On the way back home with Maxwell, Lily couldn't stop wondering who might have hired someone to kidnap her. After thinking for a long time, there was only one possibility.
"Zelda Bennett was at the party, right?" Lily suddenly turned to ask Maxwell.
"She bothered me while you were in the restroom."
Lily felt a wave of relief. Despite her dislike for Zelda, she was still her sister. Although they were half-sisters, Lily didn’t believe Zelda would do something like that to her. At that moment, Lily didn’t forget to call Emily, asking her to look after Liam for her, as she didn’t want her son to know his mother had almost been kidnapped and was now injured.
Sitting down on the sofa after entering the house, Maxwell looked at Lily with a contemplative gaze. "I didn’t expect you to know how to fight. Taking on four men all by yourself!"
Lily let out a bitter laugh, "If I didn’t know how to fight, I probably would have died years ago."
Oh? Lily Bennett, just how many secrets are you hiding from me?
"Alright, now take off your clothes!" Maxwell shrugged off his coat and tossed it aside. He rolled up his sleeves and walked toward Lily. Shocked, she instinctively covered her chest, her eyes filled with suspicion as she took two steps back.
Maxwell continued approaching, step by step, until Lily was so scared she fell backward onto the sofa. Compared to the sudden, domineering actions of the Thornton Chairman, those thugs were nothing worth mentioning! Crossing his arms over his chest, Maxwell leisurely looked down at her, his tone commanding.
"Do you want me to help, or will you do it yourself?"
Lily glanced down at the clothes she was wearing, suddenly remembering that she was still wearing William's jacket. So, he only wanted her to take off the jacket. He didn’t like seeing her wearing any other man’s coat—just like last time. Lily obediently removed the jacket and placed it aside, then reached for the ointment nearby.
"Goodnight, Max!"
With that, she quickly retreated to her room as if running away. Once inside, she didn’t feel at ease until she locked the door and placed a hand over her chest, feeling as if her heart might leap out from fear. She didn’t know when it started, but she felt an increasing fear of Maxwell, especially when he stared at her. His gaze was like he was searching for something long lost within her—an intense look filled with both longing and a strange, unexplainable resentment that made Lily feel a peculiar kind of dread.
Meanwhile, in the far-left room on the third floor, Maxwell was watching the surveillance camera. The woman stood there, clad only in her underwear, after discarding her evening gown. Standing before a full-length mirror, she clumsily tried to apply the ointment to her back, but no matter how she twisted and turned, she couldn’t reach the scratched skin.
Watching her for a while, Maxwell grew somewhat irritated. Slumping back into the chair, he sighed before standing up to head downstairs. He paused, noticing her growing frustration as she failed to apply the ointment. Then, watching her pull out her phone, he sat back down, intrigued as he observed her conversation.
"Are you still awake?" Her sweet voice made it clear who she was speaking with.
"Did you take your medication on your own? Are you feeling better?"
"Mm, it's nothing serious, just a few scratches."
"Does your injury still hurt?..."
Before Lily could finish her question, her bedroom door opened. There he stood, holding a set of keys, his expression dark. Startled, Lily nearly screamed in surprise before hurriedly hanging up the phone. She had completely forgotten that she was still in her underwear. Flustered, she stood up awkwardly, looking at Maxwell.
"Even though this is your house, you can’t just barge in without knocking. It’s basic courtesy. What if I had been changing…"
Halfway through her sentence, Lily suddenly realized how foolish she sounded. She was changing!
Following Maxwell's gaze, she noticed he was staring at her chest. Lily wished she could dig a hole and bury herself. In a panic, she grabbed the dress on her bed to cover herself.
Maxwell bent down, picking up the ointment bottle she had dropped on the floor, a teasing smile playing on his lips.
"No need to cover up like that."
Before Lily could explode in anger, Maxwell had already seated himself at the edge of her bed, patting the spot beside him. "Come here, lie down on your stomach."
Biting her lip, Lily asked, "You’re going to apply the ointment for me?"
"Or would you prefer to drink it?" His teasing words, combined with his deep voice, sent a tingling sensation through the air.
Without thinking, Lily tossed the dress in her hands onto his head before walking over to the bed and lying down.
"I’m really curious. You were raised in a prestigious family—educated and refined. But why do you talk like a rogue? Where did you learn that from?"
Maxwell pulled the dress off his head, his eyes fixed on the woman lying on the bed.
"You don’t need to know where I learned it, but I can tell you this—there are people who are suited for me to speak like a gentleman, and then there are people… where a little roughness is much more appropriate."
With that, there was a swift sound—a "swish"—as Maxwell tugged at the waistband of Lily's underwear with one hand.