Blair bit her lip to suppress the moan that was reflexively escaping.
In truth, she was not in the mood to be held by him right now. Wasn't he the very person who might have killed her?
However, the letter on the table weighed on her mind, making it difficult to refuse him. She felt that if she didn't give him her body, he would take an interest in the letter again.
Blair surrendered herself to Herdin's hands and stared blankly at the sunset streaming onto the balcony.
At that moment, Herdin turned Blair around to face him. He kissed her immediately and asked,
"What are you thinking about?"
His deep, unfathomable eyes, now so close, seemed to scrutinize every inch of her mind.
After a moment of hesitation, Blair opened her mouth.
"I mean Lord Caligo."
As Caligo's name came from her lips, Herdin's gaze turned cold.
He was displeased that another man's name was coming from the very lips that had just touched his—and of all times, at this very moment.
However, Blair seemed oblivious to his expression and asked,
"Is he one of the subordinates you trust?"
"Because he is a fellow we rolled on the boundary between life and death together."
Herdin replied half-heartedly and swallowed her lips again. Perhaps realizing only then that he did not want to talk anymore, she quietly gave herself to him.
Even though he had obtained what he desired, he did not like the woman's submission. That attitude—completely devoid of emotion, like breastfeeding a crying child.
However, the problem was that he was a damned beast, and he had no desire to refuse.
Herdin lifted Blair's pure white body and headed toward the bed.
Blair's clothes fell layer by layer where the two had passed.
After laying Blair down on the bed, Herdin immediately embraced her. Unlike usual, he had no time to wait today.
"Ah…"
Blair was still somewhat stiff, as she had not fully relaxed.
Her slender arms wrapped around Herdin's back. Even as she gasped for breath, finding him overwhelming, Blair responded to him, albeit awkwardly.
Her gestures and those eyes, which held only him in their gaze, were beautiful.
Herdin pressed his lips against hers as if to share his breath with her, mingling their breaths.
In the end, however, he ended up stealing hers instead.
Before long, the room was filled with the evening glow and the sound of their breathing. It was the grandfather clock that shattered the tranquil scene.
Ding—ding—
the clock chimed to signal 5 PM.
Blair, who had been held in his arms in a dazed state, snapped back to reality and pushed him away from her chest.
But Herdin did not stop. He had no reason left to do so.
Blair squirmed and desperately continued speaking.
"Medicine… it's time to take my medicine."
"…Medicine? Ah."
Blair took birth control pills at this time every day.
Since she was often tormented by him until dawn and still half-asleep by morning, she felt like she might forget by then; during the day, she was too busy with her own routine.
At night, however, the nighttime hours were problematic because once she started having sex with him, she was never in her right mind until dawn.
That was why she had decided to take the medicine at this awkward time.
"If I don't take it now, I might forget..."
Blair reached for the bedside table. A bottle of medicine lay there, set out.
Seeing this, Herdin's gaze turned cold. He did not like that desperate gesture of her hand trying to grab the bottle by any means necessary.
Was the only thing on this woman's mind truly successfully completing this contract marriage? Did she not consider any other possibilities at all?
While doing this with me right now, does she have the luxury to think about such things? After driving you crazy like this.
The fact that there was room for any other thoughts to squeeze into this woman's head besides himself was incredibly irritating.
"It seems you have the luxury to think about other things."
The moment Blair's hand touched the vial, Herdin's body moved.
"Ah!"
The impact sent Blair shaking, causing the vial to fall to the floor.
Herdin forcibly turned Blair's gaze, which had been fixed on the bedside table, toward him and whispered,
"You don't have to take it for a day or so."
"Ah, no."
Blair's face turned pale. Seeing that look, a surge of sadism welled up inside him, along with a rising sense of irritation.
He covered her lips with his own to prevent her from resisting any further. It wasn't even a time to stop in the first place.
Blair swallowed a sound as if resisting him. But Herdin wasn't the type to just sit back and watch.
He growled in a rough voice that sounded as if it were scraping his throat.
"Make a sound."
Unable to bear his increasingly persistent behavior any longer, Blair finally let out a breath. It was a fight with no chance of winning from the start.
Herdin pulled Blair closer into his embrace.
