disappointed at not being able to catch him before she left. So, she had quickly left out the suit for him on the table along with an extra mask, and scribbled a note that had gotten longer than she had originally planned and stuck it to the table where she kept her keys.

Lisa had whistled when she had seen her, standing herself in a long red gown with pink streaks and a silver and pink mask. They had arrived at the club around 10.30 PM and Lanoir had taken a seat at the bar, allowing her friend to mingle with her other colleagues, knowing how important tonight was for her she would be able to meet different power lawyers in the city.

She crossed her legs and kept looking around, waiting, hoping for him to come. Though given the crowd, and the fact that everyone was wearing masks, would she recognize him? Obviously, by the mask she would. But what if he didn't show up? Her hopes of dancing until the sun came up with him would be ruined.

she just sat there and observed the overflowing bodies, grinding and humping against each other, taking chances that they normally wouldn't take, the mask and the booze emboldening them. She saw girls with barely any clothes dirty dancing with guys, not an inch of space between them. It was like a mass orgy, only the dance kind. Not that she would be a part of the other kind of orgies. Oh no, she very much liked her sex life to be private, thank you very much. Not that she had a sex life. And she wasn't very interested either right now, except with him. Oh, yes. He would make her very, very interested. In fact, she would let him keep the mask on if he agreed to get naked. Although how they would kiss then would be problematic. She'd have to figure it out because she really did want to kiss him. Lanoir let her mind wildly wonder as she zoned out in the middle of the crowd.

Her head bobbed with the loud beat and in sync with the bodies, her eyes suddenly landing upon a man dressed in her stranger's costume, in the exact black bizarre costume with the black mask and all. But Lanoir looked at him and knew in her bones that he was someone else and not her stranger. This man was cold and dangerous. And he was looking for someone, turning his head from his spot in the shadowed corner of the room.

His gaze stopped on Lanoir and she quickly darted her eyes away, not wanting to be caught staring at him, not even wanting to be acknowledge by him. Her heart quickened and the hair on the back of her neck rose up in discomfort. He was watching her but his gaze was unwelcome she felt his eyes shooting daggers in her back. But she didn't really know him. Except looking at the man with that same costume made on thing certain to her- he was a part of some sort of group and that was their uniform.

Slowly sipping her drink, she covertly glanced at the man from the corner of her eyes and adrenaline suddenly filled her as she saw him inching along the wall towards her.

Heart pounding wildly with the music, she kept her glass on the bar and looked around, considering her options of escaping. Going out of the club was stupid because it would be deserted and this man could do whatever he wanted to her. Staying in the club was stupid because the crowd was drunk and the music was too loud for anyone to hear her or notice if she made a commotion. And she didn't think any bouncers would be able to help her either so her options were very slim.

Not really knowing what to do, she looked back towards the man, who was closer than she would have liked, and listened to her instinct of at least getting away from him. She started for the other corner of the room, looking back at him, seeing the man closing in, and her heart came to her throat. She frantically pushed between gyrating bodies to get away, her pace slowed by the people and men whose hands she could feel going over her backside. But right now, she didn't even have it in her to be offended. A guy copping a feel wasn't the worse of her problems. And the bigger evil was closing in.

She reached the other wall, and suddenly the lights in the club started flickering and changing with the music, casting dark shadows and rays in motion everywhere. She whirled around to face the room, pressing her back to the wall, and saw the man come up to her, his hand on his waist. Lanoir's eyes drifted to what he was holding and from the glinting of the alternating colorful lights, she knew it was some kind of a knife. Her body started to panic with the need to run and her heart dropped knowing that there was nowhere she could actually could go.

The man stood a feet from her now, his eyes dark and dead, so unlike the beautiful grey eyes she had come to read behind the same mask. She looked at him with wide eyes, plotting something that she could do to evade him, anything that she could do. Maybe she could jam her heel in his eyes. Or she could knock over everyone so she'd have their attention. Something anything to get away.

