Chapter 86

I could feel every single set of eyes on us. Ashton was… well, Ashton. He looked like a walking piece of art. But not just beautiful. Dangerous-beautiful. Like one of those hyperrealistic 3D paintings of a cliff. Stare too long and you start to feel the drop. Me? I wasn’t bad either. Maybe a little less angelic than him, but definitely more than presentable. But I could tell it wasn’t the looks that had frozen the room. It was the way I was linking arms with him—easy, intimate, completely unselfconscious. Thanks to our multiple rehearsals (which, fine, had paid off), we didn’t look like a party fling. We looked like the real thing. I could practically see the thought bubbles forming above every head: ‘Isn’t that Mirabelle Vance?’ ‘Wasn’t she engaged to Rhys Granger?’ ‘Didn’t she cause a scene at the last Laurent event?’ ‘How is she not blacklisted?’ But the main headline was clear: ‘What the hell is she doing with Ashton Laurent?’ The whispers started immediately. We reached the centre