Chapter 181: More Than Friends
Their lashes were close enough to brush.
Elias could see the shift in Giselle’s eyes with painful clarity, the small ripple under all that ice. She had to be able to see his, too. The warmth between them kept rising inside the hug, slow and dangerous, making the silence feel less like comfort and more like a line neither of them had agreed to cross.
Maybe both of them noticed.
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them looked away.
It was only a hug between Besties. What was strange about that?
More than friends, less than lovers. People lived in that hazy space all the ti. That was the safest, prettiest lie in the world.
Whoever looked away first would be admitting there was sothing wrong.
In the end, Giselle broke first.
Elias’s eyes had gone too soft, too wet, too shalessly inviting, like they were one breath away from lting. Giselle’s voice ca out low. "It’s cold out here. Let’s go inside."
Anyone who knew Giselle Frost would have stared.
That voice belonged to a spring morning, not to Westbridge’s untouchable silver-haired ice queen. It was gentle enough to make people forget how cold she could be.
Naomi Vale was already staring.
Elias nodded, then shook his head. His expression was loose and dreamy, as if the night had wrapped around him and pulled him halfway into a bad idea.
"Giselle," he murmured, "can we sleep together later?"
A man saying that to a woman left very little room for misunderstanding. The invitation was obvious enough to fog glass.
Giselle barely hesitated.
"Okay."
The word had barely left her mouth when a sharp yelp ca from the living room.
"Ow!"
Two gazes turned toward the sound at the sa ti. One was cold. The other was puzzled.
Naomi, who had sohow ended up on the floor, scrambled upright with a stiff smile and the kind of embarrassnt that could not be talked down.
She had been caught eavesdropping.
But honestly, how was this her fault? She had just watched one delicate little fake-sweet act shed its petals and reveal itself as a full-blown Venus flytrap. One mont Elias had been trembling in Giselle’s arms, all glassy eyes and soft apologies. The next, he had opened his mouth and tried to swallow her whole.
Naomi could not say that out loud.
There was no point explaining anyway. Giselle looked completely gone. She had agreed to sleep in the sa room with him like that was normal.
Naomi knew Giselle better than most people. Giselle had principles. If she agreed to sothing, it ant she had already decided the thing itself was clean.
But Elias’s request was clean?
Out of ten ordinary people, nine would say no. The last one would be too horny to count as evidence.
Which ant Giselle was no longer ordinary.
Naomi said nothing. She stood, lifted one hand, and dragged her fingers across her mouth in a zipped-lip gesture. Then she backed away from the balcony with exaggerated obedience, proving she would not listen anymore.
Elias gave her a flat glance.
She could not even eavesdrop properly. How stupid.
Giselle looked back at him.
A blush imdiately rose across Elias’s cheeks. He seed flustered, almost shy, his voice catching. "I, I didn’t an it like that. I ant we could sleep in the sa bedroom. Not the sa bed."
"I know," Giselle said.
Elias nearly rolled his eyes in his head.
You know nothing.
If the timing were better, he would show her exactly what a grown man could do with that kind of invitation.
Outside, he only looked relieved.
Giselle glanced toward the dark beyond the balcony, then rested a hand on his shoulder and gently guided him toward the living room. "Co in. You’ll catch a chill."
"Okay." Elias pulled Giselle’s coat tighter around himself and turned his head to give her a sweet smile.
Across the room, Naomi watched the whole thing happen and felt the complaints piling up in her chest with nowhere to go. For the first ti in her life, eating front-row drama felt painful.
Then Giselle noticed Naomi and seed to rember sothing. She looked down at Elias. "Why did you co here?"
The second Giselle asked, Elias’s tears fell.
They ca so precisely it was almost frightening, like soone had pressed a button. Naomi felt a shiver run up her spine. Was that kind of control even human?
Elias told Giselle how Serena had thrown him out, how he had had nowhere else to go, and how Naomi had been the only person he could call to pick him up.
He left out Liora’s kiss.
He left out Yvonne.
He left out the entire stretch of the morning and afternoon that would have blown his innocent, wounded act straight to hell.
Giselle listened quietly. Then she gave Naomi one cold look. The gentleness she had shown Elias vanished without a trace.
"Next ti, don’t get into a stranger’s car so casually."
Naomi blinked.
Naomi pointed at herself. "I’m a stranger?"
Elias quickly stepped in. "Giselle, don’t say that. I trusted her because I know she’s your friend."
Naomi looked at Giselle, waiting for the correction that never ca. Giselle only nodded as if Elias’s explanation made perfect sense.
Naomi had nothing left.
She was done.
No more putting herself in Giselle’s shoes. No more worrying on her behalf. From now on, Naomi was a spectator. A paying spectator, technically, since she had already thrown half a million dollars at this ss.
Once she chose that role, her mood improved.
"Fine," Naomi said with a breezy wave. "I’m not arguing with an ice queen. I’ll go make up a room for you two."
Naomi moved fast when she wanted to. In a few minutes, she had one of the bedrooms ready and led them in with a flourish.
"How’s this?"
There was only one bed.
Elias’s cheeks ward again. "Do you have extra sheets? I can sleep on the floor."
Naomi instantly gave him a look that said she understood exactly what he was doing.
Giselle, naturally, did not.
Elias ignored Naomi completely and turned all his shy, hesitant attention toward Giselle.
Naomi said, "The room’s too small. There’s nowhere to set up bedding on the floor."
Elias silently awarded her a point.
On his face, disappointnt settled in clear, fragile layers. "Oh. Then I’ll sleep sowhere else."
"You don’t need to," Giselle said, stopping him before he could continue. "We can sleep in the sa bed."
Elias looked anxious now. "How can we? We’re, we’re..."
Giselle looked at him. "We’re Besties, aren’t we?"
The word worked like a spell.
Elias cald at once and blinked softly. "That’s true."
Naomi turned her face away and pressed her lips together so hard she nearly hurt herself.
Elias’s voice drifted through his mind, light with amusent. "Our innocent little ice queen learns fast."
[System Theta: Pfft.]
Naomi had no idea what else Elias planned to do, and she was very aware she might laugh at the wrong ti if she stayed. She found an excuse and fled, leaving Elias and Giselle alone in the room.
Giselle looked at him. "Do you want to shower?"
Elias shook his head quickly. "No. I already showered earlier."
As he spoke, his expression dimd. His fingers rose without thinking and brushed the side of his neck under Giselle’s coat.
Giselle understood at once.
Her hands tightened at her sides, then slowly relaxed. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him as naturally as breathing.
"Don’t think about it anymore," she said. "It’s over."
Elias seed stunned, like he had not expected her to hold him.
Then a faint smile touched his lips.
"Okay," he whispered. "Thank you."
He paused there, warm and small in her arms.
"My good Bestie."
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