Behind the Mask: A Billionaire Romance novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Good Morning

Paulette claims the masquerade, Noelle corrects her in front of two hundred people, and the owner tells her she will build his first public appearance.

I kept my face still, because two hundred people were watching the man at the front, and one of them might watch me.

My hands were cold.

My pulse was in my ears, loud as the harp had been on Saturday.

The man who had held my jaw in the dark was standing twenty feet away, talking about quarterly goals.

He did not look at me again.

"Sorrell Group is sixty years old this November," he said, with his face turned toward the window.

"We are throwing a gala at the Merriam on the fourteenth."

A murmur ran through the room.

"I will be there," he said. "In person."

The murmur got louder.

Nobody in the building had ever seen him in a room.

"Before that, I want to say thank you for something," he said. "Saturday night, the Starlight Masquerade raised four hundred and twelve thousand dollars for burned children."

My stomach dropped through the floor.

"It was the best event I have attended in my life," he said. "Who produced it?"

Beside me, my stage manager grabbed my wrist.

At the front, Paulette Gaines was already on her feet.

She wore a white blazer and red lipstick, and she smiled the way she smiled at donors.

"That was my division, Mr. Sorrell," she said. "Paulette Gaines, vice president of events. I'm so glad it moved you."

She had not been at the Merriam until the last twenty minutes.

She had spent six months telling me my floor plan was too ambitious.

I could feel my lighting designer breathing next to me, ready to explode.

"Wait," I whispered to her. "Let me."

I stood up.

My chair scraped, and two hundred heads turned.

"It was not her division, Mr. Sorrell," I said.

My voice shook once and then held.

"I built it. I booked the harpist, I wrote the run of show, and I walked every guest to their table."

The room went so quiet I could hear the air conditioning.

Paulette's smile stayed on, but her eyes went flat.

"Noelle is on my team," she said. "She worked under my direction."

"She worked in spite of it," said my lighting designer, out loud, from the row behind me.

Somebody laughed and covered it with a cough.

I did not sit down.

At the front, the owner finally turned his head toward me.

I saw the line of his jaw, clean on the right side.

The left side stayed in the dark.

His eyes were gray.

They were the same gray I had watched in the dark on Saturday night.

They rested on my face for one second, and they showed nothing.

Not a flicker.

Not even curiosity.

"Noelle what?" he said.

"Hanrahan."

"Ms. Hanrahan," he said, as if he were trying out the name. "Did you plan the lighting on the sixth floor?"

My mouth went dry.

"Not on the sixth floor," I said. "That wing was closed to guests."

"Of course it was."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Ms. Gaines, please sit down."

Paulette sat so fast her blazer rode up.

"I need an event producer for the gala," he said to the room. "It will be the first time I have stood in front of a crowd in sixteen years."

He said it flatly, as a fact.

Everyone leaned forward.

"It has to be perfect, and I do not have time to be disappointed," he said. "Ms. Hanrahan, you'll build it."

Paulette's head turned so hard her bob swung.

"Mr. Sorrell, with respect, Noelle has never handled an event above six hundred guests."

"The Starlight had nine hundred," he said.

Paulette stopped talking.

"Seven tomorrow morning," he said to me. "The fifty-first floor. Come alone."

He turned and walked out through the side door.

The room exhaled.

My team grabbed me from three directions.

"Oh my God," said the stage manager. "Oh my God, you just told the boss to his face."

"I told Paulette," I said.

"You told them both," said the lighting designer. "I would die for you."

I laughed, and it came out shaky.

Across the room, Paulette was looking at me.

I had a job I wanted, a secret I could not tell, and an owner who had touched me everywhere two nights ago and just asked my last name.

I told myself he had not recognized me.

I told myself that was the best thing that could possibly have happened.

I did not believe it for a second.

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