Novel Full Chapter 423: A Malicious Kiss [I]
Chapter 423: A Malicious Kiss [I]
Even after Michael was gone, I didn’t wrench my hand away. Why should I have? It felt unfair.
She was the one clearly trying to tempt me, so why wasn’t I supposed to bite back a little?
I splayed my fingers around her throat and started squeezing slowly, sensually, like I was massaging her, putting and releasing soft pressure on her carotid artery.
I felt her pulse racing.
We stayed there in the cabana for a while, until the light evening breeze turned chilly and the dark sky above was ignited by billions of starry constellations.
After gathering herself, or deciding she had entertained me long enough, Juliana pushed her body off mine.
When she did, she turned and brought her nose dangerously close to mine... close enough for me to count the silver threads of her eyelashes.
For a second that was both terrifying and exhilarating, I thought she was going to bite me. Or kiss me. With her, the margin of error between those two outcomes was razor-thin.
Her breath, smelling faintly of the sweet mint tea she’d stolen from my tray earlier, fanned irresistibly across my lips.
I gulped without meaning to. My stupid head was dizzy, my heart giddy, and my soul completely awestruck by how sickeningly beautiful her eyes were. In their azure depths, I could see myself.
My own glistening golden eyes were heavy-lidded, my breath all but laboured, my otherwise insouciantly charming face full of indescribable yearning — hungry and humiliating in its intensity.
The reflection was too much for me. I couldn’t bear to see all my deepest, most amorous desires laid bare. I had to flinch away from her face and from mine all the same.
I didn’t tear my gaze off her completely though, and so I could see the faintest hint of perverse satisfaction silently stealing over her expression.
She knew exactly what she was doing to me.
And she was winning.
...At least until I started laughing.
The corners of my mouth curled up high into an amused sneer... and I started laughing.
The girl before me was left utterly flummoxed at the sudden shift in my demeanor that even she didn’t see coming. Her sharp eyebrows contorted together into a frown.
Her perplexity only fueled my delight, the laughter bubbling up from my chest before spilling over into the quiet night.
"You’re so cute," I told Juliana upon calming down a little, practiced condescension dripping from my tone as I reached up and rubbed the underside of her chin. "You think you have me all figured out, don’t you, my lovely Shadow?"
The sheer audacity of the gesture, like I was petting an oversized house cat, instantly shattered whatever remained of the heavy tension between us.
Juliana didn’t move. Her face didn’t show any more surprise than it already had, but the temperature under the cabana suddenly felt like it had dropped twenty degrees in a single second.
Yeah.
Even repressed, her killing intent was mind-bogglingly fierce. I had no doubt she could make an ordinary human pass out with nothing but her bloodlust.
And even so, it had little effect on me.
"When did you piece it together?" I started, eager to capitalize on this lapse in her defense. "The slip in our oaths. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what you were doing."
Juliana was silent, long enough to make me think she was going to ignore me. Then she surprised me by answering.
How dramatic could one girl possibly be?
"The Night Sanctuary," she said. "You picked me up, took me away from a beast because my leg was hurt. Remember? Then you dropped me down."
I blinked at her. Now it was my turn to be surprised. Two reasons.
First: she wasn’t denying it. I thought she’d try to keep up appearances.
I guess it was nice to know she didn’t want to insult my intelligence, though I myself certainly wanted to.
Because, second: I was astonished that it only took her that much to find a loophole in our oaths.
If you don’t remember, this was the oath I’m talking about:
[For the next three years, I vow to not harm the other party, directly or indirectly, or act against their interests through malicious intent.]
We had written it in our blood on the Slate of Ten Commandments.
At the time, I thought I had covered the basics. Since the Slate only allowed a certain number of words in an oath, I had to cram the rules of our pledge as clearly as possible.
But perhaps it wasn’t clear enough. Perhaps I left it too vague.
Perhaps I wasn’t cautious enough.
"So while I was saving your life, you were looking for a way to stab me in the back?" I spat the bitter venom rising in my gut like bile.
I didn’t know why I felt betrayed.
I tried to keep the sneer intact on my face, tried to keep the hurt away from my voice and make this a witty and sassy and intelligent confrontation.
But I couldn’t.
I had foreseen the possibility of Juliana trying to wrestle free of my control. I knew I couldn’t possibly prepare for everything.
Yet to think this was the angle she decided to strike from, this was the game she decided to play...
Worse, she didn’t even look remotely remorseful.
"Come now," she whispered, taunting and teasing and loving and affectionate all at once. Her smile had returned, and I liked it not one bit. "Don’t think of me as ungrateful. I am glad you saved me. But are you sure you’re not hurt that I figured it out before you?"
Of course, I was hurt at that too.
The loophole was in the wording, if you haven’t realized it yet.
Malicious intent.
Which meant as long as the intent was not malicious, we could very well harm one another.
A paradoxical logic, and so I didn’t even think of it. But here, Juliana was proving once again how limited my vision truly was against a real genius.
I don’t think I need to spell out her manipulation, do I?
Right after we rescued her and Alexia in the Noctveil Wilds, she had begun her work. It started small.
Meaningful glances and intimate touches. Then outright seduction and playful flirting. After I got used to her presence and we returned, she started pulling back. Classic lovebombing, I’d say.
Looking back, I don’t think everything that happened was part of her plan. She was obviously not in full control either, like the instances when she blushed because I threw her off her game.
But at that time, I had neither the perspective nor the state of mind to separate her genuine reactions from her calculated moves.
At that time, I just wanted to scream at her. I wanted to shout and curse and throw things at her. But I didn’t.
It would have only given her joy.