57

It won’t work.

Both of them thought the same thing.

But Klen said it without hesitation, as though it would truly happen, and Lavian couldn’t refuse him.

His eyes and his voice simply didn’t give her the space to.

“You know what’s coming.”

Water dripped from Klen’s disheveled hair, and the lazy movement of his long lashes looked rather decadent.

His voice, sinking low and heavy with color, sent a deep vibration through Lavian’s lower belly. Her body, already marked so thoroughly by him, responded on its own.

Lavian watched him approach slowly and swallowed. This was instinct, beyond the reach of reason.

More precisely, it was the conditioning he had put into her, but habits were a frightening thing either way. Even when her heart wasn’t willing, her body moved easily against her intentions. The habits formed entirely by him, even in such a short time, were formidable.

“Open your lips.”

Soft skin pressed in, carrying warmth into sensitive places.

Klen had trained her, someone who had known nothing, perfectly to his taste. The habits had sunk deep into her body by now, nearly impossible to undo, and Lavian stopped resisting and followed his lead without further protest.

Habit dulled emotion and pushed the wretched moments into a corner.

Lavian opened herself to what he wanted, as though it were only natural.

She should push back even now. What on earth did they teach her at home.

Watching her part her lips so willingly even in this situation, Klen felt a kind of disbelief. He still couldn’t understand what kind of upbringing produced this. She had been this compliant in intimate moments even before he had taught her anything.

Klen wasn’t satisfied with the traces her family home had left on her. But it didn’t bother him enough to say so out loud.

So he never told her that she should push back in moments like this.

Others could push him away. Not this one.

She’s mine. Of course not.

Klen savored the softness of her lips and murmured quietly.

“Good girl.”

He thought: is that too much like talking to a dog, but he didn’t take it back. He curved his mouth with satisfaction and explored her body.

With each moment, the porcelain face of Lavian, already cracked once before, broke apart further. Expressions she didn’t usually show came through the cracks, and he found that a satisfying kind of achievement.

It was far better than a blank, soulless doll. Far better than something sunken and gloomy. Above all, he liked that all of this was happening because of him.

If this person was going to be broken, it could only be by him.

“Oh. W, wait.”

He had been acting like he might bite her apart, but his hands and his lips warmed her in much the same way as always.

The sounds that filled the bathroom and reached her ears made Lavian bite her lip and try to hold back, but every time she did, Klen only grew more relentless. Her body, shaken by pleasure she could barely manage, occasionally touched the cold bathroom wall.

Each time her heated skin met the cold tile, she startled and tensed, gripping his hair or curling her toes where they rested over his broad shoulders.

“Dear. Wait. Stop for just a moment…… ah!”

“You’re saying that now. Are you oblivious, or just dense?”

Klen had been settled below while she sat on the edge of the bathtub. He ran his tongue across his lips, pulled her upright, pressed her against the wall, and narrowed his eyes. His expression said he was not pleased.

But the edge from before had softened. He was noticeably calmer than a moment ago.

“……It’s cold.”

He had already been pulling her legs toward him to wrap around his waist without waiting for an answer, and the belated reply made him stop.

Lavian had no confidence in continuing here. Embarrassed, she dropped her head against his shoulder to hide her face and pressed into him to drive out the cold.

Her pride wouldn’t let her say stop outright, so it was an indirect nudge asking him to ease back.

“Tch.”

“Let’s go to the bedroom. I don’t like it here. The bedroom.”

The rough voice above her head made Lavian’s shoulders tremble involuntarily. But she didn’t pull away from him. She pressed closer, as though trying to get nearer still.

Klen set her legs down with relative care and raked his hair back with a thoroughly irritated expression.

Come to think of it, this was the first time things had gotten this far outside the bedroom.

Why did she have to provoke me.

He gave not a single thought to his own part in it.

With an expression layered in annoyance, Klen spun the wedding ring he never took off even while washing, then slid his hand around her waist and tightened his grip.

“Eek!”

