Love’n’Lust

She was still staring at her reflection when the door behind her opened. She turned to see Ben walk in. She thought the woman would return with him but she didn’t.

Ben’s eyes fell on Belle first thing as he walked in. His lips curved upwards with admiration. He approached her even though he thought she was acting unusual still.

“Wow,” his one word surprised her.

“You like the dress?” She thought she should ask.

“You look stunning, it looks magnificent on you.” He told her and circled his hands around her waist to pull her closer to himself.

“So you don’t have a problem if I want to wear it to the event?”

“No,” he snorted, “If it’s what you want to wear, why would I have a problem with it? Hmmn?” He leaned in and kissed her exposed neck then her shoulder.

“I thought you wouldn’t be pleased by it,” she tilted her head to the left when she felt his lips against her skin.”The last time, you said not to wear anything too revealing.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“If I am not by your side,” he completed something she had been omitting all the while.”If anyone looks at you tomorrow, they lose their eyes.”his words reverberated in her ears. It made her remember Nathan and that mistake of a night. Fear filled her heart immediately.

Ben noticed she suddenly got tensed and realized maybe he shouldn’t have said that, maybe it frightened her when he said things like that. He stopped with his kisses and cupped her small face.

“Is there something you might want to tell me?” He asked. It couldn’t just be what he said tensing her up like that, there was something disturbing her mind.

Belle shook her head at his question.

“Do you want to go back and get some rest?” He asked again, stroking her cheek with his index finger. He watched her nod.

*******

Tuesday.

7:47 pm.

Ben was in a car quietly as it drove to the beauty place to pick up Belle for the event. The moment Belle walked out in her dress, he became dazed. At the moment, it wasn’t just her dress but everything about her look for tonight.

Her hair had been held into a ball behind with just two strands in front. Her makeup was perfect and even though she was wearing a mask over her eyes, Ben could only imagine her without it.

He came down from the car and went to her. The first thing he did was take off the mask so he could look into her pretty blue eyes. Belle expected him to compliment how she looked but the man in front of her was too lost in her eyes to even say a word.

She saw a proud smile wash up his lips. He was happy to be taking her as his plus one tonight.

“You look… you look absolutely incredible.” She smiled when he finally praised but then he continued, “You know Belle, I’ve seen quite a lot of beautiful women in my lifetime but your beauty, seems new to me every single time I look at you. It’s like you do nothing but get more beautiful; your prettiness is ever refreshing.” He chuckled after.”You are just the pure definition of beauty itself.”

Belle bit her lips as she smiled more. At first, she thought he wouldn’t compliment her but he just did more than that. She was very sure her cheeks were reddened with little embarrassment because some of the makeup artists were there to witness him say all of that.

When they were back in one of the cats leading to the event. She placed her palm around her neck area, trying to reach for her chain necklace because she was starting to feel nervous but she wasn’t wearing it.

“Oh no,” Ben heard her gasp.

“What is the matter?”

“I forgot my chain pendant at the beauty place, they took it off me while they were busy.” She pursed her lips.” I thought they planned to replace it but I think they forgot, they just had me on these,” she jingled her long, glassy earrings. Ben just smiled.

“You don’t need a necklace for this event.” He informed her.

“I don’t?”

“You don’t. It’s a charity event. Pieces of pieces of jewelry and other valuables will be displayed before the after-party. That’s where the money for charity will be generated from. Guests present gets to bid for the pieces of jewelry they find interesting.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I thought it was just going to be a party.” She said and laughed at herself afterward for not knowing.

Ben only smiled more.

“I will get you the most beautiful necklace tonight.” He let her know.”And it will enhance your glow tonight at the party.”

It got silent afterwards, with Belle looking out the window at the beautiful night view of the city and Ben looking at her beautiful self with pure admiration.

They arrived at the party soon. As the night sky twinkled with a thousand stars, Belle found herself surrounded by the glitz and glamour of a charity gala. She stood at Ben’s right-hand side as he held her by the waist proudly. They were making their way inside through the red carpet and her breathing got edgy because of nervousness. It was the first time she was present at such an event and also her first to witness the amount of paparazzi focused on them since they arrived.

They were ushered kindly to a two persons table in a large hall. She saw many other elites seated there too and she thought they all looked well composed in their beautiful outfits.

‘They must be used to this,’ she told herself and took in a deep breath, trying to enjoy the moment.

