She finally understood with crystal clarity why Cole had appeared so bone-deep exhausted the previous day and why he’d obliterated so many sheets of paper on the floor in seething frustration. For a man of his nature, constructing these sugar-drenched declarations must have been nothing short of excruciating agony.
Even though she genuinely treasured the herculean effort he’d poured into this and knew she should demonstrate some semblance of respect, she simply couldn’t barricade her laughter behind any wall of composure.
Elliana’s boisterous, utterly unrestrained joy plunged Cole directly into the abyss of mortification. Throughout Elliana’s reading, he’d been studying her face with hawk-like intensity, cataloging every fleeting expression that danced across her features.
When astonishment had bloomed across her face at that opening line, his heart had stumbled violently in his chest. The awkwardness stabbed through him so acutely that he yearned for the floor to split apart and mercifully devour him whole. Thankfully, she hadn’t erupted into immediate laughter or unleashed mockery—she’d merely continued reading with unwavering concentration.
But as he observed her losing ground in the battle to preserve a neutral expression, he had felt as though he were balanced precariously on a bed of razor-sharp needles. He could virtually hear the laughter accumulating and fermenting in her mind as she processed every single one of his laboriously crafted, hopelessly cheesy lines.
The precise moment she conquered the final paragraph and erupted into volcanic laughter, he recognized with sinking certainty in the hollow cavity of his stomach that this attempt had spectacularly imploded, mirroring the catastrophic failure of its predecessor.
Myles had sworn with absolute conviction that girls receiving cheesy love letters experienced hearts racing at breakneck speed and found themselves catapulted straight over the moon with intoxicating euphoria—but Elliana showed zero evidence of being “swept off her feet” whatsoever.
Elliana was laughing, undeniably, and it flowed from a wellspring of genuine amusement—but this bore no resemblance to the flustered, lovestruck, head-over-heels reaction Myles had guaranteed with such unwavering certainty would manifest.
? ?: ﹒
Elliana fought valiantly to contain her laughter, but the effort proved monumental.
When Elliana finally regained control, both Cole’s and her faces blazed crimson—hers flushed from the sheer force of her amusement, his stained with raw mortification.
A flicker of remorse stirred within Elliana for surrendering so completely to her mirth. She cleared her throat delicately. “Forgive me, I shouldn’t have laughed like that. You clearly invested considerable effort into this.”
Cole’s jaw tightened as he nodded, his hand darting out to snatch the application from her grasp in one swift, almost violent motion. “Don’t blame yourself,” he ground out. “The fault lies entirely with me.” He cursed himself viciously for ever listening to that imbecile Myles.
Frustration simmered in Cole’s voice, each word edged with barely restrained fury. He seethed with rage at Myles for dreaming up such an absurd strategy in the first place. And naturally, he felt equally foolish for having followed through with it.
Strangers might struggle to read Elliana, but Cole had fathered two children with this woman—how had he managed to misjudge her preferences so spectacularly? Elliana possessed a formidable spirit. How could he have imagined she would melt at such trite, transparent, saccharine declarations?
Myles had insisted that laboratory testing showed those exact phrases caused ninety-nine percent of female participants’ heart rates to skyrocket to one hundred and thirty beats per minute. But those women were ordinary. They paled in comparison to Elliana. She remained a rare treasure, forever belonging to that elusive one percent.
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