Mr. Harrison hung up, chuckling to himself.
Serena was just about to take off her headset, turning the steering wheel toward the house Jaxon had bought for her on the outskirts of town.
Suddenly, her phone rang again.
She glanced at it.
It was a video call from Nicholas.
Serena answered.
The man's flawlessly handsome face, cool and almost ethereally striking, appeared on the screen, perfect from every angle.
He seemed to have just showered. His wet hair was slicked back, giving him a more languid and dangerously captivating look than usual.
She wondered if he was doing it on purpose.
He was shirtless, and on the screen, his pale, defined collarbone was so alluring that it was impossible not to be drawn to it at first glance.
His skin looked exceptionally fair under the light.
The smooth lines of his muscles were just as mesmerizing.
That damn fox.
Always resorting to using his looks when he wanted something.
"Are you driving?" The man's low, magnetic voice came through the headset, as if laced with an electric current.
It inexplicably made Serena's ears tingle.
She kept her expression neutral and replied, "Mm-hmm."
"Ah... well, I can't distract you then," Nicholas said, his tone tinged with what sounded like regret.
The camera shook for a moment.
When it stabilized again, the man on the screen was wearing a black shirt.
Serena was speechless.
She knew it. That sly fox had been deliberately trying to seduce her.
She glanced at the screen, where he was slowly and deliberately buttoning his shirt with his long fingers.
up
Honestly, the act of buttoning it covering that expanse of pale skin bit by bit until only a sliver of his collarbone and his sharp Adam's apple were visible...
It was far more captivating than when he had simply been bare-chested.
Serena suspected this whole performance was intentional too.
She licked her dry lips. "What is it?”
"I heard from your brother that you're moving out for a few days?" Nicholas's dazzling, seductive eyes seemed to be staring at her right through the screen.
Serena gave him a sideways glance. "Are you and my brother that close?"
How did Nicholas already know about something that had just happened?
"We're family friends, so of course we're on good terms," Nicholas said with a smile. "And... as it happens, I'm also part of the institute."
Serena understood.
Since Nicholas and her brother were close, Julian would naturally know about Nicholas's ties to the institute.
And since she had used the institute as her excuse, her brother must have thought
of asking Nicholas, who also had a position there, to look after her.
It was perfectly logical.
"I have a house near the institute, just a five-minute walk away," Nicholas said, the corner of his eye lifting flirtatiously. "Want to move in
there? It should be much more comfortable than the dorms."
Serena said, "No, thanks."
Nicholas raised an eyebrow. "Afraid of troubling me?"
Serena replied, "I'm not going to the institute."
Nicholas was confused.
Serena explained, "I'm going to stay in the countryside for a while. If my brother calls to ask about me, just tell him I'm in the dorms at the institute."
Nicholas was no fool.
It only took a moment of thought for him to grasp her intentions. "You're worried that the group of killers you ran into at Apex Horizon Speedway will harm the people around you?"
He had looked into the incident after Serena was attacked. The men had been taken away by the Department of Defense.
He had reviewed the DOD's interrogation transcripts and immediately launched his own investigation.
That group... they all belonged to a notoriously vicious assassin organization from Norvane.