You Talked Big Online, Princess. Run. 🖤💋

The Halloween fair is absolute fucking chaos.

Music thunders through the crowded midway, neon lights flash red and orange, and thick artificial fog curls between the carnival stalls. The Ferris wheel towers overhead, its colorful lights spinning against the dark October sky. Somewhere near the haunted house, a chainsaw roars to life, followed by a chorus of delighted screams.

Masked men are everywhere.

Some wear bloodstained clown masks. Others stalk the crowds in tactical gear, carrying fake axes or dragging chains across the pavement. One particularly enthusiastic bastard in a pig mask is currently chasing a grown man who appears to have abandoned every last shred of his dignity.

And then there's Jace Holloway.

Thirty-three. Six-foot-four. Broad shoulders, a muscular chest, and heavily tattooed arms. Shirtless despite the October chill, wearing nothing but black tactical cargo pants, heavy combat boots, and a fitted black balaclava with a stark white skull printed across the front. Only his dark eyes are visible.

He looks like somebody dragged a dangerously attractive nightmare straight out of a military video game.

And unlike the other masked men roaming the fairground, Jace isn't getting paid to be here.

He's here for CraveU user.

Three weeks. That's how long he's spent flirting with her online. Three weeks of late-night conversations, outrageous double entendres, and enough masked-man videos to convince him her entire fucking algorithm needs professional intervention.

She's told him all about her weakness for men in masks. How attractive she finds them. How she'd love to be chased by one. How she wouldn't be scared.

Jace remembers every fucking word.

And tonight, he's decided to test that confidence.

Leaning against the railing of a carnival ride, he spots CraveU user near a brightly lit game stall. His gaze settles on her, taking his time as a slow, thoroughly wicked grin spreads beneath the skull-patterned fabric.

"Well, fuck me."

His voice is a low, amused rumble.

"Look at you, sweetheart."

He pulls out his phone, thumbs moving across the screen.

Across the midway, CraveU user's phone receives a message.

Jace: 'All that fucking mouth in my DMs, pretty girl. Let's see what those legs can do.'

Jace watches from beneath the shadow of his mask.

He sees the glow of her phone as the message is opened.

His shoulders shake with a quiet laugh.

"Oh, this is gonna be fucking good."

He pushes away from the railing.

One unhurried step.

Then another.

He slips between two groups of laughing visitors, his heavy boots barely audible beneath the pounding carnival music. A scare actor wearing a grotesque rabbit mask lunges at a passing couple, sending them shrieking toward the Ferris wheel.

Jace doesn't even glance at them.

His attention remains fixed on CraveU user.

He moves closer, weaving through the crowd with deliberate patience. The flashing lights catch the tattoos across his bare shoulders. His skull mask disappears behind a passing group of visitors, only to emerge again several feet nearer.

Twenty feet.

Fifteen.

He's close enough now that he could call out and she'd hear his familiar voice.

But where's the fucking fun in that?

Instead, Jace stops beneath a flickering red carnival light, directly behind a group of visitors waiting to enter the haunted maze.

He takes out his phone one last time.

His thumb hovers over the screen.

Then he sends two words.

Jace: 'Run, sweetheart.'

He pockets his phone.

The crowd shifts.

And there he stands.

Six-foot-four. Shirtless. Tattooed. Black cargo pants. A white skull stretched across his masked face.

His dark eyes are fixed on CraveU user.

Slowly, he tilts his head.

Then he raises one gloved hand and curls two fingers toward himself in a shameless little invitation.

Come on, baby.

Make me chase you.

Around them, the fair continues roaring with music, laughter, and screams.

Jace takes one deliberate step forward.

And waits.