Free Web NovelChapter 51: Chapter 51: They Kissed! They Finally Kissed
Chapter 51: The Kiss! They Finally Kissed!
Ethan Hawthorne hung up without even waiting for Erza Sinclair to reply. His actions were swift and decisive, carrying the distinct dominance of a man in power.
Maxine Rhodes was stunned as she listened nearby. "Mr. Hawthorne, you..." she started to say, the words slipping out.
Ethan Hawthorne put his phone away. As he turned back to her, the coldness in his eyes had quietly melted. "It was too noisy. It was ruining the mood."
He looked at her and added with pointed meaning, "For the rest of our time here, I don’t want to be disturbed by anyone irrelevant."
The possessiveness in his words was barely concealed.
Maxine Rhodes’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at the man before her. He could use the most childish of methods to stand up for her, but he could also wield his power to grant her peace and quiet.
The impact of this extreme contrast left her at a loss for how to respond.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Sterling, who had just been helped to his feet by Rose Joyce and was dusting himself off, heard his phone ring.
His eyes lit up when he saw the call was from Erza Sinclair, Ethan Hawthorne’s special assistant. He answered immediately, his tone both respectful and eager. "Special Assistant Sinclair! You were looking for me?"
"What? The Hawthorne Group has a project to discuss with me? Right now? Yes, yes! I’ll head back to Kingsland right away!"
"Thank you, Special Assistant Sinclair! Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne, for giving me this opportunity!"
After hanging up, the pain and humiliation on Benjamin Sterling’s face were instantly replaced by ecstasy. Ethan Hawthorne was already gone, but Benjamin was sure of it now. ’All that from before must have been a test! This is the real deal! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!’
The setting sun painted the sky a warm shade of orange-red. The daytime bustle slowly faded, and soft instrumental music from the campus speakers drifted on the evening breeze, which carried the fresh scent of grass and trees.
Ethan Hawthorne took out his phone and sent a text. A short while later, a middle-aged man in plainclothes respectfully delivered two clean paper bags.
"What’s this?" Maxine Rhodes asked, puzzled. Ethan Hawthorne handed one of the bags to her, the warm light of the sunset reflecting in his eyes. "School uniforms. Don’t you want to experience it again?"
Maxine Rhodes froze for a second, then took the bag. "I do!"
Ten minutes later, when they met again in the deepening twilight, the air seemed to stand still for a moment.
Ethan Hawthorne had shed the sharp aura of a business tycoon. The blue and white school uniform jacket lent him a lean, clean-cut quality unique to a teenager, as if he were an upperclassman who had just looked up from a mountain of homework.
As for Maxine Rhodes, she had tied her hair back in a neat ponytail. The school uniform accentuated the graceful line of her neck, and the evening breeze rustled the ends of her hair and the hem of her jacket.
"Let’s go, Hawthorne."
Maxine Rhodes’s face grew warm under his gaze, so she spoke in a deliberately light tone.
She turned to leave first, but her heart picked up speed against her will.
They walked side by side down a tree-lined path, their shadows stretching long in the setting sun. The sound of their footsteps intertwined with the distant, indistinct sound of a basketball being dribbled.
"Thinking about it now, back then I was just..."
Maxine Rhodes gazed at the figures running on the basketball court and gave a self-deprecating laugh. "...I had such terrible taste."
Ethan Hawthorne turned his head to look at her, the golden rays of the setting sun swirling in his deep eyes. "All that matters is that your taste is better now."
His gaze was so intense that Maxine Rhodes felt her cheeks flush. She quickly looked away toward the crimson-stained horizon and asked with feigned nonchalance, "What about you? Did you like anyone when you were a student, Hawthorne?"
"Yes," he answered without the slightest hesitation, his gaze still fixed on her profile. "I always have."
Maxine Rhodes’s heart felt a soft pang. A thread of indescribable disappointment crept up like a vine, wrapping itself around her heart.
’I almost forgot. The girl from that photo, his unforgettable love, wore a uniform just like this one.’ free𝑤ebnovel.com
"So... did you tell her?" she heard herself ask, her voice so soft it nearly dissolved into the wind, carrying a tremor she could barely detect.
