Chapter 245: Chapter 162: Spring Night
After dinner, Marcus Monroe had intended to give Paige Summers some last-minute instructions, but the conversation took an unexpected turn.
"I have something for you. Come!"
Marcus Monroe was puzzled, but seeing Paige Summers get up and walk inside, he followed her.
The two of them entered Paige Summers’s room. Before he could speak, Paige, who had her own plans, feigned a casual tone. "Ugh, I reek of alcohol from earlier. I’m going to go wash up. Wait for me, okay?"
With that, she slipped into the bathroom.
Listening to her suggestive words and watching her deliberately composed retreat, Marcus Monroe’s eyes darkened.
He wasn’t an idiot. At this point, how could he not understand what Paige Summers was planning to do?
But surprisingly, he found himself hesitating.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to during their previous intimate moments. It would be strange not to want the woman you love! But Paige Summers had always held back at the final step, refusing to let him cross that line. She’d said she wasn’t ready yet.
He had felt regret, but that had also made him even more excited.
He admitted that he desperately wanted to be her first man. He figured ninety-nine percent of men in the world felt the same way. He’d never asked because he was afraid of the answer. Even though he believed it wouldn’t affect their relationship, he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to immediately suppress his jealousy. If it showed, Paige Summers would surely be upset, creating an unnecessary rift between them.
But ever since Paige Summers had tacitly admitted it herself, the fire of his desire had been boiling over.
’I want her to be completely and utterly mine!’ The thought only grew stronger. He hadn’t even known he possessed such a strong sense of possessiveness.
Because of this, he had deeply analyzed the subtext of Paige Summers’s "I’m not ready." ’It has to be because I haven’t proposed!’
Since he’d figured it out, he knew he had to do it as soon as possible. That had been his original plan.
Too bad.
The timing was never right.
From the moment he had this realization until now, things had kept happening one after another. First, there was the trip north, and after returning to the city, Sheldon Reid had come to stir up trouble. In fact, just a short while ago, he had tentatively brought up the topic of marriage. He was only halfway through his sentence when Paige Summers had looked over with a half-smile and said, "At a time like this?"
Pathetically, those four words had left him speechless.
External threats were running rampant, and they were already struggling to find a chance to deal with them. Getting a marriage license and holding a banquet at a time like this was basically painting a target on their backs. But if they were to get married quietly... he couldn’t bear to wrong Paige Summers like that.
’She belongs to me. Of course everyone has to know about something like this!’
And so, the matter of marriage had been postponed.
Now, she was about to leave, making marriage even more impossible.
Yet, it was at this very moment that Paige Summers extended such an "invitation"... ’What on earth is she thinking? Doesn’t she know she’s leaving tomorrow and needs to be well-rested?!’
Marcus Monroe was torn, his rational mind in conflict with the hidden craving in his heart that he could barely endure.
However, all those thoughts turned to ash the moment Paige Summers emerged.
After a slight rustle, he saw Paige Summers standing there gracefully, dressed in a white, semi-transparent nightgown.
It was less a nightgown and more a layer of thin gauze enveloping her body.
Through it, a sublimely graceful figure was revealed before his eyes. At twenty-one, Paige Summers was like a flower not yet in full bloom: pearlescent white skin, full breasts, a slender waist, and long legs. Her feet, neither too large nor too small, were also visible outside the gauze, like a pair of white jade carvings.
In a man’s eyes, such a body was near perfection, and it made his blood boil.
He couldn’t help but want to walk toward her. Before he did, however, he summoned all his self-control to fix his gaze on her face and asked with difficulty, "Why?" ’Yes, why? Don’t give me some perfunctory excuse about suddenly figuring things out. Give me a real, honest answer!’
Paige Summers’s radiant smile faded, replaced by a raised eyebrow. "You want the truth?"
’Absolutely!’ Marcus Monroe’s eyes answered for him.
Paige Summers gave him a sidelong glance and curled her lips. ’A man who’s still so serious at a time like this is surprisingly cute.’ She was doing this, of course, simply because she wanted to. She wasn’t leaving for just a day or two. Though she was confident, life was full of unexpected turns. She didn’t have a protagonist’s halo like Nora Lowell. What if her luck ran out and she ended up dying somewhere... She just didn’t want to have any regrets. As she thought this, the words that came out of her mouth took a different turn. "I’m leaving, and who knows how long it’ll be before we see each other again. You’re always in and out of places like Jovitas... Naturally, I have to stamp my claim on my man first, to keep anyone with wandering eyes away!"
Marcus Monroe was taken aback, his expression turning strange. After a long moment, he managed to choke out, "I always thought... you didn’t care about that." Besides her, when had he ever shown any interest in other women? ’Does she still not trust me?’
Seeing his expression, Paige Summers knew he had misunderstood.
It was one thing for him to have principles, but seeing other women have ideas about him still made her uncomfortable.
This man had probably never been in love before. He was so perceptive about other matters, yet he couldn’t seem to wrap his head around this.
She couldn’t be bothered to explain, so she simply walked over to him.
This time, Marcus Monroe had no mental energy left to think about anything else.
In that instant, it felt as if a bolt of lightning shot up his spine, culminating in a brilliant explosion of fireworks in his mind.
The feeling was too wonderful to be described with words.
It wasn’t just physical pleasure; it was as if their very souls were meeting, bare and intertwined. They had finally seared a deep brand onto each other.
The joy was like something fermented, magnified countless times, rippling through his heart like a flowing stream.
He loved her!
And that made him want to cherish her even more.
After one round of satisfaction, a sliver of his reason returned. Mindful that Paige Summers had to leave the city tomorrow, he forcefully suppressed the stirring desires in his heart, preparing to let it be for the night.
But someone wasn’t having it!
Paige Summers’s body, having been modified by her superpower, had more than just a little bit of extra endurance.
Although there was some discomfort the first time, it was nowhere near enough to make her fall asleep. Especially after resting for a bit, she decided to press on toward her goal for the night: to physically drain her man dry! And so, Marcus Monroe, who had just managed to calm himself down, was easily reignited by her wandering hands and her body grinding against his...
For the first time, Marcus Monroe felt despair over the self-control he had always been so proud of.
The Flame burned once more!
The double bed trembled ceaselessly, bearing the weight of their overflowing passion...
The night was long.
For Marcus Monroe, at least.
When he had once again satisfied both himself and the woman beneath him, even he felt exhausted.
At a time like this, a person’s guard is naturally lowered.
What’s more, he never would have imagined that Paige Summers would do something to him.
But she did it anyway.
Using the last of her strength, she silently sprinkled a handful of sleeping powder onto his pillow. Watching him quickly fall into a deep sleep, Paige Summers finally relaxed and snuggled up beside him to rest.
She managed to sleep for a little while, but just as dawn was about to break, she used a stamina-recovering medicine to get up briskly.
After getting herself ready, she quietly returned to the bedside and gazed at the man for a moment. She took the box containing the last Earth Immortal Fruit from her space and tucked it under his pillow. Only then did she grit her teeth, turn around, and leave.
Although she never said it out loud, she actually hated scenes of parting.
She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to bear it.
’So, this is for the best.’
This way, she could leave decisively, without a trace of weakness.
