The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 58

And in the direction the woman was looking, a man was standing. In the man’s hand, held behind his back, a flower could be seen.

It was a pure white orange blossom, used to adorn a bride’s hair.

‘…Orange blossom?’

Giselle realized something and turned her gaze from the painting to look at him. Lucas, who had been watching her with his lips tightly closed until then, spoke in a low voice.

“It’s a wedding gift, Giselle.”

“……!”

“Raoul Puhenna painted it for you. He asked me to tell you he’s grateful that you understood the hidden sincerity in his painting.”

Lucas’s words were completely unexpected.

A painting created just for her by her favorite artist. And even a message of gratitude he had conveyed.

It was a series of events that would normally have made her jump for joy, but Giselle couldn’t be happy about that aspect. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t happy.

It was just that another fact filled her mind so completely that she couldn’t think of anything else.

A wedding gift.

“…A wedding gift?”

She hesitated several times before asking him, unable to believe it. Giselle’s voice came out trembling involuntarily.

“For me? You’re saying this painting is my gift?”

Lucas nodded at her question, slightly furrowing his brow. He looked somewhat embarrassed and shy.

“No, uh, umm… I didn’t prepare a gift.”

Giselle muttered to herself in an awkward tone, scratching the bridge of her nose, embarrassed for a different reason.

A wedding gift, she hadn’t even thought about it.

She never expected to receive such a gift from him. So, conversely, she hadn’t even thought about giving Lucas a gift.

She felt sorry and bewildered. At the same time, her heart raced with an emotion she found hard to express.

As Giselle fumbled with her lips, not knowing what to do, Lucas approached and stood right in front of her.

Startled by the suddenly reduced distance, she clutched the front of her robe tighter. Lucas’s gaze inadvertently dropped from her face to her chest.

To the hand gripping the robe.

And above it, along the gently rising curve.

Everywhere his gaze touched felt ticklish, as if flowers of heat were blooming. Giselle’s hand trembling slightly as it gripped the front of her robe, she swallowed dryly before stammering out a belated thanks.

“Thank you for the gift. Really, um, I…”

“We need to change that way of speaking.”

Lucas said in a low voice, still looking at the tips of her fingers tightly gripping the robe. Giselle, who had been extremely tense, looked confused, not understanding his meaning.

“I mean referring to yourself in such a humble way. And being overly formal with me. We’re equal partners now, aren’t we?”

“Ah, that’s true, but…”

Giselle hesitated and trailed off, caught off guard by him pointing out something she hadn’t considered, having only paid attention to forms of address. It wasn’t easy to change her habitual way of speaking in an instant.

“Giselle, do you know how it makes me feel when you keep speaking so humbly about yourself?”

Lucas chuckled and leaned his upper body slightly towards her.

“Huh? Um, how does it make you feel?”

Just his closeness was awkward enough, but with him leaning towards her, it felt like every hair on her body was standing on end.

As Giselle floundered, unable to look at him directly, Lucas laughed again and whispered softly into her ear.

“It feels like I’m doing something naughty with a subordinate.”

“……!”

As soon as Lucas finished speaking, Giselle hastily inhaled. He had reached out and gently caressed her cheek with his fingertips.

* * *

It was just a touch of his fingertips, but it felt as if all the sensory cells in her body had concentrated on her cheek.

Giselle instinctively tucked in her neck and shrank back. But Lucas didn’t withdraw his hand.

“Um, Sen- I mean, Lucas. Shouldn’t we… shouldn’t we appreciate the painting more?”

She barely swallowed the Senior title that almost slipped out, then tried to change the atmosphere. But Lucas didn’t respond to Giselle’s words and instead tapped her earlobe with his fingertip.

“Ah, ah!”

At the same time, Giselle hastily stepped back, but stumbled on the carpet and staggered.

‘I’m falling!’

She tightly closed her eyes, anticipating a significant impact. But the shock she expected didn’t come. Naturally, there was no pain either.

“……?”

Instead, she felt hands firmly supporting her lower back. And someone’s solid chest pressed against her own…

Oh, goodness.

Giselle finally came to her senses and opened her eyes to look at the man who had caught her.

Her wide-eyed gaze was reflected in Lucas’s deep navy eyes.

