Her response was to bite down on his finger.
She bit down hard.
As if trying to vent all her rage on it.
Zion Hawthorne winced but didn’t let go.
Instead, he cupped her face, his tone as gentle as ever.
“Since when did you learn to bite?
Hmm?”
Rowan Keller applied more pressure.
Zion applied a little pressure to her jaw, forcing her to release his finger.
“Believe it or not, I’ll return the favor and bite you a few times later,” Zion said, pinching her chin.
His voice was a gentle, bewitching whisper.
“I’ll make you cry and beg me to let you go.”
“Let go!” Rowan’s eyes reddened as she struggled in vain.
The more she acted like this, the more Zion wanted to break her.
He wanted to see her cry and beg him, to watch her go from stubborn defiance to docile obedience.
His hand on her waist pulled her flush against him.
When Rowan started struggling again, he threatened in a low voice, “Keep moving, and I won’t mind doing something to you right here.”
Rowan froze.
She felt the change in his body, his rising temperature.
After five years of marriage, she knew exactly what that change meant.
“This is a hospital.” Fear flickered in her eyes, worried he would actually do something reckless.
“You’re insane.”
“No one dares to enter without my permission.” Zion’s inscrutable eyes watched her as his hands grew bolder.
“I’m giving you time to consider whether or not to make peace.”
“I’m not the one in the wrong.
Why should I be the one to make peace?” Rowan tried to block his advances.
Zion bent down and nipped her neck, the pressure just enough to leave an ambiguous mark.
“I told you to think it over, not to answer me immediately.”
Rowan tried to push him away but couldn’t budge him.
“With your current assets, you can’t even come up with fifty thousand, let alone five hundred thousand.” Zion’s hand roamed up from her waist, yet his expression remained completely serious.
“Or perhaps you don’t want your mother to wake up.”
Unable to break free, Rowan bit down on his shoulder.
Zion grabbed her chin, forcing her to let go and meet his gaze.
“You’re not the only rich person in the world.” Rowan’s chin ached, but she remained stubborn, refusing to back down.
“I can’t come up with five hundred thousand, but that doesn’t mean no one else can.”
“Is that so?” Zion’s tone turned frosty.
Rowan glared at him with her reddened eyes.
“Yes!”
She thought that after she had spoken so harshly, Zion would surely get angry, shove her aside, and leave.
He was an incredibly possessive man; in all their years together, he had never allowed anyone to hold a higher place in her heart than him.
But she had miscalculated.
Zion was indeed angry, but he didn’t let her go.
Looking at the mouth that only ever said things to displease him, he released her chin, grabbed the back of her head, and crushed his lips against hers.
“Mmph—”
Rowan bit him.
The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth.
Instead, he kissed her harder, his other hand sliding down her body.
He gave her waist a gentle squeeze before his hand continued its descent, growing more unrestrained.
Tears of desperation welled up in Rowan’s eyes, but the difference in their strength was too great.
No matter how much she struggled, she was completely at his mercy.
He knew her body intimately; every place his fingertips touched was a sensitive spot.
“Zion Hawthorne!” With all her might, Rowan managed to push him back just enough to gasp for air.
“Why are you crying now?” Zion looked at the tears in her eyes and reached up to wipe them away.
Rowan felt utterly humiliated.
“Do you know what this is called?”
“What is it called?” Zion’s composure was unshakable.
“Rape.”
“Flirting a little with your own, not-yet-divorced wife is called rape?” Zion always had a way of reframing serious matters.
“Ms.
Keller, perhaps you have a misunderstanding of what that word means.”
Rowan wanted to argue, but she was all too familiar with Zion’s talent for sophistry.
No matter what she said, he could always find the right words to twist its meaning.
“Time’s up.” Zion glanced at his watch and, at that moment, released his grip on her.
“Have you made your choice?”
The instant she was free, Rowan scrambled away from him as if he were the plague.
Zion didn’t seem to mind.
“I already made it.” There was no way Rowan would make peace with him.
