Chapter 2

Even just watching him put on the condom leaves her  spellbound. That big, thick sh*ft of flesh appears even more prominent.

Who would guess that this man—always so immaculate, not a single hair out of place—carries condoms with him at all times so he can have s*x whenever he wants? And only for use with his wife, no less.

The tip—far thicker than any finger—presses into her wet entrance and pushes inside, stretching her open. Her hands, slippery with her own fluids, clamp onto his hips. His rough fingers grip her flesh as if to leave marks.

“When you say it like that, it sounds like you’re trying to seduce me.”

Taeheon murmurs in a cracked voice.

He speaks as though she could lure him in whenever she set her mind to it. She often get confused when they have s*x. Is he really this aroused by her body? Does he make the same face with other women, too?

He’s been gone on a business trip for a few days, and now she’s struggling to take him again. Not that it was ever easy.

“Now that you’re inside… I kind of get it.”

Taeheon’s voice, lowered by excitement, seemed to scratch at her ears. Just hearing that voice made her tighten below.

“If some other guy had been coming in and out… hah, there’s no way it could be… this tight.”

With every ragged breath, her v*gina clenched, making his c*ck inside her feel even more pronounced. It felt as though her insides were completely filled. Even the slightest movement pressed against everything inside. Tears gathered in the corners of Yaein’s eyes. S*x with her husband always pushed her to her limits. It had been that way from the start.

“There’s… unh, ha, there’s no one else.”

She murmured breathlessly and clung to Taeheon. Each thrust made the muscles beneath her palms move against her.

“No one… other than you.”

As she finally managed to add those words, Taeheon halted his movements for a moment. She thought she heard him mutter something under his breath.

Slowly. It seemed he was trying to match the pace Yaein had asked for, but then he abruptly changed tactics. The c*ck that had been easing in slowly, savoring each fold of her inner walls, suddenly drove in hard.

With a silent scream, Yaein threw her head back. The place on her neck that had been bitten stung. Thirstily sucking at her skin, Taeheon continued thrusting without pause. Each time his p*nis withdrew, fluids trickled down below.

It felt like a switch had flipped on in her mind, flooding her with a pleasure so intense it threatened to destroy her fragile sense of reason. Tears welled up in her eyes. Unconsciously digging her nails into her husband’s back, Yaein cried out like a delirious beast.

As always, she was swept away by him. Everything Taeheon poured into her often caused her to lose herself.

Through sobs, she silently wished she could go back—to the moment she first met him. Then she wouldn’t have made such foolish choices. She wouldn’t have desired more than she deserved, or tried to force her foot into shoes that didn’t fit. She wouldn’t have married this man.

***

The fact that she only learned their names right before becoming family made the day she first met her father similar to the day she met Taeheon. The only difference lay in Yaein’s mindset. Unlike in the old days, when she foolishly went along with whatever her father wanted, this time she was determined not to let herself be swept away by the situation.

But from the very start, Taeheon made things difficult for her.

He arrived at their arranged meeting spot without even a one-minute delay, wearing a perfectly bored expression, yet still listening attentively to Yaein. She swallowed nervously. He was far more handsome than she had imagined. His imposing physique and striking appearance overwhelmed her.

Kwon Taeheon. Senior managing director at Changseong. She only received his personal information this morning. Taeheon, in turn, probably had a similar file on Yaein:

Lee Yaein. Second daughter of the Haesong Group.

But unlike Taeheon’s, Yaein’s profile was fake.

“I’m not the kind of woman you’re looking for, Mr. Kwon Taeheon.”

Yaein looked straight into Taeheon’s sharp gaze and spoke clearly. She had practiced these words over and over, determined to say them the moment they met.

“I’m not Lee Yaein.”

Despite her sudden confession, Taeheon didn’t so much as blink as he listened to what Yaein had to say. He’d been that way ever since she first mentioned having something important to tell him.

“Mr. Kwon Taeheon, you may have come here assuming I’m the second daughter of Haesong, but my mother isn’t Director Baek Sojeong. It’s someone else.”

It was an autumn day with a steady drizzle. Raindrops trickled down the café’s window. The faint sound of rain only emphasized the silence hovering over their table.

Feeling a chill, Yaein pulled her cardigan closer around her. Maybe the cold atmosphere was because of Taeheon.

From the moment he entered the café wearing a coat still cold from outside, just sitting across from him gave off a subtle sense of intimidation.

“So, you’re saying you’re an illegitimate child.”

His cool, low voice flowed smoothly. She flinched at his straightforward choice of words. Not wanting to show her hurt, Yaein straightened her back.

“Yes. An illegitimate child.”

After all, she’d heard it her whole life: a daughter who didn’t even know her father, a girl whose mother had abandoned her and ran away. It was a label that had followed Yaein wherever she went.

Choi Yaein became Lee Yaein at the age of seven. One day, after playing outside, she returned to the home she shared with her grandmother and found a strange man sitting there. He wasn’t even her father—just someone her father had sent. The man, who claimed to be a secretary for Haesong Corporation, whisked Yaein into a car like she was nothing more than luggage and took her to meet her father.

