The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 431

Chapter 431 Kneeling For Love

Chapter 431 Kneeling For Love

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Across dozens of screens, suited executives froze. Julius had gone down on his knees? Doing. what, exactly? And that female voice–who was she? Minds that should have been on quarterly projections now raced with lurid speculation.

After taking off Quinn’s shoes, Julius eased the slippers onto her feet, the gesture so gentle it felt like a vow.

“I’ll head into the bedroom first. Finish your meeting and come find me,” she said, leaning on her crutches as she disappeared down the hall.

Julius watched her retreating silhouette, light pooling around her like a halo. The way she spoke–casual, intimate–made it seem as though the months of separation had been nothing more than a bad dream.

His thumb drifted to the bracelet at his wrist, rolling the polished beads one by one, as if counting breaths.

Somehow, she always knew how to tip his carefully walled heart into chaos.

He had sworn never to nourish another hopeless fantasy about her, yet the instant she pushed through that door, his heart had leaped like a boy’s at summer break.

My goodness… What am I so thrilled about? Her return for me? Ha. How pitiful. I can’t believe my love for her is so deep and so absurd…

Quinn sat on the bedroom couch, knees drawn up, lamplight sliding across white sheets. She replayed everything from last night until now–the chill in Julius‘ voice and the guarded distance in his eyes. Gavin’s blunt words in the hospital lobby still echoed like a clinical verdict she could not dismiss.

Maybe Gavin is right. If I want Julius to come back to me, I have to cradle that anxious, wounded part of him until it stops trembling. He must believe, beyond any shadow of doubt, that I love him–deeply, catastrophically, without exit routes.

Suddenly, the notion that physical closeness might serve as a balm startled her.

She frowned, the small crease between her brows deepening.

If I take the lead and stay clear of the bandaged places on his back… That might just work. Then again, would Julius even allow it? And if he turns away, do I need to coax him back into it?

The absurdity of the dilemma pounded behind Quinn’s temples. She had never imagined

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Chapter 431 Kneeling For Love

herself strategizing about seducing her own lover.

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Thought folded into thought until weariness blurred the room. Her head tipped back against the cushion, and without marking the moment, sleep swept her under.

The sliding doors whispered open. Julius stepped into the dim bedroom, the blue glow of a finished video call still fading from his eyes. He found Quinn slumped against the couch, lashes like fine graphite strokes upon her cheeks, breath unhurried and deep.

He approached on softened feet, drinking in the fragile stillness of her sleeping face.

Days earlier, the room had felt like a refrigerated museum piece–sterile, uninhabited. Now, because of her, warmth pooled in the corners, stirring dust motes into slow golden spirals.

Lowering his gaze, he stooped and gathered her into his arms, carrying her toward the waiting bed.

I can’t share a suite with her any longer. Even if insomnia digs trenches beneath my eyes, that sacrifice is safer… Because the longer we breathe the same air, the more impossible it becomes to live without her.

Julius had just laid Quinn on the mattress and reached for the quilt when her eyes snapped open. One swift motion and her fingers locked around his wrist, pulse meeting pulse.

“You’re up?” Julius‘ voice was low, caught between relief and alarm.

“Mm, yes. I’m awake,” Quinn answered, her senses always quick to surface. She had roused the moment his arms slid beneath her on the couch. “We need to talk.”

“All right. Let’s talk,” Julius replied, his gaze flicking to the slender fingers circling his wrist. “But would you mind letting go first?”

“Do you not like me holding your hand like this?” Quinn asked, head tipped in playful curiosity.

“That’s right. I don’t,” Julius admitted. The words scraped out of him because the contact jangled every nerve, inflaming a hunger that might one day swell into something ugly- something dangerous.

“But I do,” Quinn declared. In the same breath, she leveraged her grip and yanked, pulling Julius off balance and down onto the mattress.

Caught unprepared, Julius stumbled. Momentum hurled him backward, and the mattress swallowed his fall with a muted thud.

Before he could orient himself, Quinn moved with feline precision. She swung a leg across

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Chapter 431 Kneeling For Love

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him, kuces digging into the mattress to spare the bandaged wounds on his back, positioning herself astride his hips–her weight poised like a promise just out of reach.

Somehow, in the tangle of limbs and quickened breaths, Quinn found herself astride Julius. his shoulders sunk into the mattress beneath her. The posture vibrated with unspoken possibility–no longer a simple scuffle, not yet surrender–leaving the charged air between them humming like a live wire.

Julius glared upward, chest lifting as he tried to push himself upright and dislodge her weight. “You-” his voice cracked, the single syllable rough with outrage and something dangerously close to desire.

“Easy,” Quinn warned, lifting the leg still sheathed in a stiff white cast as though it were a knight’s shield. “My leg is in plaster. One wrong move and you might snap the bone again. Do you want that on your conscience?”

The threat of further injury snapped through him like a cold current. Julius went rigid, arms frozen mid–lift, the fight draining from his muscles in a single taut heartbeat.

Quinn bent lower until their noses nearly brushed. At that breath–stealing distance, she could see her own reflection swimming in the dark lakes of his pupils, framed by the sweep of his lashes.

Her whisper skimmed the minuscule space between their mouths. “Julius, do you really dislike having my hand wrapped around your wrist?” As she spoke, her right hand maintained its iron hold on him, pulse to pulse.

“I-” The word fell apart on the man’s tongue, shattering into silence before any meaning could form.

“Think before you answer,” she murmured, drawing a slow line of fingertips along the sensitive inside of his forearm. “And don’t you dare lie to me.”

A tremor chased through his body. “Quinn, what on earth are you trying to do?”

“I’m only trying to find out whether you like my touch.” With that, her free hand lifted, brushing over the arch of his brow, tracing the firm slope of his nose, finally resting against the soft resistance of his lips.

She narrowed her eyes, studying every micro–expression that flickered across his face. “Tell me. When I touch you like this, does it excite you, or disgust you?”

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Chapter 432 In The Heat Of Desire