Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 852: Silas’s Property [Bonus Chapter]

The driveway fell into sudden ringing silence but Harper didn’t flinch.

”Hmph...!”

She stood on the crushed gravel in her designer heels, her chin tilted high, her chest heaving slightly beneath her silk camisole and her cheeks flushed with passion, refusing to take back a single syllable.

Silas looked down at her.

He looked at the stubborn fierce set of her jaw, at the heavy leather folder clutched in her hands, and into those brilliant violet eyes that held nothing but devotion as a smile spread across his face.

’What a situation I’ve gotten myself into...’

He could keep arguing.

He could go see Jax tomorrow, wire her the money and watch her wire it right back, and they could do that dance for a week but looking at her standing there, blazing and stubborn and terrified that he’d say no, he realized there was no version of this argument he actually wanted to win.

She wasn’t trying to own him, and she wasn’t keeping score... She just wanted him to have the world, and she’d decided she was going to hand it to him whether he liked it or not.

Silas let out a long slow breath that was half a laugh.

He reached out, and his hand came to rest gently against the warm curve of her jaw with his thumb lightly brushing the soft skin of her flushed cheek.

”You really are impossible, Harper,” he said softly, his deep voice rich with warmth. ”But I do like that about you...”

Harper’s rigid posture softened beneath his touch and her eyelids fluttering slightly as she leaned into his palm.

”I’m a billionaire girlfriend, darling,” she murmured, a soft, victorious little smile tugging at her lips. ”Impossible is literally in my job description... You’ll get used to it.”

”I doubt it,” Silas said, smiling down at her. ”But I’ll enjoy trying.”

She looked up at him through her lashes, and her violet eyes darkened with a sudden heat that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.

”Besides...” Harper whispered, stepping closer until the front of her blazer brushed against his jacket, her voice dropping into a smoky, teasing purr, ”...I didn’t say it was a gift... I expect something in return.”

Silas raised an eyebrow with a teasing smirk returning to his lips.

”Oh? And what does Miss Whitmore demand as compensation for an entire estate?”

Harper looked directly into his eyes, her gaze steady, bold, and entirely without hesitation.

”A real kiss,” Harper said softly, her breath warm against his lips. ”Right here... Lip on lip and no holding back, hubby. If you don’t kiss me good enough... I’ll put you on rent.”

Silas didn’t hesitate.

He didn’t wait for her to second-guess herself, and he didn’t give her the room to turn into a flustered tomato.

His left arm swept smoothly around her waist with his fingers pulling her slender frame flush against his chest while his right hand slid beneath the soft violet waves of her hair, cradling the back of her head.

”Ready...?”

Silas pulled her in and captured her lips.

Harper gasped, a soft breathless sound that was immediately swallowed as Silas deepened the kiss with his mouth feeling firm and unapologetically possessive.

SMACK!

The world around them faded into a blur of sunlight and wind as Harper’s hands flew up to his chest with her fingers clutching the front of his jacket and her entire body arching into his embrace as a quiet trembling moan escaped the back of her throat straight into his mouth.

”Mmmmh~”

The kiss was deep and intoxicating as the heat between them rose until the cool autumn air felt like summer.

On Silas’s shoulder, Nitocris stared at the display with her violet eyes wide open.

”Good grief,” the cat hissed in a furious whisper. ”Have you no shame, Nyaa~?”

She lifted both of her front paws and slapped them dramatically over her eyes to block out the scandalous sight.

One second passed, then two.

Slowly, Nitocris separated her front paws by a few millimeters, peeking through the gap with intense feline curiosity and watching every single detail of the embrace with shameless fascination.

”Mortal mating rituals are truly devoid of all dignity,” she grumbled quietly through her paws, though she didn’t look away for a single moment. ”In my day, a courtship took three months of poetry and a gift of forty camels and yet... this is surprisingly vigorous. Very vigorous. Oh my, Nyaa~”

Down by the flowerbed, Rosalind kept her gaze fixed with professional discretion on the far horizon, as if the clouds had suddenly become the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.

Silas finally broke the kiss, lingering for half a second with his forehead resting gently against Harper’s with his thumb brushing a stray strand of violet hair away from her flushed face.

