Chapter 1 – Part 10

“Let’s stop wasting time here.”

A brief silence passed, and Marcus flicked Liese’s documents with his fingertip. The determination she had barely held onto crumbled like a sandcastle at the mention that the real game was just beginning.

“Are you not curious why I summoned you here?”

Liese hesitated before responding with a tremulous touch on her cold fingertips. It was the question that intrigued her the most and yet the one she least wanted to know.

“I don’t know, Your Grace.”

“No clue?”

He sounded like he was giving her one last chance. Suddenly, something she’d forgotten flashed through her mind.

Not long ago, Liese had caught a glimpse of the n*ked Duke swimming. She’d stood there like a fool, gawking, not realizing he was half n*ked. The incident could not have been clearer.

If he were to bring up their lakeside encounter at this moment… that would be the worst of all possible worlds for Liese.

“Don’t you have any idea?”

Liese paled at the repetition of the question, her mind racing from being scratched over and over again by the sharp words. She couldn’t even begin to apologize for looking at him n*ked.

“Yeah. I knew it.”

Marcus pulled a pack of cigarettes from his arm and took a drag. He lit it with an angular jerk of his chin, a series of movements that felt natural.

Letting the haze of smoke pass between his lips, the duke looked at Liese with languid eyes. The uncomfortable eye contact lingered for quite a while. Beyond the scattered smoke, a chill gleamed in his eyes for a moment.

Slow, silvery-blue eyes slid down Liese’s body, taking in the straightness of her neck, the curve of her chest to her waist, and lingering between her thighs before sliding down to her exposed ankles.

A red light went on in her head, and she wrapped her arms around herself defensively, her entire body shivering as if a chill had penetrated her bones. Her anxiety swelled uncontrollably.

As if in response, Marcus ordered, his smile wiped from his face.

“Lift your skirt.”

Liese strained her ears. Even though she understood the Duke’s command clearly, she had to repeat it over and over again to decipher its meaning.

“Why….”

For the first time, Liese stuttered. Her lips parted as her breathing slowed from the pounding of her heart. Being doused with water out of nowhere wouldn’t have shocked her more.

“What are you talking about….”

“Didn’t you understand?”

“Oh, no, no, I’m just saying that I….”

Marcus sucked on his cigarette and looked up at Liese. A cold sweat ran down his spine at the wordlessly commanding gaze.

The cigarette’s slowly burning tip seemed to be a testament to his shallow patience. The Duke smoked at such a leisurely pace, as if only while inhaling the smoke would he give her a chance to lift the hem of her skirt and reveal herself.

She wonders what will happen when he’s done burning that thing.

At that moment, the warning the handmaiden had given her before coming to the study flashed through her mind.

“Please do not be disrespectful to His Excellency.”

Suddenly, fear struck her. What if the Duke had a perverse hobby, or, in other words, a habit of touching women without consent? What if the warning was about paying attention to her behavior without agreement?

Liese retracted the conversation she had just had with him. The Duke was the one who committed the initial rudeness, but she couldn’t hold back and ended up snapping back at him.

She no longer remembered the incident at the lakeside. All she could think about was the command to show him the body beneath her dress.

“I’m sorry, Your Grace.”

“No discomfort at all. Lift your skirt. Show me everything up to your chest.”

The returned order was as merciless as before.

Marcus continued to smoke his cigarette, indifferent to her contorted face. While exhaling smoke, he nonchalantly flicked away the ash into the crystal ashtray. The man who had given such a sharp order appeared surprisingly relaxed.

That’s why she hadn’t the faintest idea of what was going on inside that perfect shell.

What should she do?

The spacious study felt like a cramped cage. A cage so tightly locked with locks and chains that she couldn’t get out unless someone opened it for her. She felt like she was trapped in there with a hungry beast for days on end.

Suddenly, she remembered a story her grandfather had told her many years ago.

As a war veteran, he was a man who valued the honor of being a soldier, but he used to say that he had seen some of the worst men in the military.

He added that no one was thirstier than a freshly discharged soldier, a statement that the young Liese couldn’t easily understand.

She knows now what her grandfather meant by the thirst of a man. Duke Balthasar is a man who has returned from war.

And what could be more terrifying than a nobleman with so little humanity taking a liking to a helpless woman?

Liese let out a long, ragged gasp. She had to find a way out, no matter what.

The room was eerily silent, with only the sound of papers rustling in the breeze that blew through the open window filling the void. Marcus’s hair was bathed in a reddish glow from the evening sunlight streaming through the glass.

He was the perfect gentleman, at least in appearance.

A gentleman impeccably dressed in a perfectly tailored black jacket, vest, and crisp shirt that complemented his broad stature. His face, flawless and beautiful, exuded elegance even in the act of lighting a cigarette.

As she admired his flawless exterior, thoughts of the significant position he had to lose crossed her mind. Yes, no matter how distinguished a duke he might be, there were boundaries that should not be crossed just because one held power and status.

“The Duke is a hero revered by the entire kingdom, a high-ranking nobleman who serves as an example to countless others.”

Liese’s voice trembled slightly as she spoke.

“So even if you were in a position… I trust you would not be disrespectful to a woman of my age.”

“For the last time, if you want me to behave like a gentleman, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Wrong. He didn’t seem inclined to give in.

