?Chapter 245:
After what seemed an eternity, his pulse and breath finally evened out. Elliana prodded his arm yfully and whispered, “Darling?” Atst, his mood seemed to improve.
Cole nuzzled the sensitive skin of her neck before lifting his gaze to meet hers. “What’s on your mind, honey?”
Elliana nestled closer, her fingers dancing across the buttons of his cor. With honeyed softness, she murmured, “I gotta head out to meet Hailee.”
That single sentence copsed his newfound cheer, shadows reiming his features.
Elliana recognized the source of his distress. Since his injury, Cole had transformed into a portrait of dependency, bristling at even her briefest absences. She proceeded with gentle persuasion. “I promised to escort Hailee to Boris’s engagement celebration tonight. I need to brief her first, strategize, and help her prepare. She’s never navigated an event of that caliber before—she’spletely adrift. The moment everything’s arranged, I’ll rush straight back to you.”
Anticipating resistance, Elliana tilted her face upward, pecked his lips, and fluttered her eyshes deliberately. “Don’t sulk, please? Even when I’m physically absent, my heart remains here at the estate with you. You’ll upy my every thought.”
Elliana once cringed at such sharine derations. Whenever Adah binged roms and the leads spouted mushy stuff, she would squirm with vicarious embarrassment, baffled by such dialogue, and mock the writers for their sentimentality. Now, submerged in love herself,prehension dawned. After surrendering to romance, syrupy expressions flowed naturally, as if encoded in human DNA.
After days immersed in affectionate exchanges, Elliana delivered sweet nothings to Cole without a trace of self-consciousness. In truth, she’d begun to savor the experience.
Having unleashed this torrent of sentiment, Elliana initiated another kiss, tugging at Cole’s cor with yful rhythm. “Come on, my fiery Coley, say yes? Pretty please?”
That tender nickname dissolved the shadows from Cole’s face like morning mist under sunlight. His lips curved into a devastatingly seductive smirk, voice dropping to a whisper that caressed her skin. “Want me to apany you?”
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Elliana shook her head, concern etching her features. “Your injuries haven’t fully mended. I couldn’t bear watching you strain yourself. Just chill at home and wait for me.”
Honestly, the real reason was that Cole’s presence at the party would shatter her carefully orchestrated strategy. As the Evans family’s head, he would be expected to step forward and intervene should anyplications arise. The responsibility to
The cleanup would fall squarely on his shoulders—a burden she refused to allow him to carry. She needed him safely distanced from tonight’s events.
“Then you go.” He conceded,pletely disarmed by her concern. “Just return to me quickly.”
Elliana sprang from the bed, energy pulsing through her limbs. “Deal! I’ll be back before you know it!”
A thought crystallized in her mind, pulling her back. She leaned down, capturing his mouth in a lingering, deliberate kiss. “Coley, every moment away will feel iplete without you. Promise you’ll miss me just as fiercely.”
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