A Butterfly Through the Mist - Chapter 142
A strange light swirled in his bluish-gray eyes. Ilex stared blankly at Tilia’s wet white cheek, hearing a small whisper.
‘Say it, Ilex Davenport.’
The voice didn’t come from outside. It echoed from within, from deep inside his ribs.
‘Say she’s right. That it was because of you, because of the threats, that you had no choice but to kill.’
It was the voice of the demon Ilex always kept hidden from Tilia. Now that it had caught its chance, his true nature whispered gleefully.
‘It’s not entirely a lie anyway. Just close your eyes and say it is.’
The hypothetical offered by the demon with black horns and red eyes was tempting.
If you just nod once, Tilia will feel guilty. She’ll be consumed by pity and torment. And then, of course, she’ll fall right into your hands.
For the price of closing your eyes and murmuring one lie, you’ll get what you’ve always wanted.
Tilia, standing beside me. Tilia, too full of pity to ever think of leaving me.
Just the thought of it made his lower back ache. Imagining her trapped, unable to escape him, made his mouth water like he’d just tasted something sweet.
Yes. Do it. Ilex, feeling a thrill like one who had found hope in the depths of despair, wet his lips.
Say it. Pretend to be calm, but wear a sorrowful expression. Try to seem unaffected, but show pain.
“…No, Tilia.”
But the words Ilex finally spoke, after all that planning and resolve, were:
“That’s not it.”
The complete opposite of what he had intended to say.
What are you doing? The demon inside his ribs screamed and thrashed. His heart, having spoken the truth, throbbed and spilled hot blood.
“It wasn’t… because of you.”
Yet again, Ilex said something that would infuriate and devastate him.
Tilia stood before him, her spring-colored eyes wide with surprise. Seeing his own pathetic reflection in those eyes, Ilex finally understood why he had uttered such useless words.
So that’s it.
Resignation spilled bitterness under his tongue.
I can’t act on my true nature when it comes to this woman.
It felt like a giant was standing on his shoulders. Ilex, struck by a truth he had known but briefly forgotten, lowered his eyelids in futility and disgrace.
He could be a villain to the rest of the world. He could use anyone else for his gain.
But not with Tilia. He couldn’t be that way with her. He had to be the good man she hoped for.
Because Ilex—
“It’s just that I’m…”
Because, helplessly, he loved her.
“…a bastard.”
Muttering as one defeated by himself, Ilex lowered his gaze to the floor, his shoulders slumped.
In his hollow eyes, he saw Tilia’s bare feet. He thought the small feet hidden in her slippers were cute, and with the mindset of someone awaiting punishment, he waited for her response.
The silence stretched on. While the hidden thorns in that stillness gradually pierced him from all sides—
“The scars on your body…”
Tilia pulled him out of the water just before he drowned in anxiety.
“Where did you get them?”
At the sudden touch, Ilex, like a man gasping for air, flinched and looked at her face.
She had stepped closer and was holding his arm. More precisely, the left arm exposed by a pushed-up robe, revealing a scar.
“You’ve never answered that before.”
Focused only on reading her expression, Ilex now realized why she had asked the question.
Hope, thought long gone, rose like a morning sun. The speculations that had stirred his heart all the way here, muttered to himself in the bathroom, rushed back to shake him.
“This was…”
So, my brother, my father, my mother…
He wasn’t sure if Tilia understood his rambling. He worried it might seem overly dramatic or too explicit.
But Ilex couldn’t stop the words spilling from his lips. Like someone dangling from a cliff who finally saw a rescue rope, he couldn’t let go of this thread of hope.
The words that poured out were different, but their meaning was always the same.
Please, pity me. There’s not a single lie in this—it’s all the truth. There are a few parts where the memories are vague, but everything I said really happened.
Unable to hide that inner plea, Ilex tried to persuade Tilia.
So don’t leave me. Stay by my side. Even if it’s out of pity, even if it’s because you think I’m pitiful, please, stay with me…
As he spoke with desperate madness, he finally regained his senses when he felt her hand on his cheek.
He hadn’t been able to meet her eyes and was staring somewhere near her collarbone, but now his face was lifted, and in his clouded eyes, Tilia’s face came into view.
Tilia, whose beautiful green eyes were spilling endless, clear tears.
Ah. As she held him tightly, Ilex murmured silently to himself.
This is enough.
A sense of fulfillment he had never experienced before filled his chest. A blissful smile spread across his lips.
Only when he tasted salt at the corner of his mouth did he realize that, like her, he was also crying.
“Tilia.”
Hoping their bodies would melt into one, Ilex kept calling her name.
“Tilia, Tilia…”
“You did well.”
Her voice, cold and composed despite the warmth of her body, made Ilex laugh aloud.
“Really, you did well. You did the right thing.”
As if worried he might think she was joking, Tilia repeated her words several times for emphasis.
Yes. Nodding to those words, Ilex rubbed his head against her shoulder like a small animal.
Thank goodness. Feeling her delicate bones and soft flesh, Ilex felt genuine relief.
That he had destroyed all the documents about Cecilia Clayton beforehand. That Tilia couldn’t piece together that woman’s final moments.
That in the end, she had no choice but to take his side.
Thank goodness, Tilia. Now I won’t need to imprison you.
Praising his past choices with all sincerity, Ilex burrowed deeper into her embrace.
It was at that moment, when he had buried his face in the nape of her neck to take in more of her scent, that her white hand touched his cheek again.
Guided by that warm, soft hand, Ilex lifted his head—and felt something even softer and more tender than her touch brush his lips and cheek.
A small tongue cautiously parted his lips, sending a literal shiver down his spine. But instead of giving in to his urge to pin her to the floor, he stayed still.
He just wanted to savor this warm kiss a bit longer. To enjoy this rare pleasure that Tilia was giving him.
Holding back his lust had been the right choice. As he accepted the kiss gently, like a meek lamb, Tilia seemed emboldened, and her tongue grew more daring.
Her tongue, soft like her skin, explored his firm mouth. Tentatively entering, then boldly brushing along the roof of his mouth and the base of his tongue.
Aside from the difference in strength, it was exactly what he always did to her. Her movements mirrored what he had taught her, and Ilex finally couldn’t contain a rough breath.
Haa. As he gripped the back of her neck, a moan slipped between their joined lips. And with unhesitating hunger, Ilex devoured her invading tongue.
The teasing kiss ended the moment his patience ran dry. Rubbing her small tongue with the textured surface of his, he pressed their bodies closer together.
“Mmh…”
Seemingly breathless, Tilia gave a faint shake of her head and turned it slightly. Ilex followed the motion and stole her breath again, this time plunging his tongue into her.
Just as she had done earlier, he scraped the roof of her mouth and wrapped around her tongue. The heavy panting that followed, transmitted directly through their joined lips, deepened.
That was how he instantly realized—she was more aroused than usual. That she intensely craved what came next.
Ilex quickly shrugged off his robe.
Since it had been the only thing he was wearing, his bare body was revealed in an instant under the dim lamplight.
Tilia, now receiving a cascade of kisses down her nape, glanced down at his body. After a moment’s hesitation, her hand touched his firm back.
Ah. The place her soft hand was caressing—there was a scar there he hadn’t even remembered until she mentioned it.
Wishing he had more, larger scars across his body, Ilex slipped his hand inside her chemise.
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vasser
Bueno los dos tuvieron una infancia de es esperable que se entiendan, ella inclusive no sintió nada por el estado de su padre y hermano,ellos no la veían como persona, lo mismo era para ilix el era solo un reemplazo en caso de que el hijo mayor muriera y nada más jamás recibieron amor filial