Free Web NovelChapter 203: Chapter 203: Like
Chapter 203: Like
Giselle had thrown Elias’s hand away too fast.
She realized it a heartbeat too late.
Without his arm braced against the couch, Elias lost the only thing holding him up. His eyes widened, his body dropped, and he fell straight toward her.
The impact landed with a muffled thud.
It was not loud, but in the dark apartment, the sound felt indecently clear. His chest struck hers. His weight pressed down before either of them could stop it.
Worse, because of the difference in their height, his mouth landed right against the side of Giselle’s neck.
Elias froze.
Giselle froze with him.
A breath passed.
Then the sudden closeness seemed to frighten him worse than the fall itself. Elias jolted, scrambling to push himself up, all long lashes and panic and trembling hands. He tried to get off her at once.
The couch was too narrow.
Giselle had fallen near the edge. There was nowhere for him to plant his hand except farther inward, and in his panic, his palm came down exactly where he had been rubbing medicine earlier.
On her bruised abdomen.
Giselle let out a low, clear sound through her teeth. Her hand snapped up and caught his wrist.
"Don’t move."
Elias went still.
His whole body stiffened, the panic in his face growing worse, but he obeyed. He stayed frozen over her, careful to the point of terror. Unfortunately, his mouth was still near her neck.
He was not moving anymore.
But some things could not be stopped.
Breathing, for example.
Elias’s breath came too fast because of the shock. Each warm exhale brushed against Giselle’s neck, again and again, as if the air itself had hands. She had never suffered anything like it. The heat crawled under her skin. It was not pain, but it was no relief either. It struck somewhere too deep to name, turning the simple act of being touched into punishment.
Giselle tipped her chin up, trying to escape the warmth of him without shifting enough to hurt herself.
It did not work.
After several unbearable seconds, she made a decision.
Elias barely had time to make a startled sound before she twisted her body, turned them both, and reversed their positions.
The couch creaked under the sudden movement.
Now Giselle was above him, one knee braced beside his hip, one hand still near his wrist. Elias lay beneath her, eyes wide, lips parted, hair mussed against the cushion. The position lasted only an instant.
Before Elias could react, Giselle was already gone.
She stood with frightening speed, turned away, and put distance between them. The interruption ended as sharply as it had begun.
Elias blinked.
All he caught was a flash of white as Giselle pulled her clothes back into place.
When he slowly turned his head, she had already buttoned what could still be buttoned. Her shirt looked neat again from a distance, though several fastenings were missing from the fight. Her silver hair was less obedient. A few loose strands had fallen along her cheeks, and that small disorder put a crack through her usual composure.
Elias sighed inwardly.
Such a waste.
Still, he had seen enough and touched enough for one round. No need to get greedy. Greed made people sloppy, and sloppy people got eaten.
His gaze lowered toward her abdomen. "Your injury..."
Giselle knew what he wanted to say and shook her head. "I’m fine. You don’t need to worry."
She paused, then added in a colder voice, "If we’re talking injuries, she got it worse."
Elias almost laughed.
Was that bragging?
Fine, fine. The victorious Bestie had returned from battle. Applause all around.
He nodded faintly, but his eyes dimmed. "It’s because of me that you two..."
"Enough." Giselle’s voice sharpened, then eased with effort. "Didn’t I already tell you? No more apologizing."
"I wasn’t apologizing..."
"No blaming yourself either."
Elias opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Seeing him caught like that, Giselle’s lips moved into a rare smile.
She did not smile often, and that made it almost unfair. The faint curve changed her whole face. Her blue eyes lost a little of their distance, like the ocean catching light after a storm. For a moment, she looked younger than her reputation, less like a girl carved out of ice and more like someone who had simply forgotten how to be warm in public.
Then the smile faded into something serious.
"This is not your fault." Giselle looked straight at him. "It’s hers. You did nothing wrong, so you don’t need to carry any of it."
Elias stared at her.
She held out a hand.
