Chapter 120: A Lesson on Hold

Something flickered in Elias’s eyes.

So that "sister" line, who had Liora actually meant? Serena, or herself?

[Hold on. Shouldn’t the real point be that she said she was going to teach you a lesson? That was a threat. An actual threat.]

Giselle’s voice cut through the tension, cold enough to frost glass. "Who exactly are you threatening?"

At that, the smile on Liora’s face finally thinned. The warmth in it never vanished completely, but a strip of real chill showed through. "What happens inside the Blackwood family is not for outsiders to comment on."

She let the words settle before she continued, her tone still even. "And after you’ve had your moment, who do you think pays for it in the end?"

Right on cue, Elias gave a small shiver.

Giselle’s gaze darkened.

She hated admitting it, but Liora was right.

She could keep Elias beside her tonight if she chose. She could pull him behind her, shut a door, ignore every call, and make a show of standing between him and Serena Blackwood. None of that would change what happened afterward. One night could be stolen. A lifetime could not. Eventually Elias would go back, and when he did, Serena might be even crueler because of tonight.

Giselle knew that type of woman too well.

She had grown up with one.

Her mother and Serena were not identical, but the overlap was ugly enough to curdle the blood. The same certainty that everything under their shadow belonged to them. The same instinct to tighten their grip the instant something slipped. The same polished cruelty that never needed to raise its voice.

It was hard not to hate people like that on sight.

Under Liora’s cool stare, Giselle slowly loosened her hold.

The second her fingers fell away, Liora reached over and dragged Elias to her side. He stumbled across the polished floor, nearly lost his balance, and only managed to steady himself when he hit her shoulder.

A sharp edge flashed through Giselle’s eyes. "If either of you hurts him..."

Liora answered with nothing more than a glance. It barely lasted a second, but it carried both mockery and disdain, as if Giselle had mistaken herself for someone with the right to make demands. Then she turned and led Elias away.

That was when Elias lifted his head.

There was no trace of panic on his face, no shaky relief at being "taken back," no helpless unease. The only thing there was the slight upward pull at the corner of his mouth. The contempt in it was so clear it made Liora’s own look seem restrained.

He gave a light laugh, and his voice came out lazy with disappointment. "This is so boring."

As if the sincerity of a rich girl had come far too easily to him, and the whole thing had offered no challenge at all.

For one brief instant, heat shot through Liora hard enough to surprise her. She wanted to turn around right there, in front of Giselle, and strip the mask off him piece by piece. Let Giselle see exactly what kind of man she had tried to protect.

The impulse flashed through her and disappeared just as quickly.

Liora turned her head slightly, not enough to fully face Giselle. "No one is going to hurt him."

And no one here was really capable of it.

The group had arrived like a storm and left with all the same force, heels striking marble, bodyguards moving in clean formation, the air around them still tight with the violence that had almost happened. Only after they were gone did the pressure inside the hotel finally break.

Somewhere near the front desk, a guest let out a shaky breath. "Jesus, I thought we were being robbed."

The woman beside her looked as if she wanted to say something and thought better of it. If anything, stealing a person felt worse.

Outside, the night air was damp and cool against the skin. Liora took out her phone the moment they stepped onto the curb and called Serena.

"We found him," she said. "I’m bringing him back now."

Elias stood close enough to hear her side of the call, though Serena’s voice on the other end was too faint to make out. That was probably for the best. He doubted Serena was sounding especially calm.

Liora ended the call, opened the passenger door, and looked at him. "Get in."

Elias did not move. "I’m hungry. Let’s get food before we go back."

He said it with such easy normalcy that it almost sounded as if the last half hour had been nothing more than the awkward end of a date. As if he and Liora had simply stepped out of some late-night place together, and he was now making a small, selfish request before the drive home.

Liora looked at him for a moment.

Then she said, "Fine. Get in first. I’ll drive."

That answer caught him off guard.

The surprise only lasted a beat before it warmed into visible pleasure. Elias opened the passenger door and slid into the seat, but before he could pull it shut, a full, soft weight crowded in after him.

His eyes widened. "What are you doing, mmph."

