Lara giggled, the corners of her eyes lifted with mirth when the man in her arms froze, his exposed neck turning a brilliant shade of crimson.
'How cute.'
In the distance, Sia and the brown-haired man, Ove, standing beside her, were stunned at the scene. Sia rolled up her sleeves with seething eyes, ready for a life-and-death battle with Lara. But Ove grabbed her waist, preventing her from doing so. Her dissatisfied scream echoed in the air.
"Lara! How dare you take advantage of my innocent brother again!"
But Lara only raised a brow, and with a mischievous glint sparkling in her eyes, tightened her hold on Nian.
"Seems like my sister-in-law is angry..."
She whispered in his ear, eliciting a faint shudder from the man in her arms. Lara gasped with surprise when Nian suddenly grabbed the back of her neck gently with his cold hand and peered directly into her eyes, letting out a soft sigh.
"Don't change the topic. Don't tell me you entered the Chamber—Glimpses of the Vast Universe—and bought this book? I remember I told you not to go there."
He furrowed his brows and demanded an answer. They had been together for so many years, but this woman in front of him always did what he asked her not to.
Yet, instead of answering, Lara trailed her hand on his exposed skin with crescent eyes. She bent down and touched his nose with her nose, and her lips formed a smile, a smile that Nian rarely saw on her face.
"I would have done what you asked, but I want a kiss... you know."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pouted her lips, quite certain Nian would ignore her just as he always did when she acted so presumptuously.
Seeing her behavior, Sia almost fainted from shock, but what happened next made her mind go blank. In the end, Ove had to drag the silver-haired woman away before she could cast a deadly spell on Lara.
Lara also jolted when Nian crashed their lips together in a fast and swift movement that she couldn't even react to. She clenched his shoulders tightly, and that's when she realized her heart was pounding. Her heart, which had stopped feeling for a long time, was pounding. She shuddered when he whispered between their entangled lips.
"Ah... one day you're gonna be the end of me."
The corner of his eyes turned upward when he noticed Lara's stunned expression. She would always flirt, only to freeze whenever he initiated contact first. But he had to admit he loved it—when her eyes would turn into crescents and her lips would curl upward into a beautiful, enchanting smile.
'I never thought I would fall for someone... especially not the person who told me she wanted to sleep with me when I asked her why she wanted to join my team.'
Nian still remembers the question Lara asked him repeatedly during the first week they started moving together as a team.
'You are beautiful, will you sleep with me?'
Honestly, it annoyed him a lot. Sia even wanted to throw Lara in front of a massive monster to make her know that she was flirting with the wrong person.
But, he didn't even notice and it just happened. Lara stayed clingy to him for two whole years. However, when she tried to become distant, he realized he just couldn't let her go. Even though he knew the feelings she had for him were completely different from his. But he'll wait. He'll wait until she falls for him as deeply as he has for her.