CHAPTER 5 - PUBLIC NOTICE: MINE

I should have known Sebastian wouldn’t just keep me hidden away in his penthouse.

Men like him didn’t collect pretty things to lock them in closets. They put them on display — as a statement, a warning, a claim.

The black dress from the morning had been replaced with a new one by afternoon. This one was deeper, darker, cut to the bone, the neckline dipping low enough that I couldn’t take a deep breath without imagining a dozen camera flashes catching it.

“Where are we going?” I asked as he fastened the thin gold chain at the back of my neck. His hands were steady. Mine weren’t.

“A charity gala,” he said simply. “Half the city’s elite will be there. And every one of them will know exactly who you belong to by the end of the night.”

We arrived in his signature black car, the driver silent, the tinted glass separating us from the city’s noise. Sebastian sat beside me, one arm resting casually along the back of the seat, but I could feel the coiled energy under his calm — like a predator before the strike.

As we neared the venue, the flashbulbs started, bursts of white light exploding through the windows.

Sebastian glanced at me. “Smile,  Ocean... Or don’t. Either way, they’ll only see what I want them to see.”

The ballroom was gold and glass and whispers. Crystalline chandeliers hung above, casting fractured light across champagne towers and polished marble floors.

People turned as we entered. I felt it — the collective pause, the shift in air. Not because of me. Because of him.

Sebastian Velez wasn’t just known here. He was noticed. Every handshake lingered, every greeting carried the kind of measured politeness people reserved for a man they couldn’t afford to cross.

His hand found the small of my back, guiding me forward. The contact was barely there, but it burned through the thin fabric of my dress.

“This is Victor  Chavez,” Sebastian said to a man who looked like he’d been carved from ambition and old money. “Victor, my wife.”

“Pleasure,” Victor said, shaking my hand. His gaze lingered a fraction too long.

Sebastian noticed.

I felt his fingers press harder at my back — not enough to hurt, just enough to remind me. To remind him.

It happened over and over that night. Men looked too long. Women whispered behind their glasses. And every time, Sebastian’s touch changed — a thumb brushing my bare shoulder, a palm settling at my waist, a slow drag of fingers down my spine.

It was subtle. But the message was clear.

Mine.

Halfway through the evening, I found myself alone for the first time, Sebastian called away to speak to someone near the stage. I turned toward the bar, needing a moment to breathe.

That’s when a tall man with careless blond hair and a suit that screamed old money stepped in front of me.

“You’re  Sebastian 's new… wife?” he asked, his smile sharp.

“Yes,” I said, unsure if I should confirm it.

“Interesting choice,” he said, eyes skimming over me. “Pretty. But I’d have guessed he preferred—”

“She prefers me,” Sebastian’s voice cut in, sudden and dangerous.

The man straightened, his smirk faltering.

Sebastian stepped up beside me, his arm sliding around my waist, pulling me tight against him. “Go find someone else to bother, Carter,” he said, the words delivered like a casual suggestion — but there was steel underneath.

Carter left.

Sebastian didn’t look at me right away. He kept his eyes on the crowd, but his grip didn’t loosen.

“You don’t wander,” he said quietly.

“I wasn’t—”

“You don’t wander,” he repeated, his tone even but final. “Not here. Not without me.”

I bit my lip. “Because you think I’ll get lost?”

His gaze finally dropped to mine, the corner of his mouth lifting just enough to be dangerous. “Because I don’t like sharing.”

The rest of the night, he kept me close. Close enough that anyone watching — and everyone was — could see there was no space between us.

When we finally left, the air outside felt colder, sharper. The city lights blurred through the car’s tinted windows.

Sebastian's hand rested on my thigh, his thumb tracing slow, deliberate circles. “You handled yourself well,” he said.

I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “So I passed your test?”

He looked at me then, his gaze steady, unblinking. “This wasn’t a test, Ocean. This was a lesson.”

“A lesson in what?”

His thumb stilled. “What it means to be mine. In public.”

By the time we reached the penthouse, I understood exactly what he meant.

And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run from it…

Or lean in until there was no escape.