******

The event had begun sooner than she expected. She saw different jewelry brought up to the stage and different persons from the crowd of elites bid over it till the highest bidder had the lead.

She suddenly became pressed.

“Ben?” She called out in a whisper and immediately got his attention.”Do you think I can visit a restroom here? I suddenly have to pee.”

Ben called the attention of a female usher and soon enough, Belle was led to the restroom. When she was done and was sanitizing her hands after, she saw a familiar face putting on lipgloss in the bathroom.

“Hi,” Belle approached her with a friendly smile, “Alex right?” Alex turned to her with a dry smile.

“Yeah, it’s you.” Alex recognized her voice even if she wore a mask.

“Belle,” Belle thought to help her out by saying her name.

“I remember your name,” Alex told her.

“Oh. I’m surprised to meet you here,” Belle said honestly, she was happy to see a face she knew after not knowing anyone the whole time that had passed.

“You are surprised? Really? I should be the one saying that not you. You know, people like you only get to be at places like this when they whore around but people like me? This is what we do for fun.” Belle’s feeling of sentiment diminished after she heard Alex. Her smile faded, she was only trying to be nice and didn’t expect that from Alex.

“Let me inform you, this… this little thing you have going on with Ben, he is going to get tired of you, and then he would toss you out of his schedule, you hear me?” Belle felt deep cuts with Alex’s words, it was like a meaner sermon coming from her sister Brie, through Alex.

“I don’t even know what made him go for you, I still wonder what made him pick you and where he picked you from. The Ben I know isn’t pleased by girls like you. He likes models, he likes classy models, high-class women, that’s what he likes not this,” Alex went ahead to point at Belle like an object when she said ‘this’.

“And he doesn’t just fuck any model, he goes for models with perfect figures like myself, not you. I don’t know if you bewitched him or whatever did you do to have him all over you but I know Ben, and you are not his type, trust me.”

After Alex was done saying the hurtful things to her, she put her lipgloss in her purse and looked in the mirror one last time before leaving.

Belle leaned on the vanity counter for support and tried to breathe in slowly. Tears began to form in her eyes so she took off the mask.

She was still trying to deal with the guilt of that night with Nathan and now Alex’s words were going to shatter her. She quickly grabbed a disposable towel from the towel rail there to wipe her tears and possibly stopped more from falling down her cheeks.

She couldn’t even begin to comprehend all that Alex just said to her. She decided to stop her tears by all means, using the towel to dab her teary eyes gently to avoid ruining her makeup but thankfully they were waterproof.

Meanwhile, Ben began to wonder why she hadn’t returned since she left. He was about to text Randy to check around for her when he saw her return.

She took the seat next to him and tried to keep a straight face but he noticed something was wrong.

“Belle?” He leaned in closer to her.”Are you okay?” She turned her eyes to him when he asked and he saw that her lashes were wet with tears.”Were you crying all this while in the restroom?” He asked again but didn’t want to believe so.

“No,” she finally spoke back.”Look, I’m fine okay?” she wanted to look back at the stage but he held her chin to stop her.

“You have been acting rather strange for quite a while now and I won’t lie to you, I’m beginning to worry over it.” He told her the truth, “Tell me what’s on your mind, let me take care of it for you. You shouldn’t have to worry about anything when you are with me, Belle.” He told her but she said nothing still, just a batter of her long lashes.

“I’m fine really, Ben, trust me.” She tried to sound convincing but it didn’t work for Ben. He only sighed because now he knew he would have to find out by himself, what was disturbing her so much.

“Okay. I trust you, if you say there’s nothing to worry about then there really isn’t ” He acted like he was on board with her.

He proceeded to kiss her forehead. Alex was watching them from behind and it almost made her scream when she saw what he just did. Her silenced anger was followed by deep heavy breathing but she soon smiled.

She just got a text that she had been expecting, the information in that text message was the main reason why she decided to grace the invitation to this event, not for anything else. Her friend, Jenna didn’t see the need to attend but she didn’t try convincing her much to come with because she knew she would work more efficiently without her friend present.

Her smile got more intense; that smile was fueled by her anger toward Belle. She was going to have fun when she fulfilled the plan she had in mind at the after-party of the event. She couldn’t wait to get Belle out of the way and get back to what never existed between Ben and herself. Her malicious smile lingered on.