The Seductive Pretty Boy of the Matriarchal World-Chapter 91: Secret Tryst

Chapter 91: Secret Tryst

Liora refused the butler’s offer to switch on the garden lights and stepped into the back garden alone.

The world dimmed at once. Even so, the darkness was not complete. Stars had spilled themselves across the sky in impossible abundance, and the moon hung bright and watchful above the estate, pouring down enough pale light to silver the paths, the hedges, and the ironwork around the garden.

Using that weak wash of moonlight, Liora let her gaze move over every corner of the grounds.

There was no sign of him.

A faint laugh brushed her lips.

That was exactly why she had not wanted the lights turned on. If this had been another one of Elias’s tricks, another idle message sent after a good meal just to amuse himself, then there was no need to illuminate the emptiness and confirm it too clearly. Better to leave a little room for ambiguity. Better to let the darkness soften the joke.

In any case, she had not truly expected him to be here.

Because she had expected nothing, she felt no disappointment. If anything, she found the whole thing mildly entertaining. For Elias, this sort of nonsense was clearly a pastime, a little game to relieve boredom. There was no reason she could not treat it the same way.

She shook her head and turned to leave.

Then a soft voice drifted through the dark.

"Is that you?"

Liora stopped so abruptly it almost felt like being caught.

She turned toward the sound and saw him at once.

A slim figure sat atop the garden railing, outlined in moonlight. She moved toward him without a sound, heels hushed against the stone, and with every step the shape sharpened until his bright, smiling face came fully into view.

For one unsteady second, Liora felt as though she had been pulled backward through time.

It brought her back to that other night, to the moment she had stood at a distance and watched a boy and a girl bathed in a dreamlike sort of light, like something fragile and staged for somebody else’s happiness. At the time, she had been outside it, the viewer, the one forced to stand offstage and look on.

Now the world had tilted.

She was the one inside the dream.

"Oh, right," Elias said, as if only just remembering. "I brought you a gift."

A thread of curiosity had barely begun to stir in her before he added, "Catch."

Then he jumped.

He did not climb down carefully. He did not test the distance. He just pushed off the railing and dropped straight toward her.

Liora’s heart lurched hard against her ribs.

Her body moved before thought did. She rushed forward on instinct and threw out both arms, catching him against herself in a rush of soft weight and warm breath.

He landed in her embrace as lightly as if he had been made for it.

For a moment she simply held him there.

It felt like gathering silk and moonlight against her chest, like cradling something unreal that ought to have dissolved the instant it touched human skin. Her gaze lifted and settled on the fuzzy cat ears perched on his blond hair, and the whole scene became even less believable.

This really did feel like a dream.

Then Elias lowered his head and spoke beside her ear, his voice soft enough to slip under the skin.

"Do you like your gift?"

Liora froze.

Her heartbeat swelled so violently it turned thick and painful, each thud crowding the next. In that instant she understood exactly what he meant.

The gift was not the headband.

The gift was himself.

"Cat ears," Elias said, pulling back just enough to show her the small, pointed canines in his smile. "Do you want to squeeze them?"

"Yes," Liora answered.

She raised a hand and pinched one of the ears between her fingers.

The thing itself was cheap. Up close it was even worse, flimsy and cold and obviously artificial, the kind of novelty trinket that would have looked ridiculous on almost anyone else. Yet on Elias there was not a trace of awkwardness. Something about the lifted corner of his mouth, the sly brightness in his eyes, the way every look and motion seemed threaded with playful calculation made the absurdity feel natural.

He did not look like a boy wearing cat ears.

He looked like a cat that had learned how to take human shape.

"Ah."

Elias let out a small cry and widened his eyes at her in exaggerated disbelief. "Did you just hit me?"

Liora looked at him for a beat, then her seductive eyes curved into crescents.

The smile in them was impossible to hide, even if the tone she used was perfectly serious. "What if I hadn’t caught you? Wouldn’t I have had the right to hit you for that?"

"I trusted you." He blinked at her and pushed out his lower lip just a little, the expression almost unfair in its softness. "I knew you’d catch me."

The words reached deeper than they should have.

Because he trusted her, he had thrown his body into her arms without hesitation. Because he trusted her, he had handed himself over to her in the most literal way possible.

Was that really how much faith he had in her?

Liora opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Elias slipped neatly out of her embrace.

She reached for him on reflex. Her fingers brushed nothing. He moved too quickly, too lightly, already out of reach.

"Bye," he said with a cheerful little wave. "I’m leaving."

