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It should feel luxurious. Classy. Private. But all it feels like is pressure—thick and mocking.

Liam and I sit on opposite sides of the leather bench, tension wound tight between us like a live wire we’re both too afraid to touch.

The kiss still burns on my lips. I haven’t looked at him since.

I want to pretend the whole night didn’t happen. The red carpet. The tight smiles. The way that woman reduced me to nothing with a single word: polished.

Like I was a smudge on Liam’s otherwise pristine image.

I’m used to being overlooked. Being the little sister. The one who blends into the backdrop while the real stars take center stage.

But something about hearing it while standing beside him—after everything—made it land different.

Like it was true.

Liam’s jaw is still locked tight, shadowed in the streetlights slicing through the tinted windows. He hasn’t said a word since we stepped into the car. But I keep glancing. Like I’m checking to see if he’s still there. If he’s real. If any of this is.

And I hate that I want him to speak first. That I want him to tell me none of it matters.

That I’m enough.

That I’m his.

But I already had all of him—for one night, behind a rhinestone silk mask.

And I didn’t say a word.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

It’s soft. Embarrassingly small.

“I know this isn’t what you signed up for.”

He doesn’t react.

No sound. No sigh. No look.

I push through the silence, because if I don’t, I’ll unravel right here in this dress.

“I mean… did you see the other women tonight?”

I laugh—hollow and sharp.

“They’re the kind of women guys like you end up with. They glide. They fit. They don’t screw up press events or say the wrong thing or hide behind lipstick like armor.”

I pause.

“They’d make your life easier,” I say, and then gesture at myself like a punchline. “Not... this.”

The words hang there like fog, thick and impossible to see through.

Then his hand is on my jaw. Steady. Warm.

And when he turns my face to his, I let him.

Because I’ve never known how to say no to Liam Steele.

Not then. Not now.