Chapter 243: Only for You
This time, Elias was not lying.
The moment Liora’s favorability rose to ninety-nine percent, he knew she would want to see him. Liora had never been simple about desire. She watched first, stayed outside the frame, and acted only after she had decided that what she wanted was worth stepping into the mess for.
Ninety-nine percent was not a casual number.
It meant that one last push would finish the job.
And what did that final step usually require?
Elias had not needed System Theta to explain it.
That was why he had gone out.
The small sealed box in his hand had been bought with the fifty dollars he had taken from Marlene. It was a ridiculous expense for a person who claimed to be broke, but a mission target at ninety-nine percent was not the time to economize.
Why had he never needed one with the others, yet bought one for Liora?
Because it amused him.
Liora was the one who saw through him most clearly. She watched the performance and understood there was another performance underneath it. She did not demand that he become honest. She simply looked at the lie, recognized it, and wanted him anyway.
That deserved a special reward.
Did she think she was special?
Then Elias would let her be special in at least one thing. He had chosen the box, waited for the ninety-nine percent, and timed his trip outside so she would discover the purchase in his hand. He had made the invitation feel like a privilege. A woman who took pride in understanding him deserved to be reminded that he could always make her feel chosen when it suited him.
The small curve at his mouth held a streak of childish cruelty.
Liora looked at him for a long time.
Perhaps she understood what he meant. Perhaps she understood the reason for the box, the calculated timing, the way he had waited for her to come to him instead of finding her directly. The purchase was a little cruelty dressed as a gift. It said, You see through everyone, so I gave you a version no one else gets.
She did not get angry.
Liora had always known what Elias was like. He could be sweet, vicious, desperate, charming, and cold within the same breath. He liked moving people around inside the story he had built for them. He liked the moment they realized the floor beneath their feet had not been solid.
She knew all of it.
She loved him anyway.
The urgency that had faded when she learned he was not inside the house returned with a slow, heavy pull.
Liora raised one hand and placed it against his cheek.
Elias blinked.
He did not pull away. Instead, his eyes lifted to hers with a faint encouragement in them, a look that invited her to do whatever she wanted next.
Liora’s thumb pressed against his lower lip.
Hard.
She rubbed it slowly, deliberately, as though she needed to memorize the feel of it. Her touch was not gentle. Elias’s face tightened. A clear flicker of pain crossed his expression.
Liora saw it.
She did not stop.
Elias’s irritation rose.
His mouth was for kissing, not for her to play with until it hurt. What was wrong with the women around him? Was Liora another woman like Yvonne, hiding some private appetite for seeing him uncomfortable?
The pain should have annoyed him.
Pain Conversion made the sensation betray him. Under the sting ran an unwelcome warmth, almost pleasant enough to make the irritation worse.
Elias opened his mouth before her thumb could keep working.
"Trying to wipe away another woman’s taste from my mouth..."
Liora lowered her head.
The rest of the sentence disappeared between them.
The kiss was not gentle at first. It had the same force as her thumb, possessive and impatient, and then it changed. Her mouth softened against his as if the anger had nowhere else to go. Elias’s annoyance thinned. His body loosened, and he sank into her hold.
Liora kissed him with an intensity that made her earlier restraint seem impossible. Ninety-nine percent of her desire, her jealousy, and her strange devotion seemed to have been gathered into that one act. The touch that had hurt him a moment ago became dangerously tender, the kind that could make someone forget to come up for air.
Elias did forget.
His free hand caught a strand of her hair and tightened around it. He held on as though he were drowning and she was the only thing keeping him from sinking.
When they broke apart, his eyes were misted behind his glasses. The lenses made the look softer, blurring the green beneath them until his gaze seemed unfocused and dreamlike. His lips parted. His voice came out warm and thick.
"Carry me upstairs."
He leaned closer.
"Home. My room."
Every word sounded like an invitation. Every movement of his body made the same offer, sweet enough to leave anyone with blood in their veins unsteady.
Liora did not move.
Her eyes stayed on his face.
