novelraw Chapter 246: A Shuraba of Two Men and One Woman
Chapter 246: A Shuraba of Two Men and One Woman
Chapter 246: Two Men, One Woman, One Hell of a Scene
Tristan Sterling watched her, seeing the helplessness and terror in her eyes. Her breath came in hot, ragged gasps, her whole body trembled, and her wide eyes were filled with endless pain.
The man’s eyes narrowed. "What on earth are you so afraid of?" he asked, his voice husky. Rachel Royce bit her lip, unable to speak as fat tears rolled down her cheeks. Her last shred of consciousness was about to be devoured by primal desire.
It was as if countless hands were trying to drag her into a dark abyss.
Tristan Sterling’s dark eyes stared intently as the woman teetered on the edge of a mental breakdown. She bit her lip so hard it bled in a last, desperate struggle. Her arms had already snaked unconsciously around his shoulders, her body drawing closer to his. The conflict between her mind’s resistance and her body’s uncontrollable actions made her tremble violently.
To her, his lips were like the only spring in a parched desert.
Tristan Sterling watched quietly as her eyes grew hazy. A dark, lustful glint surfaced in the depths of his black pupils.
And then, her lips met his.
He seized the opportunity, easily capturing her lips and tongue.
Their breaths mingled.
Rachel Royce’s consciousness shattered.
Just then,
the door swiped open.
Tristan Sterling’s expression turned frigid in an instant.
"Tristan Sterling, don’t you dare touch her!" Julian Jennings’s furious voice roared. The shock of it jolted Rachel Royce back to her senses. She struggled painfully, shoving Tristan away, her eyes filled with despair. "No! Don’t! BLEGH!" Suddenly, she coughed up a mouthful of blood, splattering it across his white shirt.
In the moment of Tristan Sterling’s stunned confusion,
a powerful force yanked him away, and a fist crashed into his face.
Tristan Sterling staggered back two steps, his balance broken.
Fury burned in his eyes, but Julian Jennings didn’t waste a second. He quickly took off his jacket, draped it over Rachel, and then swept her up into his arms, striding out the door.
The manager at the door watched the scene unfold, trembling with fear.
Claire Ainsworth’s face went pale, frightened by the sheer force of Julian Jennings’s rage. She couldn’t stop shivering. ’I can’t believe that man, who’s usually so gentle, could get so violently angry.’
She didn’t snap out of it until Tristan Sterling started walking toward the door.
Her gaze fell on his bruised lip, and his handsome face was terrifyingly cold, as if coated in frost.
Her breath caught in her throat, and an indescribable unease settled in her heart. She rushed forward, grabbing his arm and calling out pitifully, "Tristan!" ’Thank goodness Julian showed up when he did, or Tristan would have actually slept with that slut. But damn it, why did she have to get away again?’ The thought filled her with a mix of hatred and anxiety. ’What’s even more terrifying is that Tristan is clearly treating her differently now.’
Tristan Sterling stopped and glanced down at her.
Claire Ainsworth suppressed her fear. "Tristan, you’re hurt. Let me take care of your wound." Tristan Sterling looked away without a word, pulled his arm free, and walked straight out the door.
The manager stood to the side, head bowed, not daring to look at the man before him.
’I had no choice,’ he thought. ’I can’t afford to offend Julian Jennings, either.’
"Tristan!" Claire Ainsworth cried out with a sob. She ran and threw her arms around his waist from behind, pressing her body against his back. "Tristan, I’m begging you, please don’t leave me," she pleaded. Without pausing, Tristan Sterling pried her hands off him and strode away.
Claire Ainsworth could only stand there as bitter tears streamed down her face, watching his resolute figure walk away.
Julian Jennings rushed Rachel Royce to the nearest hospital.
The doctors examined her, pumped her stomach, and put her on an IV drip.
Rachel Royce lay unconscious on the hospital bed, her face completely drained of color.
Julian Jennings sat on the edge of the bed, tightly gripping her hand. Looking at her pale face, he let out a deep sigh of relief, thankful that nothing worse had happened.
Just then,
the door to the hospital room opened.
Julian Jennings glanced up warily toward the door.
Tristan Sterling pushed the door open and entered, his presence imposing. His right cheek was clearly red and swollen. His gaze first fell on the unconscious woman in the bed, then shifted to their clasped hands. A dangerous glint appeared in his dark, narrowed eyes.
He strode into the room. "So, you have a penchant for other people’s property."
Julian Jennings stared back at him, his eyes glinting coldly behind his glasses. "Rachel doesn’t belong to anyone. She is her own person, and you don’t deserve her."
Tristan Sterling stopped at the foot of the bed and sneered. "Julian Jennings, you don’t seem to understand whose wife she is!"
Julian confronted him head-on. "And you don’t understand what ’wife’ even means. You’ve never respected her. Outside of that meaningless piece of paper, you two have no relationship."
An icy chill filled Tristan Sterling’s dark eyes.
"A pity that this ’meaningless piece of paper’ is a line you will never be able to cross. Don’t be so possessive of another man’s wife."
In an instant, a suffocating tension filled the room.
Then, Tristan’s low, dangerous voice cut through the silence. "I will take care of my own wife." The implication was obvious.
Julian Jennings didn’t back down an inch. "Unfortunately for you, Rachel doesn’t need your ’care’ right now."
"Julian Jennings, you can play the protector for a while, but you can’t do it forever. Let me make this perfectly clear: Rachel Royce is my daughter’s mother. We will never get a divorce."
Julian Jennings’s eyes narrowed, locked on the arrogant man before him.
Just then,
the buzz of a vibrating phone broke the silence.
Tristan Sterling pulled his phone from his pocket, turned, and stepped out of the room to answer it.
The call was from Alexander Sullivan.
"Hello."
"Did something happen?" Alexander Sullivan asked. He had just heard there was a problem with the negotiations between Rowan and Norvane, and he knew Tristan Sterling had gone to talk to his wife about it.
"Something came up," Tristan Sterling said. "We’ll talk later."
Alexander Sullivan didn’t press the issue.
After hanging up,
Tristan Sterling glanced toward the hospital room before making another call.
Someone picked up almost immediately.
He gave a cold command. "Find out exactly what happened to Rachel Royce during the time she was held captive by Zion Alden." ’Rachel’s reaction earlier wasn’t just simple resistance,’ he thought. ’It was more like a stress response from some kind of trauma.’
’But the file said she was never assaulted.’
"Yes, sir."
After hanging up, he turned and went back into the room.
He then pulled up a chair and sat down directly across from Julian Jennings.
When a nurse came in to change the IV drip, she saw the two men sitting on either side of the bed. The atmosphere was so oppressive she didn’t know what to do.
’Wow,’ she thought, ’it’s rare enough to see one handsome man on a normal day.’
’But seeing two men with such impossibly good looks and charisma at the same time... they’re so stunning you can’t even dare to look for too long.’
’And this scene, with two men and one woman, where both guys are clearly hung up on her... it’s like a messy love triangle straight out of a TV drama.’
She approached cautiously and spoke to Tristan Sterling. "Um... excuse me, sir? I need to change her IV."