Chapter 348 You Are Jealous
Finnley looked down at Sophia, his sexy Adam's apple bobbing up and down, his eyes darkening slightly.
"Okay."
As he spoke, he reached up to loosen his tie, feeling a surge of heat rising within him, as if the air around them had warmed up several degrees.
This was the first time he'd seen Sophia being so forward, and a secret joy bloomed in his heart.
"Come with me." Sophia took his hand and pulled him up from the sofa, heading toward the door.
Finnley's hand, which had been unbuttoning his shirt, paused slightly, his expression freezing for a moment. "Where are we going?"
"You'll know when we get there."
"This kind of thing... won't people see us if we go outside?"
"Then we'll be quiet about it, so they won't see us."
Finnley pressed his thin lips together and said, trying to appear calm, "I guess that's not impossible. Since you're being so forward, I'll reluctantly go along with it this once."
In reality, fireworks were already exploding in his mind, and his heartbeat had quickened.
Sophia and Finnley walked hand in hand toward the storage room, completely unaware that her words had been misunderstood by Finnley.
She walked briskly to the storage room door, turned the handle, and slowly opened it.
The light in the storage room flicked on, instantly illuminating every corner of the room.
Finnley's gaze swept around the room, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
The storage room was quite large, with a big shelf inside stacked with various items that weren't used regularly.
Although it was cleaned often, there was still inevitably some dust in the corners.
The gifts Sophia had received for her birthday a few days ago had been specially placed on one shelf, packed full.
Finnley's first reaction was disgust. He was a neat freak, and the thought of doing it in a place like this made him feel resistant.
"Why are you standing there like an idiot? Come here." Sophia waved at Finnley.
Meeting Sophia's clear and bright eyes, Finnley swallowed back his words of refusal and closed the door behind him.
He even thoughtfully locked it.
If it made her happy, he supposed he could put up with it.
Sophia stopped in front of a shelf, looked up at him, and said, "Are you ready? Let's start."
Finnley responded with a hoarse voice. He took a step forward, preparing to reach out and pull Sophia into his arms.
But then, Sophia suddenly turned around, stood on her tiptoes, and took down all the birthday gifts from the shelf, placing them on the floor.
Finnley was dumbfounded. "What are you doing?"
"Opening my birthday presents, of course. What did you think I was going to do?" Sophia looked at Finnley with confusion.
Meeting Sophia's innocent eyes, Finnley realized he'd gotten it wrong.
He clenched his fist, covered his mouth and coughed lightly, his eyes darting away. "Nothing, I wasn't thinking anything. Aren't we opening presents? Let's get to it."
"Okay." Sophia didn't think much of it and crouched down on her own, picking up a gift box to open.
The people who attended Sophia's birthday party were all either rich or noble, and many had only come out of respect for Preston.
So the gifts from the guests were also quite valuable.
But they were basically all the same—either jewelry or some collectible paintings, with hardly any originality.
Elodie was even more straightforward, directly giving Sophia a villa in downtown Harmony City.
However, the gift Matthew sent this time was different from previous years.
He sent a necklace with a ruby in the center, delicate and beautiful, with a simple design that was both bright and bold.
When Finnley saw the necklace, his face immediately darkened. "Who sent this? Can you just give someone a necklace like that?"
There was a hint of jealousy in his tone.
Sophia glanced at him lightly and said, "Matthew sent it."
Finnley: "...Never mind then, forget I said anything."
Sophia couldn't help but laugh. "Why did you back down so fast?"
Finnley sighed helplessly. "Who told him to be your senior?"
Sophia's lips curved slightly as she picked up the necklace and examined it carefully. The bright ruby refracted brilliant light under the cool lighting, looking moist and crystalline.
It seemed Matthew had put a lot of thought into it.
Seeing Sophia staring at the necklace, Finnley couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy.
"It's not as nice as the one I made for you. The design is too simple."
Sophia shifted her gaze to him.
"You're jealous."
Finnley nodded, directly admitting his jealousy.
Sophia laughed softly, held his hand, and slowly moved closer, carefully examining his face.
Finnley didn't understand but let her stare at him.
The next second, he saw Sophia nod.
Then, Sophia leaned in and kissed his lips.
Finnley froze, touching his lips with his finger, his mind filled only with the image of Sophia initiating the kiss.
He was Sophia's, he belonged to her.
"What? Did my kiss make you silly?" Sophia looked at him with a smile, laughing heartily while holding her stomach.
Finnley came back to his senses and looked at her helplessly. "Is it that funny?"
"Yes, you look very cute right now." Sophia felt that Finnley now was more at ease than two years ago.
In the past, he had always carried many heavy burdens—whether it was the illness in his body, his biological mother who wished him dead, or the weight of the White Group on his shoulders.
Everything he had to bear was pressure that most people couldn't imagine in their lifetime.
This also made him, despite being only in his twenties, carry a sense of weariness from experiencing the world.
Now Finnley had more vitality and less pain and struggle.
Finnley laughed helplessly. Who uses the word "cute" to describe a grown man?
"Who sent this? Why isn't there a name?"
Sophia suddenly noticed a very delicate and pretty pink box in the corner. She slowly opened it and found a palm-sized glass bottle inside.
The glass bottle was filled with many folded stars of various colors mixed together, looking very beautiful.
There was also a small bow tied on it, with a small card hanging from it.
On the front was the Little Prince and the little fox sitting on a star, traveling through space—a beautiful scene.
Sophia opened the back and found a line of text: Happy Birthday.
A very brief message, nothing else.
"There are two more gifts here without names."
Usually, when people attend parties and give gifts, they either put something in the gift box that represents their identity, or they have the host of the birthday party register it.
But these three gift boxes weren't on the registration list.
Sophia opened them one by one and found that one box contained a handmade lily of the valley night light, which Sophia immediately loved.
Another box contained a beautiful music box.
All three gifts had cards with "Happy Birthday" written on them, in different handwriting, but as if by agreement, none had names.
"Who sent these?" Finnley frowned.