No Love For The Villain - Chapter 46
For the hand of a killer, it was a beautiful one.
Sierra couldn’t forget the warmth of those graceful hands.
She couldn’t erase from her mind the moment she realized that man, too, had a beating heart—that he carried the same warmth as she did.
More dangerous than his cold, indifferent gaze was his gentle touch.
More cruel than the chill she wanted to avoid was the warmth she wanted to reach for.
So Sierra returned his gloves to him so that he might hide that warmth once more beneath something inhumanly cold.
But instead of putting them on, Eli removed even the remaining glove.
He set both gloves on the blanket and headed to the bathroom.
The sound of running water followed.
When he returned, he held a damp towel in his hand.
Eli held out his hand to Sierra.
“Your hand.”
Realizing his gaze had fallen on her injured palm, Sierra clenched her hand into a fist.
But soon, her wrist was caught in his grip, and she could no longer hide it.
Eli gently wiped her hand with the wet towel.
The more he rubbed, the redder the wound became, and the pain she had forgotten began to sting again.
When Sierra tried to pull her hand back and clench it, Eli forced his fingers between hers, prying it open.
As his fingers slid between hers and spread them apart, a tingling, almost ticklish sensation ran through her fingertips.
“That’s enough. Stop.”
Eli, who had been examining her wound, lifted his gaze, and their eyes met.
His calm expression looked so innocent that, instead, Sierra felt her cheeks grow hot—
as if she alone had been stirred by a touch that was only meant to tend to her injuries.
The fingers that had been prying apart the spaces between her own slipped away.
Sierra felt relieved.
But then, this time, his thumb pressed into the gaps between her fingers.
Tracing the raised bones, pressing firmly into the soft hollows it was clearly deliberate teasing.
The man playing with her hand met her eyes, as if wanting to see her reaction.
Unable to bear the ticklish sensation any longer, Sierra quickly pulled her hand away.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
Something weird.
She was about to answer that, but when the corners of Eli’s eyes curved, even his smile felt like part of it as if every part of him were a mischievous trick.
“Touching me like that.”
“Ah, touching you like that.”
Eli repeated her words like a parrot.
Was he trying to remember what not to do, or was even repeating her part of the teasing?
The back of his cool hand touched her flushed cheek.
As he lightly tapped her cheek with his knuckles, his eyes softened.
With a faint smile still lingering, his gaze rested on the cheek he himself had colored, looking satisfied.
What a strange person.
He plays childish tricks—and enjoys them.
Sierra felt as though her hands, left damp, had been baptized.
But unlike a baptism that washes away sins and makes one new, the tickling sensation at her fingertips lingered like an unerasable sin.
Eli turned the towel toward her legs.
After wiping her injured knees, he opened the first-aid kit.
He studied its contents intently.
The man, who didn’t seem familiar with medicine, turned disinfectants and ointments over in his hands, as if unsure what to use for what.
“Should I do it?”
“No.”
He answered firmly and opened one of the bottles.
A sharp, stinging smell rose from it.
Fortunately, it seemed he had picked the correct disinfectant.
Eli tilted the bottle over Sierra’s knee.
With a sudden pour, the vivid red liquid spilled out all at once.
At the surging sting, Sierra jolted.
“Ugh…!”
As she let out a pained groan, nearly in tears, the man holding the bottle frowned.
As if realizing he had done something wrong, he hurriedly grabbed the damp towel and wiped her knee.
Sierra’s eyes welled up at the raw, tearing sensation, as though her wound were being ripped open rather than healed.
Eli glanced again at the bottle, as if checking it despite there being no instructions written on it, his gaze sharp.
A man whose work was to harm others didn’t seem to suit things meant for healing.
It almost felt like he could kill someone even with disinfectant.
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