The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 196. I Let Them Come to Me (It’s Grinding Time!)

Chapter 196: 196. I Let Them Come to Me (It’s Grinding Time!)

The afternoon happened the way final afternoons on islands happened, which was with the specific quality of things that were ending and knew they were. The assessment work was complete, the documentation was packed, the camp was organized for the next morning’s extraction, and there was nothing left that required immediate attention.

Rex went to the shoreline with the fishing line rather than the bow, which was the version of fishing that required less active work and more sitting near the water, and he sat on the dark volcanic sand and let the afternoon be what it was.

’For now... I’ll just enjoy this moment while making them think about what just happened earlier.’

He was aware, without turning around, that both Talyra and Aisella were watching him from the camp.

He knew this because he had known where both of them were at all times for three days, and the awareness had become second nature rather than intentional. He was also accustomed to the constant surveillance of those who held the greatest desire for him, and he didn’t require direct confirmation.

He let them watch.

After a while, he heard two sets of footsteps on the sand behind him. They were coming closer with the kind of energy that comes from people who have made a decision together and are now acting on it.

’Now THIS is where the REAL fun begins...’

Talyra was sitting next to him. And Aisella was on his right.

Neither of them said anything right away, which was the right thing to do because the afternoon was doing the talking better than any opening could have.

Talyra finally said, "There’s one more day after today."

"Tomorrow morning." Rex said, "The ship comes at seven."

"Before seven, then," she said, and the way she said it had nothing to do with the ship.

Rex stared at the ocean and waited.

Talyra took a breath, the kind of breath she took when she was about to say something she had been working on and had decided it was time to say it.

"I’m... uh... not the kind of person who says things she doesn’t mean." She said, "You should know that by now."

"Yes, I know," said Rex.

"So when I say this," she said, "I need you to take it as exactly what it is and not as something smaller."

She was looking at the water instead of him, and the way she looked at the water was like someone who didn’t want to see themselves say something true. "Rex..."

"I love you... not the way I love things that are cool or people I like being around, but the other kind of love..." She paused just to take deep breaths. "The kind I didn’t think I’d find in three days but did..."

Rex stared at her.

At the same time, she turned to look at him. Her face showed that she was fully committed to something and wasn’t waiting for an answer to decide if it was worth it.

"I know... it’s kind of quick for me to confess," she said. "I know this isn’t the right time or place, and it probably isn’t the right anything."

"But I’d rather tell you here on the beach than take it back to Aethelgard and have you find out the way people always do."

"I know," Rex said, looking into her eyes.

She looked at him with an expression that conveyed both understanding and a desire for something more.

"I know," he said again, this time with the tone he used when he meant the whole thing, "and I’m not going to make you smaller for it."

Talyra looked at him for a little longer, then back at the water. Her jaw was set in the same way it was when she was done with something and wasn’t going back to it.

Aisella had been quiet through all of this with the specific quality of someone who was listening to something important and was being present for it rather than preparing their own version.

When Talyra finished, Aisella was quiet for another moment.

Then she said, in the voice she used when she was being most precise, "I have a different relationship with certainty than Talyra does."

Rex waited.

"I don’t come to conclusions until I have enough proof," she said. "And I hold working models rather than fixed beliefs about things I don’t have enough data to confirm."

She stopped for a moment. "I’ve been using this working model since the second day of the trip, and I have enough data now."

Rex gave her a look.

"Rex... I..."

"I love you," she said, and the way she expressed it reflected her sincerity in all her words, which was straightforward and carried the full weight of meaning rather than being diluted by qualifications.

"I don’t know what to do with that yet, and I don’t think I need to know right now... but the working model is no longer a working model."

She gave him the non-diagnostic look that Rex had been watching change over three days. He now understood that this look was specifically for him, not for patients, research subjects, or colleagues; it was based on who he was and what had happened between them on this island.

"You held up a part of the cliff with one hand," she said, "and your first thought was to make sure we had enough space to step back."

Rex stared at her.

"That’s not the reason," she said quickly, with the precision of someone correcting a potential misreading. "That’s not why I love you... but that’s just the moment I accepted that I did."

Rex let the afternoon settle around all three of them. The sound of the ocean, the light and dark volcanic sand that was still warm from the sun, and everything that was going to happen after the ship came at seven tomorrow morning.

He thought about the maximum desire, Avatar Creation, five thousand energy points, and everything else that was going to happen.

He thought about two girls who were sitting next to him and had just told him something true. They were waiting for whatever came next.

Rex struggled to suppress a smirk, knowing it would reveal everything he had been working for.

"Yeah... that’s enough proof for what’s to come."

"I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear," he said. "This is not the version that simplifies the situation."

Neither of them said anything.

He looked at the water and said, "What I will tell you is that what happened on this island was real... I don’t usually say things I don’t mean either."

Talyra was quiet, like someone who had received something and was processing it instead of responding right away.

Aisella was also quiet, like someone who had filed information correctly and was pleased with how it turned out.

They sat on the beach until the sun went down and the light from the water changed from bright white to amber, which was everywhere in the dungeon. The island looked like something from an older world, and the three of them sat in it together without having to change it into anything else.

...

Rex was lying on his back in the shelter while looking at the roof, and he was already showing his evil manipulative smirk. ’Now then... let’s just wait until they come with their desire.’

And then he heard the footsteps.

’Bingo...’

He had been lying there for about twenty minutes, listening to the sounds of the island at night. After three days, the sounds he had heard before were just background noise, and the sounds he hadn’t heard before were information.

The pack elder lived to the north and made a certain kind of low, regular call that Rex had put in the "not a threat" folder. The sound of the waterfall reached the camp at a certain volume depending on which way the wind was blowing.

Tonight, the sound was clear, which meant the wind was coming from the inside.

The footsteps disrupted the island’s usual ambiance. Two individuals were approaching from the camp’s direction toward the shelter. They had made a decision and were now on their way.

Rex remained lying in place, staring up at the ceiling of the shelter as the footsteps grew louder. The opening of the shelter allowed a shift in the atmosphere. The cooler night air from outside flowed in, blending with the warmer air that had accumulated inside.

Rex looked around.

Talyra and Aisella were standing at the shelter entrance.

They were dressed far less than they had been during the day, which was the first thing that stood out. They stood as if they had made a decision together and were now acting on it, yet neither of them was taking any action.

Yes, they were wearing only their underwear.

They remained there, much like people do when they have moved past the point of being able to perform.

Talyra looked at him with the same look she had had since the cliff scene, but with a layer of the afternoon added to it.

What was in it was not doubt.

Aisella gave him a look that wasn’t diagnostic, but in this light and in this situation, it was doing a lot more than any diagnostic.

"We’re sorry if we interrupt your sleep, Rex..."

"We wanted to express our gratitude for you," Talyra said, and the way she said it made the sentence mean more than what it said. "You’ve done everything to save us from the dungeon and even the undead."

Rex looked at each of them.

"For everything," Aisella added, finishing the sentence like she did most things, with the extra detail that made the meaning clear.

Rex sat up slowly.

The island’s night enveloped the shelter as it had for the past three nights; the fire at the camp’s center had turned to embers, the stars remained unchanged, and the ship was scheduled to arrive tomorrow at seven.

Tonight was not tomorrow.

Rex looked at Talyra and then at Aisella, speaking in the tone he reserved for serious matters.

"Come in."