<b>Chapter </b>245
Briar retorted, “But I’m just a woman!”
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Ashtonughed and pulled Briar into his arms. “Thinking of backing out? Babe, you know the ways <b>I </b>can make people suffer. You’d better just behave.”
The couple yfully bickered as they headed toward Briar’s vi. The curtains in the second–floor study only closed after they werepletely out of sight. Larry asked impatiently, “Ruben<b>, </b>what did Ashton show you? Why did you change your mind so fast?
“Didn’t we agree to give him a hard time to make him back down? How did one hour alone with him in the study make you so eager to hand Briar over?”
Ruben looked at Larry’s anxious face, sighed, then opened a file on his phone that Ashton had sent him. “See for yourself.”
Larry grabbed the phone and read through it carefully. His anxious expression changed, and he stammered, “This… this is…”
Ruben nodded. “That’s right. Five years ago, during that massive operation to purge and assassinate mercenaries, many of the men we trained were killed by an unknown party. Briar almost died in that attack, and Ashton was the mysterious person who saved her.”
Shocked, Larry didn’t know whether tough or cry. “Fate is a damn magical thing sometimes!”
“It is,” Ruben agreed.
“So, should we tell Briar? She’s spent thest five years searching for this mysterious savior!”
Ruben shook his head. “Ashton said not to tell her for now. He wants Briar to figure it out on her own.”
“Kids and their games,” Larry mused. “Isn’t he afraid of taking it too far? If he really angers Briar, she might just paralyze him with a single needle.”
Ruben was speechless.
Meanwhile, at another vi, Briar brought Ashton home. The moment the door closed, before she even had a chance to turn on the lights, he pinned her against it. “Darling…”
“You stink. Go take a shower.” Her confidence crumbled as she felt something hard pressing against her. ‘Are all men this worked up after drinking?‘ she thought.
Ashton chuckled. “Why don’t you join me?”
“Ashton, have some shame,” Briar said irritably. “Go take a shower, and I’ll make you soup to sober you up.”
Although he wasn’t drunk, the smell of alcohol on Ashton was overpowering. He pressed his body closer against hers. Knowing Briar couldn’t resist his voice, he deliberately lowered it, coaxing her deeply, <b>“</b>I’ll keep youpany while you make <b>the </b>soup, and then you can keep mepany in the shower, okay?”
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“No.” Briar pushed the man pressing against her away and shoved him toward the stairs. “The third room upstairs is the guest room you’ll be sleeping in tonight. There’s a clean bathrobe in the closet. Now, go
shower.”
Ashton could only head upstairs disappointedly to take a shower.
take a
Briar waited until she heard a door open and close upstairs before she turned and went into the kitchen. Larry arranged for housekeepers to clean the vi every three days, so the kitchen was fully stocked.
She opened the refrigerator, washed the ingredients needed for the restorative, and ced them in a pot. While waiting, she leaned against the counter, took out her phone, and sent a few messages.
The replies came quickly. Just as Briar was about to check them, she heard footsteps on the stairs. She quickly shoved her phone back into her pocket, turned around, and grabbed a spoon, pretending to nonchntly stir the simmering y pot.
She felt a weight on her shoulder as Ashton rested his chin there, his arms wrapping around her waist from behind. He looked down at Briar’s face, flushed from the steam, his lips brushing against her earlobe. “Honey, thank you for going to all this trouble.”
Briar didn’t say a word and kept her head down, focusing on what she was doing.
Ashton watched her earlobes turn bright red, then gently bit and nibbled on one. His hands grew bolder, slipping under the hem of her shirt to trace circles on her stomach, threatening to move higher.
Startled, Briar quickly grabbed his wandering hand through her clothes. “Don’t move.”
Ashton obediently stopped and asked slowly, “When will it be ready?”
“Almost. About ten more minutes.” Briar’s breath hitched as she felt his familiar hardness pressing against her lower back again.
They stood like that for over ten minutes until Briar turned off the stove and reached for a bowl to serve the restorative. Only then did Ashton finally let her go.
As shedled out the hangover soup, Ashton took the bowl from her hands. “It’s hot. I’ll get it.”
He carried the bowl to the dining table, sat down, and pulled her onto hisp.
Briar struggled immediately. The feeling against her back was too aggressive. A blush spread from her ears to her neck as she said ufortably, “Let me go…”
Her struggles awakened the beast within him. He tightened his grip on her slim waist, his voice low and strained, “Don’t move.”
Briar instantly froze, sitting stiffly on hisp.
Perhaps not wanting to truly scare her, Ashton stirred the restorative and asked calmly, “Honey, do something?<b>” </b>
you
feel
Briar took a deep breath and turned expressionlessly to re at this jerk who was acting innocent after getting
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his way. “Feel what? That you’ve got a big stick?”
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Ashton froze. He had only meant to tease her, but her blunteback shut him down. He cleared his throat. “Babe, I’ve been drinking tonight. If you keep provoking me like this, I might just lose control…”
He thought, ‘Lose control and do what? Do some indescribable things, of course…
Briar reached out and hooked his chin with her finger, lifting it. She smiled confidently. “You won’t.”
“Oh, really?” Ashton’s eyes darkened with a dangerous warning. “Babe, never test a man’s self–control. You’ll be the one to regret it.”
Briar’s expression faltered, but she still met his gaze and grinned. “No, you wouldn’t, because you couldn’t bear to hurt me.”
Hearing this, Ashton raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? That confident in me?”
But his hand, which was wrapped around Briar’s waist, slowly loosened.
Briar let out a huge sigh of relief. That scoundrel was ying mind games with her. Good thing she was resilient, or she would have sumbed to his devastatingly handsome face.
But Briar had rxed too soon. Just as Ashton finished his soup and she thought she was safe for the night, he pulled her back into his arms and pinned her down on the dining table…
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