Free Web NovelChapter 133: 133 | The Queen in Repose
Jordan pushed himself off the floor and crossed to the door while Chloe and Kumiko remained frozen behind him. His hand closed around the handle, and he pulled it open. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Alexis stood in the hallway wearing what she probably considered casual loungewear but looked like it belonged in a beachwear catalog spread. A cropped white tank top that stopped just below her ribs, showing off her flat stomach and the diamond navel piercing that caught the hallway lights. High-waisted cream linen pants that hugged her hips before flowing loose down her long legs, the fabric so fine it probably cost more than most people’s monthly grocery budget. White slides on her feet, toenails painted the same shade of red as her fingernails. Her blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail that swayed when she moved, not a strand out of place despite the early hour. She wore zero makeup but somehow still looked like she’d just stepped out of a photoshoot for expensive skincare products.
"Why the hell are you here?" Her voice came out sharp, cutting through the morning air. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Jordan stepped aside without answering, letting the question hang between them for a moment. "Why wouldn’t I be at my girlfriend’s house?"
"Tuh." The sound escaped her mouth before she could stop it, a small crack in her polished facade. Her blue eyes snapped up to his face, then immediately away, scanning the hallway like she was looking for an escape route or maybe checking if any neighbors were witnessing this conversation.
Pink crept up her neck, starting at her collarbones and working its way toward her jawline. The blush looked almost foreign on someone who usually maintained such perfect control over her expressions.
"Coming in or standing there all day?" Jordan moved aside further, giving her space to enter while maintaining eye contact. He wasn’t backing down this time.
Alexis seemed to physically compose herself, drawing on whatever training her parents had drilled into her about maintaining appearances. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, transforming back into the imperious queen of Pacific Crest Academy. Then she walked past him into the apartment, deliberately turning her body so her breasts slid across his chest as she squeezed through the doorway.
The contact lasted maybe a second, but Jordan felt it all the way down to his stomach. The soft pressure of her body against his, the hint of expensive perfume that probably cost more per ounce than most people made in a day. His enhanced senses picked up everything - the warmth of her skin through the thin fabric, the way her breathing shifted slightly as they touched.
Jordan registered the heat of her touch where their bodies had made contact, his new awareness catching details the old version of him would have missed entirely. The brief friction of expensive fabric against his chest, the subtle shift of her weight as she passed, the way her perfume clung to the air in her wake. Every enhanced sense fed him information he didn’t particularly want right now.
Yeah. That was completely on purpose.
"Kumiko!" The transformation in Alexis’s voice could have given someone whiplash. All that cold calculation melted into something warm and bright as soon as she spotted the other girl surrounded by computer components on the living room floor. Her entire demeanor changed, shoulders relaxing, smile becoming genuine instead of that sharp, calculated thing she’d worn a second ago.
"We’re building Chloe a computer!" Kumiko bounced slightly where she sat, sweeping her hand across the array of parts scattered around her like she was presenting buried treasure. Her whole face radiated pure joy, the kind of unfiltered excitement that came from getting to share something she actually cared about with people who were listening. "Jordan-kun has been helping! He’s very good with his hands!"
The apartment went completely still.
No one moved. No one breathed. Even the sounds from the street below seemed to cut off mid-noise, leaving nothing but the quiet hum of electronics and the blood rushing in Jordan’s ears.
Chloe’s face stayed locked in that same careful mask she’d been wearing all morning, but her grip on the coffee mug told a different story. Her knuckles had gone completely white, fingers digging into the ceramic hard enough that Jordan half expected to hear something crack. Her jaw flexed once, twice, like she was physically biting down on words trying to escape her mouth.
Kumiko’s face immediately went crimson as she realized what she’d said, the blush spreading from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears. "I meant. For computer assembly! Technical installation! Nothing else! Just components and proper handling and—"
"We get it, Kumi." Chloe’s voice was flat, cutting off the rambling explanation with surgical precision.
Alexis looked between the three of them with growing interest, like a predator who’d just caught the scent of wounded prey. Her gaze lingered on Jordan’s chest for just a moment, taking in the way his shirt stretched across his shoulders, before traveling to Chloe in her oversized shirt and messy bun, then to Kumiko surrounded by cables and blushing like someone had caught her doing something deeply incriminating.
"This seems cozy," Alexis said, her tone suggesting the exact opposite. The word ’cozy’ came out like she was describing something distasteful she’d found on the bottom of her expensive shoes.
She crossed the living room and lowered herself onto the sectional with the kind of fluid grace that came from years of etiquette training and dance lessons. Her legs crossed at the ankle, her posture perfect despite the casual clothing, her expression shifting into something between bored socialite and calculating strategist. Every movement was deliberate, designed to command attention and establish dominance in the space.
"So what brings you by?" Chloe asked, her voice maintaining that careful neutrality while her eyes tracked Alexis’s every move. "Kind of early for a social call."
"I went to a party last night." Alexis’s nose wrinkled with visible distaste, like she was remembering something that had personally offended her. "My parents were hosting. Some networking event at the yacht club for the family business. Very stuffy. Very formal. Completely unbearable."
"Sounds terrible," Kumiko said sympathetically, still organizing cables but listening intently. Her natural empathy kicked in even when she was clearly still mortified about her earlier comment.
"It was worse than terrible." Alexis’s fingers drummed against her thigh, her perfectly manicured nails creating a soft tapping rhythm that somehow managed to sound irritated.
"My parents spent the entire evening parading me around like livestock at an auction. ’This is our daughter Alexis, she’s a freshman at Pacific Crest, very bright, very accomplished.’"
