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Instead of stealing my bacon, he put his hand on one of my hands. "Are you okay now? No one will think less of you if you freak out once in a while. I do it too." He looked like patience itself right now. Just like how Ishouldlook.
"I wouldn't be much of an ice queen if I melt at the first sign of trouble," I said. Okay, being on my knees on the floor, choking on the enemy's cock, was more than the ‘first sign of trouble.’ It was a traumatic event on par with finding my dead parents in pieces. But I was Ivory. I was carved of ice and pain. I didn't give in. Didn't back down. I lived my life on my terms and no one else's. I would not let Dagen take that away from me.
Not ever.
"You don't always have to be the ice queen," Ben said gently. "You're so much more than that. You're the strongest, smartest woman I've ever met. I'll do whatever it takes to be sure you get out of here."
"You're going to make me blush," I said. It was nice to hear, but I was starting to think I wasn't worthy of any of the guys. Like Dagen's touch tainted me somehow. Or maybe I was just a shitty person to start with.
Ben chuckled and squeezed my hand. "I'm sure you've heard all of this before. And more. You deserve to be told every bit of it." With a grin he added, "Boss."
"You don’t have to call me boss," I said. "Unless we're in front of Dagen." If the place was really full of cameras and microphones, then we might as well be in front of him now. We probably said far too much, but it was to late to take it back.
"Or I could come up with my own name for you," he mused. "Cooper calls you Ivory. Jake calls you by your birth name. Maybe I should call you something else."
"As long as it's not ice bitch." I grimaced.
"It wouldn't be ‘bitch’ anything," he said firmly. "I'll think of something. Maybe Queen of Bacon."
That actually made me laugh, albeit bitterly. "We should be careful. That bacon might not be made out of pig."
Ben pushed his to the side of the plate. "That might be what they do with people who betray Dagen. Or piss him off."
"It could be Toby." I made a face at it. "The guy I sat next to on the plane."
"It sounds like you were sitting next to someone friendlier than mine," Ben said. He poked the bacon with the tip of his finger. "The guy next to me wouldn't even say hello. I mean, whatever. I wasn't there to make friends."
"Are you sure?" I teased. "You might have a future as one of Dagen's goons." As if that would happen.
"Firstly, I have a job," Ben said slowly. "Secondly, nothing bad is going to happen to my boss anytime soon, so I won't need a new job. Third, I have a sense of humour. That seems to be lacking around here. And last, I prefer white shirts to black." A slow smile crept onto his face. "Especially on women. Particularly on you, with a bit of juice mixed in."
"You saw that?" I grimaced. Jake accidentally spilled juice all down the front of me a few days ago. I looked like something out of a wet T-shirt competition. I had to walk through Crimson looking like that too.
"Every bit." He grinned. "There wasn't a person in the whole place who wasn't looking at and appreciating you."
I cocked my head at him. "I'm starting to think that you're cheekier than I realised."
He thought about that for a moment. "No, I've always been like this. I've just been overshadowed by Jake for so long." His eyes widened. "Shit. I didn't mean I was enjoying any of this. I mean… Fuck."
He closed his eyes and shook his head. "If you feel like stabbing me with a fork right now, go ahead. I won't fight back."
I patted him on the arm. "I don't tend to do my own stabbing. I hire people to do that."
"You want me to stab myself with a fork?" he said. "Because I will. Boss."
I pretended to consider that. "Not today," I said finally. "I admit it has been hard to see you past Jake. And Cooper. I wish we'd done this under completely different circumstances, but here we are. It is what it is. And for the record, I prefer the spork as a weapon of choice." I managed a small smile. I liked Ben. I could see this blossoming into something more.
Ben looked surprised, but grinned. "A spork? Why one of those?"
I shrugged one shoulder. "Because it's unexpected. You would see a fork or knife coming. But a spork looks mostly harmless, until it isn't."
"Like you?" he suggested. "Beautiful and sweet on the outside, deadly as fuck on the inside."
"Exactly," I agreed. "I'm just like a spork. And you know what the best part about them is? After you stab someone with them, you can eat soup." I hoped Dagen was listening. He would probably assume we were talking in code. Nope, it was just silly conversation in the life of Ivory. Something to keep us both sane.
"So… I'm guessing I can't call you spork as a nickname?" Ben asked. He wiggled his brows.
"Oh, gods no." I made a face. "I really would use one on you then. Now, you've been here long enough to have assessed at least fifteen different escape routes, right?"
