"Ready to head home?" Nicholas looked down at her, a stunningly gorgeous smile gracing his features, his voice incredibly soft.
Serena let out a yawn, giving a lazy nod. "Yeah, I'm a little worn out."
The moment the words left her lips.
Nicholas suddenly leaned down, sweeping Serena up into his arms in a firm, protective hold.
Serena looped her arms around his neck, her dark eyes narrowing slightly as a faint frown creased her brow.
Nicholas smiled. "You worked hard during the competition. I'll carry you to the car."
After rushing to the abandoned factory first thing in the morning, and then speeding over to the arena for the match, Serena really was exhausted.
Having someone wait on her.
Made things much easier.
She tilted her chin up slightly, looking effortlessly regal.
She didn't say a word.
But her expression spoke volumes—'Alright, I'll allow you the honor of serving me.'
The doting smile in Nicholas's eyes deepened, glittering like a sky full of stars.
Carrying Serena in his arms, he turned and walked away.
Neither of them spared Adrian another glance.
Adrian stared blankly at their retreating figures, looking so intimately entwined that nothing could pull them apart. His face turned a sickly pale.
An unprecedented wave of humiliation suffocated him.
He stumbled back another step.
A bitter wave of nausea washed over him, churning in his stomach.
"Pfft... Hahaha!"
Lydia Brooks and the rest of the team couldn't hold it in anymore, bursting into laughter one after another.
They pointed at Adrian, looking at him as if he were the biggest idiot on the planet. Their laughter dripped with biting sarcasm.
"Did you hear that? Mr. Blackwood offered up the entire Blackwood family to our Captain, and she still thinks it's a hassle to accept!"
"Do you really think your little Cole family is worth anything in front of Mr. Blackwood?"
"Tch, acting like some kind of billionaire alpha? You're nothing but a delusional narcissist, a complete joke."
They scoffed at Adrian.
They couldn't stand this delusional narcissist trying to tear down their Captain who was practically.
god
in their eyes.
Lydia raked a mocking, disdainful gaze up and down Adrian's figure "You? You're not even qualified to breathe the same air as Mr. Blackwood, let alone compare yourself to our Captain."
"Take a good look in the mirror, and stop being so delusional."
With that said.
Lydia and the others jogged off, hurrying to catch up with their Captain. Adrian stood frozen in place, his face twisted in a dark scowl.
He glared coldly as the group piled into the luxury cars waiting for them.
His gaze grew darker, filled with brooding malice.
He watched as Nicholas gently set Serena into the back of the Maybach.
He watched as Nicholas leaned in, seemingly angling for a kiss, only for Serena to casually bat him away.
He watched as Nicholas caught Serena's hand, pressing a kiss to her palm with almost religious devotion.
Adrian's eyes darkened further, a suffocating ache tightening in his chest.
His hands curled into white-knuckled fists.
A turbulent, unreadable darkness swirled in his eyes.
"Adrian, maybe... we should just go?" Darius's voice was still shaking.
Watching Nicholas's motorcade drive away, he couldn't suppress his shudders.
"That's... that's the heir to the
Dan
Blackwood family. We can't afford to mess with him. honestly felt, Adrian was biting off way more than he could chew.
Just a moment ago, Adrian had been aggressively calling Serena a slum girl.
In every word he spoke.
He genuinely looked down on Serena's background.
But... that very same slum girl.
Was the fiancée of the Blackwood Crown Prince in Vaelion City.
The Blackwood Crown Prince!
A man they usually didn't even have the credentials to be in the same room with.
And yet, a man like that was engaged to the woman Adrian had called a slum girl.