Reasons for Contract Marriage - Chapter 161

The narrow space was filled entirely with heat and ragged breathing.

Brianna, entrusting her body to Lucius, blinked slowly. Perhaps because it had been so long since their last intercourse, her entire body was limp to the point she couldn’t lift even a finger. Her mind was completely dazed. She didn’t have the time to think about where she was or what had just happened. All she could feel right now was the pounding heartbeat of the man and the warm body heat enveloping her.

She only began to come to her senses when Lucius slowly withdrew his body from hers.

At that moment, the thick semen that had filled her inside trickled down her thighs.

Only then did Brianna realize what she had just done, grasping the reality of it.

Brianna hurriedly sat up. She tried to pull away from him and move to the opposite seat, but before she could, Lucius grabbed her and quietly opened his mouth.

“Stay still. I’ll clean it.”

“Let me go!”

Brianna shook off his hand and glared at him fiercely.

“What do you think you’re doing? How could you do something so shameful in a place like this…”

“You enjoyed it too.”

At that moment, he shot back.

“W-what did you say?”

“Or are you trying to say I forced myself on you?”

Brianna stared at him, mouth agape. She wanted to say something in response, but the words stuck, and nothing came out.

“You thoroughly enjoyed it, and now you’re playing the modest lady? Pretending it never happened won’t erase what just occurred, Duchess.”

As Brianna froze at his sneering tone, Lucius pulled a handkerchief from his coat and wiped between her legs. Then he cleaned the insides of her thighs and dressed her in her undergarments.

After straightening his own clothes, he gently lifted Brianna and seated her beside him. He ran his fingers through her tousled hair and smoothed the creases of her wrinkled skirt with his hands. Brianna gazed at him blankly. She couldn’t believe that the man she was seeing right now was truly Lucius.

“You… just what on earth…”

Before she could finish speaking, the carriage noticeably slowed. Soon, it came to a halt, and someone knocked on the door from outside.

Brianna, startled like someone caught committing a crime, clung tightly to Lucius’s side. She grabbed his arm and hid behind him. Even if he had taken care to clean up, there were limits to what could be done in a place like this. The moment the door opened, anyone would know what had taken place inside. Just thinking about it made her face flush so red she couldn’t lift her head.

At that moment, a faint whooshing sound came from above. Lucius chuckled as if he couldn’t believe the situation. He stroked Brianna’s head a few times and then called toward the door.

“Speak from there. What is it?”

A moment later, a man’s voice answered, “There’s an inn nearby. Traveling through the night would be difficult in many ways, so why not rest there for tonight and resume the journey tomorrow morning?”

Lucius considered it briefly, glanced at Brianna, and then answered, “Let’s do that.”

The inn room was quite shabby for someone of Lucius’s rank to stay in. Still, it was much better than the inn they had once stayed at together. Unlike that place, which had nothing but a bed, this one had a separate bathroom and was considerably larger.

After entering the room, Brianna stood awkwardly and watched him carefully. Back when she had stayed with him at the inn before, she hadn’t been wary of him at all. Even though she had only been in thin undergarments, she had felt at ease and allowed him to approach the bed. That was even before their marriage.

But now it was different. At this moment, the most dangerous person to her was Lucius.

When Lucius began loosening the tie around his neck, Brianna quickly ran to the farthest corner of the room and pressed her back against the wall. She assumed, recalling what had happened just moments ago in the carriage, that he would come at her again immediately.

However, unlike the heavily guarded Brianna, Lucius calmly went about his business as if he had no ulterior motives. He took off his jacket and vest, neatly folded them, and placed them on the bedside table. Then, after unbuttoning just a few buttons of his shirt, he lay down on the bed. He covered his eyes with one arm and didn’t move at all. Brianna stared at him in disbelief, stunned.

Is he really planning to sleep just like that? Without doing anything more?

As if reading her mind, Lucius said, “Stop acting so prim and come here.”

Just as Brianna was about to snap at him, he let out a soft sigh. “I’ve been awake for forty-eight hours trying to find you. I don’t even have the strength to hold you right now, so come to bed and get some sleep.”

“I…”

She wanted to ask how someone too weak to hold her now had managed to do all that in the carriage, but she swallowed the words, knowing he would just ask if she hadn’t enjoyed it too.

Humiliatingly, what he said was true. He hadn’t forced her. Overwhelmed by the long-missed pleasure, she had lost her senses and clung to him even more.

While Brianna, her face flushed, was brooding over her defeat, Lucius began breathing evenly.

Did he really fall asleep? So quickly? He chased after me so fiercely, staying awake for two nights just to catch me, and now that he’s found me, he just leaves me be like this?

She couldn’t believe it. Brianna cautiously walked over to the bed. She waved her hand gently over his face, but his firmly shut eyelids didn’t twitch at all.

Come to think of it, Lucius was still dressed in formal wear. It was clearly not travel attire. He must have come straight here from an official event. His claim of not having slept in two days seemed to be true.

Then maybe, even if I ran now, he wouldn’t notice…

The thought crossed Brianna’s mind briefly, but she gave it up right away. Even if she somehow escaped the room, his subordinates were likely guarding the inn, making the chances of successful escape slim. If she was caught while acting rashly, it might only worsen things.

More importantly, with things having come to this, it was better to face Lucius and try to resolve things rather than run away.

Brianna let out a sigh of resignation. Then, for the first time since their reunion, she looked closely at Lucius’s face.

Dark circles under his eyes showed how tired he was. Even his usually clean-shaven chin was covered with stubble. Brianna, moved by sympathy, unconsciously reached out, but she pulled her hand back just before her fingertips touched his face.

Keeping a deliberate distance, she stared at his face and suddenly had this thought.

Maybe the way he looked today was his true nature. The sides he had shown her until now might have been just a fraction of who he was.

Just as she hadn’t shown him all of herself.

Their six-month marriage had been long if long, short if short. She had thought it was enough time to understand each other, but maybe all this time, both of them had only shown the polished versions of themselves. In fact, the way he looked now was more similar to the man in Florian’s letters.

Come to think of it, whenever she read those letters, she would often imagine what kind of person he might be. When there were no updates about him in the letters, she found herself worrying about his wellbeing…

Maybe I had already started to be drawn to him back then.

Brianna pulled the blanket up to cover his body. Then, she turned to the other side and carefully lay down at the edge of the bed.

She thought she’d never be able to fall asleep in this situation, but perhaps because too much had happened in such a short time, her eyelids soon grew heavy.

Not long after Brianna had fallen into a deep sleep, Lucius opened his closed eyes. He turned his head to look at her.

Perhaps worried that their bodies might touch even in sleep, Brianna had curled up as tightly as possible in the farthest corner of the bed.

Lucius stretched out his arm and gently moved her to the inner side of the bed. Whenever they had been intimate, Brianna would always fall into such a deep sleep that she wouldn’t even notice being carried away—and this time was no different. Even as Lucius embraced her, she, still half-asleep, instinctively snuggled into his arms.

Lucius rested his chin on top of her head and let out a long breath. Though his anger had not yet completely subsided, his sigh carried a greater sense of relief and satisfaction at having gotten her back.