Chapter 315: Jealous? [2]

“Why would I be?” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest and rolling my eyes. “Do whatever you want.”

Cassandra’s smirk widened, dark and playful.

“Are you sure? Because I just told you I spent forty-eight hours in another man’s company, releasing my stress…”

She gave me one last lingering, mischievous glance before turning on her heel and slipping into the adjoining washroom to strip off her heavy outer armor.

I huffed, leaning back against the leather couch.

But despite my indifference, a sudden, tight knot pulled violently at the center of my chest.

My breath hitched slightly as a cold spike of residual, bitter possessiveness flared through my ribs.

Tch. Damn original Jin, I cursed internally, pressing a palm against my sternum.

You pathetic, jealous bastard… stop reacting to her mind games.

A few minutes later, the door to the washroom creaked open.

Cassandra stepped back into the dimly lit bedroom, having discarded her silver-trimmed commander’s coat and heavy pauldrons.

She now wore only a loose, dark linen tunic, her silver hair damp and cascading freely over her shoulders.

She walked over to the mahogany side table, taking a crystal decanter and pouring two glasses of amber liquor.

“If you’re wondering who the lucky gentleman was,” Cassandra said, her tone as dry as bone as she walked over and handed me a glass, “it was Commander Kaelen of the Fourth Auxiliary.”

I raised an eyebrow, accepting the glass.

“Kaelen? The chief of supply logistics?”

“Former chief,” Cassandra corrected, taking a slow sip. “He was selling troop movement blueprints and ward frequencies to the demonic vanguard. I caught his courier two nights ago.”

She walked over to the couch, sinking into the plush cushions beside me with a long, heavy exhale that seemed to drain the rigid military posture straight out of her frame.

“So… that was your idea of ‘releasing stress’?” I asked, putting two and two together. “Forty-eight hours in a black-site dungeon?”

“Interrogation, mostly,” Cassandra murmured, a dark, vicious glint flickering in her stormy grey eyes. “Though after he broke, I tied him to a posts in the lower training ring and let my lieutenants use his mana-shielded body as a live punching bag to blow off steam before the summit. It did wonders for morale.”

Of course, I thought dryly, taking a sip of the warm, burning liquor. Her idea of stress relief is literal, brutal physical torture.

Cassandra let out another long sigh, setting her glass on the low table. She reached down, unbuckling the high leather straps of her combat boots and sliding them off her feet.

The moment her boots hit the floor, I saw the state of her feet. They were painfully reddened, swollen, and raw from forty-eight continuous hours of standing, walking, and channeling high-density frost magic without a single second of rest.

Without asking for permission, Cassandra raised her legs and laid her bare, inflamed feet directly across my lap.

She leaned her head back against the leather cushions, her eyelids fluttering shut as a soft, helpless sound of pure relief escaped her throat.

“Ah… gods…” she whispered, her usual domineering demeanor dissolving into complete, bone-deep exhaustion.

I looked down at her reddened arches, then up at her pale, tired face.

The sharp, terrifying Commander of the Vanguard was gone, replaced by a woman who had been holding the crumbling frontline together through pure, unyielding stubbornness.

Despite her unhinged, dangerous tendencies… a quiet, genuine flicker of pity stirred in my chest.

She really was pushing herself to the absolute limit.

I let out a long, quiet sigh and reached forward, wrapping my hand firmly around her slender ankle.

Her foot was icy cold to the touch, the delicate muscles beneath her skin tight and strained from two straight days of high-intensity mana output and endless standing.

I set her heel on my knee and wrapped my warm palms around her arch.

“You’re really pushing yourself to the limit, aren’t you?” I murmured, applying steady, calculated pressure with my thumbs along the knotted tendons of her sole.

Cassandra let out a sharp, involuntary gasp.

Her shoulders instantly dropped three inches as the suffocating tension coiled inside her body snapped.

A long, soft sigh of pure, unfiltered relief escaping her parted lips. The frigid, unyielding aura of the Vanguard Commander melted away, leaving only a bone-weary woman sinking into the unexpected comfort.

“Mmm…” she breathed softly, her silver hair spilling over the dark leather cushion as her toes flexed against my palm.

“A bit higher… right there.”

I channeled a microscopic trace of mana into my hands, letting the warm energy sink deep into her strained muscles to dissolve the lingering fatigue.

Cassandra let out another quiet, shuddering exhale, her eyelids fluttering half-shut as her long silver hair spilled like molten silk across the dark leather cushions.

“You’ve gotten far better at this,” she murmured, her voice laced with a thick, sleepy purr. “Or perhaps… my sweet brother simply missed me far more than he’s willing to admit.”

I didn’t replied, just kept going then…

…

My hands froze mid-stroke, thumbs buried deep into the soft arch of her foot.

The quiet bedroom suddenly felt suffocatingly small.

In the dim, amber glow of the oil lamps, the soft, rhythmic gasps escaping her parted lips echoed off the dark mahogany walls with terrifying clarity.

It started as a subtle breathlessness, but within seconds, it melted into low, involuntary moans.

Are you actually kidding me right now?! I screamed internally, my face burning as I stared down at her reddened soles.

I looked up at her face. Her head was tilted back against the leather cushion, her long silver hair spilling wildly across her shoulders.

Her stormy grey eyes were half-lidded, heavy and hooded, gleaming with an intoxicating mix of genuine exhaustion and dark, wicked pleasure.

She wasn’t just enjoying the physical relief, she knew exactly what those sounds were doing to the lingering, traitorous chemistry of this body.

“Cassandra,” I growled, my voice dropping an octave into a tight, warning edge. “Pull yourself together. Someone outside is going to hear you.”

“Let them listen…” she breathed softly, a low, shuddering sigh trembling through her chest as she flexed her

toes against my palm.

“They wouldn’t dare open that door anyway.”

“I’m serious. One more sound and I’m dropping your feet on the floor,” I threatened, though my fingers betrayed me by continuing to rub out a stubborn knot along her heel.

Cassandra let out another quiet, breathless hum, leaning forward just enough to look down at me through her dark lashes.

A slow, provocative smirk curved her lips, completely unbothered by my threat.

“You can threaten me all you like, Jin,” she murmured, her voice thick with a sleepy, velvety purr. “But your hands aren’t stopping, are they? You can pretend to be annoyed… but your mana is practically wrapping around me like a blanket.”

I gritted my teeth, digging my thumb a little harder into a tight pressure point near her ankle to punish her teasing.

“Ah—!”

She gasped sharply, a sudden, delicious sting radiating up her leg. Instead of pulling away, her hips subtly shifted on the couch, her other foot sliding further into my lap, pressing her warm heel flush against my thigh.

“Ruder than before…” Cassandra whispered, though her eyes fluttered shut again, a contented, thoroughly ruined sigh escaping her throat.

“Do it again.”

I let out a heavy, defeated breath, staring at the ceiling for a brief second to pray for whatever sanity I had left.

“You’re unbelievable,” I muttered, shaking my head as I resumed the steady, firm strokes, infusing just enough warm physical mana to flush out the last of the swelling.

“I’m tired, Jin,” Cassandra said quietly after a long moment, the provocative tease in her tone finally giving way to a rare, heavy vulnerability. Her voice sounded small against the quiet crackle of the lamp fire.

“Two days of non-stop casting… keeping the wards stable while the lords play their political games… it’s exhausting.”

She slowly opened her eyes, looking down at me with a soft, lingering gaze that lacked all her usual cold aggression.

“Don’t stop yet,” she requested softly, resting her chin in her hand as she watched my fingers work.

“Just stay here with me tonight.”