Own Me (The Wolf Hotel, #5)(36)

Our costumes. Finally. I reach for them—

Henry swiftly grabs the bags as my fingers graze the fabric. “Everyone, please make yourselves comfortable. Enjoy the view.”

I watch him climb the stairs, likely to hide the costumes out of my reach. “Damn it.” I was so close.

“He won’t tell you what you’re going as, will he.” Merrick accepts a drink from the server before she moves toward the living room where the others are heading.

“No, or anything about this secret party we’re going to. It’s been giving me anxiety all week,” I admit sheepishly. The more I think about it, the more nervous I get. If these guys fly in for it every year, something tells me it won’t be like any party I’ve been to before.

That earns Merrick’s smile, and it is a striking one, showing off deep, boyish dimples that soften his initial edge. “It’s a good time. There’s a different theme every year and specific requirements for costumes. It’s very exclusive, invite-only, with lots of security. They don’t even disclose the location until an hour before the event begins.”

“Yeah, he told me all that.” Merrick is talkative, at least, and that cool, bored tone is evaporating. “And the theme this year is …?”

“Ask Henry,” he answers without missing a beat.

I roll my eyes, earning his laugh.

“If it makes you feel better, the guys don’t know who they’re going as either.”

“How is anyone okay with this?”

“That’s part of the fun.” He sips on the themed cocktail, his full lips lingering on the glass.

He has a beautiful mouth. Has it been on any part of Henry?

I give my head a shake. Focus, Abbi. “But you know what they’re going as.”

“I arranged all the costumes, so yes, I know,” he says, a hint of teasing in his deep voice. “But don’t bother trying to get it out of me.”

“Can you at least tell me if it’s a weird couple thing?” I ask.

“Weird couple thing?”

“You know … Bonnie and Clyde, Gomez and Morticia. Mickey and Mallory?”

Merrick shakes his head.

“Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf?”

“They were a couple?” He frowns. “That’s not the nursery rhyme my mother told me. Look, I wish I could help you out, but I can’t. Wolf will kill me.”

“At least give me a hint?” I stare up at his handsome face. “Just a tiny hint?”

He studies my features intently. “Red and gold.”

“Red and gold?” What characters are red and gold? I draw a blank. “Can I have another hint?”

His stony face breaks with another brilliant smile. “You’re a greedy thing, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m paranoid.” Henry promised I would be dressed, but his idea of what that means differs from mine.

“Yeah, I would be too, given who you’re marrying.”

“Oh God.” I want to ask him what he means by that.

Merrick’s throat bobs as he looks around us. “Okay, fine, but this is the last hint, and you can’t tell anyone I told you. Especially Wolf. Promise?”

My excitement stirs. “Yes.”

“Our secret, okay?”

“I swear.”

He leans down until his face is inches from my ear, and whispers, “The circus.”

A shiver runs down my spine as his breath kisses my skin and his cologne teases my nose, but I brush that reaction aside to focus on the clue. The circus. Okay, that’s something I can work with. “Acrobat?”

He gives a curt head shake. “I told you, no more hints.”

“Lion tamer?”

“Damn, you are persistent. I’m not telling you!”

“Clown?”

“We’re done here.”

But I’m not. I rifle through the characters from The Greatest Showman. “The bearded lady?”

The corners of Merrick’s mouth twitch.

“Oh my God. Am I right?”

“How could you possibly guess that?”

I gasp. “I’m right?”

“Fuck.” He grinds his teeth. “You can’t tell him that I told you.”

“I know, but … you’re kidding me, right?” I wail. “Henry said I would look good!”

“Hey, who says a woman with a beard can’t look good? It’s natural.”

“So is having it waxed. Couldn’t you have chosen something sexier than that?”

He shrugs. “Wolf said you’d want a modest costume, and that was the most modest one I could find.”

“Because my face will be covered in hair!”

He purses his lips. “I promise, it’s not that bad.”

I look down at my beautiful black dress in dismay. “What are the other women going as?”

“Acrobats. Sexy costumes too.”

“Seriously?” I’m beginning to like Merrick less by the second.

Another shrug. “I was just following Wolf’s rules.”

Henry reappears at the bottom of the stairs.

“Remember, you promised.” That hardness is back in Merrick’s eyes and voice as he glares down at me, as if hiding a threat. How does he change so quickly between warm and cold?