Chapter 47
“Um… why are you locking the door?”
“It’d be troublesome if a rat tried to interrupt the wedding night.”
“Who would dare enter the sacred bridal chamber of a couple on their wedding night?”
“I can’t argue with that.”
Letting out a hollow laugh, Edmund took off his coat and laid it over a chair. When he loosened and pulled off the tie constricting his neck, the woman watching him flinched.
It was only natural to be tense. Spending a night alone in a tightly locked bedroom with a man she didn’t fully trust, how could she not be nervous?
“I haven’t washed yet. It’s all right if I use the bathroom, isn’t it?”
“…Of course. It’s your bathroom.”
Edmund passed by the woman and headed into the bathroom. He wanted to wash away the tangled thoughts filling his head along with the water.
***
When he came out of the bathroom wearing only a robe, Blair was sitting demurely on the edge of the bed. She, too, was wrapped in a pure white robe. Unsure what to do, Edmund studied her face for a moment. She looked particularly young. Then he lit the sleeping candles and turned off each of the room’s lights one by one. In the silence, with only a soft glow flickering, only the two of them remained.
Even then, Edmund was still lost in thought.
To prove that their wedding night as husband and wife had been consummated, he needed Blair’s cooperation. But would she accept it? He wasn’t optimistic. The proof to be delivered to the priest and attendants waiting outside the door was sound. The bride’s moans, noises that suggested a couple’s union. Could a woman with no experience really cooperate proactively and act out such sounds? The answer was no.
“Edmund.”
Edmund, who was pouring wine into a glass after taking a bottle from the cabinet, lifted his head. Blair, who’d been sitting on the bed, had come close enough that she could reach out and touch him. A fragrant soap scent drifted from her. It was the same scent he used.
“I called your name three times. Didn’t you hear me?”
“….”
“Did something happen?”
She wasn’t completely oblivious. Anyone with sense would notice. Edmund took a sip of wine and quietly looked down at Blair.
“Nothing happened.”
“Did you meet the duchess?”
“Why do you think that?”
“…Well.”
As if choosing her words, Blair’s lips moved slightly. She lowered her eyes, took a deep breath, then met his gaze as she closed the distance between them. Standing face to face, their pupils wavered darkly.
“You know… I’m sorry. I said trust was important, but I wasn’t honest myself.”
“….”
“The truth is, during the reception, when the duchess called you away and you left, I got curious and followed you. The day before as well, she’d summoned me and said various things. It wasn’t anything major. She just seemed to be subtly probing about you. That bothered me, and I let my curiosity get the better of me.”
After hesitating, Blair bit her lip once and added, “And about saying I fell earlier… that was a lie too.”
“I knew.”
“…You did?”
“I noticed both the lie about falling and the fact that you followed me and overheard my conversation with my mother. So you don’t need to apologize.”
Edmund replied calmly and took a few more swallows of wine. Blair, standing beside him, watched the movement of his throat as it bobbed. The moment he set the glass down with a soft clink, she asked as if she’d been waiting for it.
“So are you all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a difference between you noticing things on your own and me being honest with you.”
“The result is the same. I learned the truth either way.”
“No. It’s very different. The former could be deception, but the latter means I didn’t want to deceive you.”
Feelings. Why did something so trivial keep weighing on him so heavily? The feelings he knew were nothing more than cheap façades, illusions that always returned as betrayal.
Was the feeling the woman before him was offering any different from that?
“You’re a strange person, Miss Blair.”
“Strange?”
“Aren’t you putting far too much effort into something pointless?”
“I don’t think it’s pointless. And it’s the only thing I know how to do.”
Edmund drained the rest of the wine in his glass and lowered his eyes. A low breath slipped out along with deep fatigue. He’d gone through many things today, starting with the wedding itself, but his exhaustion wasn’t only because of that.
“Even if we’re only a couple in name, I hope we can at least become people who trust each other. Just having someone by your side that you can open your heart to can be a great source of strength.”
“….”
“Edmund, are you really all right?”
Blair asked quietly as she watched his profile. She carefully clasped the hand holding the wineglass, as if soothing a wounded animal.
“Is there anything I can… do for you?”
Their gazes met again in the darkness. It wasn’t simple curiosity, nor a question asked out of courtesy. There was sincerity in the woman’s eyes. A feeling that carried deep warmth slowly seeped into his chest. Edmund knew that this was the moment.
“Something you can do for me.”
In a low voice, he repeated her words.
“There is one thing.”
“….”
“Can you do it?”
She didn’t answer right away. She only looked back and forth between his eyes, which reflected the lamplight. After a brief silence, Blair slowly lifted her hand. He felt her small warmth cup his cheek. He could’ve grabbed her wrist and stopped her, but he didn’t. He didn’t want the warmth touching him to disappear.
Maintaining their gaze, Blair rose onto her toes. She gently pressed her lips to his.
It wasn’t a kiss that bit his lower lip or slipped a tongue inside. It was clumsy to the extreme, leaving only a faint trace of her saliva. Yet that single, unskilled contact shattered the thin, fragile barrier of reason. All that remained was a violently surging instinct, or perhaps the most intimate sincerity he possessed.
Edmund reached out and gripped the back of Blair’s neck. He tangled his fingers in her soft hair and pulled her waist close with his other hand. In an instant, the kiss deepened, her lips parting. He pushed his tongue inside, mixing their breaths. From where their chests pressed together, their pounding heartbeats thundered loudly.
Heat gradually built in their saliva-tangled breaths. Afraid the woman caught in confusion might flee, Edmund brushed his thumb along the fine hairs rising at her neck, soothing her with the softness of his mouth as he gently bit her lips and gave her room to breathe. Once she began to grow accustomed, he twisted his jaw and pressed in deeper, sucking at her wet tongue.
Lowering his hands, Edmund slowly tugged at the belt of the robe wrapped around her waist. She didn’t resist. She didn’t push his hand away or even shake her head in refusal. The robe slipped off her like shed skin and fell to the floor. Blair was left wearing only a low-cut chemise.
As he pushed his tongue insistently between their lips, his hand slid down and slipped inside her chemise. He caressed her soft, full buttocks that filled his palm, then followed the curve upward. Pulling his lips away, he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck and firmly grasped her generously swollen breasts. The flesh warm with body heat was unbelievably full and soft.
“Ah….”
Her languid sigh carried unmistakable arousal. When he squeezed the soft breast and pinched the swollen nipple, a fairly loud moan poured out. Restraining the urge to bury his face there immediately, Edmund bit once at the area near her collarbone, then held her firmly as she staggered backward so she wouldn’t fall, guiding her toward the bed.
Thud. He sat down at the edge of the bed and pulled up the hem of Blair’s sheer chemise. Between her snow-white legs, her bare skin was exposed, unadorned by undergarments. She whispered belatedly, her face lost in confusion.
“Edmund….”
He paused for a moment and met Blair’s eyes. Slowly, he bent down, rested his forehead against hers, and bit his lip.
“I have no intention of hurting you.”
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