He never got the rest out.

Liora caught his chin in one hand and squeezed hard enough to force his face up. The unfinished words died in his throat.

The move was so similar to Serena’s that Elias almost wanted to laugh. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Sisters really did learn from the same playbook.

Liora drove him backward across the center console, pressing him down at an angle that forced his waist against the gearshift. His back bent into a tight arc under the pressure, all that unnatural softness and flexibility folding under her hands as he looked up at her through the lenses of her glasses. Their bodies were nearly flush. The distance between their faces shrank until even breathing started to feel shared, and their noses hovered close enough that the space between them felt more intimate than contact.

The position seemed to genuinely discomfort him. His brows drew tight. His lips parted as he breathed through it, and when he spoke, his voice sounded unsteady in a way Liora had never heard from him before.

"It hurts," he whispered. "Let me up."

She ignored him.

Instead, she pressed him lower, as if she meant to find the exact point where his body would stop giving and start breaking.

Then his expression changed.

The strain disappeared so quickly it was almost insulting.

A smile touched his mouth, small and soft and sly all at once. "Are you really that mad?"

Liora stilled.

Behind the clear lenses, she looked straight into his eyes and found the answer there. The pained look from a second ago had been an act, nothing more. She had known he was good at it. Knowing and watching were different things.

Elias shifted with smooth, effortless precision, slipping out of the angle she had pinned him in. He avoided the gearshift with an easy twist of his hips, then reclined across the driver’s seat as if the space had been made for him. His lips were still slightly parted when he tipped his face up toward her.

His voice dropped to a hush. "Don’t be angry. If you really are, then go ahead."

He held her gaze.

"Punish me."

Liora had noticed the dyed hair earlier, but not like this. Under the low light in the car, the dark strands looked softer than they had under the hotel lights, almost too soft, falling against his forehead and temple in a way that made him look younger and far more obedient than he was. Stretched out beneath her, he looked like an invitation dressed up as compliance.

It was the kind of sight that could drag desire out of almost any woman.

Including her.

The realization brought her no real surprise.

People who thought they understood the water were often the ones it swallowed. People who liked to toy with fire did not usually stay unburned.

She had seen this coming.

That did not mean anything essential in her had changed. It did not mean Elias had remade her into someone else. He was simply the only exception that had ever managed to force his way into a space she had never intended to leave open.

At that moment, temptation felt less like desire and more like a hand at her back, urging her forward, inviting her to step somewhere she would not be able to pretend was harmless once she crossed the line.

Liora closed her eyes for a second.

Then she straightened and stepped back out of the car.

The surprise on Elias’s face this time was real.

"You just said you were going to teach me a lesson."

Liora stood outside the open door and let the night air cool her skin before answering. "Serena will handle that."

She had always understood her role. A person in the audience could admire a performance, even lose herself in it for an evening, but there still had to be a point where she got up and walked out of the theater. However much she liked the show, she was not supposed to stay in her seat and start living inside it.

This had already gone too far.

So she stepped away from the stage without looking back.

Only after the car door shut did Elias slowly sit up. By the time Liora circled around and got behind the wheel, his mouth had already curved again, the moment of surprise gone.

"I really thought you were going to punish me properly," he said, with a faint pout that did not hide his amusement in the least. "What a letdown."

Liora started the car without answering. The engine came alive under her hands, smooth and expensive and quiet. She looked straight ahead, giving him nothing.

Elias had never had much trouble dealing with silence.

He slipped off his shoes, then stretched out and laid his white-socked feet directly across her lap as if her body were part of the interior design.

Liora finally turned to look at him.

He only smiled wider.

Hands folded behind his head, he leaned back into the seat as if he owned the night, his long legs crossed carelessly over her thighs, his expression bright with deliberate provocation. He looked at her the way a bored cat might look at a locked door, not because it wanted out, but because it wanted to see whether the door would hold.

His lips parted, and his voice came out light and soft.

"Still angry?"

He tilted his head.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

His gaze stayed fixed on her, playful and shameless and far too calm.

"Keep swallowing it, or pin me down in this car and work it out of your system?"