𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬

chapter 22

TWENTY • TWO:
a formal arrangement
♠️

"The only thing that mattered now was making sure that she was okay and made it out of the building without getting caught..."

ellie

"Elenor Mason, get your ass out of the washroom so I can see what you look like," Blaze growled from the bedroom, growing impatient with Ellie as she took her time to perfect her eyeliner.

"Just give me one more minute," she dismissively mumbled, too focused on finishing her make-up to care for Blaze's anger.

Tonight was the night. Though Blaze made sure to tell Ellie that it was nothing more than a get-together, she could not hide her enthusiasm towards it. Considering she was never raised in a wealthy environment, she never really got to go to anything even remotely formal. Yes, her high school had a prom... but she refused to go considering it was the year of her traumatic incident. However, now she was going out to a formal dinner with a more-than-beautiful tattooed mafia don, so she was not as concerned about missing her prom two years ago.

"Alright, I'm done," Ellie finally said, running a hand through her hair before opening the bedroom door. She walked out and could see Blaze muttering to himself as he tied his blue bow tie again.

"I don't understand why we have to match," Blaze muttered, finally finishing the bow tie. "It seems odd."

Once he was finished complaining, he turned to face her. She could see his eyes widen and his body was glued to the floor, only able to look over her. Ellie could feel her body warm up as he slowly took her appearance in, taking his time from the dips of her waist to the curves of her hips that the dark blue sparkling dress kindly showed to him. A giant slit split her dress from her left thigh and cascaded into a small trail behind her, showing a nice view of her jewelled open-toed heels.

"Holy shit" was all he could get out, grinning sheepishly when Ellie laughed. Finally gaining some sort of muscle, Blaze walked towards her and spun her around, whistling when he looked down at her behind. "Alright, I can see why it took you so long—you look gorgeous."

Ellie blushed, biting her lip nervously. She went back into the washroom and fixed her red lipstick, smiling when Blaze stepped in behind her and moved his hands to her hips.

"You're lucky we need to leave soon or else we would never leave the room," he mumbled close to her ear. Ellie gasped as he roughly squeezed her behind. "You look so fucking beautiful."

She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck (considering she was actually a decent height to be able to do so), looking up at him before glancing down at his tie. He leaned down to kiss her but Ellie shook her head with a pout, kissing the corner of his lips.

"You know the rules," he said to her, feeling Ellie fix his tie, "don't talk to anyone, don't drink anything if someone besides a waiter or waitress offers it to you, and stay by my side all night. Oh, and if you try anything to deliberately irritate me, I won't hesitate to bring you into a washroom to punish you."

Ellie nodded with flushed cheeks and moved her hands to his shoulders, squeezing them reassuringly. "I-I know, Blaze, okay? I'll try to be a good girl."

"Good," Blaze muttered, "because I'm a man of my word."

Ellie hummed, finally tilting her head up and kissing his lips quickly. "Didn't you also tell me that I was also nothing but leverage to you?"