The woman was warm and soft. She smelled fragrant when held and tasted sweet when bitten. As he buried himself in her bosom, which felt like an inescapable swamp, everything became distant.
However, alongside that sense of fulfillment, he felt a growing anxiety that she might vanish even while he held her, like a grain of sand clutched in his hand.
That is why he tormented Blair even more relentlessly. Because the more she burst into tears and reacted to him, the more vividly he realized she was in his arms.
Eventually, the breath they had been holding burst forth.
Herdin suppressed his own heat and endured until Blair's turbulent body calmed down, then slowly withdrew.
As her labored breathing gradually subsided, focus returned to Blair's hazy eyes. Resentment toward him was revealed in those watery eyes.
Blair pushed away his chest as he tried to embrace her again. Although he shouldn't have been pushed away by such a mere force, Herdin surprisingly stepped back obediently.
Blair rose to pick up the medicine bottle that had fallen onto the carpet under the bed. At that moment, her legs gave way, and she collapsed back down.
However, as if it didn't matter, Blair took the medicine out of the bottle and swallowed it. In her haste, she managed to swallow the pills, which she usually couldn't swallow without water.
Only then did a sigh of relief escape her. She
must not conceive a child at this time, because there was a high probability that the child would not be Asiel.
'Asiel… …'
Asiel was her driving force.
If she could not meet that lovely child again, the second life she had gained like a miracle would hold no meaning for her.
The thought that she had almost lost such a child because of him made her blood run cold.
Herdin, who had been quietly watching her as she slumped on the carpet, unable to even get up again, picked Blair up.
Blair did not push his hand away, but the resentment she could not hide was clearly visible in her eyes.
Herdin opened his mouth with a sigh.
"If, by any chance, we get pregnant, I will take responsibility—"
"...No, that will never happen."
Blair's voice trembled subtly as she cut him off.
However, after composing herself, the words that followed were resolute, without a single wavering.
"We are going to divorce. As per the contract."
***
After finishing his bath, Herdin entered the bedroom with the simple breakfast handed to him by the maid.
Blair was lying with her back to him. Her
already small frame looked even tinier, buried under the blankets. She seemed to be pretending to be asleep, but Herdin was not someone who could fail to distinguish even that.
Herdin gazed at her with cold, subdued eyes.
She had been in this state the entire time since last night.
She obediently gave her body as he held her, but that was all. Blair did not resist, but Herdin noticed.
He realized she was simply silently enduring the night for it to end. She was acting this way because she knew that this was the maximum resistance she could offer.
Herdin placed the tray down on the bedside table and lifted Blair up. However, Blair quietly slipped away from his embrace.
"...I'll eat later."
"Why?"
"I don't feel well. I want to rest."
At the sight of Blair not even looking him in the eye, Herdin's mouth twisted.
Now even a hunger strike.
Herdin placed the tray down in front of Blair. Seeing this, Blair's delicate brow furrowed.
"You don't want to eat now—"
At that moment, Herdin cupped Blair's cheek and pressed his lips against hers. Sweet juice flowed between their intertwined lips. It was the strawberry that had been on top of the pancake.
Startled by the sudden kiss, Blair involuntarily swallowed the strawberry that had slipped into her mouth. Only then did Herdin's lips pull away.
Herdin wiped the strawberry juice from Blair's lips with his thumb and looked at her.
Blair's eyes, which had widened in surprise, were now contorted as if she were about to cry, filled with resentment.
But the fact that even that looked beautiful must be because this woman was born with a damn pretty face.
Herdin placed a fork in Blair's hand.
"Eat. Before I feed you everything."
Although his tone was polite, Blair knew it was closer to a threat. She also knew that
his use of "feeding" referred to the action he had just performed, rather than the usual meaning.
Blair looked back and forth between the food in front of her and him, then put down the fork.
A suffocating silence fell between the two.
Blair looked him straight in the eye and spoke.
"...I don't want to."
"...."
"I really, really hate you..."
The suppressed emotions poured out in their entirety.
Her eyes, which looked as if they were about to cry, ultimately did not shed a tear. However, Blair's hand, clutching the blanket instead of a fork, was trembling uncontrollably.
Herdin stared at the sight with his piercingly blue eyes, then turned and left the room.