Deceived, Yet Drawn to You - Chapter 30

A thin moan slipped out from the woman pressed tightly against him. Edmund held her slender body firmly in his arms and kissed her with desperate hunger. Blair, who had been struggling to accept the storm of contact, suddenly grabbed his wrist. Like a bolt of lightning, realization struck Edmund.

If he crossed the line here, the boundary he’d written even into the contract would collapse as well. The excuse of an agreement, the justification that he only wanted to test her resolve, would all blur away.

Was there anything more foolish than ruining a plan for the sake of a momentary thirst? Control could only be maintained by keeping a certain distance.

Having reached that conclusion, Edmund slowly pulled his lips away. With his forehead still touching hers, he took a moment to steady his breath, then brushed a light kiss against her softly swollen lips and finally leaned his upper body back. The woman, flushed red, looked up at him with eyes shimmering with moisture. Unaware of his ignoble thoughts, she seemed overwhelmed by even this much.

“This is enough.”

Blair, who had drawn her shoulders in, blinked her eyes. Between her glossy lips, slick with saliva of unknown origin, damp breaths kept spilling out.

“I think I’ve confirmed your resolve sufficiently.”

Now that he looked, the state of her was a mess. The hair his hands had raked through stuck out in all directions, and her once neat, deep green dress was badly wrinkled from being held so tightly, with even one of the buttons at her chest undone. Watching the improper sight, Edmund let out a shallow laugh. Then he gestured with his eyes toward the loosened button.

“Get yourself properly dressed. There’s still something we need to discuss.”

Startled, Blair lowered her head and fastened her clothes, her face burning red. Edmund turned away, pretending not to see her unsettled complexion and trembling fingertips, and drained the glass of liquor he’d left on the cabinet. Unlike her, he looked almost unchanged, aside from his slightly disheveled black hair.

“…What is it you wanted to say?”

“Even though we signed the contract, it seems there’s still one barrier we need to overcome.”

Setting the glass down with a soft clink, Edmund continued, “Your father.”

Blair’s hands, which had been fastening the buttons of her dress, froze in place. The heat that had been wrapping her just moments ago hadn’t even faded, yet her expression stiffened as if cold water had been poured over her head.

“How do you think he’ll take it, you breaking off your engagement with Isaac Dorman and marrying me right away?”

“My father…”

“Do you think you can persuade him, Lady Twyford?”

Trailing off, Blair couldn’t answer right away. Though he’d always condemned her runaway mother and claimed to value the family’s honor above all else, what mattered most to the Count of Twyford was money.

So even if the engagement with the Dorman family were broken, if the financial issues arising from it were resolved, he wouldn’t stop Blair from switching men and marrying another. The other party might be illegitimate, but he was still the heir to the Libert family.

And persuasion? In truth, their father-daughter relationship had never been especially affectionate, but the Count of Twyford had betrayed Blair. Knowing full well the filthy defect of a man like Isaac Dorman, he’d still tried to sell off his only daughter. Rather than persuading her father about marrying Edmund, she should have been informing him.

‘But….’

Having lived her entire life under his shadow, Blair was seized by instinctive fear. How would her father react to a daughter who stepped out of his control? Would he try to punish her so she could never defy him again? Thinking about such things only after everything was already set in motion made her bite down on her lip, feeling foolish.

“You’re not confident.”

Edmund nodded lightly, as if he’d expected that response.

“That’s fine. I never intended to rely on your efforts to bring the contract to fruition in the first place.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t be able to persuade my father?”

“It would be more accurate to say that I don’t wish to waste time on an unnecessary war of attrition. I want the contract we’ve concluded to proceed without uncertainty.”

Edmund, who had been standing three or four steps away, walked over at an unhurried pace. He lifted his hand and slowly smoothed down Blair’s hair, which she hadn’t yet fully tidied. At the same time, he continued explaining in a dry voice.

“Moving the Count of Twyford won’t be accomplished with a few words. It’ll take calculation. Even if you were to persuade him, there’s a significant chance he’d still contact the Dorman family and weigh me against them. I want there to be only one option left for the Count. Me.”

“….”

“Do you know what’s faster than calculation?”

Each time the man’s cool fingers brushed her skin, goosebumps rose. His face was dry and restrained, nothing like the man who had rushed at her in heated desire just moments ago. What could make someone change their expression so completely in the blink of an eye? Or perhaps he had never wavered to begin with.

“Rumors.”

“Rumors….”

“If rumors spread that we’re entangled in something dirty, no matter how much we deny it, it’ll be hard to undo. If we meet in public places and drop hints that there’s something between us, the rest will take care of itself. The Dorman family will pull out before their reputation collapses, and Count Twyford will calculate his gains and side with me.”

Blair let out a scoffing laugh, almost a sigh. “So that’s why you wanted to see my resolve.”

Perhaps his mention of headwinds at the auction had been along the same lines. A warning of what Blair would face going forward. She’d vaguely expected rumors of infidelity with Edmund while engaged to Isaac, but this man had planned to stoke the flames himself.

“Yes. You lived up to my expectations quite well.”

Edmund, having dressed Blair neatly back into her original appearance, curved a smile on his proper face.

“From here on, we’ll have to play the part of a married couple. You’ll break off your engagement with Dorman and hold a wedding with me immediately, so you’ll have to shoulder some unpleasant misunderstandings. I wanted to know whether you could cling to me and act intimately in front of people eager to tear you apart.”

Faced with his even, matter-of-fact tone, Blair lowered her eyes. This man wasn’t asking about her resolve. He was checking whether she fit neatly into the script he’d already written.

Until now, she’d thought that despite his cold exterior, he was someone with warmth. He was a man who occasionally showed a playful side. Now she couldn’t be sure of anything about Edmund, and the uncertainty left her confused.

She couldn’t tell whether the expressions and words she’d seen so far were genuine, or merely one of many masks he put on when needed, or whether he was deliberately showing only his cold, calculating side because this was a contract.

Even so, Blair had no choice but to follow Edmund. There was no other path she wanted to take. Just as he intended.

“So… when do you plan to start spreading the rumors?”

“There’s a suitable stage prepared for this coming weekend evening. To celebrate the successful opening of the Augier exhibition, I plan to hold a party at the gallery. Isaac included, all the socialites who love such spectacles will gather in one place, so the rumors will spread overnight.”

“So all I have to do there is kiss you thoroughly, like today?”

“It’s better to leave room for imagination than to be explicit. That way, the onlookers will chew on it longer and add more flesh to the rumors.”

Even at Blair’s naturally sharpened tone, Edmund remained unbothered.

“Lady Twyford, you only need to keep pace with my steps.”

He wasn’t wrong. The more a rumor was rolled like a snowball, the more force it gained. Even so, her reaction grew sharp despite herself.

“That won’t be difficult. I can just imitate the way my fiancé and Nicoletta Underhill were flirting in secret at the banquet.”

Blair picked up the silk gloves and hat she’d set down on the table.

“I’ve heard enough about how to persuade my father.”

“Lady Twyford.”

As Blair turned to leave the sitting room, he caught her by the wrist.

“This is also a way of showing society that you chose me.”

“….”

“And don’t forget the final clause of the contract we signed.”