”Was that good enough?”

Harper’s eyes fluttered open, glassy, dazed and completely intoxicated, her chest heaving against him as she leaned the full weight of her trembling body into his arms.

Her wire-rimmed glasses were slightly askew, her cheeks burning with radiant fire, and a soft breathless giggle escaped her lips.

”That...” Harper whispered, her knees feeling like warm butter, ”...was an acceptable down payment, Mister Graves...”

”Glad it meets your standards, boss,” Silas smiled, his dark blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

”It more than meets them,” Harper mumbled, still clinging to his jacket. ”I might have to buy you a house every week...”

”...Please don’t, keep your money to yourself before you begin spending too much.” Silas sighed.

”...No promises hehe~ Still you’re quite scandalous...” Harper said with a smile on her face. ”You kissed me... in front of a real estate agent and in broad daylight too.”

Was Silas perhaps an exhibitionist...? Not that she minded but still, doing pervy things like this in public was embarrassing.

”You’re the one that asked me to,” Silas pointed out. ”Very specifically, you said no holding back.”

”I know I did.” Her face split into a huge helpless grin. ”I just didn’t think you’d actually listen... You’re usually strong headed so you can’t blame me.”

He reached out and straightened her glasses for her, sliding them gently back into place on the bridge of her nose, and she stood perfectly still and let him, gazing up at him with an expression of dazed glowing happiness.

Rosalind, who had stood politely ten paces away the entire time, finally stepped forward with her tablet held out before her.

”If you would just provide your biometric authorization here, Master Graves,” she said smoothly, extending a glowing stylus as if two young Lords hadn’t just kissed each other senseless on her client’s driveway.

Silas took the stylus.

With a steady firm stroke, he pressed his thumb against the glowing scanner and signed his name in a line of binding light across the bottom of the deed.

HUMMM!

A soft harmonic chime echoed across the terrace as the city’s registry acknowledged the transfer.

...The estate was officially his.

Silas handed the stylus back and looked out over the sprawling property, and a quiet, practical frown began to form on his brow.

”Now comes the fun part,” He muttered, rubbing his chin as he glanced back toward the road. ”Moving all our stuff out of the apartment in Silverleaf... Martha has about forty jars of homemade preserves alone, and she’ll fight anyone who tries to pack them without her. How’s a moving company even supposed to get all that up a mountain in one piece?”

He paused, and a sudden efficient thought popped into his head.

’Wait a second...’ he thought. ’Why would I pay a bunch of guys in trucks to haul sofas around for eight hours? Every Lord has an Inventory. Why don’t I just walk into the apartment, open it up, and suck every single piece of furniture, every shirt and every pantry jar into it in thirty seconds flat?’

Harper noticed the calculating look in his eyes and immediately shook her head with an amused scoff.

”Don’t you dare think about turning your Inventory into a moving van, Silas,” she said, tapping his chest with her knuckles. ”I told you, I’ve already prepared everything... I booked Whitmore Logistics’ residential moving division before you’d even finished your ice cream... Six transport vans, twenty-four professional handlers, full security clearance and the best packers in the city. They can clear out your entire apartment and have everything unpacked and put away here in less than three hours.”

’There’s a Whitmore Logistics’ Residential moving division...?’ Silas blinked, he thought she only owned the LAB... Where did a whole moving division come from?

”Three hours,” Silas repeated. ”For a whole apartment?”

”They moved my father’s entire wine cellar across the continent in two,” Harper said with a sniff. ”Without breaking a single bottle so your preserves will be fine.”

’Still though, Dad had some good wine... Borealis was willing to buy it for a pretty big amount of money.’ Harper thought, it wasn’t surprising that people from Borealis liked wine since they were big as hell.

She turned, gesturing grandly toward the tall glass windows of the mansion.

”Besides, the house is already fully furnished, top to bottom... We only need to bring Martha’s personal kitchen things, Lia’s room and your clothes. Everything else is already set up and waiting for you.”

Silas blinked, impressed at the way she thought things through.

”You really thought of everything, didn’t you?”

”I’m a billionaire, sweetheart,” Harper beamed proudly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. ”Efficiency is my second language.”

”...And your first?”