Zion looked down at his fingertips, where the sensation of her touch still lingered.
“You’ve made up your mind.”
Rowan was resolute.
Her silence was a tacit confirmation.
Zion stood up.
Despite what had just happened, he now looked as prim and proper as a gentleman.
“While it’s true I’m not the only wealthy person in Kyoro, I guarantee that no one else will dare to lend you money,” Zion said, adjusting his cuffs.
“And that includes your dear best friend, Willow Sterling.”
“What are you going to do?” Rowan’s heart leaped into her throat.
“I’m not going to do anything,” Zion said, pacing over to her.
“But if you try to borrow money from her, then I can’t make any promises.”
Rowan’s hands, hanging by her sides, tightened into fists.
‘I was planning to ask Willow for an emergency loan and then slowly earn the money to pay her back.’
“Also…” Zion deliberately drew out the word.
Rowan’s heart clenched.
He closed the distance between them, step by step.
“I hope Ms.
Keller can be a little more honest in the future.
Don’t verbally condemn my actions while your hands can’t help but clutch at my shirt.
After all, your favorite thing used to be grabbing my shirt and wrinkling it all up in the heat of passion.”
After speaking, he intentionally glanced down at his now-rumpled shirt.
The humiliation Rowan had been suppressing finally boiled over.
SMACK!
Zion caught her hand firmly.
She tried to pull it back, but he held it in a tight grip.
“Lashing out in embarrassment isn’t a good look.” Zion squeezed her hand for a moment before letting go.
As he was leaving, he tossed one last remark over his shoulder.
“You’d better spend your time thinking about how to scrape together the money for your mother’s surgery.”
“You don’t need to worry about it,” Rowan shot back, her pride the only thing holding her up.
Zion buttoned his suit jacket, his bottomless eyes having already returned to their usual indifference.
“I certainly hope so.”
He walked out, step by step, as if the earlier intimacy had never happened.
As he passed by Dr.
Chapman’s office, the doctor suddenly called out to him, “Mr.
Hawthorne.”
Zion glanced over.
“There was something I didn’t get a chance to tell you.” Dr.
Chapman had thought it over and decided he had to inform him.
“Before Miss Keller’s mother’s condition worsened, someone entered her room.
They only stayed for a moment in front of the bed, but I still felt I should let you know.”
“Do you know them?” Zion asked.
“No, I’ve never seen them before.” Dr.
Chapman pulled up a segment of the room’s surveillance footage on his phone and handed it over.
“But judging by his clothes and demeanor, he’s probably not an ordinary person.”
Zion zoomed in on the image.
A moment later, a handsome, composed man of about forty or fifty appeared on the screen.
He walked over to Rowan’s mother’s bedside and, just as Dr.
Chapman had said, did nothing.
He simply stood there with his back to the camera for more than ten minutes.
“Did you tell Rowan about this?” Zion handed the phone back, feeling like he’d seen the man in the footage somewhere before.
“No,” Dr.
Chapman said.
Zion instructed, “Don’t tell her for the time being.”
“Understood,” Dr.
Chapman replied.
Zion saved the surveillance footage, opened a chat window in a messaging app, and sent the video.
He included a message: [Find out who this person is and what their relationship is with Rowan’s mother.]
The other person quickly replied: [Got it.]
* * *
Rowan knew nothing of this.
After Zion left, she went to her mother’s room.
Looking at the gentle, kind face of the woman lying on the bed, her heart ached with a heavy pressure.
She silently vowed to herself that she would raise the money for her mother’s surgery, no matter what.
She had to make her well again.
On the way back, Rowan kept wracking her brain for a way to get five hundred thousand in a short amount of time.
‘A loan?’
‘I have no assets for collateral.’
‘What little I had left was tricked away by my father.’
‘As for jewelry, I didn’t take a single piece with me when I left.
Even if I wanted to sell some, I can’t.’
Just as she was thinking this, an idea suddenly came to her.
She thought of something that belonged only to her—something that even Zion couldn’t take back, no matter how much he wanted it.