In the dim room, the gesture looked almost solemn. Not dramatic. Not elegant. Just her hand extended toward him, palm open, asking him to trust it.
Elias noticed the tiny beads of sweat in her palm.
So she was nervous too.
That almost made him smile for real.
After the briefest hesitation, he reached up and took her hand. His fingers closed around hers as if afraid she might vanish if he did not hold tightly enough. Giselle pulled him into a sitting position.
Elias looked up at her and let a slow, grateful smile appear. freёweɓnovel.com
"Giselle," he whispered, "you’re so good to me."
His eyes shone in the dark like they had caught starlight.
Giselle looked at him, and something inside her settled into place.
She was his light.
That thought arrived with a clarity that made her chest ache.
No matter when. No matter where. No matter what he had been through.
She had to be there.
Only if she stayed beside him, always close enough to reach, could Elias stop being afraid of the dark.
[Giselle Frost’s favorability has increased. Current value: 60%.]
When Giselle went to shower, Elias sat on the couch and let out a long breath.
Finally.
[System Theta: Host?]
That was not easy, Elias said. Giselle finally likes me.
System Theta was genuinely startled.
Even Elias thought Giselle had been hard to handle?
Sweet campus romance has its charms, Elias continued, wiping the last dampness from his lashes, but God, it’s slow. If she were like Yvonne and I could just use my body to bait her from the start, life would be much easier.
[System Theta: ...]
So that was the complaint.
It was not that Giselle was hard. It was that she was taking too long.
Still, System Theta could not understand what counted as "slow" anymore. In its records, the speed at which Elias had turned Giselle from distant ice queen into a girl making vows in the dark was already deeply abnormal.
Not that telling him would help.
When Giselle finished showering, she came out with her silver hair damp and loose over her shoulders. Wet, it looked less untouchable, less like polished moonlight and more like something a person could gather in both hands.
Elias looked at her and found the sight pleasing.
Then Giselle, now properly dressed, said, "I’m leaving."
Elias paused. "You... you’re not..."
He meant to ask if she was not staying with him tonight.
Before the words could leave his mouth, his phone lit up on the table.
[System Theta: Message from Victoria Frost.]
Elias’s eyes sharpened.
He thought for only a second before understanding why Victoria would be contacting him now. The fight tonight had reached her. Of course it had. With Victoria’s methods, she had likely known the moment Giselle left the auditorium. She might even know more than that.
Honestly, with a woman like Victoria Frost, Elias would not be surprised if she had already counted how many times he had been in bed with each of the women circling him.
In that case...
His expression softened into reluctance. He looked at Giselle as if he wanted to keep her there, then forced himself to let go.
"Then be careful on your way back, Giselle."
He did not ask her to stay.
Mother was calling.
The daughter could wait.
[System Theta: That sounds... weird.]
It’s not wrong, Elias replied.
Giselle did not notice anything off. That was the rule with him. People saw what Elias allowed them to see. If he decided to hide something, even Victoria Frost would have to work for it.
The front door closed with a low click.
The moment Giselle was gone, Elias started stripping.
In seconds, his clothes were on the floor and he stood bare in the dim apartment.
[System Theta: W-what are you doing?]
"Showering." Elias headed for the bathroom without shame. "If I’m meeting someone close to a hidden boss, I should take it seriously."
That was not the whole truth.
He had played a little too much with Yvonne in the restroom earlier. No matter how clean the place had been, the thought still bothered him now that the adrenaline had faded. He wanted hot water. Soap. Steam. A reset before walking into Victoria Frost’s line of sight.
When he finished, he stepped out with a towel in hand, rubbing water from his hair.
His phone lit up again on the table.
Another message from Victoria.
This one was a photo.
Elias picked up the phone.
The screen showed a figure from behind, bare from neck to hip, skin pale under bathroom light. The back was slim, smooth, and unmistakably his. Damp hair brushed the nape. Water clung along the spine. The angle was intimate enough to make the room feel colder.
Elias stared at the image.
This person...
Was him.