“Hold still. Unless you want to be dropped.”

“P, put me down.”

“You said it was cold. You said let’s go to the bedroom.”

“What does that have to do with this.”

He said nothing and lifted her out of the bathtub with complete ease.

A bit thin, maybe.

Klen had the idle thought as he held Lavian like she weighed nothing, pulled the robe from the wall hook, draped it over her shoulders, and carried her through the dressing room connected to the bathroom.

The steady rhythm of his footsteps and the drip and patter of water following them made Lavian squeeze her eyes shut.

How am I supposed to explain this to the staff.

Even with her eyes closed, the evidence trailed after her relentlessly. The dress and undergarments floating in the bathtub. The trail of water leading all the way to the bedroom.

She bit down on her lip, felt the heat rising in her body, and buried herself in his chest to hide her reddening face.

She had no idea this was quietly working on him.

Her full, soft chest pressed against his with a warm, yielding weight.

Klen found it absurd that she had been demanding to be put down only moments ago and was now pressing herself against him.

Cora must have learned from her. She acts exactly like a cat.

He had a strange feeling and was entertaining the wicked thought of actually dropping her, when the bed came into view and he let her fall onto it instead.

“Oh!”

The dizzying drop made Lavian cry out on instinct, and then she looked up at him climbing onto the bed with a displeased expression.

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Where do you see……”

“Then why are you looking at me like that. Isn’t this quite considerate of me tonight?”

He dampened the sheets as he pressed his lips from her ankle upward, one by one, checking as he went. The switch on Count Elder’s desk had come to mind.

He made his way past the inside of her thigh and arrived at the sensitive place, and let his tongue move. The sounds from below were less exposed than they had been in the bathroom, but in the quiet where only their breathing passed between them, the wet sounds were impossible to conceal.

“Ahh.”

A sensation more dizzying than the fall onto the bed ran through her entire body. The unfamiliar, vivid feeling pressing inward made her fingers clutch the sheets.

Lavian could no longer form any words. She tilted her head back and was pulled into a deep, overwhelming pleasure.

Once she had opened enough, Klen left red marks and bite traces across her skin as he made his way up.

He cast a deep shadow over her, found his position, and moved toward the next stage.

“Oh, I forgot something.”

He confirmed there were no marks other than his own, let a mischievous smile settle on his lips, and reached out.

Klen pulled on the cord holding the bed curtain in place.

“What are you……”

“My cat has a difficult temperament.”

Something in his smile looked dangerous, and Lavian squirmed with unease, but she was already a mouse in a trap.

Without losing his smile, Klen caught both her slender wrists, raised them above her head, and tied them with the cord he had pulled free.

“Dear!”

Lavian stared at him with wide, startled eyes, but Klen looked as though he had found an entertaining new game.

“Need to break that habit of yours.”

A smile bright enough to be ominous spread across his face.

Tonight was going to be quite long.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The night was long. But morning still came.

The argument that wasn’t quite an argument, born of Count Elder’s greed, ended without a clear resolution, trailing off into something loose and unfinished.

“I’m going out tonight.”

It was as though the previous night had been cut clean from memory. The two of them sat across from each other at the table again, perfectly composed.

Only the quiet clinking of tableware filled the silence until Klen broke it first. His voice carried through the large dining room where only the two of them sat, and Lavian looked up at him mid-tug on her sleeve.

“What’s the occasion today?”

“There’s an opera, apparently. I meant to tell you yesterday, but……”

Klen left the sentence deliberately unfinished. His tone said: you know why.

Lavian nodded quickly and resumed pulling her long sleeve down. The marks left on her the night before stung with a sharp ache.

She acted as though the memory of yesterday had vanished, but the traces on her body were another matter. From the moment she woke up, she had been preoccupied with the marks on her wrists. They were fully covered by her sleeve, but she couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Klen watched her fidgeting with her cuff and had an idle thought.

Should have done it in summer.

So everyone could see she was his. So she couldn’t cover it up.