Divine Milking System

Chapter 294: 294 | Room For Dessert

I carried Addison up the narrow staircase, her body warm and loose against my chest. She weighed less than I expected, all that attitude concentrated into a surprisingly compact package. Her head rested against my shoulder, purple hair tickling my neck, and she mumbled something unintelligible that might have been my name or a threat. With Addison, both options carried equal probability.

The guest room sat exactly where Aurora promised, second door on the left. I nudged it open with my shoulder and found a space that screamed Aurora’s aesthetic sensibilities. White bedding with actual thread count, not the synthetic garbage they issued in the dorms. A real wooden nightstand instead of pressed particle board. Windows that faced the ocean instead of the parking lot. Even the guest accommodations in this place put my apartment to shame.

I lowered Addison onto the mattress with the care of someone handling unexploded ordnance. Her body sank into bedding that probably cost more than my monthly point allowance, and for a moment she looked peaceful in a way that had nothing to do with exhaustion. No scowl. No defensive posture. No lollipop clenched between her teeth like a weapon. Just a girl who’d finally let someone past all the razor wire she wrapped around herself.

The moment her body hit the sheets, she rolled toward the center of the bed and grabbed the nearest pillow, hugging it against her chest with both arms. Her legs curled up beneath her, and she made a soft sound that belonged in a nature documentary about sleeping kittens.

Shit. She was cute when she wasn’t conscious enough to threaten me with agricultural equipment.

I pulled the blanket over her shoulders, noting the way her breathing had settled into the deep rhythm of someone who felt safe enough to actually rest. The marks I’d left on her neck stood out like signatures against her pale skin. Tomorrow she’d wake up sore, probably covered in bruises that would make her smile every time she caught sight of them in a mirror.

I moved toward the door, trying to avoid the floorboards that looked like they might creak. Three steps from escape, Addison’s voice stopped me.

"Don’t go anywhere stupid." Her words slurred with sleep, but the threat came through crystal clear.

"Define stupid."

"Anywhere that isn’t here."

"I’ll be back."

"You better be. I know where you live."

"Yeah, but do you know where I train?"

A pillow sailed past my head and thumped against the door frame. Her aim remained impressive even while ninety percent unconscious.

I slipped out and closed the door behind me, leaving her to whatever dreams featured dual scythes and extensive profanity. The hallway stretched before me, hardwood floors that belonged in magazines instead of student housing. Aurora’s room sat across the hall, light spilling from beneath her door in a golden rectangle.

Time to face whatever elaborate game Aurora had designed for the evening’s final act. I stopped outside her door, debating whether knocking or walking past qualified as the smarter tactical decision.

"You heading home?" Her voice came through the wood before I could choose. The question sounded casual, the way avalanches probably sound casual right before they bury entire villages. She already knew where I was going. She was asking for reasons that had nothing to do with actual curiosity about my travel plans.

"Yeah. Need to grab my training gear for tomorrow. Vale’s strict about a lot of things, but he draws the line at students showing up naked to morning conditioning."

Silence stretched for three heartbeats. Four. Five.

Then: "Really?"

The single syllable carried more meaning than most conversations managed in twenty minutes. Aurora’s really lived in the dangerous territory between innocent question and active proposition.

The single word carried more weight than most people packed into entire paragraphs. Aurora’s really lived in the space between question and invitation, between casual inquiry and active proposition. The kind of really that made smart men reconsider their travel plans.

The door opened before I could respond.

Aurora stood in the frame wearing a nightgown that belonged in a museum exhibit about things designed to destroy male decision-making capacity. Pale green silk that matched her eyes, thin straps that barely held the fabric against her shoulders, a neckline that suggested rather than revealed. The material fell to mid-thigh in a way that made walking look like performance art.

Her orange hair tumbled loose around her shoulders, and she’d washed off whatever makeup she’d worn earlier. Without the careful construction of her usual appearance, she looked younger, softer, more like someone who might actually need protection instead of someone who considered protection an amusing concept she’d outgrown.

"Are you too full to drink from me tonight?"

The question hit my nervous system like a dart loaded with concentrated want. Direct. Honest. No games or elaborate setup or plausible deniability. Just Aurora Fitzgerald standing in her doorway at midnight asking if I had room for dessert.

My throat went dry. The part of my brain that tracked System notifications and point optimization started running calculations about milk quality and extraction efficiency. Silver-tier target, first-time bonus, potential fifty points per cup instead of the usual twenty-five. Four complete extractions would net me enough lifespan to stop worrying about the monthly countdown for a week.

The other part of my brain, the part that had spent forty-five minutes learning exactly how Addison sounded when she forgot to maintain her armor, reminded me that Aurora had just orchestrated the entire evening. She’d positioned me and Addison like chess pieces, maneuvered us through conversations and game nights and carefully timed absences until we collided in exactly the way she’d planned.

And now she was offering herself as the final course. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"You’re insatiable," I said.

"I’m efficient. There’s a difference."

"Efficient at what?"

"Making sure everyone gets what they need." She stepped aside, creating space for me to enter. "Addison needed someone who wouldn’t be afraid of her. I needed to see what you look like when you stop calculating odds and just react to what’s in front of you."

"And what do you need right now?"

"You."