The Seductive Pretty Boy of the Matriarchal World-Chapter 88: What a Coincidence
Chapter 88: What a Coincidence
"Hm?"
Freshly showered and dressed in clean clothes, Elias sat cross-legged on his bed and stared at the latest favorability update for Yvonne Quinn as if it might explain itself if he looked long enough. ππ£πππ°πππ§πΌπππ.π°π¨π¦
What exactly had happened?
All he had done was send a message through her assistant, asking whether she was free and whether she wanted to grab a meal with him. That was it. He had not cornered her, had not performed, had not even gotten in front of her face. Yet her favorability had gone up anyway.
Could it really be that no one had ever invited her out like that before? Was he the first person to ask Yvonne Quinn to dinner, and had that alone been enough to move her?
His instincts as a top-tier employee told him the truth was probably not that simple. Women like her rarely gave away increases for no reason. Even kindness usually came with structure underneath it, especially in this rotten world.
Still, Elias was not the sort to argue with free progress.
Five percent was five percent.
By noon he was in the campus cafeteria with a tray in front of him, eating under the usual haze of fluorescent light and low student chatter, when a message from Liora appeared on his phone.
Liora: So this meal is worth paying for yourself?
Elias glanced at it once and understood immediately.
Lila Morgan had reported what he was doing.
That did not irritate him in the slightest. On the contrary, it made him smile. He lowered his head, thumbs moving lazily across the screen.
Elias: Because big sis tipped me, obviously. Thanks for the tip, sis. Love you~
The message looked spoiled, coy, and faintly nauseating on purpose. In fairness, it was spoiled, coy, and faintly nauseating. At least he had enough self-respect not to send it as a voice note.
Across town, Liora looked at the message and felt a small shiver run through her.
She did not need audio. Her mind supplied Eliasβs voice for her with no effort at all, every sticky syllable, every deliberate note of sweetness, every false softness laid on thick enough to leave fingerprints.
He was annoyed.
Not truly angry, not wounded, not even particularly bothered, but annoyed enough to make it known. He might not care much about being photographed, but anyone would resent being trailed while trying to eat lunch in peace. Elias was airing his dissatisfaction in the most cloying way he could manage.
Liora laughed softly to herself.
Then she typed back.
Liora: My fault. To make it up to you, Iβll show you something.
Elias barely reacted at first. He had seen plenty in his life, more than enough to wear novelty thin. Outside of money, very few things could produce real surprise in him anymore. Most of his excitement, amusement, delight, all of it was performance for women who liked being made to feel interesting.
Then the image came through.
He looked down at it, and his eyes widened.
The photo showed a black leather seat. On the dark surface were faint wet traces, irregular and still glossy, with a few streaks of cloudy white caught in the light. Whoever had taken the picture knew exactly what they were doing. The composition was almost tasteful, which only made it filthier. The lines of moisture spread like petals, like rainwater dragged thin across polished stone, subtle enough to suggest more than they showed.
"Damn," Elias muttered under his breath.
The picture got him more worked up than he expected. He did not know whether Liora had ever studied photography, but even this, even something like this, had been framed with a kind of aesthetic instinct that made it worse in the best possible way.
He immediately turned his head and checked his surroundings to make sure no one nearby was looking over his shoulder. Only then did he type a reply.
Elias: Did it smell good?
Liora had been taking a sip of water when the message arrived.
She nearly choked.
A thin spray escaped her lips before she managed to set the glass down, and for a moment her expression twisted between a smile and something darker. Heat rolled up through her chest, sharp enough to feel dangerous. The fuse had already been lit. Once that happened, it was never as easy to put out as people liked to pretend.
So she let it burn.
Liora: It faded. I didnβt get to smell anything.
Elias read that and smiled.
Elias: Then next time Iβll let you smell it fresh.
[Liora Voss favorability increased. Current favorability: 50%.]
He almost laughed.
That was it?
Please.
He locked the screen and tossed the phone aside with total composure. Trading filth over text was just flirting, nothing more. Liora still had a lot to learn if she thought she could keep up with him on that front.
Elias understood something very simple about seduction. The real goal was never to satisfy the other person. The point was to light the fire and leave before anyone got warm. He ended the conversation there without warning, abandoning her to simmer in it alone.
Then he finished the last bite of his lunch, stood up, and carried his tray across the cafeteria.
At a corner table, Lila Morgan was trying her absolute best to disappear.
Her head was bowed so low it looked as if she wanted to merge with the tabletop. From a distance she might have passed for a student studying too hard to notice the world. Up close, the effort was obvious enough to be embarrassing.
Elias stopped at her table and tapped the surface twice with his knuckles.
Lila raised her head with visible reluctance. "How did you spot me?"
She sounded genuinely baffled.
In her own mind, she had done an excellent job blending in. A professor had even greeted her earlier, and she had gotten back a warm, "Youβre such a polite student."
