As his lips crashed into mine, I felt the floor give away from beneath my feet. The sudden flush of blood made my cheeks go warm. I tried to steady myself by clasping onto him desperately. Strong arms held me up while I tried vainly to get a hold of myself. “You taste sweet”, he whispered, biting the nape of my sweaty neck. His sultry voice sent me into a mindless frenzy. “Get a hold of your-self, Sophia”, my mind commanded but it seemed that it didn’t have any control over my body. His warm fingers snaked over to the throbbing spot between my legs. “You are so wet for me, babe”, he murmured. I could sense the underlying hint of pride in his voice. In-spite of being delirious with euphoria, I was confident that this was not what I wanted. I didn’t want him to feel satisfied. I didn’t want to be an object of his superficial desires. However, in that moment, it didn’t seem like it would be too bad to give in. As I toyed against myself, his lips found my breasts while his hand rested between my legs, his fingers rubbing against my soaked thong. As he started softly moving his tongue against my nipples, I let in a sharp breath. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t naked, the way he touched me over my thin dress set my body on fire. Before I could totally lose control, I had to do something. “Open my blindfold”, I said out suddenly. His fingers stopped moving. “Are you sure?” he asked testily. I was pretty confident that I wanted him to take me, push me against a wall and do unspeakable things to me. “Yes”, I replied nonetheless. “As you wish, babe.” I could feel the energy shift in his voice. Was he actually disappointed? Could it be that he actually liked me?

As his warm fingers deftly opened my blindfold, he leaned in for one last time and sucked my bottom lip. I couldn’t stifle my moan any longer. “Sorry babe but you are mine. Mine only”, he said possessively. I gasped out as I stared back into his piercing green eyes shocked at his response. Those cold eyes seemed familiar. Was it….?

Before I could understand any further, my eyes flew open. Warm sunlight filtered into the room, making me screw my eyes shut. This couldn’t go on any longer. It had to stop. I had been having this dream every night since the Masked Gala. It had been fun but there were moments from that night that I couldn’t remember and piece together. Why didn’t I remember? I drank rarely, never too much. So, it couldn't be because I was drunk. I pushed my black hair out of my face and let out a frustrated sigh.

I stared at the wall opposite my bed. It had taken a long time for me to paint those silver stars. Maybe a dash of pink would look nice against it, my mind wandered off aimlessly.

I sat up straight. A flash of silver went through my mind. Golden chandeliers, silver lights, dark rooms. I had to go back to that night to figure out the source of my incessant dreams. I quickly got out of bed and grabbed my phone. It was time to find some answers and I knew exactly who to contact.

"Riley!" I shouted across the street. I waved vigorously as she turned around. "Cross carefully", she shouted back. Riley and I had been best pals since college. We had gone to NYU together. I had majored in literature and she had studied photography. Riley always had an eye for fashion. After graduating she had worked as a freelancer photographer at one of the world's topmost fashion firms, ABZ Models. That had been 5 years back. Now, she was a fully recruited indispensable member of her firm. She got to travel the world with celebrities and visit exotic locations. If someone else had told me that they had to fly over to Nicaragua or Bora Bora at the last minute, chances would be that I would sympathize with them for ticket unavailability issues. However, that wasn't the case with Riley. She had to once fly over to Mauritius for a shoot that had been scheduled within 24 hours. The photographer originally in charge had an indiscretion with the model's wife and had to be immediately replaced. Riley had been flown over on a privately chartered airplane and had been immediately promoted after that incident. We had celebrated her promotion at the Plaza with a couple of our friends. Often, she would get invitations for exclusive parties where she would tag me along with her whenever I was available. The Masked Gala had been one such event.

"Are you still jittery for the interview?" Riley asked me as I jumped onto the pavement. "Don't worry, you will do great! It's not every day that Radar Books gets to have a NY Times bestselling author working with them!" she exclaimed. "Thanks, Riles", I sighed. Riley put her arm around me and pulled me in for a squeeze. This was a difference that she and I had. She was 6" whereas I was 5'3", making me look like a dwarf next to her. "You have a glamorously perfect life, Riles!" I exclaimed, raising my eyebrows.

Riley stopped in her tracks. "First of all, that's extremely rude of you to say especially when I am trying to make you feel better, second of all, that's also true! I do have a nice life", she squealed, pulling me in for another hug. This was the reason why I loved Riley. She always could take a joke on herself and knew exactly what to say to lighten up the situation. I laughed out trying to push the gnawing thought out of my mind that even though my one and only book till date had become a bestseller, it had been 3 years since I had fallen into a writer's block. I really wanted this interview to work out. Radar Books was one of the best upcoming publishing houses and had been featured on the pages of Times Magazine.

"Okay, Sophia! Got to rush, Patricia has been nagging me all week to get the Hawaii photographs developed. I need to start working on that", Riley said already rushing away. "See you during lunch after the interview?" she called out.

"Sure", I shouted back. Lunch with Riley was exactly what I needed after the terrifying interview that I had to face now. I also had a couple of questions regarding the masked ball that I needed to ask her. But, for now, I needed to focus….