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I went back in. The ballroom was in full swing, and at the foot of the stairs the cat woman stood exactly where I had left her, as if she’d been carved there.
I held out the key. “Not tonight,” I said. “But thank you. I mean it.”
“Good answer.” She took it, looked at it, and then up at me through the whiskers. “Nobody ever gives it back. Most men think the key is a prize. It’s an offer.”
“It was a good offer.”
“It is.” The corner of her mouth went up. “Highwayman. I’m off duty for ten minutes. The coats are very warm and very private, and nobody has hung a ribbon on the cupboard under the stairs. Would you like to?”
I thought about it for approximately one heartbeat.
“Yes,” I said.
She led me to a tiny cupboard behind the stairs, crammed with other people’s coats, fur and wool and the smell of winter. She shut the door. In the dark, I felt her take both my hands and put them against the wall.
“Keep them there,” she said. “If you want me to stop, say cinders.”
I heard my zip. I felt her breath, then her mouth, hot and slick and slow, taking all of me, one gloved hand wrapped round the base. I leaned my head against a mink and gasped. She worked me with her tongue and her throat, humming, her hand working in time. When I told her I was close she held on, took everything, and swallowed.
She stood up and kissed my cheek.
“Same time next year,” she said. “Mask on.”
Ending 16 of 16: Key Returned. Go back and try a different choice for the full happy ending.