Chapter 185/Under His Protection

Chapter 185: 185/Under His Protection

Chapter 185:

Stephanie’s POV

I raised my head with agonizing slowness, my tear-filled eyes locking with his storm-grey pupils, which were thoroughly inspecting my face with intense, protective calculation and genuine worry. I couldn’t utter a single goddamn syllable; my throat was as dry as absolute desert dust, and my entire frame was still violently shaking from the pure shock and humiliation I had just been forced to swallow.

Whucking my face away in deep shame and bitterness, I desperately tried to hide the burning flush on my cheeks brought on by the crying and the sheer indignity of it all. I gave a weak, helpless shake of my head.

Alexander ran his sharp glare over my raw wrists, which were completely flushed red from the pricks’ aggressive grip back in the corridor. His brows instantly knitted together in a tight, raging fury that he was visibly forcing himself to suppress. His massive, warm palm extended to my cheek, and with the pad of his heavy thumb, he smoothly wiped away a stubborn tear that had just spilled over.

He dropped his voice into that deep, gravelly baritone, speaking so close that his proximity sent a sudden wave of heat rushing through my frozen limbs.

"Calm you down... they are completely gone, and not a single one of those bastards will ever dare look in your goddamn direction again. I permanently promise you this."

I placed my trembling palm right over his hand where it rested against my cheek, using his massive frame as a literal anchor to gather enough strength to stand. He picked up on my movement the exact microsecond it happened. Wrapping his strong fingers around my palms, he hoisted me up with a remarkably gentle, fluid motion, helping me find my footing on the flat concrete. He then leaned his towering torso down, retrieving my school bag which had been carelessly discarded on the floor, and calmly slapped the dust off the fabric.

He handed the bag back to me, his sharp gaze carefully scanning my disheveled uniform. Before I could take a single step forward, he aggressively ripped off his luxury black suit jacket with a swift, dominant movement, draping it over my shoulders until the heavy fabric completely devoured my small frame. The sharp, intoxicating masculine scent of his expensive cologne instantly wrapped around my senses like an absolute fortress of safety, making me feel for the first time in my entire life that I wasn’t completely alone in this garbage world.

He glanced down the empty administrative hallway, then pinned his eyes back onto my face, delivering a low, uncompromising command. "Come with me, Stephanie..."

I gave a rigid nod of pure submission, walking right by his side with trembling steps. He matched me stride for stride, keeping his broad shoulder locked right against mine in a dominant, protective shield, as if he were actively blocking any invisible danger from ever breaching my perimeter again.

I walked right alongside him through the deserted corridors of the administration building, my small body practically disappearing under the weight of his massive suit jacket hanging past my shoulders. The exact second we crossed through the school’s exterior iron gates, the sharp, biting slashes of the freezing wind struck my flushed face, violently waking my senses up as if snapping me out of a horrific nightmare.

His luxury black sedan, with its completely blacked-out, heavily tinted windows, was idling with its usual dominant presence in a secluded corner completely hidden from public sight. Alexander advanced with steady, calculated strides, throwing the front passenger door open for me himself in a highly protective gesture. He stood motionless until I scrambled inside, sitting flat against the leather with completely rigid limbs, before slamming the door shut with an absolute silence that sealed out the rest of the world.

He smoothly rounded the hood of the car and slid into the driver’s seat behind the steering wheel. He fired up the massive engine, which let out a low, predatory growl, but he didn’t put the vehicle into drive. Instead, he violently pivoted his towering torso around to face me, pinning his sharp, piercing blue eyes dead onto my pale face. His massive hand reached over, grabbing the seatbelt and pulling it across my body with extreme, agonizing slowness to buckle it in himself. His hot, heavy breaths fanned across the bare skin of my neck for a few intoxicating seconds as he delivered his gravelly decree.

"You are in absolute, total safety now... forget every single piece of garbage that just happened."

I gave a exhausted nod, not even possessing the goddamn courage to look him in the eyes, and tightly locked my trembling fingers over the school bag resting in my lap.

The car tore down the open highway with a flawless, terrifying smoothness, a heavy, suffocating silence gripping the interior, broken only by the faint, low hum of classical music vibrating from the stereo. I watched the street signs blur past the tinted glass with blinding speed, realizing within a matter of minutes that we were strictly not taking the route that led back to my house.

I snapped my head toward his profile in sudden anxiety, my voice cracking into a light, breathless rasp. "Professor Thorne... this isn’t the way to my house. Where are we going?"

He didn’t even bother to turn his head. His gaze remained locked dead on the asphalt ahead with a majestic, unyielding rigidity, his large fists gripping the steering wheel so tightly that the thick veins in his hands were violently bulging. He delivered his verdict with an ice-cold winter that left zero room for discussion.

