Chapter 5.1 – In the End, That’s How It Was

Thud. Luel’s forearm blocked Dania’s retreat as he placed his hand against the wall above her head. Leaning his forehead against it, his piercing blue eyes gazed down at her vertically.

Dania’s trembling green eyes stared back at him in shock.

Luel felt unfamiliar to her.

His gaze, too nuanced to simply describe as deep; the faintly curved corners of his lips, exuding a languid aura; the overwhelming closeness that made his scent and body heat feel all the more intense… And the firm pressure stimulating her lower abdomen.

“My patience.”

Perhaps it was the ominous tone of his voice, which resonated like a sinister melody, that enthralled her. By the time she realized that her hand was in his grasp, it was already too late.

“Test it. Just once.”

In her field of vision, Luel’s face flickered for a moment. The source of that flicker was…

‘It’s… so hot!’

He had placed his manhood into her hand without her consent. Even though there were at least two layers of fabric between them, the heat of his solid flesh clung to her palm.

“Ugh, Dania…”

Luel seemed utterly consumed by excitement, simply because her hand had touched his outline. The furrowed brows, twisted gaze, and the flush spreading across his cheeks and skin were proof of his state.

His breath, brushing against the crown of her head, was rough.

Dania couldn’t pull her hand away, couldn’t blink, couldn’t erase the startled expression from her face. She simply stared blankly at Luel’s face. It wasn’t so much that she was observing him as it was that she couldn’t look away.

At that moment, Luel’s hand overlapped hers, curling inwards. Dania unintentionally ended up gripping his member fully with her hand.

“Ah… ah!”

“Do you feel it? How hard I’m trying to hold back?”

His voice, rasping as though dragged from the depths of his throat, tickled the pit of Dania’s stomach. He seemed to be struggling intensely to suppress the urge to climax, simply because her hand was wrapped around him.

“C-C-Could you just take your hand away!”

“It’s not that simple. It’s because of your… intoxicating scent.”

“Who told you to take my underwear? Are you some kind of pervert?”

“I’ve been like this since I entered your room.”

The flat, unwavering tone of his voice made Dania’s face flush even deeper with embarrassment.

If someone overheard, they’d think it was my fault he got aroused.

Even though Dania wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about relationships between men and women, she wasn’t clueless about what it meant for a man to be hardened. Surely, Luel couldn’t be this way because of her. Yes, there had been an incident before, which might have made their relationship seem somewhat like that of a man and woman. 

But still, between us?

When we were around four or five years old, hadn’t we run around n*ked by the lakeshore? Until the age of ten, hadn’t we slept in the same bed? With so many beautiful young ladies around Luel, who was so proficient in these matters?

To Dania, Luel’s words felt like nothing more than an excuse.

He’s just teasing me, isn’t he? Pretending it’s because of me when it’s actually for some other reason.

While her thoughts were tangled in chaotic logic, Luel pressed closer to her. At the same time, he applied more pressure to the hand overlapping hers, causing her fingers to tighten around his shaft.

Deeper grooves formed between Luel’s brows. His voice, as he spoke, sounded like a groan.

“Do you want to test how much longer I can hold back?”

Gulp. Dania couldn’t respond, only swallowing dryly. Her trembling gaze seemed to ask him how.

“Try stroking it. Just once.”

“W-what?”

Dania’s eyes widened endlessly. Her soft green irises, crystal-clear like glass, revealed the contraction of her pupils even from a short distance away.

Resisting the urge to press his lips against her parted gaze, Luel barely managed to continue speaking.

“You said I lack self-restraint.”

“T-that’s not…”

“I think I have plenty of self-restraint.”

Why is he so fixated on self-restraint? 

Unable to remove her hand from the silhouette of the issue, blocked by Luel’s grip, Dania could only move her lips slightly.

“Then let’s make a bet. You try to make me lose control, and I’ll hold back.”

“But, I mean…”

Do we really have to do this? 

Dania’s flustered voice fizzled out in her throat, unable to fully form. As she hesitated, Luel pulled back slightly… only to start undoing his front.

Click. Click. The sound of metal scraping echoed as Dania began to realize what was happening. Before she could process it, something hot was already in her hand.

She didn’t need to look to know what it was. Gulp. Closing her eyes tightly, Dania barely managed to swallow her dry saliva.

“The winner gets a wish granted.”

