Page 29 of Filthy Twisted Devil

“Not like that! Here.” I grab his hand and put it on my waist. “And I touch your chest. Right. Okay, that should be good. Now look at me.”

Luke looks down, his mask shadowing his eyes and making them unreadable. When I put my hand on his chest, his heartbeat radiates through his clothes. It feels fast—or am I projecting my heartbeat?

A light flashes as Pippa takes the picture. I pull my hand away from his chest quickly, stepping away from Luke before he can even let go of me.

“There,” Pippa says, handing me back the phone. “Damn, you're a really good actress, Eden. If you weren’t posing him like a Ken doll, I'd never have guessed this”—she gestures between me and Luke—“wasn't real.”

She winks and walks away into the crowd.

Crap.

We’ve barely started this charade, and I’ve already stumbled.

“It’s fine,” Luke murmurs into my ear. “You can worry about that tomorrow. Let’s just get you home.”

I let him maneuver me out of the building and into a taxi. He rides to my apartment building with me, but when I insist that I’d rather go to sleep without him coming up, he reluctantly agrees to leave after he watches me walk inside the building.

Five people text me to make sure I made it home alright. My brothers, Brinley, and Luke, even though I only had to traverse one staircase without his supervision. I send everyone a thumbs up emoji without further elaborating.

I tear off the too-tight dress and throw it on the floor. My mask, I throw on top of it. I’ll deal with things like cleaning and laundry when I’m sober. Luckily, past Eden left a hoodie on the couch, and I pull it on instead.

When I finally flop into my bed, I find myself pressing my fingers to my mouth, almost like I’m checking whether it’s still mine.

11

LUKE

November

Ryan picks up the tiny yellow teddy bear and sneers at it in disgust.

“This used to be a proper room,” he mutters. “A dignified room. A place where brave men and women at the top of their game competed for honor and glory, and now look at it. Teddy bear junction.”

“Dude, it’s just a baby shower.” Beau claps Ryan on the back. “Your poker room will be back to normal by tomorrow.”

“Still. It won’t forget the horrors it’s seen,” Ryan says darkly.

“At least they’re letting us drink,” I point out, raising my glass. “Encouraging it, even.”

Ryan snorts, unconvinced. “It’s the least James could do, with the monstrosity he made of my sanctuary.”

Despite Ryan's incessant complaining, I can't help but be impressed by James and Maura's baby shower. Flair Events transformed the room into a pale white-and-yellow wonderland complete with fluffy fake clouds, adorable teddy bear displays, and massive vases full of daisies and sunflowers. I’ve been snacking on bowls of lemon candies and yellow macarons since I got here.

The whole thing is more over-the-top than James and Maura would usually go for. Maura looks a little overwhelmed sitting in her throne-like armchair, surrounded by piles of presents. She’s not the type to soak up attention like this, something I pointed out to Eden last night when I stopped by to help her and Brinley blow up balloons.

“I was surprised, too,” Eden said. “I figured they’d want something intimate and personal, just the friend group and a few people from Sequel and Maura’s gallery. But they figured, since they don’t have a ton of family to invite, they might as well use the shower to raise money for charity.”

“They’re getting presents. How is that helping charity?”

Eden rolled her eyes. “They’ll sell the event photos, just like they did for their wedding. Plus paid brand partnerships, donations from James’s business friends, and they’ll give all the physical gifts they receive to a domestic violence shelter. So the more over-the-top and elegant this looks”—she waved her hand around the room—“the more money they’ll get from the photos. People like having something to look at.”

“Something including about a zillion balloons.”

“Exactly. Now you can either help me blow those balloons up, or you can take today’s selfie and stop distracting me.”

I did help blow up about two hundred balloons, which took forever even with an air tank and Brinley’s help. Now that I see what Eden has made from those balloons, though, I have to admit, it was worth it. The room looks incredible. It's obvious why Flair Events trusted her to manage the floor today, even though she's only worked for them for a few weeks.

Across the room, I can see her moving through the crowd in her dress blacks. The shapeless blouse and trousers are meant to make her invisible in the crowd, but Eden doesn’t need tight clothes to get my attention. It's her easy confidence that I can't look away from, the way she glides through the crowd like a swan skimming along a lake. She laughs easily with the servers and smiles politely with the guests, looking entirely at ease. I envy that. When I’m working with customers at Twisted Devil, it’s exhausting to keep up the charm. I get the sense that for Eden, it’s effortless.