My Ruthless Ex Demands by Eva Blackwood Episode 177

Elijah’s mood had shifted so abruptly that Oscar thought it best not to bring up the planned drinking session, and dinner concluded quickly, with everyone retreating to their rooms for the night.
Secluded in his room, Elijah collapsed onto the sofa, his fingers trembling slightly as he uncapped a bottle of ice-cold mineral water he’d snagged from the fridge.
He gulped it down eagerly, the fabric of his breath. As the water cascaded down his shirt collar, loose and fluttering with each alcohol and heat radiating through his throat, it did little to cool the burning mix of his body and his inner turmoil.
Images of Elizabeth by the serene Jade Lake infiltrated his thoughts, her figure crystallizing from the misty memories of the day into an ethereal presence in the soft light, her limbs sculpted and elegant. His mind then snapped to a more unsettling memory: Elizabeth in the bathroom, her bare skin exposed, her eyes wide with shock.
That vision struck him with a startling clarity and an unnerving power.
Elijah was no novice in matters of attraction; he had effortlessly dismissed the flirtations of a bikini-clad beauty queen, a former pageant star, without a second thought.
Yet, the accidental encounter with Elizabeth, vulnerable and unguarded, had triggered a raw, visceral reaction within him. It was as though a dormant switch had been flipped, sensitizing him to even the slightest provocation.
While he grappled with whether his feelings for Elizabeth were born of love or mere physical desire, he couldn’t ignore the magnetic pull he felt towards her.
As he sat there, the richness of the evening’s feast seemed to fuel his body’s unbidden responses.
His thoughts drifted to tales from his youth, recounted by friends who spoke of similar awakenings driven by their first encounters with passion.
Could this intense stirring be his own delayed explosion of youthful desires, now fervently coming to life?