Masquerade Love || MW

BOOK #1

I grew up surrounded by beautiful things.

Rare paintings, vintage wine, tailored suits, priceless architecture-my father collected them the way other men collected memories. When you're born into that kind of world, you learn very quickly that everything has a price, and everything can belong to you... if you want it badly enough.

And I have always had a weakness for obsessions.

When something catches my interest, I don't let it go easily. Books, music, chess, people-once they become fascinating, I study them, circle them, learn every quiet detail until they feel like something I could hold in the palm of my hand.

Most of my obsessions eventually fade.

This one didn't.

It started on a night wrapped in velvet shadows and candlelight, beneath the glittering chandeliers of Red Ruby Hall. A masquerade, they called it-a place where names disappear behind masks and secrets move freely through the room.

That was the night I saw him.

The man who walked into a room full of power and wealth looking like he belonged to none of it. The architect with steady eyes and quiet confidence, standing among people who had been born into privilege he never asked for.

He fascinated me immediately. And fascination, when it comes to me, rarely stays harmless.

He believes he met me once that night. He believes we shared a single dance, a single kiss, and a single midnight before I disappeared back into the crowd like a ghost. What he doesn't know is that the story didn't end there.

Because if I want something... I get it. And right now, the only thing I want is him. Even if it means becoming two different men just to keep him close.