novelxo Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Smell
Byron pulled his tie and tossed it on the floor before sitting down on the couch without staring at her. Instead, he focused on the tips of his snow–white leather shoes.
“Is that woman courting you too?”
He touched his cigarette case while holding a cigarette between his teeth. Suddenly reminded of something, he didn’t smoke it in the end.
Candice noticed that Byron didn’t intend to answer and began to feel a little diffident.
“You like her.”
“Not really.”
“You like me then.”
A thin layer of sweat broke out on his nose bridge and he asked, “Is the air–con off?”
“I get cold easily.”
Byron looked at her for a moment before reaching out and yanking her hand. Candice fell into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck while exclaiming in shock.
Her exclamation was soft, alluring, and pleasing to the ears.
“Do you get cold easily or are you deliberately trying to
make me feel warm?” Byron asked, pressing his chin against the back of his ear. His breath was warm and moist.
Candice lowered her head. She had never been so close to him before, so close that she could hear his heartbeat and smell his breath.
The sweet bitterness of nicotine was mixed with black tea and peppermint.
Byron felt that Candice wasn’t stunningly seductive and her face didn’t seem threatening at all. However, she was pure, pretty, and pleasing to the eye, like a dewy white jasmine.
He had met plenty of women like roses and poppies. They might be addictive on the first two meetings but they had nothing else to offer.
Incredibly seductive men would leave one wanting for more but women who were overly stunning would be too overwhelming.
Byron stroked his palm along Candice’s spine rather ambiguously, and when he slid it down to her waist, she stiffened slightly. However, after touching her hips, he gently patted the outside of her leg and said, “Go take a shower.”
His raspy, magnetic voice and his handsome face were incredibly attractive.
Grabbing the collar of his shirt tightly, Candice asked, “Are you going to stay the night?”
Byron buried his head in the nape of her neck and planted a
Chapter 12: Smell
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shallow kiss. Before she could feel its presence, he stopped.
“Not necessarily,” he answered.
Men like him were good at controlling the situation.
Candice had just taken a shower. Byron had taken off his shirt and his pants were hanging loosely on his torso, his strong muscles looking rather defined under the warm, orange light.
He sized Candice up and put his phone down before heading to the bathroom, half naked.
Candice glanced at the screen to see that Byron was scrolling through Instagram.
A bold idea immediately came to her mind. She thought that she would first send him a follow request before using his phone to accept it. However, when she clicked on his feed, she noticed that there was barely anything.
There were no activities.
Refusing to give up, Candice pried further, only to see that there were only 10 posts to date since 2014.
The latest was posted ‘last June, with a one–word caption: “Bitch.”
There was a photo of a large and a small pair of footprints in the snow, posted on Valentine’s Day in Hokkaido with a confession as the caption.
“V forever.”
There was a photo of a group of people under the Eiffel tower taken during the winter two years ago. Candice almost intuitively recognized Vicky because she was wearing a red knit dress and Byron was wearing a red scarf.
Three years ago on New Year’s Eve, he posted a photo of a woman’s back with the caption: “Officially mesmerized.”
The back was slim and delicate. Candice took a closer look to see that her figure wasn’t that much better than hers. Candice had a perkier butt and a narrower waist, but Vicky did have the aura of a super model.
The woman in the group photo matched that silhouette perfectly.
Candice was really shocked that the calm and ascetic Byron had been through the dark times of being tortured by a
woman.
From passion to insanity, to resentment and grief.
The psychological changes of a man towards the love of his life are evident.
He was also trapped in a relationship that ended without a fight and almost consumed half of his life.
As soon as the sound of the water in the bathroom ceased, Candice immediately exited and reverted to the home page.
Byron came out wrapped in a towel and scrolled through his phone.
“You touched my phone.”
“I didn’t,” Candice denied in shock.
“You didn’t?”
An obvious look of repulse appeared on his face.
“I… wanted to follow you on Instagram.”
Candice was glad that she had removed the friend request. Given Byron’s attitude, she knew that he definitely wouldn’t let her accept the friend request on his behalf.
“But I deleted the request.”
He set his phone to silent mode and placed it back onto the headboard before lying down with his back facing her.
Perhaps because she had gone through his phone, he seemed to have lost all interest but fortunately, he didn’t leave, which proved that he wasn’t particularly exasperated.
Candice hadn’t slept all night and she woke up before dawn arrived.
She had only seen Rufus’s sleeping face, which was
disheveled and puffy. Byron was the second man she had ever seen asleep and she had to admit that he was so well built that even his most disheveled appearance came with a distinctive charm.
She cautiously stroked Byron’s Adam’s apple, which suddenly moved a little. The hard touch caused Candice to jerk a little and retract her hand immediately as she closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
In fact, Byron wasn’t in deep sleep. He was just too tired.
This trip was more complicated than he thought.
