Chapter 147 Wild Girl vs. Indifferent Male Lead
William caught Thalia's slowly rising fingertips, holding her hand and rubbing it, caressing it, as if playing with a rare treasure.
William's rough fingertips traced circles on Thalia's palm, making it tickle.
Thalia was in no hurry to pull her hand back. Instead, her bright eyes looked straight at him. Their gazes locked, and the atmosphere gradually became charged with tension, the air itself seeming to carry the scent of hormones.
Being so close, Thalia could faintly smell the light sandalwood scent on William's body. A forbidden, thrilling feeling instantly rushed to her heart.
The scene before her reminded her of when she was in school during evening study sessions, hiding in the back row of the classroom reading steamy novels.
Wild girl vs. aloof guy who wants nothing.
The classic plot of pulling a god down to earth.
Thalia freed her other hand and continued moving it up along William's abs.
When her hand reached his belly button in the middle, she mischievously pressed down.
It made William suck in a sharp breath.
William grabbed both her misbehaving hands, leaned down slightly, and spoke near Thalia's ear: "That depends on who I'm seducing. If it's someone else's wife, that's immoral and illegal. But if it's my own wife..."
As William spoke, he gripped Thalia's waist and lifted her onto the vanity.
The height of the vanity was just right for Thalia's waist to press against his.
William's broad palm pressed Thalia's waist tightly against himself.
A layer of fabric separated their bodies, making things even more tangled.
Thalia was a typical Libra—she judged by appearances... liked all beautiful things.
Whatever was placed in front of her, the first thing she looked at was whether it looked good, whether it appealed to her.
When she chased after William in school, she liked his looks.
Now, she liked his body.
"Mr. Brown," Thalia reached up to hook her arms around William's neck, her fingertips tracing circles on the back of his neck. She tilted her head and spoke coquettishly: "You keep walking around in front of me without clothes on. Can I take that to mean you're trying to seduce me?"
William mimicked Thalia, his fingertips circling around her waist, his bewitching, husky voice brushing against Thalia's ear: "Do I really need to sacrifice my body to seduce you?"
With that, William didn't give Thalia a chance to speak. He lowered his head and captured her thin lips.
The battle was about to begin.
.......
"Hang up."
In the bedroom, a voice tinged with impatience rang out.
Thalia's phone on the nightstand was ringing.
The tension between Thalia and William was about to explode when William was annoyed by the ringtone. His hoarse voice carried a hint of command.
Thalia reached out and hung up the phone.
Then she burrowed back into William's arms. After a moment, the disconnected call rang again.
Thalia reached out and hung up again.
The phone rang again.
William's hand gripping her arm tightened slightly, the pain making Thalia gasp.
"It's Layla. Let me answer it."
She knew Layla too well. For her to keep calling like this, something must have happened.
"Hello."
"Are you crazy? Where were you? Why didn't you answer my calls?"
"Can you shake the water out of your brain?"
Layla's roar came from the other end. Thalia coughed awkwardly and propped herself up: "What's wrong?"
"Check your messages."
Thalia opened her messages and first saw notifications from a chat group. Scrolling further, she saw Layla's messages.
A chat screenshot.
It showed her conversation with entertainment reporter Kian.
And a video.
Thalia clicked it open, and sounds of debauchery came through. The scene in the video was exactly what she and William were about to do.
"Thalia..."
The man in the video called out her name in a comfortable tone.
William, who had been lying on the bed with his eyes closed trying to calm his desire, instantly sat up when he heard the sound. He quickly grabbed the phone from Thalia's hand.
He angrily typed out one word: "Who?"
"Remember you asked me why I dislocated Walter's arm?" Thalia pointed at the phone.
"I saw this when Evelyn and I left the bar."
William knew Walter had been hanging around bars lately.
There were dozens of bars on that street, from one end to the other, and he'd been to almost every one. William also knew he'd been living it up and started looking for women.
William had heard rumors about Walter and Thalia getting back together.
He just treated it as a joke. Others might not understand Thalia, but he did. Someone as proud as her would never get back with an ex, especially trash like Walter.
Seeing William's face turn dark and ugly, Thalia took the phone back from him and even comforted him: "Be good, don't be angry."
"Walter found a woman who looks about sixty percent like me. Today someone even brought me photos of them."
"I need to make a call."
"To who?"
"Layla."
..........
Early the next morning, Thalia went to the company. As soon as she entered Layla's office, she saw her sitting on the sofa wrapped in a blanket with her eyes closed.
"You didn't go home last night?"
Layla lifted her eyelids and glanced at her lazily.
"What did Kian say?"
"He wants money."
"How much?"
"Seven million dollars."
Thalia's hand paused as she pulled out a chair, as if she hadn't heard clearly: "How much?"
"Seven million dollars."
"You heard right. Seven million dollars."
"Why don't they just rob a bank?"
"Because robbing a bank is illegal. Robbing you isn't."
Thalia angrily grabbed a bottle of water and drank more than half: "Am I an idiot?"
"We went to find that woman last night. Guess what?" The entire company, forty or fifty people from top to bottom, worked overtime all night for this. They stayed up all night and went to find the person involved, but found she was gone.
The place was empty.
The woman's things were still there. The information in the house told them someone had been living there just yesterday. But today the person was gone.
"Gone?"
"Yes."
Thalia crushed the water bottle in her hand: "You mean someone's trying to set me up?"
"Probably."
"We analyzed it last night. Maybe someone paid to find this woman and sent her to Walter, all for today."
"What did Kian say?"
"If the payment isn't made by 10 AM this morning, these photos will be posted online."
"I..."
Just as Thalia was about to say something, Layla's phone rang. She picked up her phone to check the call, looked at Thalia, raised her index finger to her lips, signaling her to be quiet...