The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 40

Lucas glanced at Giselle again, then frowned with a sigh. Then he withdrew the hand he had extended to her and started taking off his top.

“Wh-What are you doing! Why are you taking off your clothes here now!”

Giselle cried out in alarm seeing him suddenly take off his shirt. But he paid no attention and held out his removed shirt to her.

“Put this on for now.”

“…Wh-What. Why should I wear Senior’s clothes?”

She stammered with her face turning bright red. Her mind went blank and she couldn’t string any thoughts together.

A man and woman alone in a bathroom, and he’s taking off his clothes?

Even the most innocent person couldn’t help but have suggestive thoughts in this situation.

“N-No! We’re not even married yet…”

“Please put it on. Just listen to me, Giselle Anticia.”

As Giselle was trying to continue speaking while stammering, he directly put his shirt over her head.

Due to their significant difference in build, his shirt almost completely covered her upper body.

“Oh my, Se-Senior! What is this… Uh…”

Giselle was about to hurriedly take off his shirt out of embarrassment, but then stopped.

She had just realized what state she was in.

Her clothes had been torn long by the cat’s claws, revealing a glimpse of her chest.

Moreover, being soaked with water, the contours of her body were clearly…

“Hmph!”

Giselle tightly gripped his shirt with both hands and covered her body. And in that state, she cautiously raised only her eyes to look up at him.

Lucas’s face seemed to have turned somewhat red.

‘…His Adam’s apple keeps moving too.’

No, why is his throat moving so much?

She squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head deeply. The round earlobes visible through her wet hair were bright red.

“Ahem, then I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

His voice, sounding somewhat hoarse, was heard, but Giselle couldn’t give any answer.

Even if she had spent the whole day with her face in front of the fireplace, she didn’t think it could match the heat radiating from her face right now.

‘I’m crazy! How could I have forgotten about that!’

She kept her head bowed and didn’t raise it even once until Lucas left the bathroom.

“Meow.”

The cat, the cause of all this trouble, meowed shortly while looking at Giselle, seemingly curious.

* * *

Click.

Only after closing the bedroom door did Lucas stand there for a moment and take a breath. The hand that had been holding the doorknob twitched as if it might open the door and go back in at any moment.

“…I must be crazy.”

He muttered in an incredulous tone, forcibly relaxing his hand and letting go of the doorknob.

“I’m crazy. Unless I’ve gone mad…”

Lucas muttered to himself, rubbing his mouth and chin with the hand that had been gripping the doorknob until just now. But he soon closed his mouth.

Because he realized he hadn’t moved a step away from the door yet.

…The door to the bedroom where Giselle, soaked with water, was.

“……!”

His face turned bright red. It was unlike him, who usually never lost his composure.

Lucas hurriedly turned around and quickened his pace.

Giselle on the other side of the door probably hadn’t heard what he had muttered to himself. Even as he was leaving the room, she hadn’t left the bathroom.

No, far from leaving, she was just holding tightly onto the shirt he had given her and keeping her head bowed.

“Haa…”

Lucas stopped in his tracks as he was walking briskly. Heat seeped into the sigh he couldn’t hold back any longer.

The heat he hadn’t managed to cool down made his lower abdomen ache and stirred his chest arbitrarily.

He stood still in the middle of the corridor for a while, then smirked and stepped aside.

“Damn it.”

An uncharacteristic word escaped Lucas’s lips. It was a vulgar term he hadn’t used even in his days as a young boy.

If the butler or the personal physician who had served him for a long time had seen this, they would have doubted their own ears.

But he had unknowingly revealed his intense emotions.

All of this was because of that woman, Giselle Anticia.

“…Is she innocent or…”

Lucas smirked with the back of his head against the corridor wall. The image of her, who made him flee like this, flashed before his eyes.

The woman who’s wearing his shirt instead of pajamas.

Suggesting that she wear it was an action born out of pure goodwill.

Well, it’s not that he didn’t have a bit of mischievous intent, but still.

Even then, he didn’t expect to react to her like this…

‘…I didn’t know I’d get aroused.’

Lucas inwardly muttered the words he couldn’t bring himself to say out loud, then banged the back of his head against the wall once.

Thud.

But such a minor impact wasn’t enough to shake off the image of Giselle.

The white skin visible through the torn clothes, her shoulders and round br*east line clearly revealed by the wet clothes, and things like her n*pples protruding through the wet fabric…

“Haa… I really must be out of my mind.”

He barely managed to rein in his thoughts that were about to run wild, then took a deep breath.

His tightly clenched hand was hot. Despite being drenched in cold water, the heat in his body was intensifying. Along with that, his trousers were so tightly stretched that it was even painful.

That’s why.

That’s why he had forcibly made Giselle, who was looking at him with innocent eyes, unaware that her clothes were clinging to her skin revealing her body’s contours, wear his top.

If he hadn’t covered her body like that.

If he hadn’t fled from there in such a hurry.

“…Tsk.”

Lucas felt his lower abdomen tighten again and clicked his tongue, furrowing his brow.

And just as he was about to return to his bedroom with a hollow laugh, he heard someone’s voice from the opposite end of the corridor.

“Master Lucas, why are you here so late at night…”

Recognizing the butler’s voice, Lucas frowned again.

Of all times.

He swallowed the words that were about to come out unknowingly, then spoke as if nothing had happened.

“The cat escaped from the room, and while trying to catch it, this happened.”

“Ah… the cat.”

Bushin nodded at his words. But the tone seemed a bit strange.

Lucas looked at him with narrowed eyes. The corners of the loyal butler’s mouth were raised almost to his ears. He clearly didn’t believe a word he said.

He probably thought Lucas had come here using the cat as an excuse to see Giselle.

“Yes, the cat. It’s because of the cat.”

Lucas firmly repeated to Bushin, who was smiling contentedly at him. Then, as he was about to move to return to his bedroom, Bushin spoke again, trying to suppress his laughter.

“But… ahem, cough, why did you take off your top, this old man’s mind can’t quite… cough.”

“……!”

Lucas froze in place at Bushin’s words. Come to think of it, wasn’t he shirtless?

He had given his clothes to Giselle, so he was without a top, but he hadn’t realized it until now.

“Moreover, if you took a shower, you should have dried yourself properly, Master Lucas.”

As if to add insult to injury.

Being shirtless wasn’t the only problem. Having been drenched from head to toe, anyone would assume he had just come out of the shower.

It was obvious what Bushin would imagine, seeing him wandering around like this near the guest room where Giselle was staying for the night, not even near his own bedroom.

“Ah, no, this is…”

Lucas, flustered, tried to explain hurriedly, losing his composure in a rare display. But it was not enough to stop the butler who was overjoyed at the fact that his master had become a proper man.

“Of course, I understand you’re being mindful of others’ eyes before the wedding, but what does it matter? It’s not like you two are in an improper relationship, and you’re soon to be married and become husband and wife…”

“Bushin, it’s not like that.”

He interrupted Bushin’s words once again. Then, pressing his hand to his forehead, he emphasized once more.

“This situation is not what you’re thinking. I really just came out to look for the cat. I just happened to end up in this area.”

“Yes, yes.”

Laughter was evident in the wrinkles around Bushin’s eyes. He was clearly disregarding Lucas’s words.

“Haa… Alright. Let’s just return to the bedroom.”

No matter what he said, it wouldn’t properly enter the butler’s ears.

Lucas sighed resignedly, then moved his feet. His neck turned bright red as he quickened his pace.

Bushin looked at Lucas, then glanced briefly towards the guest room, suppressing his laughter again while keeping his mouth tightly shut.