Chapter 23
Lucien turned slightly at that exact moment, catching Ethan’s stare. His smirk deepened as if he’d been expecting him.
He raised his glass slightly. Mocking. Claiming.
Serena didn’t even flinch. She turned her head slowly, saw Ethan and Lila, and her expression didn’t change. No surprise. No bitterness.
Just indifference.
That hurt more than anything.
Ethan stepped forward, ignoring Lila’s grip tightening on his arm. “I’m going over there.”
“Ethan, don’t make a scene,” she hissed, forcing a smile for the other guests who were watching closely now.
He shrugged her off. “I just want to talk.”
But Lila wasn’t letting go that easily. “You do that and she wins,” she whispered, low and venomous. “Look around you. People are already whispering. About her. About you. If you walk over there now, it only confirms everything.”
He paused. She wasn’t wrong.
Eyes were already watching them, comparing. Judging. That gala wasn’t just a party, it was a battlefield.
Still, it didn’t stop the fire from spreading in Ethan’s veins. That image of Lucien standing beside Serena like he’d won something... It clawed at Ethan’s pride, his possessiveness.
Serena was his fiancée. She had worn his ring.
What was she doing standing there like Lucien’s queen?
Ethan turned back toward the pair. Lucien was saying something to Serena, leaning closer. She smiled faintly, reserved but real. That smile hit Ethan like a gut punch.
Lila’s voice pulled him back. “She’s trying to hurt you, Ethan. That’s what this is.”
But what if it wasn’t?
What if Serena had truly… moved on?
Serena took a careful sip of her champagne, letting the cold bubbles calm her already racing nerves.
Her eyes remained casually locked ahead, but her peripheral vision was attuned to one direction only, the spot where Ethan stood, fuming in silence, Lila’s hand clamped tightly on his arm like a snake with too much to lose.
Lucien leaned closer, his breath brushing her ear like a caress of wind wrapped in secrets.
“He’s going to snap,” he said lowly, amusement dancing beneath his voice.
Serena blinked slowly, forcing herself to smile. “Good. That’s the point, isn’t it?”
Lucien chuckled. The deep, rumbling sound made something stir uncomfortably in her chest, but she pushed it down, just like she’d done all night.
“Still,” he added, tipping his glass toward his lips, “you’ve got to admit, he’s seconds away from marching over here and demanding to know if I’ve already claimed you.”
Her heart skipped. The words were playful, soaked in teasing, but the way he looked at her when he said it...
Too close. Too steady.
Serena cleared her throat and averted her gaze. “Let him think whatever he wants. He already did when I ended things. Might as well let him boil in it.”
“You’re a dangerous woman, Miss Lin,” Lucien murmured, then took a step closer. Their shoulders brushed. Her skin prickled.
She turned sharply toward him, ready to make a joke, but froze.
He was closer than she’d realized.
His scent wrapped around her, dark, expensive, intoxicating. Notes of sandalwood and something spiced lingered in the air between them, like heat before a storm. His suit clung to his broad frame like it had been stitched into his skin, the sharp line of his jaw just inches from her own.
Don’t look at his mouth, she told herself.
“Don’t stand so close,” she whispered, trying for firm but ending up breathier than intended.
Lucien tilted his head, lips curling slightly. “Am I making you nervous?”
Serena’s pulse quickened. “You wish.”
“Maybe,” he replied, sipping from his glass again. “But I’m impressed. You’re doing a remarkable job keeping your expression neutral while Ethan Zhao looks like he wants to strangle me.”
“He probably does,” she muttered, then couldn’t stop herself from glancing over again.
Ethan was still watching them.
Lucien followed her gaze and smiled with satisfied venom. “He never saw it coming, did he? That you’d turn your back. That you’d walk away from him and land right next to me.”
Serena forced a smile. “And he’s going to choke on it.”
But even as she said it, her mind was trying to keep pace with her heart. The plan, their plan had always been about optics. Appearances. Wreaking havoc with whispers and rumors and just enough truth to make it believable.
Yet standing here, with Lucien practically draped in her space, his presence consuming and confident, she felt the stirrings of something dangerously real.
No. Not real. Not now.
“You’re quiet,” Lucien noted, tilting his head slightly. “Second thoughts?”
She blinked, dragging her thoughts back to focus. “No. Just… you smell too good.”
Lucien laughed, the sound sinful. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t one,” she lied.
He leaned in closer, too close again, and she turned her face away instinctively.
“Relax, sweetheart,” he whispered. “We’re just getting started.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t call me that.”
Lucien gave a dramatic sigh. “Still so prickly. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re trying to resist me.”
“I am trying to resist you,” she said without missing a beat.
“Which means I’ve already started to win.”
“No, impossible.”
“I’m Lucien Feng,” he replied, smirking. “Impossibility is my specialty.”
Serena shook her head, lips twitching against her will. “Focus. We’re here for revenge, remember? Not whatever… this is.”
Lucien’s smile softened for just a second, like a crack in his ever present armor. But then it vanished just as fast, replaced by the taunting charm he wore like cologne.
“I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “But don’t blame me if you start enjoying it a little too much.”
Before she could respond, the orchestra shifted into a soft waltz. Couples began drifting onto the floor in elegant circles of movement. Lights dimmed slightly, casting the ballroom in a golden haze.
Lucien held out his hand.
Serena blinked.
“Dance with me,” he said simply.
She hesitated. “Lucien…”
“Serena,” he interrupted, voice lower now. “Everyone’s watching. Let’s give them something to talk about.”
Her heart raced. She hated that she didn’t know if it was excitement or warning.
With a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, she slipped her hand into his.
And together, they stepped onto the dance floor.