Chapter 257 Exclusive Bond
Quinn chuckled. “Who else could I possibly tie up like this besides you?”
Julius said, “Even if the possibility existed, I would never allow it. Quinn, any love you want, any binding you crave, must come solely from me. Whatever adventure your heart imagines, I will meet you there,
As long as she remained delighted with him, as long as her fascination did not fade, he would gladly surrender to her every whim.
Quinn traced the arch of his brow, followed the line to his check, and finally rested her fingertip on his lips. “All right,” she whispered. “Only you.”
She kissed him, first his mouth, then the sharp angle of his jaw, drifting along the length of his throat and lower while the last of his clothes slipped away.
Studying his bare body as though it were a sculpture, she murmured, “You are beautiful.”
“Do you really think so?” he asked.
“I do,” she answered, warmth lacing every word. “Your lines are powerful, perfectly proportioned, utterly striking.”
“Even with the scars?” he asked.
The tenderness that flashed in her eyes was exactly what he had hoped for. “Even with the scars,” she said.
He despised himself for wielding those old wounds to stir her pity, for chaining her heart to him with pain and insecurity. Fear whispered that her love might still be shallow, that the first real storm could send her running.
“Then love me a little more,” Julius breathed. The rough velvet of his voice wrapped around Quinn, drawing her deeper into desire.
The doorbell yanked Laura out of sleep at dawn, its shrill peal slicing straight through her pounding head.
For heaven’s sake, who hammers a doorbell this early?
She lurched to her feet, eyelids battling each other like quarrelsome strangers.
Just how much did Harlan and I drink last night?
“At first, only he had been downing the shots while she took the occasional sip, yet the rounds multiplied and the night blurred until they were both swaying.
In the end she somehow managed to shepherd him into a cab and send him home.”
Laura shuffled to t
he door, flung it open, and demanded; “Yes? What do you want?”
A familiar, devastatingly handsome face filled her vision, and her fog–soaked mind crashed to a halt.
Weston!
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Chapter 257 Exclusive Bond
Why on earth am I seeing him right now?
I must be hallucinating,
She rubbed her eyes with both hands and, on instinct, slammed the door before the apparition could speak.
“Who was that?” Harlan called from somewhere behind her.
Laura froze, then turned as he ambled toward her, bafflement spreading across her face.
Why is Harlan here? I left him at his place last night, didn’t I?
Harlan rubbed at the throb in his temples, eyes still fogged with sleep. “Who on earth is hammering at the door?” he mumbled, and before Laura could form an answer the bell shrilled a second time.
The piercing sound cleared the haze from Laura’s mind. Only then did she realize she was not in her own flat at all but in Harlan’s, and memory flooded back. She wondered that, after hauling the drunk man home last night, had she really collapsed and fallen asleep.
When she still made no move, Harlan leaned across her, flipped the latch, and pulled the door open.
On the threshold stood Weston, face stormy. He took in Harlan’s messy pajamas and Laura’s rumpled blouse, and the anger in his eyes deepened to midnight.
“It appears I’ve interrupted something intimate,” Weston said, voice sharp enough to cut.
Laura lurched sideways, nearly cracking her head against the wall.
“We weren’t doing anything,” Harlan blurted. “Don’t pin your flights of fancy on me.”
“Nothing at all?” Weston’s gaze slid to Laura.
Laura nodded so fast her hair whipped. “Relax. Even if I were fishing for a one–night thrill, your nephew would not be on the menu.”
I am not ready for an early death. Only Quinn can tame Harlan’s temperament. If it were me, I’d end up in hospital every other day.
Weston’s expression eased a fraction. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “Then why are you here?”
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