Chapter 580: Helping The Luna_Part 1

"Did something happen to her? Is she all right? I read in an article just a while ago that if a she-wolf isn’t strong enough, she could lose her life giving birth to the Kades’ strong bloodline, and..." She trailed off when she noticed him smiling at her.

He stood there with his hands tucked into his blue hospital coat, his hair still covered by a cap that made his blue-green eyes shine. The smile lines around his eyes only added to his allure, along with the huge dimples on his cheeks, chin, and even his nose. When he smiled like that, it seemed as though he had dimples all over his face, and good heavens, he was fine!

Laila immediately felt her insides go warm and molten, and she grew hot all over, and she knew she shouldn’t have brought herself here.

"What’s so funny, Rodrigo? You seem to like smiling and laughing a lot to get on my nerves, and one of these days I am going to wipe it off your face with a slap." She grumbled, but he only laughed even more at her words, and when she glared at him and angrily began to walk past him to leave, he grabbed her elbow, stopping her.

"If you can laugh like that, then I guess it’s nothing serious and the Luna is fine. Let go of me, Rodrigo, I will check on her myself." She said, turning to him with her head held high, and Gilbert didn’t let go. Instead, he pulled her back.

"Why do you always get triggered by my amusement, Serrano? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?" He questioned, trying to wipe the smile off his face, but it was hard, for every time he saw her, a chemical reaction happened inside him that filled him with happiness, just like how it was supposed to be.

’I get triggered because you affect me in places I have never fought to hold in,’ Laila thought in her mind. ’And I am being humble and noble for the first time in my life, no, maybe the second or third time, to let you go and avoid family drama, couldn’t you see that?’ But the words that came from her mouth were different.

"So how was your date with Anna?" She questioned smugly, changing the subject and reminding him of his mother’s choice of shewolf.

Gilbert’s smile fell. "It’s Annie, and—"

"As if I give a fuck!" Laila gritted out at his correction, yanking her hand away and about to turn around and leave again, but he stopped her by gripping her waist this time, bringing her hot against his front.

"Rodrigo, if you don’t let go I will burst your balls," she warned, even though something inside her wanted to melt against his chest and close her eyes. Laila didn’t want to commit to a relationship that wouldn’t go anywhere because of his family.

"Go ahead, burst them." He whispered, tightening his arms around her waist and keeping her against him, and Laila belatedly realized he had become bolder than she last remembered, with his arms only a breath beneath her breasts. Where was the reserved doctor she teased months ago?

She tried to burst his balls with a back kick but realized he stood in a way her bent leg couldn’t reach, and she stopped trying to get away and steamed in anger.

He thought she would allow him to play with her when he already had another girlfriend, and if he didn’t care about Anna, he wouldn’t have corrected her on the name. Laila was done competing for a man’s attention.

"Let go of me, Rodrigo," she warned, but rather than letting go, he tightened his hold and caressed her waist, pulling her against him as he whispered,

"I am tired, Laila. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a very long time, because I think of ways you and I could spend the night in my bed, and of ways to make my mother accept you. I told Annie that she and I can’t work out and that I have someone else."

Laila stopped struggling against him, and she relaxed, belatedly ashamed that something inside her softened at his admission, and she wanted to slap herself awake. Instead, she pouted her lips. "What did she say?"

Gilbert didn’t answer her immediately. He had just come from a room where a baby no bigger than his two hands lay behind glass, breathing with borrowed strength. He had spent the walk here telling himself he had no room left for anything else. But standing there with Laila stiff in his arms, he realized she was the one steady thing he had held all day, and he was tired of letting opportunities pass him by.

Gilbert buried his nose in her lush hair, inhaling her scent. It stirred his arousal like never before and made his heart hammer as rhythmically as a nail being driven into wood.

"She said she won’t give up and that she’s set her mind on me. Her parents have already agreed that we’ll mate. She comes to my mother’s place every time—"

"Then I guess it’s clear. You two are getting mated. Rodrigo, don’t make this difficult. Let’s both forget each other and cut the ties that bind us by accepting a proper rejection with no strings attached," she said quietly, already knowing she had no chance of being the one.

Gilbert said nothing. His arms stayed exactly where they were, and Laila hated that she could feel his heartbeat against her back, steady and unhurried, as though he had all the time in the world to wait out her decision.

Her fingers, which had been clawing at his forearm a moment ago, had gone still without her permission, and she curled them into her palm so he wouldn’t notice how badly she wanted to hold on instead.

Who was she to make him turn his back on a family that loved him? She, who would have disrespected his mother in the past and made his sisters’ lives hell? She, who had once failed to value any relationship enough to stay in it and whom everyone called ill-mannered? This was the most Laila had ever done to protect herself. She couldn’t bear to get involved with him only to have her heart broken when he picked someone else over her again.

Footsteps passed in the corridor outside, and for a few seconds neither of them breathed. The sound faded down the hallway, and the silence that followed felt louder than before. She waited for him to loosen his hold now that the moment for it had come.

He didn’t.