Terence had invested in a medical company. As a major shareholder, he indirectly hinted that Byron should apply to the hospital to purchase a batch of equipment produced by the company. Byron didn’t turn him down on the account that he was his mentor.
Byron had always been a resolute person so he was naturally frustrated about having to put things on hold.
He retracted his arm from underneath Candice’s body and asked in a hoarse voice, “What time is it?”
She didn’t make a sound and simply curled her shoulders. while her eyelashes trembled vigorously. He reckoned that she was already awake.
Byron got out of bed and got dressed. He was always disciplined and rarely got up late, but today was the first time
He rubbed his eyebrows and got up to answer the door when he heard the doorbell ring. It was Harry standing outside.
“Candice, I brought breakfast-” Harry looked up with his jaw dropped. “It’s you?.
“Drop the act,” Byron said calmly.
Harry did as he was told and put down the box of food.
“Haven’t you already checked out?”
“This isn’t my room,” he said, lighting a cigarette nonchalantly.
Chapter 12: Smell
“I know it’s not yours. Are you okay with her or not?”
Byron looked at the ground without responding.
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If he didn’t want to answer, it would be pointless in forcing him.
Harry shook his head and said, “I’ve examined the equipment of Professor Terence’s company. The quality is so–so and if we go through the standard protocol, the hospital won’t purchase the equipment from him.”
Byron took a long drag on his cigarette sullenly and said, “I’ll go back in the afternoon.”
“Professor Terence…”
“Turn him down.”
“You’re his student. Aren’t you going to do him a favor?” Harry asked in surprise.
Byron exhaled a mouthful of smoke and said, “I won’t go against my principles for a favor.”
“What about Josie? The principal insisted on shoving his daughter to you. Are you going to turn down Professor Terence and our former principal?” Harry asked coldly.
The rolling stream of smoke broke off on the back of Byron’s hand and he blew it off.
“I don’t plan to turn our former principal down.”
“Aren’t you and Candice… Doesn’t she want to date you?”
“That doesn’t mean I want to date her.”
“Are you just out to toy with her?” Harry asked as he came to a sudden realization.
“Not really. We didn’t do the deed last night,” Byron said with a calm expression.
Harry thought that he must be addicted to being a scumbag. Candice was really in love with him but he treated her a pastime.
“She took the trouble to chase you for such a long time. Will she give up just like that?”
Byron walked towards the elevator and said, “She’s pretty smart.”
In other words, he reckoned that she wouldn’t fall out with him too badly.
Candice heard their conversation clearly through the door.
Byron didn’t avoid her at all. For better or worse, he didn’t bother to hide it from her.
Since he didn’t intend to get into a long–term relationship with her, there was no point in wasting his time and effort to lie to her.
One of the things that made Candice stressed out the most was the fact that Patrick kept avoiding her, so she guessed that he was probably having a hard time facing it for now.
One of her male colleagues told Candice that Patrick was prone to be resentful after getting rejected by the woman he
loved. He was a nice man in general but his only flaw was being too stubborn when it comes to women.
His ex–wife had rekindled her romance with a senior from college after attending a classmates reunion, and subsequently went on to cheat on him. However, he persevered and got his ex–wife back.
After that, his wife focused all her attention on her family but he dumped her again and left her to her own devices.
Candice never knew Patrick was married so she was shocked
to hear that.
“He has an ex–wife?”
“They’ve been divorced for years.”
“How old is he?”
Patrick looked much younger than his actual age.
Candice had thought of taking the initiative to make up with him but Patrick ignored her. Moreover, they were in charge of different duties so she hadn’t had the chance to run into him.
A week later, Candice cut her business trip short and returned home. During this period of time, Byron didn’t contact her and it was as if he had vanished from thin air.
People tend to be smitten with each other for a while after sleeping with each other for the first time. Byron seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder too soon.
She went to the hospital to find out the truth from Harry, but he was vague and didn’t seem to intend to help her anymore.
Desperate for answers, Candice said, “Ever since that night, he’s been ignoring me.”
Harry took off his glasses and said, “It’s hard enough to talk to you after that. He’s got someone else.”
“Someone else?”
Byron had a lot of fangirls, so for a while, she didn’t really have a specific person in mind.
“Give up.”
“Without putting up a fight?” Candice asked as her face turned pale.
Harry persuaded her, “There’s no way you can defeat this rival. You’ve met a tough match.”
It seemed that Candice had guessed correctly. Byron was lonely on a long night in a foreign place. His classmates and teachers were all focused on him, the once popular figure. It was easy for him to fool around.
Hence, he would take whatever was in front of him then forget the girl once he was back home.
“The girl who sent him food?”
“Nah, she can’t win Doctor Byron’s heart. It’s Josie,” Harry said, his words shocking Candice.
