Chapter 2 (Part 5)

Her breathless gasps touched his heaving chest. Eden squeezed his eyes shut. The heat that began from his spine now descended lower. The warmth that traveled down his lower abdomen vividly made the area between his legs feel heavy.

“Damn….”

Muttering a curse he normally wouldn’t even think of, Eden finally managed to release her hand and rubbed his face, troubled. He released Sienna’s hand, which was stiffened by the same strange sensation, and growled lowly.

“Phew…. I realized it from the beginning, but you really are a pervert.”

At his low reproach, Sienna’s face turned red as if it would burst. It was more humiliating because she couldn’t find words to refute being called a pervert. Lifting her eyes filled with defiance, she clenched both hands and retorted.

“Once is not enough.”

“…What?”

“Tomorrow, I’m going to touch your arm too, Duke.”

“Sienna Onyx. Do you even know what you’re saying right now?”

Eden laughed roughly, as if he couldn’t believe it. The madness that had momentarily disappeared returned to flash in Sienna’s eyes as she looked up at him without backing down.

“I’m saying it because you don’t seem embarrassed at all.”

“Ha….”

“I’m about to go crazy from embarrassment, okay? So, I’m very frustrated. I want you to feel as embarrassed as I do, Duke!”

In reality, she knew from growing up watching Montague that men don’t feel ashamed just because their chest is touched once. Sometimes, Montague’s friends, who visited the summer villa, would strip off their shirts at the slightest heat, dirtying her eyes.

So, Eden was surely not as embarrassed as she was just this once. He seemed a bit flustered, but soon enough he was back to looking completely unaffected, showing no emotion at all.

Sienna clenched and unclenched her palm, which still felt the lingering warmth, and bit her lip. She was determined to check if his arm was as thick as his torso.

“What nonsense, wait….”

Eden, who was looking at Sienna with pity, hesitated for a moment. As he released the magic circuit and let the internal magic flow to his fingertips, he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. The magical contract activated at Sienna’s seemingly insane words that she wished he felt as much shame as she did.

“This is crazy.”

He bared his teeth in a fierce smile. They said the contract only took effect for reasonable demands, and yet wishing he felt ashamed counted as reasonable?

If you think about it, the feeling of shame isn’t limited to obscene acts, so that could be true, but Sienna, with the determination to strip him bare, seemed intent on making him perform only such acts. At this rate, he’d end up being touched without resistance.

Eden let out a dry laugh and ran his hand roughly through his hair.

* * *

Before they knew it, night had deepened. The air of full spring remained warm even after sunset, so even though a slightly chilly breeze blew through the open window, it wasn’t cold. Lying alone without a blanket to cool the constant heat, Eden once again shifted uncomfortably.

Usually, it would settle down on its own if left alone. But today, the imposing presence below, boasting since the day, showed no sign of subsiding.

“Phew….”

Wrinkles formed on his handsome brow, and his long, elegant eyebrows twitched again. It was hard to fall asleep because every time he closed his eyes, the soft touch of Sienna’s palm vividly lingered. Muscles bulged along the sharp jawline.

The sensation of small, soft skin brushing against his own kept resurfacing. It was the first time since childhood that he felt so confused and his mood so erratic. 

Had my mind regressed from Sienna’s touch? 

Even if it was his first contact with the opposite s*x, he was no adolescent boy, so what kind of disgrace was this?

Sienna Onyx. Wasn’t she said to be of common birth? 

Despite her pretty and slender appearance, she was a woman with an increasingly eccentric and peculiar side. The fact that she had been pursuing a doctoral course for several years added to her peculiarity. He knew well that the tuition at the academy was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Originally, it must have been established with the purpose of equal education, but now it had become the exclusive domain of noble offspring, and there were about two types of non-noble students admitted to the academy. Either they were academy scholars, or they were under the patronage of another noble.

Even that support is only available until undergraduate studies, so there are hardly any who, like Sienna, complete the doctoral course.

Judging by how she even felt uncomfortable being called “Lady,” she didn’t seem to be a noble hiding her status, yet from what he observed, she maintained a strangely composed demeanor, much like the nobles he knew well.

‘Is she wealthy?’

He suddenly recalled the scene at the Slave Mate auction where she casually mentioned a huge sum of 300 million. 

If her family was that well-off….

Only then did the existence of the Onyx Trading Company come to his mind. Despite being established by a commoner, it had grown so large through incredible business acumen that it ranked among the top ten in the Empire. Sienna was probably the daughter of the Onyx Trading Company owner. With that premise, her oddly composed demeanor finally made sense.

Anyway, she was a unique woman. She seemed absent-minded at times, but when focused on experiments, she would flash her sharp, dark green eyes, as if she forgot he was watching her.

She seemed to find him difficult yet would casually tease him, making jokes that only she found amusing and twitching her lips without even checking his reaction.

