Without time to protest, his c*ck strongly pierced her tender mucous membrane. Nelie diligently covered her body by grabbing the curtain and glass window in succession. And she hoped that none of those below could see this sight.

Although from outside the window, only her face might be poking out between the curtains, she herself knew well what she looked like behind them.

“Ha, ah, hnngh!”

When the Duke’s force, pushing from behind like a beast without a word, became more intense, a surge of sorrowful emotion suddenly welled up. This posture was embarrassing, and being driven by the Duke in a place where her close acquaintances might see was unbearably sad. She recalled how she had been anxious in Jerome’s studio. It wasn’t much different from then.

Amidst all this, what Nelie found most unbearable was her body that felt pleasure and didn’t move according to her will this time too.

Every time her head tingled and her vision turned white, every time she felt pleasure while knowing it was an instinctive response, guilt raised its head. Tears welled up in her eyes involuntarily.

“Th-this. This……”

When Nelie began to sob, a sigh came from behind. It felt like a reproach, as if asking if she was crying again like last time, and her sorrow deepened even further.

“Ah!”

Her body was suddenly turned around. Because she had been holding the curtain until then, as Nelie’s body spun around, the curtain also closed with a rustling sound. The sunlight pouring into the studio and the scenery outside disappeared instantly behind the thin curtain fabric.

“Why do you keep crying, Annelie Heich.”

“Y-Your Grace. Because of Your Grace……”

The Duke’s face, which she looked up at while sobbing, was not clearly visible. It was because the shadow created by the curtain was covering his face. While Nelie was holding back her tears, an unexpectedly gentle kiss touched the corner of her eye.

“Come here.”

After saying that, the Duke pushed into her many times behind the closed curtain. At least thinking that her appearance wouldn’t be visible to others brought a strange sense of relief. Just for allowing that, the resentment she felt toward the Duke melted slightly.

“Ah……”

The end was, as always, a sticky and viscous ej*culation.

As soon as their s*xual affair ended, Nelie whispered, gasping. She had tears hanging in the corners of her eyes. Strangely, when she pressed her body against this man, she often ended up crying like this at the end. It happened in Jerome’s studio, and now here too. She felt good yet sad.

“N-next time… don’t do this.”

“……”

“Th-this. I hate it. I hate it.”

She felt her body convulsing to the last drops the Duke had released. Her insides, which had felt pleasure, contracted as if pleased, simultaneously sucking in the liquid that filled her inside and the pillar. It felt like her own denial was being betrayed by none other than her own body.

That dropped Nelie’s mood even lower. Even though her body was trembling at the climax, she had to say what needed to be said.

“So, don’t do it like before……”

She still wanted to say what needed to be said. Even if the Duke got angry with her for this, even if he decided to really file a complaint this time. Wasn’t this already the second time for this kind of affair? She didn’t want it to happen a third time.

To her sincerely sobbing whisper, the Duke replied something.

“…If that’s what you want.”

“……”

“I won’t do it.”

Unlike his usual caustic remarks, his words were unusually gentle. Though it might be her misconception, it seemed to contain a bit of regret.

Soon, a gentle kiss approached. Nelie unconsciously opened her mouth and accepted it. The Duke’s tongue moved very carefully, unlike other times. As if he’s trying to soothe her now, when earlier he had been driving her hard.

As if he was sorry for doing this.

She wanted to believe that feeling. Even if it was her misconception. Even if she was acting foolishly and naively.

Nelie’s heart drew deep ripples. All sorts of emotional fragments, whether she wanted to cry or laugh, circulated within Nelie. Without realizing it, a smile mixed with tears appeared on Nelie’s face. Due to the darkness around, she couldn’t see the Duke’s face.

‘…That’s right.’

Recalling all the emotions she felt then, Nelie’s face heated up more and more. Seeing this, Elroy unconsciously reached out and caressed Annelie’s face. When the woman shrank back shyly, his lips impulsively moved forward.

“Ah.”

With a small sigh, their lips met again.

In truth, Elroy also couldn’t understand why he kept acting this way. Only one thought invaded his mind:

‘Just a little more.’

Once he started, he couldn’t stop. Everything about Annelie Heich was generally like that.

If he brought in a pigment merchant wondering how she would react to new pigments, the order would only end after all the pigments the merchant had brought were sold out. It was the same with painting tools and canvases.

If there was food she ate well, he would buy so much that Annelie would be troubled about how to eat it all, and after realizing she was interested in books, he would periodically send his secretary to book auctions to stock books in the Duke’s mansion. Because he thought she would be happy if he showed them to her someday, though he didn’t know when.

Because she might keep smiling at him.

Suddenly, he recalled how he had been seized by a sadistic impulse different from usual and embraced the woman after seeing the man named Jerome outside the window. Although Annelie had firmly drawn a line that they were just friends, Elroy, who had been watching from a distance as Annelie left the newspaper company and Jerome greeted her, realized.

‘That man.’

Jerome has romantic feelings for Annelie. Otherwise, why would he grin with that stupid face and try to give her everything?

Remembering that, a sticky emotion that couldn’t be controlled rose from deep within his stomach. He wanted to show Jerome over and over. That while he was stomping his feet wanting to become special to Annelie, she was in his arms, offering her soft body to him.

When he drove Annelie with that impulse and saw her soft br*asts being squashed against the glass window, it was so thrilling that his toes tingled. When the heat rising from her chest created white steam on the glass window, he wanted to preserve it forever and rip that glass window away.

But even that feeling became powerless before this woman’s tears.

‘Again.’

He made the woman cry again. That fact momentarily slammed Elroy’s heart to the ground. He didn’t know whether he was angry at the woman for crying loudly or at himself for making her cry.

However, Annelie, who had thrown Elroy’s mood into hell, pulled him back to the surface.

She didn’t do anything special. She just stopped crying when he comforted her and hugged him back.

“Really?”

“……”

“Really… if I want, you won’t do it?”

After asking that and hearing his reaffirmation that he wouldn’t, she rubbed her cheek against his pitifully. That fact strangely fulfilled Elroy.

‘Even though I did that.’

Even though he had done something that even he thought was a bit too much, several times, this woman didn’t push him away. Not only that, but she even smiled as if her heart had melted at his single word. She was a woman who didn’t hide her anger, glaring at him sullenly and pouting her lips, but who would smile and give her whole heart if he just comforted her a little.

For that smile, taking on something wasn’t very difficult. Rather, if he could alleviate the uncomfortable feeling with material abundance, that was better.

‘It would be good to give her something more expensive.’

Although republics were emerging everywhere, the middle class was rising, and the power of the nobility had declined significantly, that wasn’t the story of Tevant.

All the wealth that passed through this city and the banks, coal mines, businesses, galleries, and even theaters and opera houses he had scattered out there were all his. If things continued this way, even if the day came when class boundaries disappeared from the world, as some extreme republicans said, Tevant would remain intact as a business.

Therefore, the reason he handed over cheap pigments and painting tools to Annelie Heich for now, while stockpiling expensive ones in the Duke’s mansion, despite being able to select only the best things for her, was because of the burden she occasionally showed. Elroy didn’t like how she stepped back like that.

“Haah.”

The moment their lips parted, his hands instinctively moved down to the woman’s body. The small trembling body opened wide before him.

“W-wait a moment……”

“Don’t you think that’s too late to say? Miss Heich.”

Elroy didn’t hesitate as he pulled down the front of her dress. Her plump, well-shaped br*asts were momentarily drawn downward by the descending fabric before settling back into place with a slight circular motion. It was an intensely provocative sight. Without pause, Elroy bit and sucked on the soft curves, coating them with his saliva.

“Hnngh……”