Liam’s Obsession のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 161 - チャプター 170

Night settled slowly over the estate.The mansion never truly became quiet.Wood shifted with the cooling air.Distant footsteps echoed through long corridors.Somewhere below, a fireplace crackled softly.Life continued.Denise stood beside the bedroom window, looking out over the moonlit gardens.The grounds stretched farther than she had realized during daylight.Beautiful.Ordered.Protected.For the first time in days, there were no voices inside the bond.No misplaced emotions.No sudden echoes.Just…stillness.She wasn’t sure whether to trust it.—Sleep came unexpectedly.And left just as quickly.Denise opened her eyes with a sharp breath.Not frightened.Disoriented.Something lingered.A sensation.Not quite a dream.Not quite memory.She had been standing somewhere unfamiliar.A stone cliff.Wind.Someone beside her.She hadn’t seen their face.Only their hand reaching toward hers.Then—Nothing.Gone.Denise sat upright.The room was dark.The clock beside the bed read 2

The kiss didn’t end the way anything else in their lives ever did.There was no clean separation from it.No return to distance.It lingered in the space between them like something neither of them could put back into silence.When Liam finally pulled back just enough to breathe, he didn’t let her go.Neither did Denise.Her hand was still on his chest, feeling the uneven rhythm there—not steady, not controlled, just honest.Like him.Denise exhaled shakily, her forehead still close to his.“That…” she started, then stopped.Words felt unnecessary now, but not because language had failed—because nothing they could say would match what had just happened without diminishing it.Liam’s voice came low.“Don’t stop talking.”That alone softened something in her.Denise let out a quiet breath that almost turned into a laugh.“You’re impossible,” she whispered.His hand at the back of her neck tightened slightly—not forcing, just anchoring her there.“I’ve been worse things than that,” he sa

The rest of the estate blurred into distance the moment Liam led her further inside.Not rushed.Not dragged.Guided—like he was done pretending there was anywhere else she could reasonably be.Denise followed him without hesitation this time.That alone felt like surrender in a way words couldn’t properly disguise.The bedroom was already dim when they entered—city lights filtering through tall glass, gold and shadow mixing across expensive silence.Liam didn’t turn on more light.He didn’t need to.Denise stopped just inside the room, suddenly aware of the shift in gravity between them.Not fear.Anticipation.Something heavier than both.Liam turned to face her.For a moment, neither of them spoke.Because speaking would have been too small for what was happening now.Denise’s voice came quietly.“This feels different.”Liam stepped closer.“It is.”No hesitation in that answer.Denise exhaled slowly, watching him like she was trying to memorize the version of him that no longer bo

The silence after everything had changed wasn’t empty.It was heavy in a different way—like the room itself had adjusted to them and was no longer pretending neutrality.Denise lay close to Liam, not far from where the intensity had finally settled into something quieter. Her breathing was still uneven, but no longer lost.Just aware.Liam was beside her, one arm still around her waist like he had decided without announcing it that distance was no longer part of his language.Denise stared at the faint movement of his chest for a moment before speaking.“I keep thinking I should feel different,” she said quietly.Liam turned his head slightly toward her.“Different how?”Denise hesitated, searching for the right words and failing to find anything that didn’t feel too small.“Like… I crossed a line I can’t come back from,” she admitted. “But I don’t feel regret. I don’t even feel fear. I just feel… like I finally stopped resisting something I was already inside of.”Liam didn’t respond

Morning didn’t arrive softly in Liam’s estate.It arrived through glass and silence and the distant vibration of a world that still expected him to be someone else.Denise woke slowly, not startled—just aware.Aware of warmth beside her.Aware of an arm still around her waist like it had never loosened through the night.Aware of the fact that nothing about yesterday had been undone while she slept.Liam was already awake.Of course he was.He always looked like someone who didn’t need sleep to stay in control of himself.Except now, when Denise turned slightly, she noticed something different.He wasn’t fully guarded.Not with her.His hand tightened slightly at her waist when she shifted, not restraining her—just acknowledging she was there.“You’re awake,” she murmured.Liam’s voice came low.“I didn’t sleep much.”Denise blinked slowly.“Because of me?” she asked, half-teasing, half-not.His gaze flicked to her.“Because of what changed.”That stopped her for a second.Not in fear