novelraw Chapter 113: Only interest.
Chapter 113: Only interest.
She could not mutter a single word. She could only stare at him with wide opened eyes.
Even when he pulled back and looked at her face, she still remained frozen in place. Then he leaned in again, lowering his lips to hers.
Elara only came back to her senses when he bit her lower lip softly.
"What does this mean?" she burst out, pushing him away forcefully but the force only made him lean back a little, nothing more.
"Do you think you can just do anything because you’re my sponsor?" she said breathlessly. "What do you take me for?"
Adrian’s unblinking eyes stayed on her, his expression unreadable.
"Someone you can just use whenever you want?"
Elara finally let out everything that had been building up inside her.
She even wondered why she always ended up indulging him, always giving in to his advances without thinking.
Adrian’s jaw tightened at her words. Then he spoke slowly, "Is that what you think?"
Elara pressed her lips together and met his gaze without flinching. "Yeah."
"Understood," he replied after a long pause, his voice completely stripped of warmth. He then looked away, focusing on the road as if she was no longer there.
Elara didn’t look away immediately. She kept staring at him, her chest rising and falling unevenly. She hated how she was reacting, and even more, she hated how she felt.
Finally, she turned away when he started the car and it moved forward again.
"Where are you taking me to?" She asked in a calm, flat tone.
The question lingered in the air for a long time and when Adrian finally spoke, his voice was cold.
"Since you’re so concerned about my ’intentions’ as a sponsor, I’ll drop you right where you belong."
Elara didn’t fully understand what he meant until the car came to a stop at a crossroad, under a flickering streetlight.
"Get out," he said, not even glancing at her.
Elara’s brows lifted in disbelief. She looked out at the road– only a few cars were passing by, then she turned back to his stony profile.
He really was serious.
But the shock didn’t last long before it turned into annoyance mixed with a sharp sense of pride.
She let out a short laugh, her lips curving up mockingly. "You’re pathetic, you know," she said, her calmness long gone.
Her eyes scanned him, and the moment she noticed how relaxed and unaffected he looked, her irritation grew even more. It felt like she was the only one losing control.
Then she added through gritted teeth. "With all your power and money, do you really have to dump me on a street just to feel like you’re in control?"
She snorted and got out of the car, slamming the door so hard that it echoed like a gunshot in the quiet night. She stood beside it, lifting her chin proudly.
"Go ahead and keep your car. I’d rather–"
She didn’t finish her sentence before the window rolled down and his hand stretched out, holding her coat.
She had left it on the armrest earlier.
Without hesitation, she reached out and snatched it from him.
"Put on your coat," he said casually, his grey eyes finally meeting hers, cold and empty. "If you catch a cold, you’ll be useless to me in bed. And right now, that’s the only thing about you I’m interested in."
Before Elara could even process the insult, the tires screeched against the pavement, and in seconds, the car was gone, leaving her standing still by the roadside, clutching the coat in her hand.
It took a while before she came back to herself.
When she did, her lips pressed into a thin line, his words replaying in her mind.
Useless in bed... the only thing he’s interested in.
Her grip tightened around the fabric.
Of course, she had known everything from the start. She wasn’t naive. But hearing it said so clearly, being reduced to nothing but ’a body’ on his bed made her chest tighten painfully.
Why did she feel so horrible?
She knew she shouldn’t care. Getting emotionally entangled with a man was never part of her plan.
She took out her phone with trembling fingers and booked a ride.
She had only been waiting for about two minutes when a car suddenly stopped in front of her. The window rolled down, and Harris’s face appeared.
Elara didn’t blink. She kept staring ahead at a glowing billboard for luxury watches, acting as if the car in front of her did not exist.
Harris tilted his head sideways, looking at her. "Standing under streetlights like this... if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this city just put its most expensive decoration on display. But honestly, decorations belong indoors. Why don’t you come in before someone tries to steal you?"
Elara remained silent, her expression unmoved.
Harris sighed when he got no reaction from her. "Come on Miss Veyne. This car has heated seats and a much better personality than the person who just dropped you off," he added with a teasing grin. "And trust me if you don’t come with me, Boss would surely grind me into fish feed and I’ll spend the rest of my life getting chased around by a tilapia."
Just then, Elara’s phone buzzed and she glanced at it.
Her ride had arrived.
She turned to the side and saw another car pulling up a short distance away. When it stopped, she turned back to Harris and muttered a simple, "Goodbye."
Then she walked into the cab, and it drove away without delay...
When she finally got back to the residential building in Crelou, everywhere had gone quiet. The only person she saw was the director, who seemed to just be passing by.
"Wow, you came back this night," she said casually.
Elara only nodded in reply and walked past her, heading straight upstairs to her room.
The corridor was very silent and the air was cold. If it had been the previous night, she would have felt uneasy walking through it alone, her mind already filling with unnecessary thoughts. But now, nothing came. In fact, a small part of her almost wished something would, just to distract her.
She reached her door and pushed it open, but just as she lifted her foot to step in, her movements paused instantly...