She tried to move towards her left but the man took one final step, lifting the knife to her abdomen. She felt the cool, metal blade against her stomach and felt the blood leaving her face, her heart stopping, eyes growing big. She didn't even dare to take a deep breath lest the knife slip in. Why was this man after her? Who was he?

Before she could take another shallow breath, she suddenly felt the knife leave her side. Looking down she saw that the man's hand and gasped. Wrapped around the man's hand was another hand, embedding the knife deep inside the man's stomach.

She raised her hand involuntarily to her mouth as the man slumped to whoever was behind him and shut her eyes, clenching them hard, standing frozen on the spot. She had just seen a man die. Swallowing, she felt the adrenaline slowly leaving her body and felt it start to shake violently, feeling cold seep into her bones. She didn't know how long she stood there, looking like a loony bin with her eyes closed and nails digging into her palm, but the next thing she felt was a hand on her face. Her eyes flashed open and she gasped again, seeing him standing so close to her, his hand touching her cheek She searched his grey eyes, feeling the rough callouses on his fingers and palms as they cupped her face, looking her over as though searching for any signs of injury.

Lanoir eyes moved to his mask covered eyes and she looked him over, seeing the way the suit fit him, the dark grey hugging his muscles and making him seem bigger. The blue shirt showed just a hint of his pecs through the opening of the collar. Her eyes moved up and for the first time, she saw the lower half of his face. The blue and black mask hugged the upper half, fitting him like it had been designed for him, leaving his lower portion bare. And what a lower half it was.

Lanoir unabashedly checked out his brilliant, chiseled jaw sprinkled with light scruff that just added to his dangerous and mysterious aura. It fit. Clean shaven wouldn't have suited him. And his mouth. It was a beautiful mouth, with slightly full lips that looked soft and delicious and Lanoir's mouth watered.

She mentally put what she had seen of his upper face now with his lower one and the result, was mind blowing. He was truly a work of art. He was one good-looking guy a very good-looking guy. Not that it really mattered to her, since it were his eyes, and he who held her attention, but she had to admit this didn't hurt. At all. She admired his looks and also his personality.

The happiness that she felt looking at him, knowing that he had come here for her and had wore the suit, was marred by the fact that he had just killed a man, whoever he was, who had been about to kill her. She didn't know whether to be upset at him or thank him. And remembering how she had met him for the first time, combined with the cool expertise with which he had slipped the knife in the man with so much discretion made his occupation very clear to her. He was an assassin.

Inhaling deeply since the first time after seeing that other man, she bit her own lip, seeing his eyes follow the movement and she rose on her tiptoes, supporting her balance on his biceps that she could feel like stones under his suit, lining her mouth with his ear.

"What did you do to him?"

He pulled back, his eyes neutral and looked down at her. Even with her heels, she just reached his shoulder. And again, the size difference should have intimidated her but for some weird reason it did not. It made her feel safe.

When he didn't answer, she went near his ear again, asking. "Why did you?"

This time he didn't pull back. This time, he turned his neck so that his mouth was lined next to her ear, and she wondered for a second what they would look like to the other people. Two lovers in a shadowy corner standing close to each other with faces in each others necks. Like vampires feeding mutually. Which was a very odd thought and she had read too many romance novels.

She felt his warm breath on her lobe and a shiver traveled down her spine. Was he going to say something? Finally?

He exhaled softly and kissed the shell of her ear. And pulled slightly away. Lanoir felt so much disappointment but didn't let that affect her.

Her heart stuttered and her hands tightened on his biceps of their own accord, heat pooling in her body at his claim, and she knew somehow that it was stemming not from the creepy possessive place that it generally did with other people but from entirely somewhere else. She just didn't know where.

They stayed at the party and enjoyed each other's company. After that he walked her home. Lanoir didnt remember a time that she actually had enjoyed a party. But something didnt feel right when he left her