"There is a zero percent chance you are returning home in this disastrous state, Stephanie... You are coming strictly with me to my private apartment."

My heart violently hammered against my ribs like a trapped animal, a chaotic cocktail of pure tension and fear twisting deep within my stomach the exact microsecond the word *apartment* left his lips. I didn’t have the strength, let alone the goddamn courage, to object to his commands; his absolute authority and dominant possessiveness completely shackled my willpower like invisible chains.

The vehicle smoothly carved through an elite, high-end residential district surrounded by towering trees, pulling up flat in front of a luxury high-rise building secured by heavy, armed guards.

Alexander backed out of his seat instantly, throwing my door open again and extending his warm, dominant palm for me to take. I stepped down onto the concrete with breathless steps, aggressively pulling his heavy jacket tightly around my frame as if shielding my skin from the eyes of the entire world.

He guided me with a strict, unyielding grip through the luxury lobby and into the elevator in absolute silence. The moment we hit the penthouse floor, he pulled out his keys, smoothly unlocking the massive wooden door of his apartment.

I took a guarded, highly tentative step inside the space. The apartment was massive, completely decked out in dark, ultra-modern furniture that flawlessly mirrored his rigid, uncompromising, and harsh personality. The heavy door slammed shut behind our frames, the lock clicking into place with a sharp, final echo that bounced off the walls of the vast living room.

My breaths turned entirely chaotic as I stood frozen right in the center of the sprawling room, waiting for his next move in a state of absolute, unbridled panic.

He took slow, heavy strides, casually tossing his keys onto the console table by the entrance before pivoting his entire towering frame to analyze me. I stood frozen flat right in the center of his sprawling living room. His piercing blue eyes thoroughly mapped out the violent vibration of my limbs and the state of my school uniform the white fabric still bearing the messy aftermath of where those bastards’ hands had aggressively mauled me just moments ago.

He advanced toward my position with a dangerous, majestic gravity that sent my pulse into a reckless sprint, halting dead in front of me. His looming, massive height completely blocked out the rest of the apartment, devouring my line of sight. He didn’t touch my skin at first. Instead, he delivered a low command in that deep, gravelly baritone, his tone leaving zero room for a single goddamn debate.

"First, you needs to wash up."

I gave a scattered, dazed nod, my eyes helplessly locked onto the chest of his tailored suit jacket. He gestured with a dominant motion of his hand toward a dimly lit side corridor. "The hallway to your right leads directly to the master bathroom. Go take a burning hot shower. You will find absolutely everything you need inside."

I moved with shaky, erratic steps like a literal puppet being dragged by invisible strings, his massive, luxury suit jacket still draped over my shoulders, wrapping my senses in that aggressive masculine scent. I slowly turned to head down the corridor, but his deep voice violently arrested my movement right at the threshold of the room.

"Stephanie."

I turned back to face him in pure anxiety. He hadn’t moved an inch from his spot. He was staring dead at me, his pupils blazing with a pitch-black, strict possessiveness that made my lungs lock up. He delivered a heavy confirmation.

"Take your absolute, sweet time."

I swallowed with immense difficulty, tightly shutting my eyelids for a single fraction of a second to force back the tears that threatened to spill over all over again. I managed a faint, raspy whisper. "Fine... Professor Thorne."

Turning my back, I continued down the hallway until I reached the heavy, dark wooden door of the master bathroom. Pushing it open with trembling fingers, I stepped inside to find a massive, high-end space smelling sharply of rich pine, dominated by a huge marble bathtub.

I threw the door shut, locking it securely behind me, and slammed my back flat against the wood. My breaths came in heavy, ragged gasps. Every single nerve in my body was violently vibrating with a chaotic cocktail of lingering terror and a desperate, burning craving to take shelter inside his fortress at any goddamn cost.

I slowly slid his heavy black suit jacket off my shoulders, placing it with absolute, reverent care on the edge of the vanity. Then, with rigid, frozen fingers, I began unbuttoning the white school shirt. It felt completely surreal. I was literally in Professor Thorne’s private apartment. I Stephanie, the pathetic girl everyone ruthlessly targeted and made a mockery of every single day was about to wash up in Professor Thorne’s master bathroom.

An intense, intoxicating rush of pure ecstasy flooded my veins, so overwhelming that I wanted to literally jump up and down in absolute joy. By all accounts of reality, I should have been terrified out of my mind but I wasn’t. Not even a single goddamn bit.

A breathless, ecstatic whisper escaped my lips as I stared into the mirror. "I am actually in the bathroom of the man who has completely destroyed my sanity... I am hidden away in the exact same house with him."