Chapter 83 Jealousy

Chapter 83 Jealousy
Without waiting for a response, Vivian Sterling turned slowly, her white mink fur coat fluttering in the air conditioning breeze as she stepped out through the SoHo snowstorm, leaving behind a silence thick with jealousy and new mysteries inside the studio.

As soon as the large teak door closed tightly, Elena immediately spun around, staring straight at Elijah with her chest rising and falling as she held back a surge of emotion. The jealousy she had been holding back in front of Vivian suddenly overflowed.

"Who is she really, Elijah?!" Elena demanded, her voice slightly trembling, her eyes piercing into her lover's sapphire blue orbs.

"How could a high-class woman from London come looking for you all the way to The Crown Bar?! What kind of relationship did you actually have with that cruel woman in the past?!"

Elijah stared at Elena with drowning intensity. The cyber monster side that had been ready to destroy London in an instant vanished without a trace, replaced by deep, possessive tenderness.

He stepped forward, immediately grabbing Elena's slender waist, pulling the woman into the confines of his strong arms, even though Elena tried to put up a small struggle out of jealousy.

"She's just a former big client from Wall Street who used my IT and companion services a year ago before I met you, Ángel," Elijah lied smoothly with a charming, innocent face, while his right hand stroked Elena's hair with tenderness full of absolute ownership.

"The old fossil Alaric Blackwood deliberately hired her to come here and flaunt wealth to intimidate you into dropping that tiara draft. Are you jealous, my Employer?" Elijah teased with his sexy lopsided grin, bending down to plant a long kiss on the top of Elena's head.

Elena clutched Elijah's clothes, burying her flushed face in the man's broad chest, suddenly feeling foolish for doubting her poor lover's loyalty.

Her simple logic once again locked tightly around Elijah's sweet manipulation, still never knowing that the white-cashmere woman was his father's chosen fiancée candidate, whom he had just threatened with total financial ruin from behind New York's shadows.

Elena gripped Elijah's clothes tighter, venting the rest of her irritation directly against his broad chest.

The masculine scent radiating from her lover's body usually made her brain go blank, but not this time. The jealousy that had already burned her chest suddenly tightened her logical grip again.

She looked up roughly, pulling herself free from Elijah's kiss on her head, then stared into those sapphire blue eyes with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"Don't try to divert the conversation with that signature smile of yours, Elijah!" Elena snapped, placing both hands on her hips, trying to dominate the tall man who stood nearly two heads above her.

"I'm conducting an official interrogation, not asking for a hug!"

Elijah raised both eyebrows, letting his hands hang casually in the air with immense amusement.

The highest Apex Sovereign dragon, capable of crumbling the Wall Street stock exchange in three seconds, now had to surrender helplessly under the intimidating gaze of a navy-blazer designer.

"Very well, my Employer," Elijah said, flashing a charming, innocent smile.

"Please present your charges. I will answer everything under my absolute oath of love to you."

"First!" Elena pointed her digital pen at Elijah's chest, acting as if she were a prosecutor in a high Manhattan court.

"That woman said she came looking for you at The Crown Bar two nights ago. And she ordered the most expensive VVIP room! My question is, how did she know your night schedule? And what exactly did the 'best gigolo' usually do inside a VVIP room with her a year ago?!"

Elijah held his breath for a moment, suppressing the low laugh that nearly burst from his chest.

"Ángel, a year ago, the main duty of a high-class night companion was simply to listen to lonely socialites' complaints about their plummeting stocks."

"I swear on my IT server, I never touched a single strand of Vivian Sterling's hair. She was too busy calculating her London Stock Exchange losses in front of me while drinking expensive whiskey."

"Then why did she say your torn red flannel shirt doesn't suit your 'expensive skin'?" Elena squinted her eyes, stepping forward one step, closing the distance until their shoes touched.

"Just how expensive is your skin, huh? Are you hiding secret tattoos, or are you secretly getting gold spa treatments using tips from your Wall Street clients?!"

Hearing his lover's silly, innocent question, Elijah's broad shoulders trembled slightly with laughter he could no longer contain.

Elena's incredibly simple logic was truly saving his grand charade. The woman had no suspicion that the expensive skin Vivian referred to was the pure bloodline of the main Blackwood clan.

"My skin is indeed expensive, dear," Elijah whispered seductively, suddenly bending his tall body until his handsome face was level with Elena's. Their distance was so close that Elena could feel Elijah's warm breath on her lips.

"But it's only expensive because every inch of this body has been bought and absolutely owned by a designer named Elena Vance. So, there will be no refunds or repeat visits for former clients like Vivian."

"E-Elijah... stop!" Elena's face instantly flushed perfectly like a ripe tomato. She turned her face away, trying to preserve the remnants of her interrogation authority, which had completely failed due to her rented lover's deadly charm assault.

Elena's face, already as red as a ripe tomato, grew even hotter. She tried to take a deep breath to restore her interrogation dignity, intending to fire a final question about Vivian's mention of the words 'future father-in-law' and Alaric Blackwood.

However, Elijah had no intention of giving his empress any gap to continue this ridiculous investigation.

Before a single new word could escape Elena's full lips, Elijah moved with his signature speed.

His strong hand gripped Elena's waist tighter, pulling her slender body until it pressed perfectly against his broad chest, while his left hand cupped Elena's firm jaw with deeply possessive tenderness.

Elijah immediately bent down and silenced Elena's lips with a deep, demanding, passionate kiss.

"Mmph!" Elena gasped in surprise, her eyes widening perfectly before slowly closing as Elijah's kiss sucked away all the remaining logic in her head. The digital pen in her hand slipped, rolling across the studio's black marble floor.

Elijah deepened their lip lock, swirling his tongue, paralyzing all of Elena's emotional defenses that had been burning with jealousy.

The kiss lasted long, intoxicating, and full of absolute ownership claims that locked their fate together in the soundproof silence of Elena Vance Atelier's first floor.

When Elijah finally slowly pulled his lips back, leaving a few millimeters of distance filled with their racing breaths, he did not release his embrace. His long thumb moved gently, wiping the remaining moisture from the corner of Elena's full lips, now swollen and sensually red.

Elijah flashed his most charming lopsided smile, while his sapphire blue eyes darkened with a thick glint of passion and obsession.

"If you're still jealous after all my explanations, Ángel," Elijah whispered, his low, husky, sexy baritone vibrating right in front of Elena's lips, sending instant waves of fluttering that melted all of the woman's nerves.

"How about we just make love right now on that grey sofa to calm your emotions? I guarantee, after that, you won't have any energy left to think about the name Vivian Sterling."