The Seductive Pretty Boy of the Matriarchal World-Chapter 90: Cat Ears

Chapter 90: Cat Ears

Lila Morgan stole a glance at Elias from the corner of her eye as he settled into the passenger seat.

She started the car, turned the key, heard the engine catch, and was just about to pull away when Elias said, "Do you even know where you’re going?"

Lila looked at him, confused. "Where else would I be taking you?"

Wasn’t the obvious answer back to campus?

"To your employer’s house."

Elias tugged the seat belt across his chest and clicked it into place, then turned toward her with one brow slightly raised. "You do know where that is, right?"

"I know where it is, but..." Lila trailed off.

Without her employer’s permission, taking the very man she had been ordered to track straight to that employer’s home was not transportation. It was professional suicide with a leather interior.

She was not delivering him anywhere. She was driving her own job to its grave.

Elias cut through her hesitation with ease. "Your employer already told you to follow every order I give."

Then he lifted the fuzzy headband in his hand and gave it a little shake. "Besides, I’ve got cat ears. What exactly are you afraid of?"

Lila had no answer to that.

The way he said it made the cat ears sound less like an accessory and more like some kind of ceremonial pardon. A get-out-of-consequences pass made of faux fur and bad intentions.

She watched as Elias lowered his gaze to the headband, studied it for a few seconds, and then slowly set it on top of his blond hair.

"Check it for me," he said. "Is it straight?"

He was speaking to her, but he was not looking at her. His attention stayed fixed on the headband as he adjusted it with both hands, carefully, almost earnestly, the concentration in his face so oddly sincere that Lila’s heart kicked hard against her ribs.

She made the mistake of looking properly.

That only made it worse.

She turned her eyes away with effort. "It’s straight."

It really was a pardon.

Elias nodded, satisfied. "Good. Drive."

On the road, System Theta spoke up.

[Host, didn’t you say you wouldn’t make a move on anyone outside the targets?]

Elias smiled faintly. I did say that.

[Then the way she’s acting...]

System Theta faltered.

Now that it thought about it, Elias had not actually done much after those first deliberate provocations. Past the initial bait, he had been almost annoyingly normal. Lila’s reactions had grown on their own. She was the one failing to restrain herself.

Elias gave a soft sigh. I already warned her. I told her not to fall for me, because it would make her miserable. If she refuses to listen, that’s hardly my fault. I’m just too charming.

System Theta fell silent.

There was something infuriating about the way he said it. Worse, it was not even entirely wrong. The system did think the sentence carried an unmistakable streak of narcissism, but there was no chance it was brave enough to say that out loud.

Elias used the ride to continue "sincerely" harassing Giselle Frost.

He sent more messages. He called again. He kept up the pressure with admirable commitment, making sure every action on record supported the image of a desperate, clinging mess who could not let go.

By the end of it, her phone shut off again.

Only then did he finally put his own phone away and lean back in the seat.

Fine.

If she had the guts, she could spend the rest of her life refusing to answer him.

When they reached the estate, Elias looked up through the windshield and let out a low sound of surprise.

"So this is the Blackwood residence?"

It was not just large. Large barely covered it. The property had the sort of scale that stopped feeling like architecture and started feeling like a statement against the rest of humanity. More striking than that, though, was the quiet. Despite being surrounded by city life, the place felt insulated from it, as if someone had cut a clean circle of silence out of the world and built a mansion inside.

Lila, still at the wheel, explained, "Ms. Blackwood bought up the surrounding area to keep it quiet."

Elias stared for a second.

Wonderful.

That was yet another reason for the wealthy to be hauled up under streetlamps.

Only a world like this one could allow something so absurd without choking on it. But then again, this was a melodramatic cesspit of a reality. Everything bent itself into shape for the sake of status, obsession, and narrative convenience.

"Do I stop here?" Lila asked.

Elias shook his head. "Take me to the back."

She did not ask why. Mostly because she had learned that curiosity, around Elias, tended to become regret almost immediately.

By the time they reached the rear entrance, she had avoided looking at him for so long that her neck felt stiff. The cat ears made him look almost offensively cute, all soft lines and bright hair and obedient little fluff. Unfortunately, she knew exactly what kind of malicious soul lived under that pretty skin, which ruined every innocent impression before it could settle.

