Chapter 226: Chapter 226: To the Fullest
Chapter 226: To the Fullest
Elias answered Serena by lifting his chin.
A small movement.
Provocation and permission, both sharp enough to cut.
Serena raised one hand slowly and pinched his cheek between her fingers. The skin there was still warm, almost tenderly pink under her touch.
"But you’re too..."
The word almost reached her mouth.
Dirty.
She swallowed it before it could come out.
Elias’s own self-mocking words were still too fresh in the room. Even if she wanted to refuse this invitation, even if she knew the malice hidden inside it, she could not use that word against him.
Serena’s brow twitched.
Elias had already bitten the base of her thumb.
There was no softness in him now. When he used his teeth on her, he did it with real force. His small canines made what could have been a suggestive attack into something far more dangerous. Sharp pain pierced Serena’s skin. Blood rose almost at once.
She did not pull away.
For a while, Serena only looked at him.
Then she lowered her head and kissed his upper lip.
Her mouth was hot enough that Elias released her hand at once, retreating like he had touched a live wire.
Serena smiled gently. "What’s wrong? You were the one who stopped me from leaving. Now you’re the one hiding?"
Elias blinked.
In the dark bedroom, she could only see the movement of his lashes. His eyes were hidden in shadow, unreadable. Still, Serena could feel him watching her.
Like an animal in the dark.
Even if that animal looked delicate enough to bruise under one careless hand, the gaze carried a pressure that made the room feel smaller.
The next second, Elias tightened both arms around her neck and pulled himself up.
He came at her the same way he had bitten her hand, sudden and fierce, almost knocking his mouth against hers.
This time, Serena saw the pain flash through his eyes.
Force worked both ways. If her lip hurt, his did too.
Serena’s brows drew together.
She could not tell whether her mouth hurt more, or her heart.
Since she could not separate the two, she stopped trying.
The person who had taken the initiative pushed forward like someone cutting through thorns. The person who had provoked it kept retreating, again and again, until there was nowhere left to go. The room was only so large. The bed only gave so much space.
Eventually, flight ended.
The bed had taken on the weight of two people earlier. Now that weight lessened piece by piece, fabric slipping away one item at a time, falling quietly into the dark.
When Serena finally held Elias with nothing left between them, a sigh rose from somewhere so deep in her chest that it felt less like relief than surrender.
This was something she would remember even if one day she died, burned, and was buried.
Something the body knew before the mind could insult it.
When everything settled, the room held only breathing.
Even that gradually quieted.
Serena held her breath and looked at the boy in her arms.
Elias’s eyes were closed. He had curled in on himself, small and silent, like a newborn creature that had survived something it did not understand. Only at a moment like this did they fit together so well, as if nothing had happened between them, as if they had never separated, as if the disaster outside this bed had belonged to someone else.
That thought filled Serena’s mind with a pleasure so complete that it covered everything else.
If a person knew the exact day death would arrive, perhaps the only sensible thing left was to enjoy what remained without regret.
Serena lowered her head and kissed Elias’s forehead.
His lashes trembled.
Then his eyes slowly opened.
Serena had been about to breathe.
She held it again.
Regret came immediately.
Had she woken him?
If she had done nothing, if she had simply watched him in silence, he might have stayed in her arms longer.
She had once thrown away something far greater with her own hands. Now even this small warmth felt precious enough that she wanted to hoard it.
Her thoughts were too visible.
Elias saw them clearly in her eyes.
He smiled faintly. "People are always like this. They don’t treasure what they have. Only after losing it do they start regretting it."
[System Theta: Understood.]
Elias almost laughed. "Good. Explain it to me, then."
[System Theta: ...]
It had only agreed out of habit.
Why was he suddenly testing it?
"I knew you didn’t understand," Elias said. "If you did, would I still call you my little idiot?"
[System Theta: ...]
After teasing the system a little, Elias finally parted his lips and delivered his evaluation of Serena’s hard work.
"Get lost."
Two simple words.
They carried the sneer and humiliation cleanly.
He had been the one to keep Serena from leaving. Now he was also the first to dismiss her.
As if, in that contract between them, he had been the owner all along. As if Serena was the one hired for his use, her entire purpose reduced to satisfying him when he felt like reaching out.
Serena understood exactly what he was doing.
She said nothing.
She only rose in silence and put herself back together, piece by piece. Shirt. Stockings. The ruined elegance of a woman who had entered the room as a jailer and left it looking as if she had been the one used.
Then she stepped toward the door.
Halfway there, a strange thought rose in her mind.
So this was how Elias had felt back then, when she drove him out of the room after using him.
Serena had never imagined she would one day understand that boy from the other side of the door.
She had certainly never imagined it would happen in a way this dramatic.
She wanted to look back at him one last time.
In the end, she did not.
Serena walked out of the room. Only when Elias could no longer see her did a long-lost bitter smile touch her mouth.
Really.
She had done this to herself.
[Serena Blackwood’s favorability has increased. Current value: 83%.]
Elias lay in bed and stared at the notice.
"Fuck."
Not easy.
Not easy at all.
At the staircase, Serena noticed a faint light spilling from the kitchen.
She slowed.
Then she walked down.
In the shadowed corner near the kitchen entrance, Liora leaned against the wall with a wineglass in her hand. The house lights were low, leaving her half hidden, the red wine catching what little light there was as she took a slow sip.
When she saw Serena, Liora visibly froze.
Clearly, she had not expected Serena to appear at this hour.
While she was still surprised, Serena had already walked up to her and taken the glass from her hand.
Liora looked at the empty space between her fingers, then at Serena. Her lips, damp with wine, pressed together faintly.
"I drank from that."
Serena nodded. "Then pour another one."
"For myself?"
"For yourself."
Liora gave her a helpless look, then turned and poured another glass.
When she looked back, Serena had tilted her head and emptied the first one in a single swallow. Her pale throat moved under the kitchen’s dim light. Her dark hair shifted with the motion, and the red wine stained her lips until they matched Liora’s.
"Why are you drinking?"
"Why are you here?"
They asked at the same time.
Serena lifted her eyes.
Liora sighed and answered first. "Because I wanted a drink. Is that allowed?"
Serena’s voice stayed flat. "Every time you drink, it’s because something is bothering you. What is it?"
Liora fell silent.
Serena’s brows drew together more and more as the seconds passed.
Finally, Liora’s smile cracked.
Her voice came out low, irritated, and far less elegant than usual.
"Because the two of you were making so much fucking noise that I couldn’t sleep."
Serena’s expression stiffened at once.
Comments