The night became drenched in nothing but pleasure.

“Haah… You’re ridiculously beautiful for someone with no fear at all.”

Barely holding onto his reason, Seo-hoo spoke between unsteady breaths.

Even knowing he needed to control the pace, it was difficult for him to restrain the desire threatening to consume him from within.

At his words, the woman beneath him—who had been trembling and writhing uncontrollably—slowly stilled.

His raw gaze, stripped down to pure instinct, fixed upon her pale body, now marked red from being handled so mercilessly.

As though admiring a carefully crafted masterpiece, Seo-hoo slowly looked over Da-hye before letting out a soft laugh.

“At this rate, I’m going to lose my mind every single night.”

The corners of his lips curved sensually.

As if everything was entirely the fault of the woman with the beautiful body before him, Seo-hoo released a deep sigh after speaking.

A hot breath fell against Da-hye’s cheek, which rested just beneath his jaw.

Unable to do anything but bite her lips helplessly, Da-hye finally lifted her eyes to look up at him.

Their gazes met, as though they had been waiting for that very moment.

“Haah… Mr. Seo-hoo.”

Her body, already thoroughly ruined by him, could not endure even the briefest pause and twitched impatiently.

Unable to bear the way her body reacted against her will, Da-hye lowered her head to the side.

At the sight, See-hoo—still breathing roughly—laughed again.

“What is it? Want me to move?”

The man who had cornered her so fiercely like a starving beast only moments ago now seemed unbelievably relaxed.

He was still buried deep inside her.

Then, when Seo-hoo shifted slightly as though about to change positions—

“Ahh…”

A moan escaped her reflexively.

“I’m going insane.”

Muttering under his breath in a calm voice, Seo-hoo began moving again.

“Ah—!”

The overwhelming stimulation she simply could not grow accustomed to seized every one of her senses.

Feeling as though something might burst out of her at any moment, Da-hye clenched the bedsheets tightly in her fists.

At the sound of her rising moans, he lost the last of his composure and hungrily captured her lips.

Sucking and licking at her swollen, soft lips as though they might burst, Seo-hoo recalled what she had said earlier.

“Will you comfort me?”

That woman, pure as a blank white canvas, had dared to ask him to ruin her.

From the beginning, he had never intended to stain that untouched white paper.

But when she herself had placed the colored pencils into his hands and asked him to hold her, he found he could no longer let her go.

Seo-hoo parted the lips that had spoken those dangerously reckless words with the tip of his tongue.

The taste of the lips that had briefly unsettled him that day was sweet and fragrant.

After savoring her breath thoroughly, he slowly pulled away and lowered his gaze.

Looking down at her face tilted up helplessly toward him, Seo-hoo’s broad chest rose and fell heavily, like the throat of a beast swallowing down its prey.

The woman who had looked as though she might die as she asked him to comfort her.

Yet unlike that bold attitude, once she lay beneath him on the bed, all she had done was tremble helplessly.

Even now, Seo-hoo could not forget the sight of Da-hye awkwardly moving her body the way she herself had asked, sobbing softly all the while.

Could clumsy movements really be that sensual?

It was ridiculous.

Biting lightly against his lower lip, Seo-hoo smiled darkly as he tightened his grip around the heated curve of her pale flesh.

“Haah!”

At his touch, both of Da-hye’s thighs trembled violently.

The faster his hands moved, the more her waist arched helplessly along with them.

Soon, as Seo-hoo quickened his pace again, Da-hye’s body shuddered faintly.

“Huu…”

Her body was so intoxicating that he did not want to stop.

“Can you relax a little for me?”

“Hngh…!”

“I’m going to devour you whole, Da-hye.”

Unable to contain the heat consuming him, his voice began breaking apart little by little.

Seo-hoo could feel it too—the pleasure steadily building deep inside him was nearing its peak.

At this rate, he felt as though his desire would soon overflow, so he deliberately loosened the tension in his body once more.

The moment his movements ceased, Da-hye’s dazed eyes naturally turned toward him.

Taking the opportunity, Seo-hoo gently pressed down on her trembling thighs as they instinctively tried to close.

“How is it? My comfort.”

At his question, Da-hye bit down hard on her lower lip before nodding slowly.

“This is the first time… my mind has ever felt this completely empty.”

Her clear face flushed red as she answered softly.

“I want it to stay this way.”

