The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 29

That was until Giselle, unable to contain her impatience, suddenly grabbed his hand.

“Hurry up, I said!”

“……!”

Lucas’s eyes widened. His usually calm gaze wavered unpredictably.

He looked at his hand without realizing it.

More precisely, he looked at her small, white hand that was urging him to hurry while holding his.

“What are you looking at…?”

Seeing him stop and stare at his hand, Giselle opened her mouth to urge him again. But she quickly closed it.

She realized what Lucas was looking at.

No, more accurately, she realized what she was doing.

“Uh, um, well…”

Flustered, Giselle rolled her eyes and slowly let go of his hand.

“…Ahem, oh right! We need to see the portraits!”

She ran off towards the place where the portraits were displayed, pretending nothing had happened. Her pink hair fluttered as she moved.

Lucas, watching her quietly, slowly raised his hand.

There was no way a small hand gripping tightly would leave a mark.

But for some reason, his palm felt warm where Giselle’s hand had touched.

As he opened and closed his hand, he heard Giselle’s disappointed voice.

“Oh, come on. Where did Lucas One, Two, Three go?”

“……?”

Lucas stopped looking at his hand and raised his head at her incomprehensible words.

‘Did I hear that right?’

He tilted his head and walked over to where she was standing. Giselle, with a disgruntled expression, was puffing her cheeks and looking at the portraits.

“Giselle.”

“…Hmph.”

As he approached, she turned to look at him and then puffed her cheeks again.

“Why are you…”

“Senior, you don’t look like any of them at all.”

“What?”

Lucas was about to ask why she was acting that way but was taken aback by her words.

Not look like them at all?

“…Who, my ancestors?”

Nod, nod.

Giselle nodded at his question. Lucas’s gaze shifted to the portraits of his ancestors.

“Well, I don’t know. Don’t I look like them? I wasn’t adopted; I’m definitely of this family’s bloodline.”

He had never thought about whether he looked like his ancestors or not, so he couldn’t say for sure.

But he thought he resembled them somewhat, with his black hair and sharp features. Giselle, however, shook her head vigorously.

“No offense to your ancestors, but they’re not handsome at all.”

“…What?”

He was left speechless by her comment and shook his head.

First, he didn’t look like his ancestors.

Second, his ancestors were not handsome.

Third…

“Pfft.”

Lucas rubbed his forehead and let out a chuckle. Giselle, her face turning red, mumbled in embarrassment.

“If they all looked like you, the Taylor family might be known as the most handsome family in the kingdom instead of the richest. That would be… something, right?”

“Why? Do you prefer wealth over looks?”

“Of course! You can’t live off of good looks… What, what are you doing? Why are you coming so close?”

Giselle, in the middle of her sentence, was startled by Lucas suddenly approaching her and took a step back.

But she couldn’t move any further. Her back was against the wall.

“Se… Senior?”

“……”

Without a word, Lucas placed one hand on the wall and leaned towards her.

A cool scent reached her nose. Unable to meet his dark blue gaze, she turned her head slightly and closed her eyes tightly.

Thump, thump.

An inexplicable excitement sprouted in her chest. At the same time, her mouth went dry, and her body heated up.

With her eyes tightly shut, Giselle unconsciously licked her lips. Her pink tongue peeked out between her moist lips before quickly retreating.

At that moment.

Smack.

“Ouch!”

Suddenly, her forehead stung. Rubbing her forehead, Giselle opened her eyes wide.

“What was that for? Why did you hit me?”

It was clear he had flicked her forehead with his finger. She glared at him, her face scrunched up in protest.

But Lucas, ignoring her complaint, chuckled and spoke.

“You’re being silly. And you said you prefer wealth over good looks?”

“What? Why are you bringing that up now?”

Giselle, annoyed that he was teasing her instead of apologizing, glared at him. Watching her, Lucas raised one corner of his mouth.

Whoosh.

Her face flushed again.

The image of him leaning towards her earlier overlapped in her mind. The cool scent she had sensed from him came back vividly.

“See? You’re doing it again.”

“Wh-what am I doing?”

