Serena buried her head in her food, refusing to look at the peacock showing off in front of her.
Nicholas also understood the principle of not overdoing it.
Sometimes, to make his charm offensive truly effective, his flirtatiousness had to be measured.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the soft clinking of utensils.
Serena's appetite was larger than that of an average girl; she had nearly polished off the entire table of food by herself.
Nicholas silently made a mental note of the dishes that Serena had finished completely.
Seeing Serena put down her fork and prepare to clear the table,
he raised a hand to stop her. "Your Majesty has been busy all day. Leave these trivial matters to your humble servant."
The man's broad palm pressed down unexpectedly on the back of the girl's hand.
And from this angle...
The collar of his bathrobe shifted again.
His already alluringly pale skin was cast in a hazy glow under the warm light.
A flash of red.
It appeared before Serena's eyes so suddenly.
Serena froze.
Her long, raven-like lashes fluttered twice, her clear, bright eyes widening slowly.
She quickly pulled her hand out from under the man's and turned to leave. "Thanks, I'm going back to my room!"
Nicholas watched the girl's retreating back, his gaze lowering to his own hand.
The soft, warm touch of her skin seemed to linger in his palm.
He rubbed his fingers together, a fond, almost doting smile slowly forming on his lips.
He raised his hand, pulled his open bathrobe closed, and retied the sash.
His deliberate stakeout in the kitchen, the carefully planned display of his physique...
The effect wasn't bad.
At least, Serena seemed quite satisfied with his body.
He was one step closer on his quest to win her over.
Meanwhile,
Serena returned to her room, feeling much more refreshed.
She buried herself at her desk again, refining the details of the privately
commissioned design one more time.
Creating this design had ignited a spark of inspiration she hadn't felt in a long time.
After finishing it,
Serena's inspiration was still flowing freely.
So she picked up her pen again, her hand flying across the paper as she finished the designs for YB in one
fell swoop
YB's inventory was critically low. Closing for even a day could cause a huge stir in the fashion world.
She couldn't let YB actually shut its doors.
It wasn't until the sky began to
lighten at dawn that Serena finished organizing all the design sketches and sent them in a batch to the eagerly waiting Rachel
After pulling an all-nighter, she had finally gotten everything done.
Serena couldn't even be bothered to wash up; she just fell onto the bed and passed
out.
When she woke up again, it was already noon.
Blinding sunlight streamed in through the open floor-to-ceiling windows, filling the room with light.
Serena rubbed her throbbing temples and picked up her phone to look at it.
Sure enough, she saw an encrypted message from Jaxon, time-stamped two hours earlier.
Jaxon: [Boss, the big fish has taken
the bait! We've confirmed Black Mirage of the Kurobara Shroud is on the move. Based on his
movements he's probably arranging his infiltration route. Hell arrive and enter Elyndor by tomorrow night at the latest. We're on standby.]
Serena narrowed her eyes, the corner of her mouth curving into a cold smile.
"This Black Mirage is even more impatient than I predicted..." she said with a dry laugh.
Fine by me.
The sooner this is dealt with, the sooner things will be quiet, and the sooner I can go back to the Lancaster family.
And... living under the same roof as that shameless fox was just too dangerous. Thinking of Nicholas,
Serena's mind unconsciously...
flashed back to the previous night, when he had pressed her hand, his bathrobe wide open, revealing the view beneath.