“……”

“I don’t want to spend every night suffering anymore… because of those beasts who trampled all over me.”

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as she spoke.

Without saying a word, Seo-hoo merely lowered his gaze before gently stroking her hair.

“I told you already.”

Then he lifted one of her legs and draped it over his shoulder.

“Ahhn—!”

At the renewed stimulation, the narrow space between her thighs parted helplessly.

Warm wetness spilled down between them, soaking into the sheets.

“I told you, I’m good at using my body.”

“Mr. Seo-hoo…”

“So? Should I keep comforting you from now on too?”

Da-hye had no choice but to nod with a face burning red.

At that, Seo-hoo let out a low chuckle.

“But I can’t do it for free.”

“…Pardon?”

“Whether it’s revenge or comfort. I’ll do it all for you.”

“Then……”

“But there’s something I’d like you to cooperate with in return.”

Those words felt like shackles wrapping tightly around her ankles.

With trembling eyes, Da-hye looked up at him, still moving his hand against her.

“I need a wife.”

A sharp flash burst across the vision that had been growing hazy from the overwhelming sensations.

As the feverish heat clouding her senses receded, Han Seo-hoo’s face became startlingly clear in her eyes.

“Mr. Seo-hoo……”

“Will you marry me?”

The utterly inappropriate question for such a moment made heat flood through her entire body.

At the same time, the faces of those wretched people—worse than beasts—who had driven her to the edge resurfaced in her mind.

If she married Seo-hoo, those who had torn her apart would undoubtedly suffer.

Hearing such words while lying n*ked in bed with him, their bodies still tightly joined together, was unbearably intimate. Perhaps part of her had been waiting for him to say it.

Da-hye had known from the beginning what Seo-hoo truly wanted.

That was why she had willingly stepped into his arms in the first place.

“Of course, we don’t have to love each other like a real married couple.”

After pausing briefly, Seo-hoo softly brushed down her hair before speaking again.

“As long as you put effort into things in bed, like you are now.”

The gaze binding Da-hye in place—unlike her own precarious position standing at the edge of a cliff—remained calm and leisurely.

“Well… if you end up falling in love with me, I suppose that’s fine too.”

The corners of his eyes curved gently.

“People’s feelings don’t always go the way they want, do they?”

As though telling her to go ahead and try loving him if she wished—while making it equally clear he had no intention of reciprocating that love.

His detached attitude made Da-hye shrink involuntarily.

“…Okay.”

Love was something she did not want either.

So she willingly accepted his proposal.

A wife in name only.

That was not difficult at all.

For someone who had sworn she would sell even her soul for revenge, a marriage contract was an easy price to pay.

Of course, compared to Kang Ji-hoon—the man who had betrayed and ruined her—the man standing before her now, overflowing with desire, might be an even more dangerous beast.

But if she wanted to reclaim everything stolen from her by her stepmother and stepsister, Da-hye had no choice but to take this dangerous man’s hand.

“There’s one condition.”

His voice remained flat as he added the final terms.

“…What is it?”

“I want us to continue these marital duties until I decide to stop.”

Da-hye understood perfectly well that by marital duties, he meant sharing a bed.

Instead of answering, she wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.

Because if it was not this man, then she would simply continue falling endlessly into ruin.

As Seo-hoo watched her with darkened eyes, he suddenly withdrew himself from deep inside her.

At the abrupt emptiness left behind, Da-hye slowly loosened the arms wrapped around his neck.

Her vision, blurred moments ago by intense pleasure, gradually sharpened again.

“Ah…?”

Wearing a smile she could not decipher, Seo-hoo lifted Da-hye into his arms like a princess and carried her toward the vanity.

Then, as though everything sitting atop it annoyed him, he swept everything aside before carefully setting her down on the surface.

Leaning forward slightly until their eyes met, Seo-hoo curled his lips into a smile.

“You do understand what agreeing to that means, don’t you?”

“M-Mr. Seo-hoo……”

At the same time she spoke, the sound of plastic tearing echoed once more from within his hands.

Then he peeled away the thin, soaked barrier wrapped around him.

With a dull thud, it dropped heavily near their feet.

Wearing an expression that clearly said he intended to start over properly this time, Seo-hoo slowly lowered his waist again.

“It means you won’t be able to leave until I tell you to.”

A massive wave crashed over her.

And in that moment, Da-hye fell helplessly into the trap he had so carefully laid for her.