Chapter 161: The Last Time

The word had barely left Elias’s mouth before he raised a hand and slapped hard toward Serena’s face.

Serena caught his wrist steadily.

Her expression looked almost helpless. "What are you do... hiss."

For one instant, her face twisted. Her slender brows drew tight.

Elias did not have only one hand. He did not only have hands, either.

He had used this move before. Now he used it again, driving his knee hard into Serena’s stomach. The blow forced her to release him on instinct.

Elias sat up at once.

He glared at Liora with red eyes and tore his ruined voice open.

"Get out!"

Liora’s expression did not change.

She was about to turn and leave when she saw Serena’s face darken. Serena grabbed Elias by the ankle, stopping him from climbing off the bed.

Elias looked like he had gone mad.

He lifted his other leg and started kicking at Serena, forcing her to get up quickly and catch that leg too. Then Serena moved upward, caught his waist, and held him in place.

But Elias had been pushed too far.

He fought violently in Serena’s arms with a strength she had never felt from him before. Hands, feet, even his teeth, everything became a weapon against the woman who had hurt him.

Serena’s face stayed blank.

Even now, she kept part of her attention on Liora, watching for a reaction.

What she got was still useless.

There was a faint smile in Liora’s eyes. No need to think too hard about what she was enjoying.

Irritation rose in Serena’s chest.

She gave Liora a look telling her to leave, then lowered her voice beside Elias’s ear.

"That’s enough. Stop making trouble."

"Screw you!"

Elias cursed her directly.

But the words had almost no bite because his voice had already cracked with tears.

So he really was angry.

This was the most violent reaction he had shown so far.

Even now, Serena still did not think she had done anything wrong.

In her eyes, this was easy to solve.

A conflict that started in bed could naturally be solved in bed.

Serena used a little strength, and Elias fell back onto the mattress again. His eyes were terribly red and filled with tears. Pain and hatred were written all over them.

The more he looked like this, the happier Serena became.

If he was this hurt, then he cared about her.

Hatred or anger, either one was born because of her.

It had nothing to do with Liora.

Serena had already proven that Liora had not stolen him behind her back. Even if that had not been proven, Elias’s reaction was enough to show Liora would never have a chance.

That was right.

It should be like this.

He should be loyal to her like this. He should stay by her side forever. No betrayal. No deception. No hiding.

If he could do that, she did not mind giving him a lifetime of wealth and comfort.

Serena smiled faintly.

She leaned down, kissing the tears from Elias’s face while coaxing him.

"Eli, I was wrong. Don’t cry."

A sudden pain cut across her jaw.

Serena lifted a hand and touched it. Her fingers came away slick.

It was blood.

Elias’s desperate cry followed.

"Get away from me!"

Serena restrained him easily. Just as he was about to scream, she blocked the sound.

She had not guarded against the possibility of Elias turning vicious and biting her tongue.

There was no need.

She knew this body too well. It was easy for her to make him collapse, to make his body betray its owner’s will until he could not move.

Looking at Elias as he cried silently from helplessness, Serena felt a stir of pity.

She softened her voice.

"This is the last time. I’ll never do this again."

Elias said nothing.

He only raised his arm and covered his eyes, as if he did not want to see Serena, or perhaps did not want Serena to see the desire his body could not hide from her.

His mouth returned to how it had been in the beginning.

Locked tight.

No sound escaped him.

Serena sighed softly. "Eli, I really was wrong."

She apologized again.

Before this, she had never lowered her head to anyone again and again like this.

But Serena did not find it shameful.

A boy like him needed to be handled with care. And only by admitting fault like this could she possibly make his anger fade.

Finally, when his body broke past control, Elias’s arm dropped abruptly from his eyes and went to his mouth.

He bit down hard on himself, letting out only a muffled sound.

He refused to show Serena even the smallest trace of pleasure.

Serena sighed again.

She lay down beside Elias and slowly pulled him into her arms, feeling their heartbeats against each other while she quietly endured the pain in her own body.

Both of them were hurt.

Serena had not struck Elias.

The bruises on him were all from his own fists and kicks rebounding against her, from his fragile body hurting itself while trying to hurt her.

He was too delicate.

For him, hitting someone meant wounding the enemy a thousand and taking eight hundred back.

"Serena Blackwood..."

After resting for a while, Elias spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Tell me. Were you suspecting something?"

At an angle Elias could not see, Serena’s eyes tightened slightly.

He had guessed?

But he had no proof.

Serena let out a natural note of confusion. "Suspecting what?"

Silence settled over the room again.

In the end, Serena spoke once more.

"Eli, what happened today was my fault. I shouldn’t have agreed to such an excessive request from Liora without asking you first. But in my eyes, Liora almost counts as half a man. You don’t know how many relationships she had before this, and every single one was with a woman. I assumed there wouldn’t be any problem, but..."

"Enough."

Elias interrupted her.

His voice had suddenly become very calm.

"Listen to me, okay?"

Serena looked into his clear eyes and faintly sensed something wrong.

She did not know where the problem was.

So she nodded.

"Mm. Say it."

Elias spoke slowly, his voice still rough.

"Maybe I’m cheap. Or maybe I believed too easily from the start. Serena Blackwood, do you know what I thought that night after I signed the contract with you, when you were going to take my first time?"

"On the surface, I looked disgusted."

"But inside, I was a little relieved."

"Because you were so gentle. Even if you went too far in bed, in daily life, I thought being with someone as gentle as you might not be the most hopeless situation. Even if I really didn’t want it. Even if I really hated you."

"But later, I understood."

"Your tenderness was all an act."

Serena wanted to say something.

Elias smiled faintly.

"I only learned later that the way someone behaves in bed is sometimes that person’s real nature."

"So when you treated me that way afterward, I wasn’t surprised at all."

"But if that’s true, why did you become so gentle to me again later..."