A mischievous smile spread across one corner of Luel’s lips, the kind of smile that had ensnared Dania countless times before.

‘T-this… this can’t be happening!’

How did things end up like this?

Could the Dania Lancaster from just an hour ago have imagined this? Sure, she had been lost in indecent fantasies she couldn’t escape, wondering about unknown worlds. She had pondered the mysterious itch deep within her that her own touch couldn’t soothe. But to find herself facing the core of those fantasies like this?

Unable to bring herself to look at it, Dania kept her gaze fixed on Luel’s face. Meanwhile, Luel, whose hand was overlapping hers, began to move her hand, making her stroke the length of him.

‘Ahhh…!’

Its surface was bumpy yet soft, like fine lambskin, firm beyond belief, and hot beneath the skin. Most of all…

“Ugh!”

It twitched in her grip. It pulsated, like it had its own heartbeat, or as if it were a separate living being entirely.

And somehow, it felt even thicker than before.

“What are you doing!”

“I told you, let’s make a bet.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re the reason this happened.”

“But you said it’s been like this since earlier!”

“Since the moment I entered your room. And I realized why…”

Luel’s gaze flicked downwards, briefly sweeping over Dania’s lower half. He blamed her for letting her arousal drip while leaving her underwear off, treating her as though she were some kind of human aphrodisiac. It was infuriatingly absurd.

“T-then…”

Handle it yourself! 

The sharp retort hovered on the tip of her tongue but couldn’t escape her tightly sealed throat. In truth, Dania was overwhelmed by the intensity of Luel’s unresolved passion.

Why is he acting like this? If someone overheard, they’d think he had feelings for me.

Luel’s gaze, which captured Dania’s flushed face, carried a distinct heat. It wasn’t lustful enough to be overwhelming, but it was far from the usual warmth of friendship.

Yes. To call it the gaze of a friend of 21 years seemed inaccurate.

After all, how could she insist they were just friends when they had done such intimate things?

Her trembling eyes reflected all the confusion within her.

“Dani.”

Luel’s lips, which had been pressed tightly to suppress his moans, finally moved.

“You didn’t get to see how good I am last time. A truly skilled man doesn’t climax and knows how to hold back.”

“C-climax…”

“So I’ll show you how much I can hold back.”

“T-that’s…”

Even though she felt she shouldn’t see it, Dania, overwhelmed by Luel’s heat, couldn’t form a single word of protest.

“This way.”

Luel guided Dania’s hand, making it move along his member.

“Even with you giving me stimulation…”

“Ugh… this feels strange.”

As Dania’s hand, wrapped in Luel’s, moved up and down his length, his face flushed beneath his eyes. If Dania hadn’t tightly shut her eyes, unable to accept that she was holding his manhood—Luel’s manhood—she would have noticed how much his expression had crumbled under the weight of his excitement.

Confirming that Dania wasn’t looking at him, Luel allowed himself to furrow his brows freely.

The sensation of her slender hand running along his member, instead of his own, which touched it once or twice a day, brought an uncontrollable wave of arousal. Perhaps it was because her hands were so petite, her thin and delicate fingers brushing against him felt entirely foreign. Even though he was the one guiding her movements, the touch was undeniably different. The dampness of her hands from when he had sucked on them earlier added a slickness that heightened the friction.

The tingling sensation running along his shaft reached his scrotum, sending a deep contraction through him.

Once. Twice. Three times. The overlapping hands moved back and forth repeatedly.

“Like this…”

“…”

“Can you go a little faster?”

“W-what?”

You want me to do it? 

Dania’s tightly shut eyes flew open wide as she looked at Luel. By then, he had composed his expression, with only a faint trace of heat visible.

Could he really endure this?

His smiling face, still adorned with a playful grin, even seemed somewhat carefree.

If this is difficult to endure, then he must be trying to prove something.

“A wish… that’s what you said the bet was for, right?”

“Yes.”

Dania didn’t have a specific wish in mind, but securing a wish wasn’t a bad idea. After all, many of their mischievous escapades—like stealing blue roses from Uncle George or pilfering the Earl’s collection—had been carried out under the pretext of wish bets.

Part of her also wanted to see Luel crumble under his arousal. Luel Marchento, who always acted as though he was above her, had remained infuriatingly composed even when she had cried herself hoarse in front of him that day. His clothes had stayed perfectly neat, to an irritating degree.