At the back of the property stood a fenced garden enclosed by iron railings. Elias got out and took it in at a glance.

Then he frowned.

"No cameras?"

He had expected sneaking into the Blackwood residence to require a real plan. Timing, blind spots, contingencies, maybe a bribe. Instead, it was looking more and more like all he needed to do was climb over the fence and stroll in.

Lila stepped out after him. "No thief is stupid enough to steal from here."

The statement was not an exaggeration. Anyone reckless enough to try would not be committing property crime. They would be arranging their own disappearance.

There was also the simpler explanation that Serena Blackwood had never felt the need to spend extra money on security theater when fear already did the work for her.

Elias nodded. Arrogant, controlling, and convinced the world would obey on principle. That did fit Serena.

"Although I do have another theory," he said.

Lila looked at him. "What theory?"

He smiled and enunciated each word with leisurely care. "Maybe it was built this way so I could sneak in for an affair."

Lila said nothing.

She was willing to admit that Elias had enough charm to derail better judgment, but she refused to believe this estate had been designed over a decade ago for the exclusive purpose of accommodating his future sex life.

Elias was only joking anyway.

He walked up to the railing and measured the height with his eyes. After a few seconds, he came to the obvious conclusion.

There was no way he was getting over it cleanly on his own.

"Come here," he said, curling two fingers in a beckoning motion.

Lila obeyed before she even thought about whether she wanted to. She moved behind him, then caught herself halfway through and felt a flash of annoyance.

Why was she being this obedient?

The way he spoke to her, the way he summoned her over with barely a glance, all of it carried the unmistakable air of someone calling a trained animal to heel.

If Elias had heard that thought, he probably would have smiled and told her, very gently, that she still was not qualified to count as one.

Trying to recover some dignity, Lila asked stiffly, "What do you want?"

Elias stood in front of the railing and said, without turning around, "Give me a push. Right on the ass."

Lila inhaled so sharply it almost hurt.

For one wild second she came very close to turning around and sprinting back to the car. If she actually laid a hand on Elias like that, she had a feeling she would be found weighted down at the bottom of a river before midnight.

Then he glanced back at her.

The look in his eyes was openly sly, bright with mischief. "Look how scared you got. I’m kidding. I don’t let people touch me that casually."

His gaze dropped, assessing the distance again. "Stand here, bend down, and give me a step."

So that was the plan.

He wanted to use her like a foothold to get over the fence.

It still carried the same insulting undertone as before, but compared to the previous suggestion, it somehow felt reasonable.

Lila stepped closer. She gripped the railings with both hands and bent forward into a sturdy crouch, awkwardly resembling a schoolyard prop in some forgotten game. "Like this?"

"Perfect."

The answer had barely left his mouth before she felt his weight descend.

One foot pressed against the middle of her back. It was light, controlled, there and gone in an instant. Then the pressure vanished, and when she looked up, Elias was already perched atop the railing.

He sat there effortlessly, balanced as if he belonged above ground instead of on it.

"Thanks," he said, smiling down at her and giving a small wave.

Lila stared.

Even for her, that climb would not have been easy. Elias, by contrast, had made it look almost laughably simple. Quick, precise, light on his body in a way that barely seemed human.

He really did move like a cat.

"All right," he said. "Go wait in the car."

He dismissed her with the same casual flick of attitude someone might use on a mosquito.

Lila opened her mouth, thought better of it, and backed away.

Elias, for his part, had no intention of leaving witnesses around for what came next. He was standing at the edge of something important. This was the moment Liora Voss was supposed to truly fall for him. There was no reason to let an outsider contaminate it.

He pulled out his phone and typed.

Elias: I’m waiting in the back garden of your giant mansion. Come find me.~

Elsewhere inside the estate, Liora lay across a sofa and glanced down at the message.

She read it twice.

Right now, Elias was in the back garden?

Her first instinct was immediate disbelief.

It sounded exactly like the kind of thing he would send after a good meal, just to entertain himself. A little lie tossed into the air for the pleasure of watching someone react. This was the sort of nonsense he treated as a pastime.

Liora set the phone down.

She was absolutely not going to indulge him.

"Second Miss, where are you going this late?"

Liora was already on her feet.

"To the back garden," she said smoothly. "I’m going out for a walk."