The Cold Gaze That Burned
The cold gaze struck her like a blade pressed to the skin, searing her insides until the malice in them melted away.
Only raw instinct remained, and it lifted its head, demanding.
Even standing in the shadow, her breath came sharp as if she stood directly beneath the sun.
Heat surged through her veins as if it were blood itself, flooding every inch of her body in a strange, feverish blaze.
Quickly. Quickly.
Desperate urging thundered inside her skull like a war drum.
The instinct that craved something clawed at her throat, howling for the answer.
“Tell me. Are you going to sleep with him… or not?”
Her body had already crossed the final line and was no longer entirely her own.
“Say it quickly. I have to decide.”
If Elex Davenport refused her, she would have to find another man at once.
Before she was finally swallowed by this enormous power and forced to chase after the repulsive Gregory Myers.
She clenched her fists tightly, refusing to lose even the last thread of reason.
She felt something slide free between her fingers.
Followed the arc of that liquid—whether sweat or blood—her eyes tracked Elex’s slowly.
I have to get the other one.
Tilia stood on the verge of turning her steps away when Elex’s voice stopped her cold.
“If I don’t sleep with you.”
His voice, silent until now, seized her ankle.
“You… you’re going to sleep with someone else?”
“What?”
Tilia looked at him in disbelief, doubting her own ears.
“If I don’t sleep with you, you’ll just roll around with another bastard?”
She had heard him clearly.
Elex Davenport stared at her through those cloud-tinged, slate-grey eyes, demanding an answer.
His gaze was no longer that of a human but the stare of a snake watching its prey.
If I don’t sleep with you… will you roll around with another bastard?
Tilia bit her red lips, calculating the precious time she still had left—her underwear already ruined.
“Yes.”
The decision came faster than she expected.
“I will roll around with him. Another man.”
She answered calmly, locking eyes with Elex.
She saw something in his pupils darken—something she could not name.
“Is that so?”
Elex Davenport’s expression shifted.
“Then sleep with him, I guess.”
It was the first smile Tilia had ever seen on him.
The beautiful curve of his lips was tender, yet somehow sinister.
No, not merely sinister—ominous.
His slow rise from the bed cut off her vision.
Only when he stood before her did Tilia realize he was far taller and far more commanding than she had imagined.
“Sleep with me.”
Elex caught her as she instinctively tried to flee.
“Can’t have you just enjoying yourself.”
Feverish heat raced across his collarbone.
Fear and exhilaration flooded her heart at once.
Her fingertips trembled with a painful tingle, as if struck by lightning.
In front of Elex, whose face she could barely see through the haze, sunlight poured down.
Under that blinding sky, Elex Davenport whispered with perfect composure.
“I’ve wanted to sleep with you for a long time.”
***
Elex Davenport’s bedroom was nothing like the entrance she expected.
The private foyer designed for him alone welcomed Tilia.
She circled the room with quick, nervous glances, refusing to let her tension show.
This space, larger than the combined parlor and reception room of the Ambrose residence, was no ordinary dormitory.
A grand bed draped in elegant curtains dominated the center.
On the mahogany table beside the window lay scattered white papers and a pen.
This feels like simply moving my room from the family estate…
Even as her breath came in short bursts, she stole another glance behind her.
Clack.
The door closed behind her.
She felt a hot, solid presence standing at her back.
Tensing like prey with a predator close behind, she stiffened.
Every hair on her body stood on end, reaching toward him.
Only then did she truly understand.
She had come all this way to this room to entwine their bodies.
There was no time for sightseeing.
Standing motionless like a wooden doll in the foyer, Tilia waited.
“What are you doing?”
Elex’s lazy voice brushed her ear.
She jolted as if she had been bitten on the earlobe.
“Why? Scared now that you’re here?”
“If you’re scared, say so. I don’t have the hobby of sleeping with women I dislike.”
She could not miss the sharp glint beneath his words.
