Chapter 311 Uninvited Guest 

Quinn drew the door open, expecting the corridor’s hushed emptiness. Instead, she stopped cold, fingers tightening on the knob. 

Julius stood on the threshold, tall, immaculate, and burning with something that did not belong to the 

quiet hallway lights. 

What on earth is he doing here? The thought flared even before she could shape his name. 

Before any greeting could form, Julius swept inside, slammed the door with a backward shove, and herded her against the wall like a storm cornering a fragile shore. 

His voice, usually winter–hard and remote, cracked with raw impatience. “Why was Harlan Ingram in your room for so long? What exactly did you two do?” 

She frowned, the wall cold against her shoulder. “Are you spying on me?” 

Julius lifted his hand. “I checked the hallway cameras. Tell me what happened between you and Harlan.” 

Quinn’s eyes narrowed, indignation stiffening her spine. “Whatever I did with him is none of your business.” 

She pressed a palm to his chest, meaning to shove him away. In the next breath, he caged her against the wall, and his mouth crashed onto hers with a violence that tasted of accusation and need. 

Instinct screamed for her to break free, yet her fingers brushed the rigid splint on his fingers and faltered. She could have forced him back–maybe a sixty–percent chance–but that shove would tear at his already damaged fingers. Turning her head hard to one side, she escaped the punishing kiss. 

Breath ragged, she glared at him. “Julius, have you lost your mind? We already broke up.” 

His lips, still brushed with hers, chased the words. “You said it, not me. I never agreed to any breakup.” 

She tried to angle her face away from him, voice muffled between their stubborn closeness. “I told you–a breakup takes only one vote. Mine. Now let go… Stop…” 

This has to end now! 

A sudden fury blazed through her; she clamped her teeth on his lower lip, biting down with merciless precision. 

Metallic warmth burst across her tongue, copper blooming like a dark flower between them. 

Julius did not recoil. Blood threaded across their mouths while he kept kissing her, relentless as surf against rock. Only when the taste turned thick, almost choking, did he finally pull back, breath ragged, eyes wild. 

She wiped the smear from her lips, fury flickering hotter than the pain. “You’re a complete lunatic!” 

The accusation seemed to soften him, not harden; his voice fell to a broken whisper. “Quinn, if you really abandon me, I will go insane.” 

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Chapter 311 Uninvited Guest 

Silence stretched a heartbeat. Quinn drew a steadying breath. “Let me go first. I need to ringe my mouth. 

The metallic tang of blood coated every inhale. 

Julius‘ grip loosened. She shoved past him and disappeared into the bathroom, the click of the door echoing like a verdict. 

She rinsed once, twice, three times, spitting crimson each round until the water ran nearly clear. 

When she stepped back into the room, Julius sat on the couch as if rooted there, eyes blazing at her; blood still beaded on the split of his lower lip, bright against the pale of him. 

Quinn stepped forward, each measured stride whisper–soft against the marble, the overhead light catching in her dark hair like distant starlight. “Wipe the blood from your lips,” she said, offering a neatly folded tissue that gleamed as pale as surrender. 

Julius did not reach for the tissue. Instead, he tilted his head back, the line of his throat stark beneath the lobby’s chandelier. “Will you do it for me?” His voice wavered between plea and command, raw need vibrating in every syllable. 

Quinn’s first instinct was to refuse. The word hovered, hot and hard, behind her teeth. But then she met his eyes—those bruised, storm–colored eyes brimming with a boyish, desperate hope–and the denial splintered, lodged somewhere in her throat where even breath felt sharp. 

A brittle aura clung to him, as though his composure were nothing more than fractured glass arranged into the shape of a man. She sensed–down to her bones–that if she turned away now, the shards would scatter and Julius would shatter beyond repair. 

She exhaled, a sigh both weary and tender, pinched the tissue between slender fingers, and dabbed at the crimson smudge staining his mouth. “If you ever bully me like that again,” she warned, voice quiet yet edged with steel, “I won’t forgive you.” 

A flicker–half guilt, half stubborn pride–flashed across Julius‘ eyes. He knew he had let fury drive him past reason only moments ago. 

The image of Quinn arriving in Doria with Harlan, the two of them shut away together for far too long, gnawed at him like acid. Jealousy, bright and sick, curled tight around his ribs. 

“I’m sorry.” The words left him rough, yet earnest, as though scraped free from a throat scorched by regret. 

She brushed away the final trace of blood, the gesture almost maternal, then stepped back. “All done. It’s late. I need rest, and you should go.” 

“You still haven’t told me what you and Harlan were doing,” Julius pressed, voice dropping to a growl that reverberated in the empty hallway 

“Discussing how to find my brother, nothing more,” Quinn answered, choosing each word with surgical care, determined to leave no space for rumor to bloom. 

“Then why,” he asked, eyes drilling into her, “did it look like you kissed him at the door a moment ago?” Quinn blinked, utterly thrown. “I kissed Harlan? Are you serious?” 

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Chapter 311 Uninvited Guest 

The tension bled from Julius’s shoulders. “Thank heaven you didn’t, he murmured. Ilad you done s can’t say what I might have done.” 

Her brows knitted. “Leave Harlan out of whatever this is between us.” 

“Then don’t fall for him,” Julius said. “Quinn, I’m only now realizing how monstrous my jealousy can be Perhaps the rumors about the Whitethorn temper are truc–I might be a madman after all.. 

“Harlan is family to me–nothing else. But listen closely: if you ever lay a hand on him, I will not stand idle.” Her tone, usually velvet, snapped like a blade drawn too fast. 

Warning blazed in her almond–shaped eyes, bright as a lit fuse. 

Julius‘ jaw tightened; his nails carved crescents into his palms. Pain was easier to manage than the wildfire raging in his chest. 

Her fierce defense of Harlan told Julius exactly how much the young man meant to her, every syllable of caution another stone added to the weight on his heart. 

She might call Harlan her brother, yet jealousy, uninvited and uncontrollable, continued to leak through Julius‘ veins like ink in water. 

“Very well,” he said at last, voice low but steady. “As long as you don’t fall for him, I won’t harm him.”