NOVEL NEXT Chapter 216: The Breaking
Catherine's head snapped toward the sound, recognition flashing across her features as her eyes found Adrian standing frozen in the archway.
For a single moment, her expression held shock... genuine surprise at being discovered in this position, with Alex's cum still painting her face and chest, on her knees like some...
Then her lips curved.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Into a smile that didn't carry embarrassment or shame or any of the horror Adrian expected.
It carried satisfaction.
Like she'd been waiting for exactly this moment.
Like his arrival was the final piece of something she'd orchestrated from the beginning.
Alex's gaze followed hers, taking in the man trembling in the doorway.
Their eyes met... Adrian's wild and desperate, Alex's calm and dismissive.
Alex looked back at Catherine with silent question.
She answered with a small smile.
His hand squeezed her shoulder once... support, not interference... before he stepped back slightly, giving her space.
"Oh..." Catherine's voice came out breathy, satisfied, almost playful as her tongue darted out to lick her lips... slowly, deliberately, tasting the evidence of what she'd just done with obvious relish.
"Took you long enough."
The gesture was obscene. Intentional. A deliberate display that made absolutely clear how much she was enjoying this.
"I've been waiting for you."
The words hit Adrian like a physical blow.
Waiting for him?
WAITING FOR HIM?
She'd been on her knees swallowing another man's cock and she'd been WAITING for Adrian to discover her?
His cultivation base cracked further, power erupting in uncontrolled waves as rage flooded every cell in his body.
The audacity.
The sheer fucking audacity of this woman to kneel there covered in another man's cum and tease him like this was some game she'd won.
Like his devastation was entertainment.
Adrian's hands shook, cultivation base building toward violent release as every restraint he'd maintained shattered completely.
He would kill her.
Rip that smug smile off her face with his bare hands and make her understand exactly what happened when you pushed a Blackwell heir past the point of caring about consequences.
He lunged forward, power exploding outward.
"You BITCH!"
The words tore from his throat, raw and vicious.
"You fucking SLUT! You dare to mock me while spreading your legs for some... some TOY?!"
His voice cracked on the last word, twelve months of devotion twisted into something venomous and desperate.
That she could kneel there... SMILING at him... with another man's seed on her face...
That she could look so satisfied, so triumphant, so utterly unbothered by destroying everything he'd believed...
Alex's lips curved slightly at the insult, thumb still brushing Catherine's jaw.
"Toy," he murmured, voice pitched for Catherine alone. "Is that what I am to you?"
His tone suggested he already knew the answer.
Catherine's breath hitched, eyes darkening. "You know exactly what you are to me."
The exchange was intimate. Deliberate.
A conversation that excluded Adrian entirely while happening right in front of him.
It shattered something fundamental in his chest.
His aura surged forward, murderous intent crystallizing into lethal action...
Then he froze.
Mid-step.
Mid-breath.
Completely.
Pressure crashed down on Adrian with force that made his knees buckle involuntarily, cultivation base seizing like someone had wrapped iron chains around him.
"LEAVE ME!"
Adrian's voice came out strangled, desperate, as he thrashed against the invisible force pinning him in place.
"GET OFF! WHO THE FUCK DARES... "
His cultivation base exploded outward in violent surges, trying to break through whatever was holding him, trying to reach Catherine and wipe that smug satisfaction off her face permanently.
"I'LL KILL HER!"
The words were barely coherent, more animal growl than human speech.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL THIS WHORE! RIP HER APART! MAKE HER BEG... MAKE HER SCREAM... "
He thrashed harder, power erupting in chaotic waves that cracked the stone beneath his feet.
"LET ME GO! LET ME... "
But the pressure didn't budge.
Didn't even waver.
It pressed down harder, forcing Adrian's knees toward the ground as his struggles became more frantic, more desperate.
"Relax, Adrian."
Catherine's voice cut through his rage like silk over steel.
Sweet.
Almost melodic.
The kind of tone someone used when soothing a frightened child or calming a nervous pet.
Like his fury was nothing but an adorable tantrum.
"Why are you being so impatient?"
She rose from her knees with fluid grace, making no attempt to wipe the evidence of what she'd done from her face or chest.
If anything, she seemed to display it deliberately... letting the afternoon light catch on the white streaks painting her skin as she moved.
"This is just a fraction of what you need to witness."
Her smile widened, taking on an edge that made Adrian's thrashing pause involuntarily.
"The whole show is yet to come."
She turned slightly, and even through his rage, Adrian registered the casual intimacy of the gesture.
The way she looked at Alex.
The way her expression softened into something almost... tender.
"Are you ready?" Catherine asked, voice dropping into something lower, more intimate.
A question meant for Alex alone, as if Adrian... still held immobile by crushing pressure, still burning with murderous fury... didn't exist at all.
Alex's response was immediate.
His hand came up to cup Catherine's jaw, thumb brushing across her cheek and deliberately smearing the cum still glistening there.
The gesture was possessive. Claiming. A clear statement of ownership that made Adrian's cultivation base crack audibly.
"I'm born ready."
Three words.
Spoken with casual confidence that suggested this wasn't negotiation or performance.
Just simple fact.
Alex's eyes never left Catherine's face, completely ignoring Adrian's presence as if the man writhing in suppression was less relevant than furniture.
Catherine's smile became radiant.
"Good."
She leaned into Alex's touch like she belonged there, like his hand on her cum-stained face was the most natural thing in the world.
Then her eyes shifted back to Adrian.
And the warmth drained from them instantly, replaced by something cold and calculating and utterly merciless.
"Because Adrian here has waited twelve months for a show."
Her voice carried mock sympathy that made Adrian's blood boil.
"It would be rude not to give him exactly what he's been fantasizing about."
She moved with deliberate grace toward the bench where this had all begun, each step calculated to draw attention.
Catherine settled onto the cushioned surface with fluid elegance, leaning back until she was fully reclined.
Then... slowly, deliberately, maintaining eye contact with Adrian the entire time... she let her legs fall open.
An invitation.
A claim.
A statement of ownership that had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the man she'd chosen instead.
"Come."
Catherine's voice dropped into something heated, intimate, meant to carry across the courtyard to where Adrian knelt immobilized.
Her hand gestured downward, drawing attention to what she was offering.
What she was giving freely to Alex.
What Adrian had begged for and been denied for twelve months.
"Claim me, Alex."
The words were deliberate. Vicious. Designed to destroy.
"Like no other ever has."
Her smile widened as she watched Adrian's face contort with rage and devastation.
"Like no other ever will."