“Why did you save her?”
Hearing the question made Ryley wipe the tears off his face fast and jolt from the Alpha’s embrace.
His fingers were tightly clenched into fists, clawing the flesh on his palm deeply.
“I didn’t save her,” Ryley answered with his slightly shaken voice.
The blond then took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, repeating the same act for several times while putting his palm on top of his chest.
He had always guessed that Rachel must’ve drugged him and now, listening to what Clyde said about that woman basically confirmed it.
“I’m not used to letting other people finish my business. Even when someone wanted to kill me, I would never let anyone else decide what I should do with that person,” he said, his brown eyes filled with a fierce light.
Clyde didn’t mutter anything in return, too busy dissecting the ambiguities in the blond’s words.
Either it was the most forgiving or the most ominous sentence he’d ever heard.
He couldn’t decide since Ryley stood with his back against him.
The Alpha then stood up from the couch, his towering figure approached the blond’s slender back.
He gently turned him around, then lifted his chin with his thumb.
“Do you want to know what other things she did beside drugging you?”
Ryley pulled down the man’s hand.
Disappointment was clearly visible in his brown irises, but he braced himself and stared at the Alpha with a painful gaze.
The blond nodded, but before Clyde could tell him, his phone suddenly rang.
“Yes?” He greeted, then not long after, the expression on his face slightly changed.
Ryley cleared his throat to get rid of his hoarse voice.
“Alright, I’ll be there in a minute,” he said before hanging up on the call.
“Do you have to go now?” The Alpha asked when he saw Ryley walk towards the dresser.
“Yeah,” Ryley curtly answered as he applied some concealer to cover the area under his eyes that started looking puffy.
He didn’t forget to clear his red eyes with eyedrops.
Clyde stared from afar, his blue eyes attentively examined the model as he brushed his golden hair and patted his white cheeks, seemingly fixing his appearance.
All those tough looks he’d been sporting in front of the media crumbled when he cried in his embrace.
And even so, his tears couldn’t erase the painfully dazzling beauty that made Clyde unable to stop thinking about him.
For a moment, an alternate image of Ryley emerged in his mind.
His figure in an all-white attire created an illusion that seemed to make the Alpha’s gaze wander far, far away to the possibility of a new future he might’ve never thought about. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Nobody knew if it was just a silly dream or a prophecy accidentally unraveled.
But then he coughed to his side out of a sudden, trying to get rid of a string of imagination that had just flashed in his vision.
The man couldn’t believe he almost blushed at a wild thought that suddenly crossed his mind.
‘No way Ryley would want it.’ He thought, but he knew his mind couldn’t fool his heart.
“Clear your schedule for tonight. I will have you picked up at 7,” Clyde said, then walked closer towards Ryley.
“Don’t you think you’ve forgotten someone?”
Ryley’s brown irises widened in shock, then he turned around sharply.
“You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“Why would I? You want him alive.” Clyde then tilted his head, his blue eyes scanned the blond’s face.
His palm unknowingly reached out to Ryley’s cheek, but the model slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch my face!” Ryley said, glaring at him.
The Alpha let out a small chuckle.
“Alright, seems like you only want it kissed.”
“You—mmmpph!”
Too late, he couldn’t react in time when Clyde suddenly caught his waist and stole a kiss from his lips.
He tried to let go but the Alpha only shoved his tongue deeper, not letting Ryley to close his mouth.
“See you later.” Clyde grinned wide when he finally let go of Ryley’s now swollen lips.
His kiss was so rough that it made the blond stagger back.
The Alpha caught his arm and prevented him from falling, but Ryley pushed him away.
“You… You bastard…!” He grunted while wiping his lips.
“You look ugly when you’re upset, so I just helped you to cheer up,” he said as he walked towards the door and stepped out.
He lied knowing it would only make Ryley annoyed, and that was pretty much the reason why he enjoyed it.
Lucas had been waiting for him outside.
The tension on his face finally eased once he saw his young master step out the room.
“Sir, this way. We have to go through the emergency stairs.”
The Alpha didn’t complain and go straight with his head bodyguard’s arrangement.
“How about the CCTV? You’ve made sure they won’t catch me here, right?”
“Yes,” Lucas said, his tone somewhat worried.
“Sir, it’s better to not visit Mr. Ryley when Mrs. Claire is still in the same building.”
But instead of entering the Alpha’s ear as an advice, it gave him such a rash idea.
“Build me a special elevator then,” Clyde said, whistling his way down the stairs happily.
***
Meanwhile, two women were seen talking inside a meeting room with a long table and vacant seats neatly arranged on both sides.
“Sister, if you’re not ready then let’s postpone it. I can still contact his manager and ask him to take Ryley to meet you some other time,” Gracia said as she handed a glass of water to Claire.
“I can’t wait anymore, Gracie. I need to see him,” the woman said after taking a sip.
Her blue eyes were usually bright with elegance, but now it looked somewhat shaken with nervousness.
And it couldn’t be more obvious with her high heels that kept tapping the floor.
Gracia could only let out a deep sigh seeing her.
“What do you think of his previous statement? I thought it was pretty careless on his part.”
“No,” Claire then turned her face towards the other woman.
“On the contrary, he’s surprisingly cautious of his situation. He’s really careful with his words.” Her long nails started drumming on the desk, and her face grew darker as various thoughts crossed her mind.
“But saying Asteria and that woman aren’t responsible for all this means he’s placing the blame on Hyacinthia, Sister.” Gracia voiced her disagreement with Claire.
“I’m afraid people will look down on us and believe that our recruiting system is a mess for accepting such interns.”
As the head of public relations, Gracia always kept a keen eye on things related to the company.
Claire didn’t deny her analysis, she agreed with her on some point but her gut feelings were telling her that Ryley was thinking of something else when he said it.
And she wanted to know why.
Before she could utter a word to reply, a knock on the door was heard.
Claire then patted her coat and fixed the expression on her face.
“Enter.”
She rose from her seat when she saw the two walked past the door.
An inexplicable emotions instantly rumbled inside her, suffocating.
And as soon as the blond’s reflection filled her round eyes, ripples emerged on her blue irises.
She tried her best not to let her tongue slip and call him with the wrong name because if she did, she wouldn’t be able to hold back the great storm breaking inside her.
Still, her heart whispered a name she’d buried long in her heart.
‘Rayleen…’