Elias was good at acting. Better than good. If he wanted to look shaken, needy, ruined, or eager, he could create the impression so completely that other people mistook it for truth.
She could not always see through him.
But tonight, she saw something.
The invitation was real enough to tempt him. The desire might even be real at the level of his body. Still, the timing was too neat. His words were arranged to push her toward one answer. He was baiting her, urging her to take the final step so his mission could be completed and he could turn the page.
Liora smiled.
Even Elias had not expected her to notice. He had not said a word about favorability, retirement, or the way one final intimate step could push an almost-finished route across the line. Yet Liora had read the invitation for what it was: not only desire, but a careful prompt for her to hand him exactly what he wanted.
"No."
Elias stared at her.
For one beat, he honestly seemed to think he had misheard.
"What did you say?"
The mask had slipped. His eyes sharpened behind the glasses, and the softness in his posture disappeared.
Liora’s smile deepened.
"I said I don’t want to sleep with you right now."
Elias’s eyes widened.
Ninety-nine percent.
He was one step from completing her route, and she was refusing him?
He pulled off his glasses.
The effect was immediate. Without the lenses, nothing blurred his face into harmlessness. Black hair framed features too pretty to be fair, and his green eyes fixed on Liora with a sharp, offended brightness.
"What kind of joke is that?" he asked. "Pick me up and take me upstairs."
Liora did not budge.
She only leaned down and kissed his mouth once more, brief and soft.
"Walk yourself home," she said. "Stop being lazy."
Was this about laziness?
Elias’s temper flared.
"Liora, tell me the truth." He pointed a finger at her, expression severe. "Are you incapable?"
Liora laughed softly. "If that’s what you think, then that’s what I am."
Elias looked at her as though she had spoken another language.
So she was going to be difficult on purpose.
"Now I understand why you liked women," he said coldly. "You can’t do anything else."
The insult left his mouth before a darker thought formed.
Could that actually be true?
No.
Absolutely not.
The Trash Trope Intervention Division would not dare put him in a world with a trap that ridiculous. If it did, he would go back and tear down its headquarters brick by brick.
Elias pushed the terrifying possibility away and tried another approach.
"Fine," he said. "If you don’t want me, somebody else will. I’ll find someone else."
The box vanished from his hand.
Liora had taken it.
"You said this was only for me," she said. "That no one else could use it."
She held the small box between two fingers.
"Then I’ll keep it."
Elias nearly choked.
"Liora Voss." He pointed at her again. "Listen carefully. It has to be used tonight. If you let tonight pass, you don’t get to use it. Ever."
Liora nodded as if he had said something sensible.
"Not using it would be better," she replied. "There would be nothing between us."
Elias stared.
Then he laughed, sharp and disbelieving.
"Fine. Then you’ll never touch me again."
Liora lowered her head to kiss him.
Elias stepped back at once, putting space between them. His face had become ugly with displeasure.
"Don’t touch me. Go back to women."
Liora sighed with exaggerated patience. "I used to prefer women. Now I like you."
"That’s a lie."
Elias looked up at her, eyes wet again. This time the expression was so pitiful that it could have fooled anyone who did not know him.
"Then why don’t you want to?"
Liora’s gaze did not move.
"Tell me first," she said. "Why do you suddenly want this with me?"
"Isn’t it obvious? Because I..."
Elias stopped.
A tiny tremor went through him.
Had Liora guessed?
After he completed a target, he usually withdrew. He did not have unlimited time. One route finished meant his attention had to go elsewhere. He could not keep giving every woman the same energy forever, and he had learned long ago not to pretend otherwise.
Had Liora noticed the pattern before it happened?
The look in her eyes suggested she had.
Elias lifted the corner of his mouth anyway. His eyes tilted upward, soft and inviting, and he let the answer come out in a voice made to please her.
"Because I want to."
He stepped closer and pulled lightly at her sleeve.
"That’s all."
Then he looked up at her through his lashes.
"Liora. Sweetheart. Please say yes."