Chapter 129: A Wish for Later

Elias could not feel the pain at all. After a few seconds, even the slight slur in his voice cleared, and he shook his head. "It’s fine. I only bit it by accident."

Fine lines gathered faintly at the corners of Victoria Frost’s eyes when she smiled. The expression looked gentle enough to pass for concern. "That is exactly the kind of small injury people ignore. Be good and let me see."

Her voice stayed polite and warm, but the pressure underneath it left no room to breathe.

Women like Victoria did not give instructions so other people could decide whether obedience suited them. Elias had no doubt that if anyone else in this room had refused her, her face would have changed on the spot.

Even for him, she had probably allowed one refusal at most.

So Elias stopped wasting energy, walked over, and behaved.

"Open your mouth," Victoria said.

Opening his mouth was not enough. Victoria remained seated and clearly had no intention of standing. If he wanted her to see clearly, he had to lower himself.

Elias paused for half a beat before he went down on one knee in front of her. From there, she could look down at him without moving. He tilted his face up, opened his mouth, and extended his tongue.

Victoria’s voice became even gentler. "There you go."

She praised him the way someone might praise a trained pet for remembering its place.

Her gaze lowered to him. His lips were parted, and the tip of his tongue showed between them, pink and wet. A small bead of blood had gathered where he had bitten himself, bright against the softer color. The sight was too delicate to look harmless, and too intimate to belong at an ordinary dinner table.

"You’re bleeding, and you still said it was nothing." Victoria reached out and lightly caught his chin between her fingers. "How did you manage to be this careless?"

Her tone carried the mildest reprimand, which only made it sound more like an elder’s concern.

Elias went still for a second. Then he drew his tongue back and swallowed the small taste of blood. The metallic flavor spread through his mouth, and only then did he realize he had bitten harder than he thought.

No wonder it had startled a sound out of him.

He recovered quickly enough to joke. "I’m not one of those actresses who gets a paper cut and has to be rushed to the hospital. By the time they arrive, the cut has already healed."

Victoria laughed with him. "A tongue is not the same as a finger."

Then she lifted her voice slightly. "Send the doctor in."

At her order, a private doctor entered with a medical case. The doctor asked Elias a few routine questions, checked the wound, and took out a small tube of ointment.

Elias looked at the tube and understood immediately.

Of course this world had miracle ointment for every possible injury. This was a melodrama setting, which meant the leads were always getting hurt. For convenience, one tube of ointment had to solve bruises, cuts, swelling, inflammation, emotional trauma, bad luck, and probably the collapse of civilization if applied twice daily.

At this rate, Elias suspected the thing would evolve into an immortality drug by the next arc.

"Will there be anything else, Ms. Frost?" the doctor asked.

"No." Victoria waved a hand, dismissing the doctor. "You may leave."

The doctor packed up and withdrew as discreetly as she had entered.

Victoria took the ointment herself and looked back at Elias. "Would you like me to apply it, or will you do it yourself?"

Elias stared at her for a moment.

This older woman had better not actually be developing ideas about him.

The medicine-application plot had nothing to do with her, and she needed to stop reaching into scenes where she did not belong. He had just opened his mouth to refuse when Victoria made the decision for him.

"Never mind," she said. "I’ll do it."

Her smile remained warm, but the tone underneath it left no room for negotiation. "Open."

Elias nearly cursed in his head.

The woman knew how to enjoy herself.

God only knew whether, after Giselle’s father died, Victoria had played with men behind her daughter’s back. In this moment, though, Elias at least understood one thing. He had stirred something in her that would have been smarter left alone.

He had miscalculated.

Still, Victoria should have limits. No matter how bold she was, she should not reach for the man she had personally chosen for her own daughter. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

At least, she should not.

Elias sighed inwardly. My impossible charm. What a burden.

He obediently opened his mouth again and extended the tip of his tongue. His breath was warm and clean against the air. His mouth was flushed with healthy color, soft pink deepening toward red, and the small wound stood out more clearly now that the blood had been swallowed away.

Victoria unscrewed the ointment.

She always gave Elias the impression of a classical beauty, and her movements matched that impression. Even a small action like opening a tube looked unhurried in her hands. She squeezed out a little white ointment, then placed it on her own fingertip.

Her smile faded after that.

The change made her look more serious, almost proper, which only made the next moment feel more wrong.

She reached out and, without warning, lightly caught his tongue between her fingers. With her other hand, she rubbed the ointment onto the small wound.

The sting hit hard enough that Elias instinctively tried to pull back, but Victoria was holding the tip of his tongue. He could not retreat.

Under that sharp irritation, he could only let her finish applying the medicine. Her fingertip moved slowly, circling over the wound with careful pressure, as if she were testing the texture as much as treating him.

After she finished, Victoria finally released him.

A thin strand of moisture clung briefly between her finger and his tongue before it broke in the air. She glanced down at it, her expression calm, and the smile that returned to her mouth was faint enough to pass for nothing if someone wanted to lie to themselves.

Elias was about to stand.

Victoria extended her hand toward him again.

Between her fingers was a slice of salmon.

Elias stopped with one hand braced against the chair. He looked at the fish, then lifted his eyes to her face. Victoria was smiling at him with that same gentle composure, as if nothing about this was strange.

Sure enough, the older a woman got, the more elaborate her games became.

Elias parted his lips. Under Victoria’s gaze, he accepted the slice of salmon from her hand and ate it.

Only then did Victoria withdraw her hand. "You may get up."

Elias finally rose. He hesitated briefly, and a faint flush still climbed into his cheeks despite himself.

When he glanced over, Victoria had already taken a clean warm towel from the side table and was wiping her hands. She cleaned each finger carefully, with no hurry and no missed corner.

A moment earlier, she had treated him like a dog being trained and fed from the hand. Now she had returned to being Victoria Frost again, high above him, composed, and perfectly capable of playing the gentle elder.

"Next time you eat, don’t be so careless," she said.

Victoria set the towel aside and looked at Elias. Her mood was visibly good now, and pleasure threaded itself through her voice. "You did very well. As your reward, and as compensation for letting you get hurt, tell me what you want."

So it really was because he had brought Giselle back.

She had planned to reward him.

But did she need to sound that pleased? Or was the real reason for the reward what had just happened?

Elias let the silence stretch while he thought through the angles.

[Money. Isn’t that what you like most?]

Elias did not deny it. Last time, Victoria gave me money first, so of course I could take it. But I can’t be the one to ask for it.

That would affect the image he was building. The two situations were completely different.

After a few seconds, Elias found the right answer.

"I want..." He paused, then looked at Victoria. "I want a wish from you."

"A wish?" Victoria seemed amused. "Like Aladdin’s lamp?"

Elias nodded, then shook his head. "I won’t ask for anything too excessive. I just may need your help when the time comes."

Victoria gave a small nod. "All right."

She agreed so quickly that Elias was the one who froze.

Victoria smiled at him. "What is it? Did you think I wouldn’t agree so easily?"

Elias nodded silently.

Victoria stood and walked over to him. She lifted a hand and touched his cheek.

He hesitated, then deliberately pressed his face into her palm.

Victoria’s hand was warm and soft. Her thumb moved lightly against his skin, carrying the same layered meaning as everything else she had done tonight: reward, approval, and training. When she spoke again, her voice had dropped slightly.

"You said it yourself. You won’t ask for anything excessive. Of course I believe you."

Her palm stroked his cheek again, slow enough to make the contact feel deliberate.

"Besides," Victoria said gently, "even if it is a little excessive, how could I refuse a child’s wish?"