C3 Just a Dream

Aria’s POV

The sun rose far too quickly for Aria Winters’ liking.

She sat at the edge of her bed, hair tousled, legs crossed, heart still somewhere back at that masquerade. Her mask lay on the floor where she’d tossed it, half a symbol, half a mistake.

“God,” she whispered, running her hands down her face. “What did I do?”

She wasn’t the type to hook up with strangers. She wasn’t even the type to attend secretive balls. But last night? Last night had felt like slipping into someone else’s skin—someone bold, spontaneous... free.

Until she’d slipped away.

She didn’t even know his name. Just that his voice had wrapped around her like silk. Just that his hands knew how to hold someone gently and still make them feel like they were falling.

One night. That’s all it had been.

Except she couldn’t shake him.

Or the way he’d looked at her, even through a mask—as if he knew her.

She exhaled sharply. “Back to reality.”

Today was too important to be lost in fantasies. LorneCorp’s new headquarters was her biggest break yet. She had no room for distractions.

Not even ones with gray eyes and lips that could destroy reason.

---

Cassidy’s POV

Cassidy Lorne leaned back in his chair, staring out the penthouse window like the city owed him answers.

He hadn’t stopped thinking about her.

The masked girl with the sharp eyes and soft mouth. She’d been… unexpected. Honest. Warm in a way the women in his usual circles never were. She hadn’t flirted like she wanted something. She hadn’t played games.

She’d just been there—real, flawed, and gone by sunrise.

He didn’t even get her name.

Cassidy had always believed in control. He didn’t like chaos. Didn’t entertain chance.

But last night had been chaos. And he couldn’t stop replaying it.

What gnawed at him most wasn’t the fact that she’d disappeared. It was the way he wanted to find her.

And he had no idea where to start.

His phone buzzed. He glanced at it. A calendar alert:

10:00 AM – Project Pitch with Winters Architecture.

His brow furrowed. Winters?

Didn’t ring a bell.

He stood, stretching off the ache of a sleepless night. “Let’s get this over with,” he muttered.

Still, a strange feeling tugged at him. A sense that today wasn’t going to go the way he thought.

Not at all.