Her bright red lips were swollen these past few days due to her habit of biting them whenever deeply concentrated. As he recalled Sienna’s image in his mind, he quietly sketched from her plump lips down to her slender, white neckline and sighed deeply.

He tried to divert his attention with other thoughts, but it always ended up like this since earlier. Pressing hard on his high bridge of the nose right below his furrowed brow, he eventually muttered a low curse and loosened his trousers.

“Haa, ugh.”

The heavy sensation of his protruding organ throbbed up to near his navel. He looked pitifully at his own member, already glistening with the fluid that had flowed down, and grasped the veined shaft with a resigned look.

The quiet room echoed with the sound of squelching. In his imagination, the hand holding his p*nis was replaced by Sienna’s soft and tender palm that he saw during the day. A crack appeared on his usually stoic face, which always maintained composure. As the heightened sensitivity gradually increased, a rough breath escaped through his teeth.

Perhaps because he had been aroused all along without subsiding, it didn’t take long for him to climax. The swollen, heated gl*ns twitched, and he quickly pulled out a handkerchief to block the urethral opening just as the thick white fluid shot vigorously down the shaft.

“Kuh, ugh….”

As the pleasure of climaxing passed, the heat enveloping his entire body began to subside slightly. He sighed while slowly wiping the still prominent shaft with the handkerchief.

Meanwhile, Sienna, who had no idea what was happening in the next room, was kicking the blankets on the bed and clutching her head.

‘Tomorrow, I’m going to touch your arm too, Duke.’

The words she had uttered during the day kept circling in her mind, tormenting her. Burying her face in the pillow and letting out a silent scream, Sienna now began to thump her head against the soft feather pillow.

“Why did I say something like that!”

According to Eden, who looked at her pitifully while grinding his teeth, the magical contract was activated when she said she wished he would feel ashamed. Therefore, since the contract was activated, she now had the obligation to make him feel ashamed whether she liked it or not.

Sienna’s ears turned red. The heat she felt did not subside even with the cool breeze blowing through the window.

How great it would be if everything that happened today was just a dream. She was confident it would be a perfect day until she completed the magical potion, but everything crumbled when her clumsily hidden embarrassing items were discovered.

The scene of Eden awkwardly holding a moving d*ldo kept replaying in her mind. What kind of look did he have towards the object he barely held with two fingers as if it was distasteful? She couldn’t remember that part.

“Sigh….”

Most of the items in that box were things she had bought out of curiosity but was too scared to use, so she put them away. Since people sometimes entered her dormitory to clean, she took the items that needed hiding to her private laboratory, where no one ever went.

The only thing she really used was a small vibrating magical tool, which was neatly stored under her dormitory bed mattress. 

Why on earth was the lock on the box loose at that moment?

She couldn’t imagine what Duke Felice’s expression was like when he first saw all those items. How would he perceive her after finding those embarrassing tools and obscene books? Sienna, who was twisting her body while covering her face with both hands, let out a deep sigh.

“What else would he think? He must think I’m an incorrigible pervert….”

Hadn’t she already been called a pervert by him twice in just a few days? On top of that, she tore his shirt and groped his chest, and the next day, she declared she would touch his forearm, even activating the magical contract. She was now belatedly worried about being dragged off for insulting the royal family as soon as the Slave Mate contract ended.

She wasn’t this perverted from the start. It was just that, being alone and buried in studies all the time, the accumulated stress extended in that direction.

At first, she thought it was just frustration, and she worried a lot, but she was too busy writing her thesis to bother with interactions with the opposite s*x, which felt cumbersome and annoying. She didn’t want to meet people just for that purpose.

Instead, it was more convenient to satisfy her desires with books or tools, so she chose that method. But her mind gradually became consumed as if by a lustful demon; what could she do? Sienna desperately needed to graduate to expel the demon occupying her mind.

Anyway, she had to go to the laboratory with him again tomorrow, but she lost the confidence to face him. 

What on earth should I say to greet him? ‘Good morning, Duke. Are you ready to have your forearm touched?’ Or, ‘Did you sleep well, Duke? Could you please take off your clothes first?’

 She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head in distress.

As for greetings, she wasn’t even sure if she could look him in the face properly. The image of his bare upper body flickered before Sienna’s eyes once more. After fleeing back to the Dormitory, she was tormented by the thought of his broad shoulders, thick chest, the rock-hard, tightly packed muscles beneath, and the firm sensation she felt under her hand.

Sienna, whose forehead had turned red, spread her hands wide and fanned her flushed face. Knowing exactly why her lower abdomen was tingling made it all the more distressing.

However, what happened during the day was already a spilled potion. She knew well that no answer would come from agonizing over it, so she forced her still wide-open eyes to close and tried to sleep. Deciding to worry about tomorrow’s matters tomorrow.

• Continued in Volume 2 –