Ethan Hawthorne slowly shook his head, his gaze drifting to a distant, empty bench shrouded in tree shadows. His voice carried a wistful melancholy. "No."
He paused, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he seemed to recall a distant, humbler version of himself.
"Back then, she was like the glow of the evening sun—so beautiful you didn’t dare get close. And I..."
He let out a soft, bitter laugh that dissolved into the evening breeze. "...I was just a shadow in the corner, feeling like even stealing a glance was overstepping my bounds."
Maxine Rhodes’s heart clenched painfully, and a sharp, real ache spread through her.
She couldn’t imagine that this seemingly omnipotent man beside her, a man who stood on a pedestal, had once been so humbled by a secret crush.
She even felt a twinge of jealousy for this unknown girl, whom he had cherished so carefully in his heart for ten years, like a ray of light that was beautiful but untouchable.
She suddenly lost the courage to press further, afraid that if she heard any more details, the ache in her heart would spill over.
"Let’s go," she said, taking a deep breath to suppress the strange feeling in her chest. "Let’s go find our old classroom."
Ethan Hawthorne nodded. "Alright."
The setting sun merged their shadows, stretching them out long, long.
She didn’t know that the girl he described as being like the evening glow was walking right beside him. And he didn’t know that the strange fluttering and aching in her heart were all because of him.
Ethan Hawthorne led Maxine Rhodes to the academic building where they used to have classes, but they found the main entrance locked tight.
"I guess we can’t get in," Maxine Rhodes said, her voice laced with disappointment as she looked at the locked glass doors.
Ethan Hawthorne glanced up at a window on the second floor that was slightly ajar. It was a secret entrance he’d known about since he was a student.
"Not necessarily." A boyish, rebellious smile played on his lips as he pointed to the window. "Dare you?"
Seeing the rare, eager glint in his eyes, Maxine Rhodes felt a thrill of adventure. "You’re on!"
Ethan Hawthorne smoothly slipped off his uniform jacket and handed it to her, leaving him in a simple white T-shirt.
He took a few steps back for a running start and agilely grabbed onto a first-floor windowsill. With a kick of his long legs, he hoisted himself up, his movements so nimble he looked nothing like a pampered CEO.
Just as his fingers were about to reach the second-floor windowsill—
"Hey, you two! What do you think you’re doing?!" A powerful beam from a flashlight swept toward them as a security guard’s resonant shout shattered the evening’s peace.
Ethan Hawthorne instantly let go and dropped down, landing steadily on his feet.
He snatched his jacket from Maxine Rhodes’s hands, grabbed her by the wrist, and said in a rushed but reassuring voice, "Run!"
Maxine Rhodes’s mind went blank as she let him pull her into a mad dash across the twilight-shrouded campus.
The wind whistled past her ears, her ponytail flying behind her. She could feel the burning heat of his palm, and her heart hammered against her ribs. She couldn’t tell if it was from the exhilarating run or from their sudden hand-holding, which felt akin to an elopement.
He led her through a winding path, nimbly pulling her into an extremely narrow gap between two academic buildings. The space was suddenly cramped and dark.
Ethan Hawthorne shielded her protectively, his back to the outside to block any sweeping beams of light. They were pressed incredibly close, so close that Maxine Rhodes could feel the rise and fall of his chest and his own racing heartbeat through his thin T-shirt, each thud pounding in her ears.
The security guard’s footsteps and flashlight beam swept back and forth not far away.
"Where’d they go? I swear I saw them run this way..."
"Probably climbed the wall and got out. Ah, forget it..."
The footsteps gradually faded away.
The world fell silent again, but the charged atmosphere in the confined space was like rising steam, thick and palpable in the air.
With the danger past, her frayed nerves finally relaxed. Maxine Rhodes subconsciously started to turn and check, whispering, "I think they’re g—"
But in the instant she turned and lifted her head—
At that very same moment, Ethan Hawthorne leaned down slightly to hear what she was saying, and—dead on, with unerring precision—his lips crashed into hers!
!!!*****
