Serena Bckwood's eyes lowered, studying Elias as he bit down hard on his lower lip with his teeth, refusing to let even the smallest sound escape no matter what. The look in her eyes was murky and impossible to read.

  She stared at his lips—old wounds still unhealed, fresh ones added on top—turning the broken rose-petal color even more vivid, almost begging to be plucked.

  Suddenly Serena reached out with her right hand. Her fingers seemed headed for his mouth, but at the st second they changed course and wrapped around his swan-like throat, already covered in the marks she had bitten into him like a cake just moments earlier.

  Her movements and expression were nothing short of gentle, ced with an ambiguous heat that would make anyone blush. But anyone even slightly clear-headed could tell there was zero tenderness in the action—only pure dominance and possession.

  "Open your mouth."

  At those words Elias finally released his battered lip. "Why?"

  His voice carried a thread of suppressed pain, but his eyes still shone with stubborn defiance. Opening his mouth wasn't obedience or surrender—it was pure provocation: *I opened it. What are you going to do about it?*

  Serena wasn't provoked by a single gnce. She smiled softly, her thumb pad stroking his throat while her fingertip traced the small, delicate Adam's apple. "Does it feel good?"

  Right then Serena clearly felt the boy's body give a tiny shudder. Like a hunter who had found her prey's weakness, a pyful glint rose in her dark eyes.

  Here? This sensitive?

  "Feel good?"

  Elias ughed coldly, as if he'd heard the funniest joke. "I just feel like there's a mosquito buzzing around on me the whole time… annoying as hell."

  "Cmorous."

  Serena was still smiling. Nothing in her expression gave away her real mood.

  But Elias felt it instantly— the moment her words nded, the hand locked around his fragile throat tightened without warning.

  A crushing wave of suffocation smmed into him. It sted only a split second before Serena loosened her grip again.

  She rose slowly from his body. Even though Elias had managed to anger her twice in such a short time, she regained her composure almost immediately this time.

  No point getting worked up over a counterfeit like him.

  With that thought, Serena stepped over Elias, walked to the head of the bed, picked up a pillow, and came back.

  Elias stared up at her in a daze, still trying to process what she was doing, when the pillow suddenly filled his vision. It smmed down over his face, plunging everything into pitch bck. Breathing became almost impossible.

  Knowing he couldn't see her expression now, Serena finally let a faintly cruel smile curve her lips.

  Of course she wasn't trying to kill him. She simply wanted to force a sound out of him—anything, even a trembling moan or a pathetic plea.

  But to her surprise, the person beneath the pillow stayed completely still. No struggling, no thrashing, as if what she was doing was nothing more than a trivial annoyance.

  Serena's eyes narrowed.

  She would see exactly how long he could st.

  A silent tug-of-war began again. Serena still held every advantage; it was only a matter of time before Elias broke and begged.

  Thirty seconds passed…

  One minute…

  Two minutes…

  Three…

  Even Serena—who was usually unshakable—changed color. She could no longer sit back calmly and ripped the pillow away.

  Elias's handsome face had turned a deep, arming red, already edging toward purple. His expression was twisted in clear agony, yet he had never passed out from the ck of air.

  Right now he was just gulping down greedy lungfuls of oxygen, taking a full minute before he finally recovered.

  Then Elias looked up at Serena's slightly stunned face, the corner of his mouth lifting. His voice came out hoarse and broken after everything it had endured. "That's… it?"

  Those two simple words were the final straw. Serena ughed in pure fury. "Good. Very good."

  She had thought it was impossible for her to get truly angry again, but Elias kept stepping over her line again and again.

  Even burning with rage, Serena never lost her head. She still thought with icy crity.

  Since pain couldn't make him cry out, then…

  What about pleasure?

  Serena looked down, her gaze nding precisely on his faintly flushed Adam's apple.

  She covered his face with the pillow once more, but this time it wasn't to suffocate him—just enough to block his vision and make each breath a little harder.

  The first effect would heighten every other sensation. The second would fog his mind, stealing his ability to think straight.

  Elias had barely begun to wonder what she was pnning when sharp pain bloomed at his throat—his vulnerable Adam's apple under direct threat.

  The sensation was already intense enough to make anyone tremble without any pain conversion, but with it active, Elias instinctively opened his mouth and bit down hard on the pillow.

  It didn't st long. His pupils suddenly blew wide as the all-too-familiar feeling from st night flooded him again—the one that had sted the entire night.

  His body began to shake uncontrolbly.

  Seeing this, Serena started to lift the pillow so she could watch him completely shatter, only to discover Elias was still cmping down on it with his teeth, refusing to let go.

  She gripped his jaw hard. "Open."

  The pressure was brutal. The boy's brows twisted together in pain, yet he still held on with everything he had—like he was fighting for his life, desperate to keep that st tiny scrap of dignity.

  "Such a cheap little…" bone!

  Even Serena, who had stayed gentle in front of him until now, finally let a sliver of her true face slip. She gave up on forcing his surrender this time and instead began devouring her private feast with raw, unrestrained hunger.

  Time slipped by. It was already close to dawn. No matter how stubborn Elias's spirit was, his body finally gave out. The muscles in his jaw lost all strength and his lips fell open helplessly.

  Looking at him like that, heat surged through Serena's chest. She stopped caring about making him submit, simply pulled him into her arms…