Chapter 71

After dinner, Julie noted Lucian cleaning the dishes. She embarrassedly offered, “Let me do it.”

Lucian glanced at her with a faint smile. “You can help me out.”

“I don’t want to help,” Julie retorted.

“Then, just rest.”

Julie muttered a grumble and made her way to the living room. She plopped down onto the couch with her phone in hand.

She glanced at the time. It was almost midnight.

Just as she was about to call Amaya, a text from WhatsApp popped up. It was from Amaya: “Come clean. Is that guy trying to win you over!”

Julie blinked in confusion and sent a puzzled emoji.

Amaya responded, “Don’t play dumb.”

Julie asked, “What are you talking about? Who?”

Amaya’s reply came almost instantly: “Lucian, duh. Is something going on between you two?”

Seeing Lucian’s name, Julie instinctively glanced toward the kitchen. She raised her phone and snapped a picture of Lucian washing the dishes to send to Amaya.

After a long pause, Amaya’s text finally came through: “Damn! Look at those broad shoulders, slim waist, and long legs. He’s so handsome!”

Julie rolled her eyes and stole a glance at Lucian. Even without doing anything, he exuded the charm of a born seducer just by standing there.

Julie replied, “Do you like him?”

She’d barely sent the text when a 30-second audio from Amaya arrived.

Julie instinctively glanced at Lucian and quickly shifted her gaze to her phone screen. She intended to press and hold the audio for a preview, but the touchscreen seemed unresponsive and played the audio directly.

Amaya said, “Damn, Jules! Don’t let such a handsome guy slip away! He’s already at your doorstep, so how could you let him slip away without taking full advantage? Hurry up and drag him to bed!”

Before the audio could fully play, Lucian’s calm voice drifted over from behind her: “Is your friend talking about me?”

Julie wasn’t sure how to react to the overwhelmingly embarrassing scene.

Panicking, she tumbled to end the voice message and stammered, with a flushed face, “N-no, that’s not it.”

Then, she forced an awkward yet polite smile to smooth over the situation.

Lucian narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at her. “If not me, then who? Who do you want to drag to bed?” As he spoke, he took a step closer, steadily closing the distance between them.

Faced with his pointed questioning, Julie grew flustered. “No one! No one at all!”

In her panic, she blurted out, “It’s my friend! She likes Blaine. She thinks he’s handsome and wants to get him to bed…”

Perhaps because she felt Lucian might not believe her, she felt compelled to keep explaining. “My friend Amaya. We were supposed to have dinner together tonight. She met Blaine before and said he’s her type. She’s thinking of going after him…”

Before she could finish, Lucian interrupted. “What about you?”

Julie paused, utterly bewildered. “What about me?”

Lucian’s gaze didn’t waver. “What’s your type?”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, she instinctively looked at Lucian. Their eyes met for a brief second before she hurriedly averted her gaze.

She remained silent, reluctant to answer. But Lucian had no intention of letting her off the hook.

He continued, “Julie, aren’t you being rude? I’m talking to you.”

Nervously gripping her phone, Julie blurted out, “Someone gentle with a good temper.”

Lucian raised an eyebrow. “Gentle? What does that mean exactly?”

“Like…scholarly-looking,” she mumbled, increasingly uneasy, keeping her head down to avoid eye contact.

After her response, she thought she heard Lucian’s disdainful scoff.

She assumed he’d continue questioning, but he merely responded with an indifferent, “Oh.”

Julie was taken aback; she’d expected him to press further.