She should push him away, no, she should thank him first and then straighten up, but before all that, her heart started racing madly.

She couldn’t distinguish whether it was the sound of her heart beating or his.

‘It must be the sound of my heart beating.’

Yet somehow, Lucas’s intense gaze seemed to ripple in sync with that heartbeat.

“Um, Lucas?”

Giselle managed to calm herself and called his name. Lucas looked at her and then lowered his gaze slightly.

She could tell that his gaze had moved to her lips.

Lips.

Suddenly, she became aware of the fact that she had lips in the space below her nose and above her chin. It was a foolish thought, but under his gaze, it felt as if her lips had just materialized there.

Perhaps that’s why.

These lips that had never even been kissed were now burning and parting on their own.

Just from his gaze, her body felt like it wasn’t her own, heating up.

She had never kissed anyone, let alone been in a relationship. No, forget relationships, she had never even been this close to someone of the opposite s*x.

For Giselle, the man before her was too much of a stimulus. In a way, it even felt dangerous.

‘How am I going to live with this man? My heart is already beating so wildly. What if I develop a heart condition?’

In that moment of overstimulation, Giselle’s mind went blank, and she had such an absurd thought.

Lucas narrowed his eyes, then chuckled and spoke.

“I thought you were frozen stiff with tension, but you’re thinking about other things.”

“What? No, that’s not…”

As Giselle flustered tried to explain, Lucas’s lips touched hers and then parted.

Lightly, as if expressing affection.

“……!”

But Giselle’s green eyes, having received that light kiss, trembled, widening as much as they could.

It was the lips of another person, something she had never even imagined. Though it was a momentary contact, she instantly turned bright red and didn’t know what to do.

“Um, Lucas…”

As Giselle fumbled with her words and tried to speak again, Lucas swallowed the words she couldn’t utter.

He firmly supported the back of her head with his hand to prevent her from escaping and kissed her.

A little deeper than before.

As if he wouldn’t allow even her exhaled breath to escape.

* * *

Lucas swallowed even her faintly trembling breath. Giselle reflexively grabbed his arms and shivered.

The trembling movement, like a small herbivore captured by a predator and unable to escape, was transmitted directly through the arm holding her.

It gave him a strange sense of satisfaction. Lucas recalled the day he had almost kissed Giselle before.

The day they went to see the portrait of his predecessor.

And the day they accidentally hid in the bathroom together.

Perhaps because the memories and sensations of those days overlapped simultaneously, the area below his abdomen instantly tightened and became taut.

“Um, Lucas…”

Giselle tried to call him again in the brief moment their lips parted, but Lucas instead explored her lips and led her to the bed, almost pushing her.

“Ah!”

Giselle stopped as the back of her legs touched the bed while stepping backward. Lucas separated his lips from hers and quietly looked at that small face.

Her reddened eyes and flushed appearance somehow resembled a small wild strawberry.

One he wanted to swallow in one gulp.

But one he had to handle carefully, lest he bruise it by gripping too hard.

He gently pressed down on Giselle’s shoulders as she looked at him with bewildered eyes. She sat on the bed in surprise, then startled herself and tried to spring up like a coiled spring, fluttering.

“Wait, just a moment…!”

But Lucas didn’t allow it. No, he didn’t even give her the chance. He quickly trapped Giselle under his body and put his weight on the bed.

Thud.

Giselle’s pink hair spread brightly on the white sheets as she was pushed onto the bed by him.

Lucas raised the corner of his mouth at the sight. But he couldn’t smile as he wished.

The white body visible through the disheveled robe no longer allowed him to be leisurely relaxed.

“Um, Lucas… Ah!”

Perhaps feeling awkward, Giselle squirmed and tried to get up again. But he didn’t allow it. Instead, he pressed down on one of her shoulders and overlapped his lips with hers.

“……!”

A faint trembling was transmitted along with the hastily inhaled breath through their touching lips. Lucas carefully extended his tongue as if to soothe Giselle, licking her lips.

“Mmph, wa- wait…”

Giselle, startled by the unfamiliar sensation, unknowingly opened her mouth. She was just trying to say something out of surprise.

But Lucas didn’t miss the opportunity. His tongue delved between her parted lips without a hint of hesitation.

A kiss, or rather, kissing.