“Be honest, Giselle.”

Lucas leaned towards her again. With their significant height difference, he had to bend down for their eyes to meet. Even then, his gaze was slightly above hers.

“Just now, and even now, you were having strange thoughts about my face, weren’t you?”

“Wh-who was having strange thoughts…”

She stammered involuntarily.

‘This makes it seem like I really was having strange thoughts!’

Flustered, she didn’t know what to do and squinted her eyes before shaking her head.

“I… I wasn’t! You’re mistaken!”

“Really?”

Nod, nod.

Giselle, gathering all her embarrassment, nodded more vigorously. But Lucas, not believing her, tilted his head and asked again.

“Then why did you close your eyes?”

“Th-that’s…”

Giselle’s green eyes wavered like a ship lost at sea. Her small face turned bright red, like a ripe tomato.

It looked as if a slight touch would make it bleed red.

Lucas, watching her for a moment, suddenly turned away.

“Let’s finish looking around and get out. Dinner should be almost ready.”

He walked away with a slightly hurried pace. His voice seemed a bit more subdued than before.

“Let’s go together, Senior!”

But Giselle didn’t notice any of it. She simply patted her flushed cheeks with her hand, relieved to be out of the situation.

* * *

‘I almost made a mistake.’

Lucas ran a hand over his face, listening to the sound of Giselle’s footsteps following him.

Her face, with her eyes tightly shut, kept appearing before his eyes. He took a deep breath and shook his head slightly.

It was just a joke.

All he wanted was to play a harmless prank on her, who claimed to prefer wealth over good looks.

But when Giselle, flustered by his prank, tightly closed her eyes, it was he who felt uncontrollably shaken.

…He almost kissed her.

If he hadn’t regained his senses just in time, he would have definitely kissed her.

Lucas was deeply troubled by this fact.

‘Am I just another man after all?’

It might sound like an excuse, but Giselle was an attractive woman. Smart and confident. Always enthusiastic and lively, naturally drawing attention.

Moreover, her sweet cotton candy-like pink hair, her small face, and her adorable lips…

“Ahem.”

Lucas barely managed to stop himself from thinking about her lips again and cleared his throat.

“I finally caught up. I told you to walk with me, but you just kept striding ahead on your own.”

Giselle, who had quickly caught up while he had stopped walking, pouted and grumbled.

But Lucas couldn’t say a word in response to her.

No, he couldn’t even look at the woman who had come right next to him.

He had barely escaped with a few flimsy jokes earlier, but the heat that had risen in his body still hadn’t found an outlet and was clamoring.

And he had just thought about her lips again…

He clenched and unclenched his empty hand, suppressing the tension below, and hurried his steps once more.

“Hey, Senior! I told you to walk with me!”

Knowing full well that Giselle was struggling to keep up with his long strides, Lucas couldn’t afford to be considerate of her.

He was simply running away.

Running away from the pink candy that threatened him.

…But before long, his steps came to a halt. At the same time, the uncontrollable heat quickly dissipated.

It wasn’t by Lucas’s will. His body reacted on its own.

At the sight of his parents’ portraits.

“You’re really mean, Senior. I told you to walk with me… Oh?”

Giselle, panting heavily, suddenly widened her eyes at the portrait hanging on the wall.

“Senior, is this portrait perhaps…”

“It’s a portrait of my parents.”

Lucas spoke in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the portrait despite her gaze on him.

A portrait of his parents.

There was no emotion in Lucas’s voice as he said those words.

No longing, no affection.

Not a single shred of emotion towards his family.

The atmosphere around him grew darker. A darkness that made the silence not awkward.

But at that moment, a soft voice seemed to pierce through the darkness.

“Ah! Now I understand.”

“……?”

“I know who you resemble.”

Giselle looked up at the portrait and then back at him. Lucas’s gaze briefly landed on Giselle before moving to the portrait she had just seen.

A woman, younger than he was now and about the same age as Giselle, was looking at him with an awkward smile.

“You resemble your mother a lot, Senior.”

“…Me?”

He chuckled as if he had heard something absurd.

“That’s not possible.”