Chapter 66: Testing him

Hazel turned toward Caius nervously, but the moment she saw his golden eyes, she froze in place, and the smile on her face almost disappeared. She was sure she wasn’t supposed to see his eyes glowing like that at night, yet the golden light was so clear that she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t noticed it. Even worse, the cold expression on his face made her feel as if she had just walked into a trap she couldn’t escape from.

"Whose male scent is that?" Caius asked, his deep voice cutting through the quiet room.

Hazel froze again as Ryan’s words suddenly came back to her mind. Stay still and let my scent remain on you. I want to see how sensitive the white wolf is.

Oh, that troublesome man!

She had completely forgotten about Ryan’s little experiment, and now she was standing in front of Caius, who looked as if he could tear someone apart without even leaving the room. Still, instead of panicking, Hazel forced herself to chuckle as she tried to act as if there was nothing unusual about the situation.

"Ahh, that?" she asked, waving one hand carelessly. "A friend. He was just very happy to see me, so he hugged me."

Caius raised a brow, and even though his golden eyes had returned to their normal silver colour, Hazel could still feel the chilling sensation coming from him. His expression hadn’t changed much, but there was something about the way he looked at her that made her wonder whether he was waiting for her to say something else.

"And he hugged you?" he asked.

Hazel opened her mouth, but no words came out at first because she hadn’t expected him to question her so closely about a simple hug. It wasn’t as if Ryan had done anything wrong by greeting her, and Caius had never told her that she wasn’t allowed to hug another man. Besides, if he didn’t want her, why should he care about who hugged her?

"Yes," she finally answered, lifting her chin a little. "Since I have no one to care for me, I suppose I should be grateful when someone else does."

She deliberately added the last part, hoping to see some reaction from him, but Caius remained quiet. His face gave nothing away, and Hazel couldn’t tell whether her words had annoyed him or whether he simply didn’t care enough to respond. After a few seconds of silence, she decided that she wasn’t going to waste her time trying to understand a man who could make a whole conversation feel like an interrogation.

Her eyes moved toward the portrait behind him, and she smiled as she looked at the beautiful blonde woman in the frame.

"Your mother is beautiful," she commented, trying to change the subject.

Caius glanced at her before returning his gaze to the portrait. "No one is allowed in this room."

Hazel scoffed, almost laughing at his words. "Thank heavens I’m no nobody to you," she replied, shrugging as if his warning meant nothing to her.

However, the moment she finished speaking, something Emily told her during their conversation came back to her mind. She remembered how they had discussed Caius’s strange behaviour around women and how Hazel had insisted that he probably knew nothing about romance. According to her, the man was so unfamiliar with love that he might not even understand what it meant to have a woman close to him.

Looking at Caius standing quietly in front of his mother’s portrait, Hazel suddenly became curious about something.

What if Emily is right?

She bit her lower lip as she studied his back, trying to guess what he was feeling while looking at the picture. She couldn’t tell whether he was lonely, sad, or simply lost in his memories, because Caius had a special talent for keeping every emotion hidden behind his cold expression. Even when she stood close to him, she sometimes felt as if she were trying to understand a locked door without knowing where the key was kept.

An idea suddenly came to her, and a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Ah, Caius," she called softly.

He didn’t answer, but she was certain he could hear her.

Hazel glanced down at herself before pretending to notice something wrong with her clothes. She loosened the top of her dress slightly, exposing part of her breasts as if she were trying to check an injury. Since the room was filled with warm golden light, there was no way Caius would fail to see what she was doing, and she was curious to know whether he would react like an ordinary man.

"I fell down yesterday, and I think I hurt myself here," she explained, rubbing the skin close to her nipple as she pretended to examine the spot. "No wonder I’ve been feeling uncomfortable."

Caius turned his head toward her, and for the first time since she entered the room, his expression showed something close to disbelief.

He stared at her for a moment, clearly trying to understand what she was doing, while Hazel continued pretending to be completely innocent. She had almost exposed one of her breasts in front of the most dangerous man in the immortal world, yet she behaved as if she were standing in front of a female doctor who had asked her to show an injury.

Was this girl even aware of what she was doing?

Caius could see perfectly well, even at night, and the warm light in the room made it impossible for her to hide what she had exposed. Yet Hazel seemed surprisingly comfortable with the idea of him seeing her like that, which was something he hadn’t expected from a woman who had once trembled whenever he came near her.

After rubbing the spot for a few seconds, Hazel slowly raised her head to look at him, only to discover that he had already turned his attention back to his mother’s portrait.

He was looking at the picture as if she didn’t exist.