I shake my head but can’t help my grin.
Color rises to Parker’s cheeks at the compliment, and Owen claps him on the back, a low chuckle rumbling through his chest.
Parker swats his brother's hand away. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Now that we’ve all been introduced and properly embarrassed, can we move inside?” I ask them all.
Evan chuckles, but no one objects, and we enter the building.
The party planners I hired outdid themselves. The central atrium, a glass dome located inside the building, is adorned with stunning art and photography that showcases the various charities and their respective work. There is a temporary, wooden dance floor set up, and a string quartet is playing a beautiful melody at the far end of it. They will be replaced by a DJ later in the night. Cocktail tables are set up around the perimeter with long, white tablecloths and vases of native wildflowers in the center.
Beyond the atrium is another glass dome, holding the rainforest exhibit. Large trees reach from floor to ceiling, and tropical plants fill in the spaces between them. I can just make out the fluttering of butterfly wings and hear the calls of the macaws. The rainforest exhibit has always been my favorite, and I make a note to take Owen there sometime tonight.
If I have the chance.
Owen looks around, taking it all in. All three of them do.
Parker is the first to speak. “I’m blown away, Miss Riley. I have no words.”
“Thank you, but I can’t take all the credit. I gave my ideas, but the party planning team did most of it.”
“Stop giving everyone else the credit, Barbie,” Evan says.
“Barbie?” Parker asks, and I groan.
“A dumb nickname I had in high school that Jax and Evan won’t let go.”
Parker looks me up and down and nods. “Switch the red to pink, and I’d say they’re spot on.”
I roll my eyes. “That is very stereotypical, Mr. Mills. Doctor Barbie was my favorite, and she definitely didn’t wear pink.”
“Runway Barbie,” Evan chimes in, and Jax chokes on a laugh.
Glaring at both of them makes them laugh harder.
Suddenly, my hand is swept up, and Owen’s voice pierces the laughter. “Excuse me, but I must steal her away to meet a few people. Please enjoy the party, gentlemen.”
Without waiting for a response, he pulls me away, and I let him. A few steps out of the central atrium, heading toward the rainforest, Owen lifts my hand up to eye level and studies it.
I instinctively yank it away from him, wincing, and he stops.
“What happened to your hand?” he asks, concerned.
Rubbing at my raw and bruised knuckles, I don’t really want to admit anything, but he waits for me to answer, unwavering in his stare.
“I had an unfortunate incident with my kitchen wall. It got in my way.”
Owen surprises me by laughing. “I feel bad for your wall. I know what it feels like to get in your way.”
I go to open my mouth, but the way he’s gazing at me makes me pause. There is nothing left of the black eye I gave him a week ago, and somehow that makes me oddly disappointed.
Owen bends over, his breath tickling my ear. “I was worried you’d look amazing tonight, but I was wrong. You look absolutely devastating.”
Angling my head, I extend my chin to get closer to his ear. He doesn’t move. With the heat of his body against mine, all I want is to curl up in him and get lost. I don’t want to face any of what’s ahead. The fear that I’ve held back is suddenly way too close to the surface.
Jax’s words echo in my mind, and even if this is the only moment I have, I don’t want to waste it.
“I’m not the only one. You have destroyed me, Owen,” I whisper back. It’s the truth. He’s wrecked everything I thought I knew about the world—about villains and heroes and everyone in between. He’s ripped me wide open, and I don’t know how to put myself back together. I want it to be him who does, but I know there is no path for us to be together. Evenif I save him, he won’t choose me after he finds out I’ve been lying to him since the day we met. After he finds out who I really am.