Josie was the daughter of the dean of the medical college, whom Byron’s classmates had teased him about.
What she feared the most had eventually happened.
Josie’s appearance was simply a major test.
Once Byron chose her, it would be completely over for Candice. By choosing to be with someone so closely related to his workplace, it was likely that their relationship would come to fruition. Otherwise, his reputation would be affected.
If she hadn’t felt a sense of crisis, Candice might not have rushed to sleep with Byron.
Although nothing happened between them, everything went out of control the moment they entered the room and she had indeed taken a risk. She had made such a huge gamble for the sake of keeping her guard up against Josie.
However, Candice never thought that Byron would be so insensitive.
“Do I not stand a chance anymore?”
“Your chances are bleak,” Harry said.
Over the weekend, Nancy met Candice at the mall after a failed blind date with a widowed traffic police captain.
“Horace Phillips is incredibly dashing and I have a thing for men in uniform but he has triplet babies. I really can’t handle that,” Nancy said, feeling distraught.
“Isn’t that great? You won’t have to give birth anymore,”
Candice said, out of sorts.
“I don’t mind the trouble! I’d rather have my own kids. Something isn’t too right about the way you’re reacting,” Nancy said, urging her.
“I’ve been trying to court Byron lately but I haven’t made any progress,” Candice said while sucking on the straw.
“You courted rufus for half a year. For a man like Byron, it’ll take you at least five years to make any progress.”
Candice glared at her and said, “I spent a night with him.”
Nancy was almost out of breath.
“Seriously? On your business trip this time?”
“Last month.”
“Who initiated it?”
“No one. It just happened by coincidence,” Candice said.
“You couldn’t even deal with Rufus but you managed to conquer Byron? He’s a hundred times harder to deal with compared to Rufus!”
Candice felt a headache coming on at the mention of it. She thought that it was indeed taking a lot of effort.
After trying to court him for such a long time, there was still no progress.
“Hey… Isn’t that Byron?” Nancy asked as she suddenly nudged her in the arm.
A man and a woman stepped out of International Shopping Mall across the street. The man was Byron while the woman was someone Candice had a strong impression of even though they had only met once.
“Her name’s Josie. She’s courting Byron now.”
Nancy instantly came back to her senses as she said, “She’s your love rival.”
Josie walked into a lingerie store where Byron was waiting outside quietly. Josie asked him to accompany her and she obediently entered the store too.
At this point, even if they weren’t officially lovers yet, it was almost a given.
Candice dragged Nancy straight to the store and couldn’t resist texting Byron while they were on their way.
“Professor Wilson, where are you fooling around instead of going to work?”
Through the window, she saw Byron opening the message without replying to it.
Josie took a liking to a sexy half–cup bra and placed it in front of her chest to take a look.
“Does it suit me?” she asked.
He took a glance and said, “It’s okay.”
“Is it a little too revealing? I’m rather well–endowed.”
“Is that so? Change into something else then,” Byron said
quietly.
Biting her lip, Josie tiptoed and leaned closer towards him. “Haven’t you realized it?”
She was extremely pretentious, just like most of the women around Byron.
From Candice’s perspective, their bodies seemed to be pressed closely against each other.
“I haven’t paid much attention,” Byron said.
Josie turned her head and asked the salesperson, “Is this model available in cup size D?”
The salesperson came with the item rather quickly. At the same time, she complimented Josie for her voluptuous figure and teased that she had a lucky boyfriend.
Josie laughed and said, “Byron, what do you think?”
Byron was deleting his text messages and couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what she was saying.
“Who’s that?” Josie asked when she noticed his expression.
“Just an insurance agent.”
“Why would your insurance agent text you?” she asked apprehensively.
Byron graciously handed his phone to her. “You may see for yourself.”
Josie laughed and didn’t even glance at it.
“I’m not going to,” she said.
Nancy glanced at this and couldn’t help but be shocked.
“This woman is really something. She’s a big obstacle in front of you,
she said.
She knew when to attack and when to retreat. She first expressed her suspicion before giving Byron enough face by pretending to trust him.
However, Candice felt that Byron was the real expert, who was extremely good at controlling women. He had even predicted what she would do.
In the end, Josie bought two lace lingerie sets, which Byron paid for with his card. After they walked out of the store, Candice and Nancy continued to keep up with them.
After another ten minutes or so of shopping, Candice finally got Byron’s merciless reply.
[Stop following me.]
Her mind went blank and she was dumbstruck to find that he had long noticed her. She didn’t know when she had been exposed to
After a moment of silence, Candice asked again, “Are you dating someone?”
Her question was wild and brash but if she continued to hold back, she would be completely out of the game.
Byron’s reply was swift.
[I’m single.]
Candice felt slightly better after seeing his reply. Fortunately, Josie didn’t manage to win his heart.
Likewise, things had returned to square one for Candice.