Chapter 1243 Warm Your Legs
Sonia couldn’t help but let out a long sigh as she wrapped her down jacket around herself. Toby noticed her actions the moment he got into the car. “Are you cold?” he asked worriedly. She turned to him before putting a forced smile on her face. “I’m feeling much better now. The car is much warmer than outside,” she uttered.
“Let me touch you,” Toby murmured as he reached for her hands. He pressed his lips together when he felt her ice-cold palms in his. His expression turned even darker when he felt the cold skin on her exposed thighs. After staring at the woman for a while, a hint of guilt surfaced in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t being thoughtful. I should’ve got you to change into your outfit only after we arrived at the venue. You wouldn’t feel so cold if we had just changed after arriving indoors.” It was true that Toby hadn’t considered this matter earlier.
Sonia felt the urge to laugh when she saw the way Toby tried to take responsibility for everything around them. I can’t believe he’s finding fault in himself over such a small issue! She held onto the man’s warm hands before squeezing them. “What has this got to do with you? It’s not your fault. I was the one who decided to get changed in the office. You shouldn’t blame yourself for such a thing. Anyway, I’m not cold anymore. Look—I’m not even shivering!”
Her thighs were still cold but the heaters in the car were robust, so she knew that she would feel warm in a while. However, Toby was not pleased with the situation, so he tapped his hand on the back of the driver’s seat. “Grab the scarf from the compartment in front,” he ordered.
“Got it,” Tom replied before he opened up the storage compartment between the driver and passenger seats. He pulled out a black scarf from inside and Sonia could immediately tell that it was the same scarf she had knitted for Toby. When she first made it for him, he wore it every day. However, he stopped wearing the scarf one day and when Sonia asked him about it, he simply mentioned that he had sent it to be washed and that he had kept it away after that.
Sonia no longer probed any further. I hadn’t expected him to keep this in the car, she thought. Toby took the scarf from Tom before he bent down to lift Sonia’s thighs. Sonia was shocked by his actions. “What are you doing, Toby?” Upon hearing Sonia’s words, Tom’s ears perked up a little before he pressed a button with a blank look on his face. Seconds later, a divider slid up to separate the front and back seats of the car. Yup, President Fuller and Miss Reed are about to get all lovey-dovey again. A single man like me should be thoughtful enough to keep away from them. Otherwise, President Fuller would be annoyed at me for being a nuisance and I wouldn’t feel good about myself either. Oh, the sorrows of a single man! It feels like we’re never welcomed anywhere. Loners like us are the most vulnerable people on earth.
Naturally, no one cared about how Tom felt. After all, both Toby and Sonia were too focused on themselves to care about what Tom was thinking. They hadn’t even realized that Tom had put the divider up between them. Toby lifted Sonia’s thighs before he carefully removed her heels and rubbed her feet. Her feet felt even colder than her thighs. When Toby realized this, he frowned so hard that the wrinkles between his brows were tight enough to squish a mosquito to its death.
After that, he hastily wrapped the scarf tightly around her thighs before circling it downward. Once he was done, he unbuttoned the buttons on his suit before lifting her legs to rest them on his thighs. He used his body heat to warm her up. Sonia was too stunned to react for a moment. “I didn’t know you were trying to warm my legs,” she muttered dumbfoundedly.
The man wrapped his arms around her thighs so that they wouldn’t slip off his legs. “You’re too cold. I’m worried that you might get frostbite,” he stated.
Sonia felt tears welling up in her eyes—she was touched by the man’s actions. “I don’t think that’s possible,” she mumbled. Toby pressed his lips together when he heard that. “Why not?! You’re so cold. Your limbs are probably numb, aren’t they?” Sonia parted her lips to speak but there were no words that came out of her mouth. The man was right, after all. Her extremities were all numb from the cold.
“Alright. Stop moving around. I just want you to stay put and I promise you’ll feel your limbs soon.” Toby gently patted her tightly wrapped thighs. Sonia’s gaze followed his hands before she let out a tiny giggle. “I figured that you left the scarf in the wardrobe of one of your houses. I hadn’t expected you to keep it in the car.”
“The car is where I can see and use the scarf whenever I want. Take this time for example—I managed to put it to good use.” The frown on the man’s face disappeared as he tugged his lips into a smile. Sonia had practically shrunk into her puffer jacket as she murmured, “I made it for you to keep your neck warm, but it’s being used to warm my legs now.”
“Its purpose is to keep us warm, anyway. It doesn’t matter where it’s wrapped around—what matters is that you don’t feel cold,” Toby said. Sonia laughed before she let out a yawn. He leaned forward to feel her forehead after that. “What are you doing?” she asked as she pulled his hand away.
“I was worried that you might have caught a cold when I saw you yawning, so I wanted to check.” The man didn’t bother to hide his true intentions. He pulled his hand away from her grip before feeling her forehead again. This time, the woman no longer stopped him from touching her. “I’m fine. I’m just a little sleepy,” she said with a smile.
Toby checked and made sure she didn’t have a fever before he pulled his hand back with a reassuring look. “That’s great. You can take a nap if you’re sleepy. We’re going to be here for another half an hour, anyway. I’ll wake you up when we’ve arrived.”
“Okay.” Sonia agreed to his idea and nodded before resting on the car door. She shut her eyes to take a nap. Once Toby saw her sleeping, he no longer pestered her. Instead, he pulled his phone out to send a text. Once he was done texting, he put his phone away before he wrapped his arms around her legs once more.
Tom, who was in the driver’s seat, heard a notification on his phone. He tilted his head to see that it was a text from Toby. The text told him to turn off the lights in the backseat. Tom clicked his tongue when he saw the message. He wants me to turn the lights off, eh? Are they about to do it in the backseat of the car? Are they about to get some action? Why else would they want me to turn the lights off? But… that’s not right. The divider is already up, and I can’t hear them at all. It’s just the both of them—do they still want the lights off? Isn’t it more exciting to have the lights on? They’d be able to see each other clearly that way, right? There’s no need for them to turn off the lights. Why would President Fuller want me to turn off the lights, then? Could it be that they prefer doing it with the lights off? What sort of fetish is that?
Even though Tom judged them deep down, he still adhered to Toby’s orders and turned the backseat lights off. The backseat turned dark and the only lights that they had were from the evening skies outside the window. From the outside, one could vaguely see the figures of a man and a woman in the car. However, they weren’t doing anything at all. Toby simply told Tom to turn off the lights because he wanted Sonia to sleep a little more soundly. Toby had no other intentions—Tom was the one who was overthinking the whole thing.
There was a slight jam on the road and the traffic worsened when they got closer to the city center. Initially, the drive to Paradigm Co.’s event only required half an hour, but the jam delayed their drive for another half an hour. By the time they arrived, the event had already begun. Toby gently woke Sonia up. “Are we here?” she asked as she opened her eyes. Perhaps she hadn’t slept enough or perhaps she wasn’t fully awake, but her voice sounded particularly sleepy and innocent as she rubbed her eyes confusedly. The slightly hoarse and weak voice sounded beautiful to Toby.
The man felt his insides burning up and he struggled to catch his breath as he tried to contain the feelings within him. His voice was thick as he responded, “We’re here. We should get out of the car.”