Elias pulled out the chair across from her and sat down as if the table belonged to him. Resting his chin in both hands, he smiled at her with infuriating ease.
"At this hour, everyone eating here is supposed to be a student," he said. "But no actual student carries themselves with that much forced maturity."
Lila fell silent.
The hit landed cleanly.
Warmth rushed straight into her face, not from shyness but from humiliation. She wanted to argue, wanted to snap at him, wanted to tell him to mind his own business, but that instinct died before it reached her mouth. Faced with Elias, she never seemed to keep hold of her temper for long. It got smothered by something heavier.
So all she managed was a low, reluctant, "What do you want?"
Elias did not bother dressing it up.
"Youβre good at tailing people, right? Watching them, taking photos, collecting dirt. Go to Longhaven Hospital and keep an eye on Yvonne Quinn. The second she gets off work, call me."
The order landed hard.
Lila opened her mouth. "I..."
Elias made a soft sound, not quite a question and not quite a warning, and his eyes turned cold behind his glasses.
That was enough.
Every word of refusal she had been about to say died in her throat.
She did not have a choice.
Even the person paying her listened to Elias. In a situation like that, what power did she have to refuse him?
"Okay," she said at last, voice flat with reluctance.
The change in his expression was immediate.
His face softened again. The chill disappeared. The smile returned, warm and easy and false in exactly the way that made it most dangerous.
He leaned forward slightly, watching her.
"You do this for a living," he said. "You take money and do jobs. So why are you resisting now, when Iβm only asking you to do the exact kind of work you already get paid for?"
Lila looked up at him.
He held her gaze beneath those lenses, and she could see the eyes behind them clearly enough to remember what she had seen before. She had seen his full face without the disguise of glare and frames. Anyone would remember a face like that. Too beautiful, too cleanly arranged, the sort of face that made people go soft before they realized it.
Most people, if a pretty boy like that looked at them, would feel shy.
Or pleased.
Or flattered.
Lila felt none of those things.
All she felt was fear.
Because Elias was right.
She was not resisting the task. She was resisting him.
Maybe because he had played with her heart just enough to wake it up, only to drop it under his shoe the moment it mattered. Maybe because he understood that, and she knew he understood it.
He smiled at her, brows curving gently, voice almost tender.
"Donβt fall for me."
The bluntness of it hit harder than if he had slapped her.
He kept smiling.
"Youβll end up miserable."
Then, as if he had not just shoved a knife into the middle of the conversation, he rose from his seat with bright, effortless cheer.
"Anyway, go keep an eye on Yvonne Quinn. If you do a good job, Iβll take you out for crab tonight."
He reached down and patted her on the head before she could react, fingers ruffling her hair with insulting familiarity, then turned and walked out of the cafeteria.
Lila stayed seated.
She stared after his retreating back, then slowly raised a hand and touched the messy spot on top of her head where he had mussed her hair.
For one humiliating second, a ridiculous thought came to her.
Had she just looked like a house dog getting patted after being told to guard the yard?
By the afternoon, Lilaβs message finally arrived.
Lila Morgan: In the elevator.
Elias was already near Longhaven Hospital by then. He had positioned himself in advance, waiting close enough to move the instant he got what he needed. The moment the message came through, he headed for the elevator bank and pressed the button just as the car descended.
The doors slid open.
Yvonne Quinn stood inside in perfect silence, one hand resting lightly at her side, her expression composed and distant in the cold white lighting. Then a bright, delighted voice broke across the moment.
"Dr. Quinn!"
Something in her chest jumped before she could stop it.
She lifted her eyes and found Elias standing there, smiling at her with all the heedless vitality she remembered too well. He looked fresh, bright, alive in a way that seemed almost wasteful.
"Oh, right," Elias said, tapping his own forehead as if he had just remembered something important. "I forgot I earned the privilege to call you by name."
He stuck out his tongue with shameless playfulness.
"Yvonne, fancy meeting you here?"
A faint smile rose to her lips on instinct, softening her features in a way that almost no one ever got to see.
"Yes," she said gently. "What a coincidence."
For a brief instant, she wondered whether it really was one. Whether he had been waiting for her here the whole time.
Then she dismissed the suspicion.
Several of her colleagues had left more than ten minutes before she did. She had seen Elias before. If he had been standing outside the hospital for any length of time, someone would have recognized him and mentioned it. Since no one had, it must truly be chance.
A coincidence, then.
"Are you here to see your father again?"
"Yeah." Elias nodded hard, all restless, overflowing body language and useless motion, as though he had more energy in him than he knew how to contain and needed to burn it off in constant movement.
Then something seemed to occur to him.
He looked at her and asked, with open, almost aggrieved curiosity, "Yvonne, I messaged you earlier. Why didnβt you answer me?"
