The mont their eyes t, the manager felt a terrifying sense of danger explode inside him.
Cold sweat imdiately broke out across his back and forehead as his instincts scread at him to retreat. Almost reflexively, he clasped his hands nervously and took a small step backward away from Ashley, suddenly no longer daring to stand too close to her anymore.
With his heightened hearing, Gideon naturally caught every single word the manager said earlier, including the part where Ashley had been mistakenly addressed as "Madam."
aning...
The manager had clearly assud Ashley was either his wife or his companion.
Strangely enough, the mont that misunderstanding registered in Gideon’s mind, the violent irritation raging inside him eased ever so slightly.
Even Gideon himself did not understand why.
But hearing Ashley unconsciously associated with him in that manner sohow soothed the possessiveness clawing violently inside his chest.
As a result, when he finally stopped in front of the trembling manager, Gideon showed absolutely no intention of correcting the misunderstanding whatsoever.
Instead, he rely stared calmly at the manager with his usual cold and prideful expression, silently conveying a simple ssage through his gaze alone.
’Lead the way.’
The manager instantly understood.
Under Gideon’s terrifying presence, he did not even dare to hesitate further.
"Mr. Walker, welco to our establishnt," the manager quickly said while forcing himself to maintain professionalism despite the slight tremble in his voice. "Please follow . But I must inform you that your guests have not arrived yet."
Soon, the manager personally guided the group toward the elevator while discreetly shooting a sharp glare at the surrounding staff, silently ordering them to return to work imdiately.
As though suddenly waking from a terrifying nightmare, the employees instantly snapped back to their senses and hurriedly resud their tasks as if their lives depended on it.
Very quickly, Ashley and the others entered the elevator, and the doors slowly slid shut.
Only after the elevator completely disappeared from sight did the people remaining in the lobby finally dare let out shaky breaths of relief. Many of them only realized now that they had unconsciously been holding their breath the entire ti out of fear.
Gideon’s departure genuinely felt as though they had just been pardoned from death itself.
anwhile, inside the elevator, the atmosphere beca tense once more.
No matter how much Gage wanted to separate Ashley from Gideon, it seed almost impossible to completely stop the two from getting close to one another.
The mont they entered the spacious elevator, Gage imdiately positioned himself protectively on Ashley’s right side while subtly guiding her closer toward the elevator wall, clearly intending to prevent Gideon from standing beside her.
Unfortunately, Gideon seed to deliberately do the exact opposite.
Instead of standing elsewhere, he calmly positioned himself directly in front of Ashley.
And not only that—
Despite the elevator being absurdly spacious to the point where several people could practically lie down on the floor comfortably, Gideon still chose to stand unnecessarily close to her as though the space were crowded.
The oppressive proximity instantly made Ashley tense slightly.
anwhile, seeing this deliberate move, the vein on Gage’s forehead visibly twitched.
His jaw clenched tightly as irritation surged inside him.
At this point, he was genuinely beginning to suspect that Gideon truly harbored improper intentions toward his sister, and the urge to physically drag the man farther away from Ashley beca increasingly difficult to suppress.
’You think you can do whatever you want in my presence? Dream on.’
Gage sneered inwardly as he deliberately cleared his throat and attempted to subtly insert himself between Ashley and Gideon to create so distance between them.
However, Gideon acted as though he neither noticed nor heard him at all.
In truth, standing this close to Ashley was almost entirely instinctive for Gideon now.
The mont he entered the elevator and approached her, a strange tingling sensation imdiately spread across his scalp, while heat crawled restlessly along his back and spine. Every nerve in his body beca hyperaware of her presence to an almost maddening degree.
He knew perfectly well that getting too close to Ashley was a form of torture for him.
Yet at the sa ti, he simply could not stop himself from wanting to get closer anyway.
That endless contradiction was slowly driving him insane.
Because of this internal struggle, Gideon had absolutely no spare attention left to deal with Gage’s hostility. His instincts unconsciously treated Gage like irrelevant background noise as all his focus remained entirely locked onto Ashley alone.
"Mr. Walker, why don’t you take a few steps back? You’re crowding my sister here."
In the end, Gage finally spoke directly after exhausting every ounce of patience he had left.
Originally, he had tried handling the situation subtly. Earlier, he repeatedly cleared his throat, attempted to reposition himself, and even tried pulling Ashley slightly farther to the side. Yet no matter what he did, Gideon always acted as though he noticed nothing at all.
Worse, whenever Gage tried moving Ashley away, Gideon would coincidentally shift as well, making the distance between him and Ashley remain almost unchanged.
At this point, it was painfully obvious to Gage that Gideon was deliberately pretending to be deaf.
Because of that, Gage was left with no choice but to confront him directly instead.
This ti, there was no way Gideon could continue pretending not to understand what he was trying to imply.
But who would have thought that soone like Gideon would actually know how to act shaless when he wanted to?
After hearing Gage’s direct warning, Gideon slowly turned his head toward both him and Ashley as though he had only just now noticed how close he was standing to her. Then, with a completely deadpan expression, he simply responded—
"Oh."
That was it.
No apology. No embarrassnt. No intention of moving away.
Instead, Gideon casually pulled out his phone afterward and calmly began checking his emails as though the matter was nothing more than a trivial inconvenience unworthy of his attention.
The reaction instantly infuriated Gage to no end.
At this point, he knew with absolute certainty that Gideon was doing it deliberately.
Honestly, Gage could hardly believe this side of Gideon even existed. The man’s cold, untouchable, and terrifying reputation within elite circles suddenly felt like a complete scam to him now. Never in his life had he imagined that the infamous Gideon Augustus Walker would privately behave this brazenly around a woman.
For a brief mont, Gage genuinely started questioning everything he had heard about the man before.
Still, despite his irritation, Gage had no intention of simply letting the matter go. Just as he was about to speak again, Ashley suddenly tugged lightly on his sleeve.
Gage instinctively lowered his gaze toward her.
Ashley looked up at him while softly biting her lower lip, her expression carrying a trace of helplessness.
Although she herself was also struggling badly right now, she was still desperately trying to maintain the last fragnts of her rationality. Her body continued reacting uncontrollably to Gideon’s presence, while her mind felt hazy and filled with all sorts of dangerous and inappropriate thoughts she did not even dare dwell on too deeply.
Even so, Ashley still understood that Gage was only acting overly protective because he cared about her.
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