After a year of warmth and safety, Alicia had come to see her foster mother as her ownâa lifeline, a source of comfort she clung to with all her heart.
No matter how cruelly her foster mother beat or mistreated her, Alicia stubbornly refused to leave. She endured it all, believing this was the only place she belonged.
Then, one day, everything shattered. When her foster mother learned that her husband's mistress was pregnant, she lost control and turned on the gas in the house.
The fire swept through the room, thick smoke searing Alicia's eyes. Curled up in the haze, she thought her brief and painful life was finally over.
But she didn't die.
A young man from the village saved her.
He brought her to his home, fed her, gave her water, and every day made sure she had a bowl of shaved ice to soothe her burns.
He contacted the local women's shelter and reached out to the orphanage.
Until the day Alicia left that little mountain village on the edge of Grandcrest City, she never once saw her rescuer's face. Her vision was ruined by the flames. Later, after her surgery and partial recovery, she tried to find him, but he was goneâlike a shooting star that flashed through her life and vanished.
Eventually, the director of the orphanage brought her back, and the young man faded into memory, a brief miracle in a lifetime of hardship.
...
"You like shaved ice too?" Alicia's eyes sparkled, tears making them even more luminous and enchanting.
Tyrone, for his part, couldn't care less about dessert right now. "Yeah... I do," he muttered, his voice hoarse, a dangerous intensity flickering in his gaze.
He reached out and pressed Alicia's head down, no longer caring whether his roughness would make her cry. Twenty-nine years of self-restraint unraveled in an instant.
...
Once, Tyrone had scoffed at the power of seduction. He'd watched powerful men in his circle lose their heads over women and found it laughableâ
he couldn't understand it at all.
Now, he understood.
Some things, you can't truly appreciate until you've tasted them for yourself.
...
He pinned her in the bathtub for what felt like forever. Thank God the water was set to a constant, gentle warmth, or he might have worn her out completely.
The swirling water danced over their bodies, and Tyrone's kisses rained down on herâgentle at first, then urgent, relentless. Alicia thought she might just melt away right there.
Tyrone, usually so composed, lost all rationality in moments like this. He became a wild thing, desperate to possess every inch of her, as if he could devour her whole and still hunger for more.
Alicia's voice was hoarse from crying, but it only seemed to spur him on.
In the end, she surrendered, utterly spent.
"You really need to get stronger..." Tyrone teased, as if the problem lay with her fragile body, not his own insatiable desire. "We need to work on your stamina."
Alicia was too exhausted to even groan in protest, so she simply ignored him.
Smiling, Tyrone scooped her out of the tub, then stood under the shower with her for another round of "cleansing" before he finally let her go.
He dried her gently, wrapped her snugly in a bathrobe, and took the time to blow-dry her hair with infinite patience and care.
Halfway through, he realized she'd already drifted off to sleep in his arms.
Setting the hair dryer aside, he cradled her carefully, carried her to bed, and pulled her close, turning off the lights.
Alicia fell into a deep, hazy sleep. In her dreams, she was transported back four years, to the first day Vincent brought her to his apartment.
"Vincent..." In her dream, she wanted to ask himâare we dating? Is this what it means to be in love?
She didn't realize she murmured his name aloud in her sleep.
Tyrone's arms froze around her, and a shadow darker than the night itself clouded his expression.
Rich Radiant and Over Him (Alicia and Vincent)
ï¤Chapter 110 Transmigration: I Have Storage Space in the Apocalypse ï¤Chapter 760 - 756: Encountering a Man with Evil Intentions