Chapter 448 Narrow Escape
Chapter 448 Narrow Escape
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The moment their car vanished, Jade’s legs gave way and she copsed onto the asphalt, breath ragged.
<i>Who </i><i>on </i><i>earth </i><i>is </i><i>that </i><i>terrifying </i><i>man</i><i>? </i>The question echoed through her spinning mind.
<i>Why </i><i>was </i><i>he </i><i>acting </i><i>as </i><i>though </i><i>making </i><i>the </i><i>Rowley </i><i>family </i><i>pay </i><i>were </i><i>as </i>effortless as knocking over a teacup? <i>Have </i><i>I </i><i>really </i><i>provoked </i><i>a </i><i>figure </i><i>so </i><i>lofty </i><i>that </i><i>a </i><izy </i><i>order </i><i>from </i><i>him </i><i>could </i>grind my life to dust?
The thought bled the remaining color from Jade’s face. A mmy fear slid down her spine, making her stomach churn.
Back at the hotel, Quinn watched Julius ce the reimed Officer Bunny plush dead center on the pillow where he normally rested his head.
“Not going to tuck it away?” Quinn asked, one eyebrow tilting upward.
She had assumed he would slip the toy straight into his suitcase, out of sight until they traveled home.
Instead, he disyed it boldly, as though nning to fall asleep that night with the plush officer cradled in his arms.
“Why would I hide it?” Julius asked. “You gave it so I’d think of you. Seeing it out in the open should please you, right?”
She had to admit, the man had a point.
Quinn shrugged, said nothing more, and wandered to the couch. She propped her injured right leg across the cushions and began kneading her calf.
They had walked longer than nned that afternoon, and the muscles along her calf now throbbed with a dull,ining ache.
Still, the ache was normal for this stage of recovery. In a few more weeks, once the injury fully healed, she would stroll for hours without feeling a thing.
Julius joined her, sat beside her, and gently lifted her right leg onto his thighs.
“Let me do it for you,” he murmured, those elegant fingers working carefully over her calf, coaxing tension out with practiced strokes.
An involuntary sigh slipped from her lips. She had to admit, the man’s touch was perfect<i>–</i><i>just </i>
Chapter 448 Narrow Escape
the right pressure, enough to chase the ache away.
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“Do you please people a lot?” Julius asked, his voice brushing her car while his thumbs kept circling.
“Not at all–only you,” she answered. She was no good at pleasing anyone, and they both knew it.
“Is it because you love me?” he pressed.
“Yeah,” she hummed, eyes fluttering closed, the pleasure of his massage making her drowsy.
“Then from today on, you may only please me. No more spreading that talent around.” His words fell in a soft, possessive whisper.
“Got it.” The corners of her mouth lifted; the demand was almost childlike, as if he refused to share his favorite toy.
“So even Han is off–limits–you won’t please him either?” he asked out of the blue.
Quinn’s eyes snapped open. “Why bring up Han?” she demanded.
“He’s always mattered to you,” Julius said, gaze steady. “If one day he asked you to please him, would you?”
Quinn straightened, slipped her leg from hisp, and said seriously, “No.”
<i>“</i>You wouldn’t?” Julius‘ amber eyes narrowed, probing, almost dissecting her answer.
“I please you because I like you–because I love you,” Quinn dered. “Han is my friend. If he ever needed help, I’d back him without hesitation, but I won’t please or coax him the way 1 do to you.”
She couldn’t even picture what it would look like, trying to coax Han with the same gentle nonsense she <i>used </i>on Julius.
He leaned forward, themplight catching the sharp angle of his cheekbones. In a voice velvet- soft yet edged with steel, he asked, “Do you truly see him as nothing more than a friend?”
“Well… I suppose I also think <i>of </i>him as a kid brother. When I was little, I used to wish for one. But tell me, Julius–do you still resent Han?” she replied, looking at Julius.
His lips sealed into a hard line, the color draining from them as though emotion itself had been bled away. <i>Am </i><i>I </i><i>not </i><i>allowed </i><i>to </i><i>feel </i><i>threatened</i>? he wondered, bitterness prickling under his tongue.
<i>2/3 </i>
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Chapter 448 Narrow Escape
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She had once told him that she and Han were bound by blood–deep loyalty, the kind forged in gunfire and darkness where lives are traded without hesitation.
In other words, she trusted Hanpletely–one hundred
But how much of that fierce trust did she reserve for him? <fn0a1d> Chapters first released on FindN0vel</fn0a1d>
percent.
Yes, she had said they could rebuild what he had broken, yet could shattered faith ever return to its original shape?
If the day came when she realized she could never again trust him entirely, would she simply withdraw, slip out of his life with surgical precision, and bring their fragile union to an abrupt, irrevocable end?
All these recent days, all theughing mornings and burning nights, would copse into nothing more than a beautiful, ridiculous dream.
He pinned her with an unblinking stare. “Suppose I admit <i>it</i>—suppose I tell you I do mind. What then? Would you cut Han out of your life, refuse ever to see him again?”