♞ THE LOYAL HOUND ♞

"He wants to murder me regardless. Might as well add another to the list."

Benjamin's stoic features cracked into an abrupt laugh. "That was fucking good," he nodded, taking a sip of his drink, to which he laughed again. "Fuck sake..." sometimes humour was what saw them through. "May the odds be ever in your favour, my friend." — Benjamin, on second glance, stopped.

"Can you, Benjamin?"

"I'm not sure how much you enjoy conversations at events like this, but usually when someone asks a question, they don't answer it with another question." His words tumbled out in a single, unchanging flatness. "I will, and I hope you get a date."

"I'm kidding, you psycho," proof resting in the quick shift that drew her arm into the crook of his elbow, "You think I don't know how damn lucky you'd be to win a date with me?" Purred into the shell of his ear, catching his lobe between her teeth gently, her quiet laughter bringing her gaze back to the bar. Pulling gently enough to draw them both through the crowd in that direction. "Baby, the day I see you looking anything but exhausted is the day I finally start worrying about you." She knew, as well as anyone how quickly Melissa could drive someone into the ground - but Isla also one who much Ben felt he owed her, the respect he carried, and she thought she understood." You can buy me both, and then tell me how amazing it'd be to spend a night with yours truly."

One second he was in control. The next? Isla was. It was hot breath upon skin, the condensate left in her wake that almost had knees buckling. Some women just knew what they were doing. A purr, a soft voice. Enough to make any man cave. And then she was gone, and he was reeling.

for @benjaminvox time: after dates revealed.

"Can I help you, Nadezhda?"

"At least she's hot."

"Careful...man has ears like a bat. He might just murder you, too."

Ayda’s eyes had landed on Ben a few times throughout the night. The last time they’d spent together had been pleasant, though she’d felt a shift afterward. In the days that followed, her life had pulled her in every direction - the bar, the bakery, the campaign.

There was something about Ayda that Benjamin had been unsure of in the beginning. Maybe it was her morals, or how she upheld them — how she was truly in tune with them and how that could be a downfall for her in the same breath. Morals weren't all that useful in their line of work, and with her floating around, that always left a chance of those morals implicating the Rutherfords.

"Jesus, Ben..." Isla snorts, not one to dampen her spirit regardless of who might be around to see or hear it, "You sure do know how to make a girl feel beautiful, huh? Truly – tell me again how you've stayed single all this time?"

His nose crinkled, lips twisting. Ah, fucking hell. "Sorry, Isla..." shoulders sagging, not wanting to make her feel crap because he was so fucking tired. "Melissa's had me up till all hours, don't take offence..." Benjamin's head already snapping to the bar. "I'll buy you a drink...and a shot if you pretend that was the best compliment you've ever heard? I mean...who wouldn't want to get a shot with the most beautiful woman in the room?" A cheeky grin sliding across his lips, and a plead in his eyes.

She gave him a look that clearly said, 'expect the unexpected,' a slow smile following right after. Because truly, didn’t people ever consider all the possibilities? Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about getting her employer involved. Not now. Not even while she was a Vixen. Unless Cece decided to shake things up and honestly, that would probably be far more entertaining than problematic.

Adriana was someone who was both easy to read and not, all in the same breath. That smile, slow, endearing and yet...terrifying? It caused the corner of his lips to tilt into the smile he wore in her company. Benjamin wasn't blind to the trauma that had moulded this woman into something akin to a fucking warrior — but that didn't mean there was no cause to worry about her. He did, from time to time.

"Oh my God, imagine you end with Melissa? There would go your fucking trip. That would be a workation for you." Adriana couldn't contain her laughter at the mere thought of the situation. She could really see it, right before her eyes as Benjamin got cocktails for Melissa while the woman was getting a tan. "None is my dream date, but I'm going for something that is most me. I won't let anything stop me either. I honestly don't even there's a bad outcome for me. Unless they're really fucking boring. Then I really might die."

Adriana was not wrong either. And Benjamin couldn't stop the visible grimace that washed over his face, contorting his lips in a twist. "Don't put that out into the mother-fuckin' universe, for the love of God," he said under his breath. God, no. He couldn't think of anything worse than spending what he hoped would be a nice trip away with someone else. He adored her, yes. But even he tired of her insistent bullshit, too. The laughter, thankfully, drew his own from him.

@benjaminvox

"Is the safety on that thing, Adri?" He was half-joking...half concerned as he looked down at the gun. "Not exactly how I expected tonight to go."