Her soft voice whispered in his ear, her breath gently tickling his face, eliciting a peculiar itch that seemed to settle in his heart.

His gaze darkened. Lowering his eyes to meet hers, he slid his arm around her waist.

Kayla approached the couple and caught sight of Bennett's arm around Claudia. Quickly averting her eyes, she greeted, “Mrs. Dreskin, Mr. Dreskin."

After Aurora's last outburst about addressing the couple, Kayla knew better than to call them Miss Marshall and Townsend again.

“Miss Bryant, it's nice to see you again." Claudia returned the greeting with measured politeness.

Casting an indifferent glance at Kayla, Bennett inquired, “What brings you here?"

He knew Kayla wouldn't engage them without a reason, and frankly, his patience had already been tried with her previous nonsensical conversations with Claudia.

For the first time, Kayla found herself on the receiving end of such treatment from Bennett. And she was unable to maintain her smile.

Quickly regaining her composure, she smiled again and said, "Actually, I need a favor from you."

Bennett said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

Claudia looked on, intrigued. She had a hunch that it had something to do with the necklace.

And sure enough, Kayla said, “Mrs. Dreskin, would you be willing to relinquish that necklace to me?"

She looked squarely at Claudia, then turned her gaze to Bennett.

"It's not a competition with your wife. My mother requested that I purchase the necklace last week."

While Kayla knew she had no rapport with Bennett, her mother was a different story.

Her mother had been a close friend of Bennett's late mother for many years.

Aside from that, her mother had once helped sort out the things left behind by Bennett's mother.

Consequently, Kayla was confident that Bennett would consider her request, at least for her mother's sake.

She was confident that she'd be able to obtain the necklace by tonight.

She had come to the auction specifically for the necklace but hadn't anticipated competition.

Though she could afford it, seeing it was Bennett who was competing with her, she thought she didn't have to continue the bidding and spend more unnecessary money.

After all, in a bidding war, the only real winner was the auction house.

After she got the necklace using her mother's name, she could say that she later found out her mother actually wanted to give her that as a birthday gift. Even if Bennett was unhappy about that, what could he do?

Moreover, this could cast a shadow over Claudia's happiness.