Even when her grandmother—having lost her only granddaughter—came begging simply to see Yaein’s face, the man who was supposed to be her father turned the old woman away in the dead of winter. To look after Yaein, who cried every day in that house, her grandmother volunteered to come and go as a cleaner without pay.

Her memories of that time are nothing short of hellish. She lived in the Haesong chairman’s home for ten years before being kicked out. Now, at twenty-four, she’d been summoned once again—this time, solely to be sold off.

“So there’s no reason for you to marry me.”

She felt a slight sense of grim satisfaction as she recounted that pitiful old story. She pictured her father and stepmother, who had begged her not to ruin things. The reluctance she felt about sharing her shameful family background with a total stranger was easily outweighed by her desire for revenge against her father. She would have been perfectly happy if Taeheon had gotten furious and humiliated her father for trying to trick him.

Yet Taeheon didn’t even blink. There wasn’t a trace of anger on his face—only a blank, icy expression.

“Is that everything?”

“…What?”

“What I need to know about you, Ms. Lee Yaein. The things you’ve been hiding— is that all? That your mother isn’t Baek Sojeong?”

He laid it out without any change in tone, making the things that had tormented Yaein all her life sound trivial. Momentarily at a loss for words, Yaein gathered herself and added more.

“I lived in my father’s house practically as a maid. I never learned ballet or violin like my older sister, and I was mostly raised by my grandmother.”

“So your family relations, academic background— it’s all fake?”

“I got into college on my own. But it’s not true that I spent my childhood abroad.”

Her fake profile claimed that she was the second daughter who had grown up separately due to poor health. In reality, her father had kicked her out yet left her on the family register—apparently just so he could drag her back now to sell her off. Knowing her father’s personality, it was less likely he had planned any of this carefully and more likely he had done it just to spite her stepmother.

“My father dragged me here simply because he wants your family’s money, Mr. Kwon Taeheon.”

“Why did you let yourself get dragged here?”

Again, he asked a question she hadn’t expected.

“From the way you laid everything out the moment I sat down, it’s clear you never intended to go along with your father’s little scam. So I’m asking why you bothered showing up if you had no intention of cooperating in the first place. Was it just to tell me not to marry you?”

If she hated the idea so much, she could have refused to come at all. Or, if she’d planned to spill everything the moment she arrived, why go through the trouble of coming here? Taeheon’s curiosity seemed only natural.

She had, of course, imagined refusing the arranged marriage right in front of her father. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“You must have some sort of weakness he’s holding over you.”

His words made it sound like he was peering straight into her thoughts, and Yaein flinched. Taeheon’s lips curved slightly.

“So you’re not in a position to refuse on your own. That means you need me to say I won’t go through with the marriage.”

“…Yes. That’s right.”

“Too bad, but I have no intention of refusing.”

Taeheon’s court declaration made Yaein catch her breath. He was going to go ahead with the marriage after hearing all this? She’d never imagined that answer.

“As I said, I—”

“I don’t care.”

“You… don’t care?”

“On the surface, you’ll just keep pretending to be the second daughter of Haesong anyway. And I like your honesty—your naïveté in handing over all your weaknesses to a man you just met.”

His blunt, direct way of speaking made her head spin. Why did she feel so mocked by him?

“I didn’t come here because I’m looking for someone to marry. I came to find someone I could make a deal with.”

“What sort of deal could I possibly make with you, Mr. Kwon Taeheon?”

“Why did you come here?”

“My father—”

“Not that.”

He shook his head before she could finish. Yaein licked her dry lips. Now that things had reached this point, there was no point in hiding it anymore.

“My grandmother, the one who raised me, is sick. I… I don’t have the money for her medical bills.”

Saying it out loud, Yaein felt her face burn with shame, as if she were admitting she’d been sold off. Her grandmother’s condition had recently taken a serious turn for the worse, and the doctor couldn’t guarantee how many more years she might have left. Yaein had tried to cover the expenses with her savings and part-time jobs, but the cost of surgery was far beyond what she could manage. She’d even taken a leave from college to care for her grandmother, but she was desperately short on both time and money.

“If I say I’ll take care of those bills, will you marry me?”

He spoke so calmly—like he was offering to buy her a cup of coffee—that it felt like a bucket of ice water had been thrown over her. Yaein’s toes curled inside her shoes, and a cold feeling sank into the pit of her stomach. After being dragged here by her father, now this man was proposing yet another deal. This was Yaein’s place in the world. She’d tried to avoid being roped in by her heartless father, but it turned out the true whirlwind was Kwon Taeheon.

“I understand what you’re suggesting, but I just don’t get why. Even if this is some sort of transaction, as you can see, I don’t have anything.”

She was just about to graduate college, saddled with debts from both her studies and her grandmother’s medical care.

“All I have is… my body.”

That was the plain truth. She had no money, no status, no honor—nothing.

“Then sell it to me.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Taeheon made his demand.