The blows came in quick succession, and Liese forgot to breathe. She froze in shock, as if a knife had stabbed her in the lungs.

When she first saw Marcus, all the intense emotions—the admiration, awe, and discomfort from their earlier argument—disappeared, leaving only one evaluation.

This man is insane.

Absolutely insane. Even in the midst of his madness, Marcus took a final drag of the cigarette. The sound of the remaining tobacco burning and reaching the end of the filter echoed.

Watching him, Liese’s whole body became cold. She gradually focused her fading eyes on Marcus.

His behavior, making demands while sitting leisurely and smoking, seemed to have angered her. Liese firmly believed that she had resolved to work in the duke’s mansion, prepared for the criticism that would pour down on her. But this was beyond that.

“No.”

The voice that came out was firm, surprising even Liese herself. When the duke, who had stopped in surprise, looked at her, Liese continued.

“If you need a courtesan, I think you’d better find someone else, and if you’ll allow me to return to my post.”

She would not do anything wrong. She would not do anything that went against her beliefs. Although she had resolved to work at the duke’s mansion, expecting criticism while enduring finger-pointing, this was not what she had signed up for.

“Hmph…”

With a long breath, Marcus exhaled smoke. A bitter laugh appeared on his lips. His expression made the onlookers uneasy. Liese, now with sinking eyes, gazed at Marcus.

Being placed in the middle of the study and subjected to arrogant demands while the duke leisurely smoked, it seemed like he was angry about something.

Marcus kept his grip on Liese’s arm as he walked toward the wall. She nearly stumbled again and again as she failed to keep up with his stride.

The Duke shoved her against the wall, crushing her. Liese’s head snapped sideways at the impact, and a cry of pain escaped her lips, but it didn’t deter him, and before she knew it, he had both of her arms behind her back, pinning her down.

It wasn’t until she felt a hand tugging at the hem of her dress from below that she realized Marcus had managed to subdue her with only one hand.

“Duke!”

She called urgently to him, struggling. He held her down with a force she could never hope to overcome. Her wrists ached in the grip of his huge hands.

“It hurts. Don’t do this!”

“Stay still; it hurts more if you move.”

The voice at the back of my throat was dry. But there was a hint of excitement in his breathing that sent Liese into a state of extreme fear. The man’s hot breath drifted over her sensitive skin.

“I should warn you; I’m not interested in your body.”

“Then why are you…! Let go of me now!”

“I know you can’t believe it, but it’s real.”

No matter how much she twisted, the stone man wouldn’t budge.

Liese was so afraid that the shadows overhead would swallow her whole, and she choked on the lingering scent of sandalwood and unfamiliar body odor over her shoulder.

Suddenly, a cool hand slid up the back of her knee. Goosebumps prickled across her skin at the unfamiliar intrusion. Liese struggled with all her might.

Marcus, who muttered a low curse behind her back, held her tight with an uncaring grip.

“I told you to hold still if you didn’t want it to hurt.”

There was a tearing sound somewhere in the fabric as she rolled over onto her back. When the garter belt that held her thin underwear and thigh-high stockings together snagged on his fingers and snapped, all she wanted to do was die.

“I don’t know why you are doing this; you’re the one who wanted me to be rude.”

Marcus’s irritated voice rang in her ears. Liese squeezed her eyes shut and cried out.

“Help! Can someone…!”

“No one can get in here if you yell.”

“Please let me go!”

“Don’t make it harder than it has to be. I’m just going to check you out and let you go, so don’t move.”

It was hard to breathe, as if the strong grip was around her neck instead of her arms. In her panic, she couldn’t hear a word of what the duke behind her was saying.

His muscular physique, hardened by years of military service, was determined and driven, and there was no way she could push him away with her feeble struggles.

Nevertheless, Liese struggled on. The struggle was so intense that the books on the bookshelf next to her fell to the floor.

Marcus clicked his tongue and bit down on his pressed body. He grabbed Liese by the arms and dragged her back to the desk.

“Don’t do this…!”

Liese screamed, holding herself in place with all the strength she could muster. Marcus swiftly lifted her up as she continued to struggle. Terrified, Liese flailed her legs frantically in the air. It was a pointless struggle.

Marcus tossed Liese halfway across the desk like a paper doll.

“Ah…!”

As Liese, with her chest pressed against the desk, tried to raise her wobbly upper body, his hard thighs slid between her spread legs and pressed against her. Large hands clamped down on her concave back, completely immobilizing her.

A sense of exhaustion washed over her as she realized that any further resistance would be futile. Against her will, tears welled up in her eyes. 

“You should have listened to me when I told you to pull yourself up on your hands.”

His hard lower body met hers at the hip. Marcus pulled her dress up without hesitation. Liese’s breath came in a series of ragged gasps as she felt a newfound terror.

The hem of her skirt rolled up to her waist, revealing her bare legs. She didn’t want to imagine what the duke behind her was seeing.

This rascal. How could this man, who was no better than an animal, do this to her?

The urge to grab the pistol his grandfather had given her and shoot him over and over again….

Liese blinked a few times through clouded eyes. Flattened against the cold desk, she gasped like a fish out of water.

Turning back to the window, she saw the Mellir River bathed in the light of dusk. A beautiful river that would lead to the lake on the hill.

‘The pistol.’