Was he telling her to leave?
Her desire to shove the door open and run was stronger than ever.
But she could not.
She had a goal she had to achieve.
She had to graduate and reclaim her real life.
Even for him, Tilia had prepared to sacrifice anything—anything at all—on the altar.
Even the thought of sleeping with the man she had long loathed.
“…That won’t happen.”
Recalling her goal, she steadied her voice and put on a calm expression.
“I was simply looking around the room.”
Please, let my bluff work. Please, keep wanting me.
“Why? Do you wish I disliked you?”
As she turned away with false confidence, Tilia had to fight to keep the panic from showing.
The distance between them was closer than she had imagined.
Her nose had nearly brushed Elex’s hard chest.
She blinked rapidly to hide her shock and drew a deep breath.
She inhaled the scent of his cologne on the in-breath and felt his body’s strange heat on the out-breath.
“…Fine. If that’s your taste, I’ll play along. Do you want me to?”
She forced out the words she had barely thought of and retreated a step, careful not to let her nervousness show.
At the same moment, she felt cold sweat trickle down her spine beneath her soaked shirt.
Her breathing grew steadily shorter.
Did the Holy Water really work this strongly on knights?
She felt as if she had been captured by some wicked demon of lust.
She wanted him to look at her body again.
No—more precisely, she wanted him to stare at her naked form.
No—wait, even more precisely, she wanted him to lose his reason and take her roughly, right here…
In her hazy, fevered eyes, Elex’s face appeared once more.
“…Fine.”
The man who looked down at her wore an unreadable, cold expression, as if he had never smiled.
His icy grey-blue eyes remained cold even though she was flushed and trembling.
Yet Tilia’s breath grew hotter despite his recognition.
“I have no taste for that.”
Elex’s indifferent voice dropped lower.
His gaze traveled downward.
The cold eyes swept across her sweat-damp neck, collarbone, and the rapidly rising chest before returning to her face.
That explicit stare sent a shiver of dizzying thrill through Tilia.
She had been holding on by a miracle.
During the entire journey here, she had nearly collapsed several times, begging him to solve her hunger right here.
Yet she knew, with absolute certainty, that the Holy Water’s effects had not yet fully taken hold.
The sensation blurring her vision now was different—her craving for his body had become uncontrollable.
It’s hot.
All her thoughts narrowed to one command.
She did not know exactly what action or position she should take, but the command was clear.
She met his lowered eyes and lifted her hand to her neck.
I want to take it off.
That morning, the sweat-damp fingers of her hand had reached the buttons she had carefully fastened.
Those smooth buttons were now nothing more than a suffocating restraint around her neck.
Unable to bear the burning heat any longer, she fumbled with the first button.
She wasn’t sure whether her vision had wavered or his grey-blue eyes had.
“Good… do it.”
Elex’s hand suddenly touched her shoulder.
That large hand on her already fevered body made her gasp sharply.
She didn’t know whether the contact held hidden temptation or whether her body simply welcomed the stimulation.
It was only the heat of his hand.
Elex Davenport’s palm felt far too warm, as though it contained fire itself.
Considering the fever already gripping her own body, that temperature was clearly abnormal.
As if he had run at full speed across the entire Academy grounds.
“But before we do that.”
Before she could even grasp the situation, Elex turned her body.
“First, we should bathe.”
“Eh?”
Her shoulder was pushed and she was forced inside the room with heavy steps.
She stopped before the ornate door, eyes wide in confusion.
A long arm stretched out from behind her.
Click.
The brass doorknob turned and the door opened.
“I don’t sleep with someone who hasn’t washed.”
With that, her back was pushed.
She entered his bathroom in a daze and turned around in shock.
But the door was already shut tight behind her.
“The towel is in the linen closet above the sink. Wash and come out. I’ll take a bath somewhere else.”
With that decisive order, his presence retreated quickly from the doorway.
Soon, the sound of the front door slamming shut echoed through the house.