Chapter 362: Try bending steel.
They didn’t rush to leave the hotel immediately after their meal. Elias had reserved the entire restaurant for them to have a private dinner. His original plan had been to grovel during the meal, but there was no need to do so now.
Sienna sat across from him, the crystal lantern light from the lamp on the table flickering against her soft features. She ate her food slowly, taking small bites, in a way she didn’t do in the privacy of their home. If Ali had learned to slurp her drinks, it was from Sienna.
He leaned back, swirling the wine in his glass. "Sienna," he said, voice low, "what do you plan to do about Gracie, the hawk beast woman that shoved Ali. You are my leopard, you have never spared anyone that dared to touch our cubs. I doubt that you are about to start today."
Sienna dabbed her lips with the napkin, her eyes glinting. "Already handled."
His ears twitched. "Handled? How?"
She smiled, the kind of smile that made him wary. "I asked Grace Twindell to take care of it discreetly. I told him to have someone throw a sack over her head and hit her with a pan daily until she comes to apologize to Ali."
Elias drew in his breath. "We are going to get arrested or sued. This is why I don’t want you spending time with my great uncle. He has a way of sensing which of the people around him he can corrupt and then pulls them to the dark side. He will corrupt you."
Sienna threw her head back, laughing softly. "Corrupt me!" She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin. "Honey, I am already corrupted. Look at some of the decisions I have made since I arrived in this world. I poisoned someone for revenge, I came close to killing her. I have been framing people left and right. I have been scheming against others and I am on the verge of causing your parents to divorce."
He put the wine glass down, saying with emphasis, "For the right reasons."
Sienna shrugged. "Depends on who you are talking to. When others are telling their stories, I am the villain." She raised one brow, tilting her head to the right slightly. "Not that I care. This world is not like my last one. It requires a hardened heart for survival. Don’t worry, what I asked Grace to do will not leak back to us."
The fox lord’s brows furrowed, his frown deepening. "Sienna...."
"Even if she goes to the enforcers, it will not lead back to us. Grace has means and people." She added quickly.
He exhaled, long and slow, then shrugged. "Fine. If it’s clean, I won’t argue." His tone carried resignation, but his eyes betrayed unease. Sienna’s methods were ruthless, but he also knew they worked. She really had a knack for surprising him. He was expecting her to opt for a direct confrontation, not long mental and physical torture.
The tension dissolved as the waiter brought dessert. They ate, talking about trivial things like weather patterns, plans for the winter holiday, sending Numia and Christo away from the compound while leaving Corven Junior behind. Sienna brought up the absurdity of the Starry Vixen’s performance.
"It’s the middle of winter and their butt cheeks were practically hanging out as they performed." She snorted.
Elias wanted to point out that the shorts they Vixens had been wearing came to somewhere in the middle of their thighs, not butt cheeks, like she was saying. But, his mother-in-law had already given him all the reasons why their family had to hate the Vixens. It was one reason: Sienna.
He didn’t want to talk about them, so he changed the topic. "My cousin, Rory Veythar, reached out to me."
Sienna blinked. Rory was the daughter of Elias’s uncle, who had moved his whole family to the South thirty years ago. He rarely came home as he wanted nothing to do with the politics, scheming and extravagance of noble families.
Elias sighed. "She has been cleaning private party buses for a living! Rory wants a job in your office. She said she is tried of picking up string panties, men’s underwear, condoms, sex toys...."
"Oooh." Sienna butted in, chuckling in a juvenile manner. She even moved her chair closer to his, like this was the most interesting conversation in the world.
Elias continued with a sigh. "A daughter of a noble...." But he stopped when Sienna’s hand casually reached under the table and landed on his thigh.
His muscles clenched beneath her touch, hard as tone. His ears flicked back and his tail gave a sharp twitch. "Sienna,: he warned, voice suddenly hoarse.
She tilted her head innocently. "What? I am just resting my hand."
"Rest it somewhere else," he muttered, shifting in his seat. But he didn’t move her hand.
Sienna’s lips curved. "You’re so tense. Are you afraid of me, fox lord?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Afraid? Hardly." In his mind, he thought to himself that he was more afraid of making a spectacle of himself in a public place.
"Then why are you sweating already?" she teased. pressing her fingers lightly, tracing the line of his thing. Her fingers were like naughty mice, reaching for something they should not have been greedy for. His breath hitched, almost subtly, but she caught it.
Sienna leaned closer, her voice dropping to a stealthy whisper. "You know, the news today covered that ridiculous moment of you singing and enjoying the performance of the Vixens. They said those women could melt a man made of steel. I wonder, will this steel bend under my pressure."
He swallowed, his jaw tightening. "Sienna, for the love of all the beast gods, we are in a public place. Please, behave." His right hand clenched into a fist.
He gritted his teeth. She knew what she doing. She knew that even without trying, she turned him on so hard that his whole body hurt.