Chapter 272: After Everything Changed

Elias and Serena kissed as if no one else existed in the car.

The sound was blatant enough to make the enclosed space feel smaller, all breath, fabric, and the wet heat of two people who had no interest in pretending restraint.

The strange part was that, aside from Elias, neither of the women in the car thought anything was wrong.

Liora’s thoughts needed no explanation.

As for Serena, she understood Elias’s sudden behavior perfectly. Because of her own selfishness, and because of the suspicion she had never fully managed to swallow, she had added one more command into the hypnosis: hostility toward Liora Voss.

So when Elias kissed Serena right in front of Liora, Serena did not find it strange at all.

If anything, it made sense.

And the most important part was Liora’s sexuality.

Elias was making a point.

The thought pleased Serena more than it should have. Liora’s orientation had once been one of the things that gave Serena headaches. Now, in this moment, that same fact had become useful to her. A tool. A clean little piece of leverage.

The pleasure of control spread through her chest.

The car stopped.

Liora pulled the parking brake and did not look back.

"We’re home," she said, amusement threaded through her voice. "Are you two planning to get out?"

Only then did Serena and Elias separate.

Elias licked slowly around his lips. Whether it was careless or deliberate, he swallowed every last trace of Serena’s taste in a way that made her blood run hot. For one dangerous second, Serena almost pressed him down right there and punished him in the back seat.

But she did not.

For now, she had no intention of doing that. The main reason was Yvonne Quinn’s warning. For a short time after the hypnosis, Serena should avoid overstimulating him.

At least in Serena’s understanding, those things counted as stimulation.

So she forced the desire down and lifted her hand instead, gently wiping the wetness from the corner of Elias’s mouth with her finger.

"We’re getting out," she said with a smile. "Why are you still clinging to me?"

If she had not said it, maybe Elias would have climbed off her lap.

The moment she did, his temper reversed direction on principle.

He settled more firmly on her thighs, lifted both arms, and looped them around her neck. Then he raised his face a little, bright-eyed and shameless.

"What? I can’t sit here?" he said. "Then I’m really not getting down."

The rebellion was expected.

In truth, the old Elias had not been free of that kind of contrary streak either. If Serena told him to do something, he would deliberately refuse. In bed, for example, when Serena tried to make him make a sound, she had spent more effort than she cared to admit. The young man would bite down on his lower lip with those white teeth of his, and even when his small canine teeth cut into the flesh until blood welled, he would not let out a single sound.

If Elias were still like that, Serena would have found him painfully difficult.

But now, his rebellion and stubbornness only looked like another kind of intimacy to her. Spoiled. Petty. Made for coaxing. It pleased her more than it angered her.

He sat facing her on her lap, arms locked around her neck. Even his legs had wrapped around her waist, clinging to her like he intended to grow there. Serena tried to shift him once and failed.

A helpless, indulgent look crossed her face.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" she asked. "Are you not planning to get out? Do you want to live in the car?"

"Carry me down, big sister."

Elias did not look at her as he said it. He buried his face against her neck, his lips brushing close to her ear. His breath spilled hot over her skin, lazy and intimate.

"Or are you saying you don’t even have that much strength?"

"Cheap provocation."

Serena laughed and tapped a finger against the tip of his nose. Then she wrapped an arm around his lower back, opened the car door, and stepped out with him in her arms.

"Do I look weak to you?"

Elias’s lips curved.

He leaned closer to her ear and laughed softly.

"Then tonight, you’d better use that strength properly."

Serena’s steps stopped.

She could not tell whether it was the bluntness of the words or the heat of his breath against her ear. It felt like a current ran from that one spot through the rest of her body. Her muscles tightened for half a second, and her entire ear burned.

Serena exhaled slowly, forcing the tremor down.

Then she turned her head and looked directly into Elias’s eyes.

"Where did you learn to talk like that?"

Elias blinked at her with bright, clear eyes, lashes flicking once, then twice. His smile bloomed openly.

"What? You don’t like it?"

How could Serena not like it?

"Of course I like it," she said. "It’s just..."

Where had the old Elias learned to say things like that?

The thought only stayed in her mind for a moment. Soon enough, Serena let it go.

Elias was an adult. There were endless ways for him to pick up this kind of language. A phone alone could show someone ten thousand versions of desire, teasing, and bad ideas. Maybe he had seen it before without thinking much of it. Maybe he had simply refused to say such things in the past.

And now, because he had completely fallen in love with her, the words came out naturally.

Under Elias’s urging, Serena carried him into the Blackwood residence.

Not far behind them, Liora got out of the car and stood by the entrance, watching Serena’s figure slowly disappear from view.

She had heard every word they said.

Especially Elias’s natural, intimate way of addressing Serena.

Big sister?

What strange roleplay was this now?

After confirming her own feelings, Liora rarely failed to read Elias’s games. This time, though, she genuinely could not see what calculation he was running.

Maybe this return would bring her a rather interesting surprise.

Inside the Blackwood residence, Serena and Elias did not stay together for long.

There was "a serious company matter requiring her attention and final decision." Since that was the lie she had used, Serena had no choice but to perform the part of a busy executive. She separated from Elias for the time being and arranged for him to rest.

Then she called Liora into her office.

When Liora stepped in, Serena looked up from behind the desk.

"Close the door."

Even without the instruction, Liora would have done it.

She shut the door properly and walked over at an easy pace.

The office had the kind of controlled silence that made Blackwood power feel less like wealth and more like weather. Tall shelves, dark glass, a desk wide enough to make visitors aware of distance before a word was spoken to them. Outside the windows, the estate grounds sat trimmed and still under late light, every path watched by staff who knew better than to look curious if they didn’t want to get fired.

Liora glanced at Serena’s expression, then sat down on the broad soft sofa.

She crossed her full, pale legs with casual elegance and opened her mouth.

"Sis, do you know what you look like right now?"

"Hm?"

Serena leaned back against her chair. She crossed her legs too, the black sheer fabric stretching over one knee until the darker color thinned, showing the delicate texture beneath.

She lifted her chin, willing to hear this.

"Say it."

Liora smiled.

"Like a peacock looking for a mate."

Serena froze for half a second.

Then she laughed out loud.

She curled her right hand into a loose fist and pressed it against her red lips, laughing until her eyes nearly watered.

Watching her, Liora raised a brow.

No one knew Serena better than she did. For Serena to show this kind of expression, she had to be genuinely happy. It was no wonder there had been a constant trace of laughter in her eyes since they returned. She really did look like a peacock in courtship.

Proud, ridiculous, and impossible to miss.

Serena laughed for a while before shaking her head.

"Stop being annoying," she said. "I called you here because I have something to ask."

When business came up, Liora’s expression settled.

Until now, as far as Serena knew, she and Elias were innocent. That meant Liora could not ask too openly about what had happened between Serena and Elias during the days Serena had been abroad. Even probing around the edges had to be done carefully and only in moderation.

Serena’s fingers rested lightly on the arm of her chair.

Then she spoke slowly.

"The relinquishment papers," she said. "Have Marlene Bennet and the others signed them yet?"