"I'm no art critic," he says, his finger running over mirror shards, unafraid they can cut him. "Your other pieces rage, and bleed. They look like torn veins and fire in the gut. Which—don't get me wrong—I don't mind. I like it."
Lu's brows lift for a second. She obviously likes Ben's edge, but holds her ground, not giving him anything.
His finger makes it around the crystal heart in the mouth. "She's not raging. She's waiting, hurting, but doesn't want anyone to know. Makes you want to save her. Actually..." His voice drops, head tilted sideways. "I love it."
Simple. Determined. And I... I think I might have just forgiven him for being a relentless pain.
Lu glances at me briefly and I catch the little fracture in her face as well.
"Yeah," she says, gently. "Actually, me too."
I bite back my smile and slip away to refill my glass, say a quick hello to some of our mutual friends here, and when I come back, my mouth drops because the world has shifted.
Ben is showing Lu something on his phone, and Lu is laughing—with her teeth! Lu never laughs like that, and here she is, giving Ben something no one else deserved.
By the time I get to them, they're talking about nurses' salaries in New York, his project raising it by ten percent, and I'm actually speechless at how well they vibe.
"You're tolerable," she tells him half-grudgingly. "It's probably the champagne, though."
"I'll take tolerable after champagne for now," he says with a nod. "Not for me—for Emma. She'd want us to get along, you know."
Biting at my finger, I give him an impressed smirk.
He's clearly enlisting her—my bestie, the fiercest protector of my heart. Damn, he's good.
"Hey, come here you too!" Lu blurts out of nowhere and points behind me.
I barely turn when a camera flash pops in my face and before I can move, Lucy's claw hooks my arm, dragging me back, into Ben. Into a scandal.
"Lu, bad idea, bad idea," I hiss, but she's already summoning Sophia and Micah, playing the puppet master, and lining us up in front ofEurydice.
Ben's hand finds my waist—not friendly, but gripping, holding me in place.
"Smile!" Lucy calls.
I shoot her a glare just as the camera shutters in rapid fire—clickclickclick—and with each burst Ben presses himself deeper against me.
"I'm glad I came. This outfit should have only one audience," he murmurs in my ear. "And it's not them."
"Ben," I whisper through my teeth. "People are watching. They know me."
"Good. And?" He doesn't move.
"They know I'm married. Some of them know Richard. The photos will end up online."
I hope he'll back off, respect the boundary, but Ben doesn't play by anyone's rules.
His arm locks around my waist like iron, pulling me flush into him, until my knees almost give.
"Good. One thing settled. Our first official couple photo," he says.
I blink. "Are you serious?"
"Dead serious. We'll frame it, hang it over our fireplace."
"You can't just—"
"Watch." His lips brush the slope of my neck deliberately, making me shiver all over my body.