He had come to deliver a gift. Now that the gift had been delivered, there was no reason to linger.

A target that had not yet been fully hooked only needed a taste of sweetness. More than that became dangerous. Give too much and the prey might spook, step back, or realize the shape of the trap before it was properly set. Elias understood the measure of these things very well.

Liora remained where she was, composed again on the surface. "How are you planning to leave?"

There was no strain in her posture, no alarm, and Elias read the meaning at once. She plainly did not believe he could get back over the railing by himself. Otherwise, what would have been the point of the obstacle at all?

He gave a faint little huff.

Then he moved.

In two quick strides he closed the distance, planted a foot, and sprang upward with startling grace. In Liora’s eyes, it looked for an instant as though the illusion had become reality, as though he had shed his human shape and turned into a cat again, one of those sleek, impossible creatures for whom walls and fences existed only as decoration.

He was already halfway gone.

Before he could slip out of reach, Liora crossed the space between them and caught him by the ankle.

Her hand was warm.

His skin was cool enough to startle her.

Elias paused in that half-turned position and lowered his head to look down at her. "What is it?" he asked, smiling. "You can’t bear to part with me already?"

Liora held his ankle and said something that, on its face, sounded almost disconnected from the moment.

"Do you feel that way now?"

At that, Elias curved his lips more deliberately.

For one brief and vivid second, he did not look like a cat at all. He looked like a small devil amused by his own wickedness, tail flicking somewhere just out of sight.

"Oh, that." His smile sharpened. "Not now. Later, maybe. That depends on how well you behave."

When he finished speaking, he gave that leg a small shake.

It was not forceful. It did not need to be.

Liora understood the dismissal and let go. Elias twisted cleanly over the railing, dropped to the other side, and landed without a stumble.

The sound of his shoes touching the ground was light and controlled.

Only when he landed did Liora realize her pulse had been racing. It steadied again at once.

So it had not been trust after all.

He had never actually needed to be caught.

As always, the open arms had been for effect more than necessity.

On the other side of the fence, Elias lowered his arms, then reached up and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head. The cat ears disappeared beneath it at once.

Everything that had just happened suddenly seemed unreal, as though the moonlight had fabricated it and was now swallowing it back.

Only his smile remained unchanged.

His lips were still red against the dimness, his teeth still bright, his expression still carrying that unbearable mixture of sweetness and bad intent.

"Before I go," he said, "I have one more surprise for you."

The bars of the railing cut between them, turning his face slightly vague in the dark. If anything, the blur made his smile seem more malicious.

"Someone was watching us from upstairs."

Liora’s breath caught.

"Your sister," Elias said.

Then, with a gentleness that made it worse, he added, "My owner."

Her heart missed a beat and then seemed to lurch into the grip of something enormous and merciless. Exposure closed around her all at once, a crushing hand tightening around her chest hard enough to make breathing difficult.

By the time she dragged enough air back into her lungs to steady herself, Elias was gone.

Only the distant roar of an engine remained, fading farther and farther into the night.

Liora returned to the warm quiet of the Blackwood residence.

The butler bowed slightly as she stepped inside. "Second Miss, would you like some coffee?"

"Yes."

She had barely answered when she felt eyes on her.

Liora looked up toward the second floor and saw Serena standing there.

Even at home, Serena was dressed with her usual immaculate formality, every line of her clothing precise, every inch of her posture controlled. The only sign of looseness was her hair, which had been left down, giving her an air of faint, expensive laziness that somehow made her look even more dangerous.

"What were you doing in the back garden?" Serena asked.

Liora said nothing.

Elias had not lied. Serena really had seen everything.

The only reason Liora could remain calm now was because the garden lights had stayed off. The yard had been dim, the distance significant, the view imperfect. From that far away, Serena could not have seen Elias’s face clearly.

Otherwise, this conversation would not have sounded like this.

"Meeting someone in secret?" Serena’s voice carried a hint of amusement, though fatigue lay under it like a shadow.

With that, Liora relaxed slightly.

"No," she said. "Not exactly."

Serena’s brows drew together. "You think I’m blind?"

Liora smiled.

"No relationship has been defined yet," she said, her tone mild and elegant. "In that case, I don’t consider it a tryst."

That answer genuinely caught Serena’s attention.

"You care that much about the label?" she asked. "That’s unusual for you."

Liora had no interest in taking the conversation any further.

Instead, she said softly, "You should get some rest, Serena. You’ve looked off all day."

Serena’s expression hardened at once.

"That is none of your concern."