”Spending money on you,” she said without missing a beat. ”It’s my love language...”

On his shoulder, Nitocris let out a long suffering sigh.

”I’m going to be sick, Nyaa~”

Harper ignored her completely.

She pulled her phone out of her blazer pocket and tapped a number with lightning-fast thumbs, then held it to her ear.

”Gerald? It’s Harper... Yeah the deal’s closed.” She paused to listen to the voice on the other side. ”Yes, right now... Send everyone. Silverleaf first, then straight up to Celestine Heights, Parcel One... You have the address.”

There was another pause.

”No, Gerald, not the standard crew... The good crew. The ones who packed my father’s wine to Borealis and tell them if a single jar of preserves gets so much as a scratch, they’ll be answering to the scariest housekeeper in Valoria.”

She hung up and slipped the phone back into her pocket with a satisfied little nod.

”Done,” she announced. ”They’re on their way...”

Silas stared at her.

”Who’s Gerald?”

”Our logistics director, he’s very nice and he’s terrified of me too hehe~ You have to lead your business with an iron hand for it to flourish.”

”I want my own room as well, Nyaa~” Nitocris announced from his shoulder, lifting her chin regally. ”The sunny one with the terrace. I’ve already decided... I’ll need a velvet cushion, a fountain for fresh water, and a silk curtain to block the morning glare, Nyaa~”

”You’re a cat,” Silas said. ”You’ll sleep wherever you want anyway.”

”Precisely,” Nitocris said serenely. ”Which is why I’ll be sleeping on your bed, and the sunny room will be for my afternoons... Do try to keep up, peasant, Nyaa~”

Harper narrowed her eyes at the cat.

”Excuse me. Whose bed...?” Harper blinked, was Nitocris perhaps trying to steal her man...?

”I was there first, Nyaa~”

”First...? I’ve been with him since before I even met you so if anyone should be in his room, it’s me and stop arguing.”

Silas laughed and pulled the cat off his shoulder, holding her up at eye level in front of Harper like he was presenting evidence in a courtroom.

”Settle it later, you two,” he said. ”There are twenty-six bedrooms... I’m sure we’ll find room for one jealous billionaire and one very spoiled cat.”

”I’m not jealous,” Harper said instantly. How could she be jealous if it was their property...? Plus Nitocris’s human form couldn’t possibly be hot enough to steal her man.

”I’m not spoiled, Nyaa~” Nitocris said at the same time.

They glared at each other.

Silas tucked the cat back onto his shoulder, completely unbothered, and Rosalind stepped forward one last time to hand him a small velvet box of key cards with a warm smile.

”...Congratulations on your new home, Master Graves.”

Silas pulled out his phone to check the time and the clock read twenty past three.

”Wait a second,” he said, glancing toward the far side of the ridge, where the spires of Valoria Academy peeked through the trees. ”Won’t the Academy close before the movers are done? Lia’s still in class...”

”No need to worry,” Harper replied, waving a dismissive hand. ”The Academy’s closing at four o’clock today because of some faculty project, we’ve got plenty of time to get started before she’s out.”

Silas nodded, satisfied with the timeline then his brow furrowed slightly as another thought crossed his mind.

He remembered leaving the apartment earlier that afternoon... The parking spot out front had been empty, the family car Harper had bought for them was gone, and the kitchen had been completely quiet.

Where had Martha gone in the car...?

She almost never left the house on an unscheduled errand without leaving a handwritten note pinned to the fridge with one of her little fruit magnets.

Silas turned the thought over for a couple of seconds, then shrugged and let it drift away on the breeze.

Martha was probably just running an extended errand somewhere in the city.

She was a grown woman who’d kept his household running like clockwork since the day she arrived so she could handle an afternoon drive on her own.

He turned back toward Harper and looked up at the house glowing in the afternoon sun, then glanced down at the sleek black cat resting on his shoulder with her whiskers twitching in the breeze.

The estate stood waiting.

The deed was signed, the moving vans were already rolling through the city, and a whole new Chapter of his life was sitting right there at the top of the marble stairs.

Silas grinned, cracking his knuckles with a sharp echoing snap that rang across the terrace.

”Why don’t we start...?”