Chapter 362 Night Terrors

    Chapter 362 Night Terrors

    Concerned, Quinn had gone downstairs to check on him.

    “Why a shower at this hour?” she asked, frowning at the dripping corridor tiles.

    “I had a nightmare and was soaked in cold sweat, so I rinsed it away,” he answered.

    He moved to step around her, but she caught his sleeve. “Wait.”

    He halted. She slipped back into the bath and returned with a towel.

    b90 /b

    +10 Free Coins

    “Your hair’s still wet. The night air is heavy,” she murmured, offering the towel ito /ihim.

    Julius did not lift a hand to take the towel. Instead, he bent at the waist and lowered his head in front of her.

    The image was almostical–like an overgrown, rain–soaked retriever silently begging its master to dry its coat.

    Quinn hesitated only a beat. Then she draped the towel over his dark hair and began to blot away the water with slow, deliberate strokes, her fingers moving as gently as the wings of a moth brushing candlelight.

    “In a little while, I want a drink. Will you stay nearby and keep mepany?” Julius spoke in a low, almost tentative voice, the words rising from somewhere deep in his chest.

    “It’ste,” Quinn answered, surprise edging her tone. “Why the sudden urge for alcohol?”

    “I can’t sleep,” he said, voice soft but steady. “A ssh of liquor might quiet my head.”

    “Is that what you usually do when you can’t sleep” she asked, not usatory, simply curious.

    “Not often,” he replied. “Only tonight, for some reason, the thought won’t let go.”

    She kept drying his hair until it was merely damp, the strands clinging to her fingertips before she finally set the towel aside.

    Julius crossed to the small marble bar, uncorked a bottle, and filled a ss. Without hesitation, he tipped his head back and drained it in one long swallow, throat working, Adam’s apple sliding like a piston.

    Quinn started forward to stop him, but he had already finished it.

    Chapter 362 Night Terrors

    “Rx,” he murmured, pouring a second measure. “This isn’t enough to do damage.”

    90

    +10 Free Coins

    Quinn stepped closer and pressed two fingers over the rim of his ss. “Gulping it like that will hurt you.”

    “So you do worry about my health?” His gaze locked onto hers. “Just like earlier today, when you checked my injuries. Quinn, do you truly feel nothing for me?”

    “Saying I feel nothing would be a lie,” she admitted after a pause. “Yes, Julius, I still care. But I’m learning to set that care down. Someday, I’ll manage to feel absolutely nothing-”

    She never finished the sentence. He leaned forward so abruptly the air seemed to fold around them.

    His mouth brushed hers–no more than a fleeting touch, as light as a dragonfly skimming the surface of a pond.

    It was not exactly a kiss, yet it stole her breath all the same.

    Quinn’s entire body went rigid. Julius whispered against her lips, “Please, stop talking. If you keep exining how you’ll forget me, you’ll only remind me how pathetic I’ve be.”

    She pulled back, lips tightening, and abruptly changed direction. “Was it deliberate, handing that project to the Fane family so Leander woulde to Jexburgh?”

    Julius‘ tone turned almost casual. “And if I said yes?”

    “You did it… because of me?”

    “Because of you, yes.” His eyes burned with a sudden, unguarded heat. “I wanted to spare you the hassle of traveling overseas. Here in Jexburgh, everything you need is within reach.”

    “And,” he added after a breath, “I hoped that when you saw all I’d done, your heart might soften and you’d agree to start over with me.”

    Quinn froze, stunned by how openly heid his calctions on the table, as though confession itself were proof he would never hide anything from her again.

    She turned away and rose to her feet. “Two days from now, you promised to send me home. I expect you to keep that promise. And from now on, when we meet, you could call me Ms. Bridger.”

    A shadow slid over Julius‘ eyes, dimming the earlier fire.

    iSo /iithis /iiis /iianother /iirefusal/ii, /iiisn’t /iiit/ii? /i

    b16:24 /bWed, Sep 3

    Chapter 362 Night Terrors

    b90 /b

    +10 Free Coins

    As she turned to head back upstairs, he asked, “Tell me the truth–no matter what I do, will you nevere back to me?”

    Quinn turned her head, themplight carving a sharp line across her cheekbones. “I told you before. Trust shatters in a heartbeat, but rebuilding it? That takes a lifetime.”

    “So what you’re saying is this,” Julius pressed, his voice frayed. “Even if I dropped to my knees and begged–even if I handed you everyst thing I own, the entire Whitethorn estate included–you still wouldn’t take me back?”

    “I never wanted any of that.”

    The light in his eyes guttered, turning ashen. “Then who is it you want beside you?”

    “That’s my business,” she answered, cool as frost. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going to bed.”

    “Quinnie, I can break the promise,” Julius blurted, the confession slipping out before he could leash it.

    “What?” Quinn blinked, startled, her hand pausing on the banister.

    “I could keep you here on this ind,” he went on, lips barely moving. “Lock every pier, ground every ne–just the two of us, staying put until you love me again, until you trust me the way you used to.”

    Quinn’s gaze darkened to storm–cloud gray. “So does that mean I’ve made the wrong gamble?”

    He advanced, one measured step after another. “If you don’t want me to do that, all you have to say is that you trust me again–that you’lle back to me.”