Translator: Nox

Chapter 31

The man’s gaze deepened as he watched the woman trembling in his grasp. River Ross’s eyes, which had been frozen for a moment, narrowed slightly.

“What on earth are you thinking to make a face like that?”

Vanessa’s breath quickened as he held her head toward the mirror, forcing her to look. Her fingertips, gripping the support, weakened.

“I’m… not thinking… about anything….”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“It’s not a lie. I really wasn’t thinking about anything, I… mm….”

He lowered his head, biting open those sinful lips and sucking on her small, supple tongue. Theodore let out a low groan into her mouth. No matter where or when he tasted her, she was always sweet, succulent, and fragrant.

Like fruit ripened to the point of rot. Like their relationship, ruined from the start by deception and lies. Lies were always this sweet.

His calloused thumb slowly stroked her slender throat. Through his hand, he could feel her pulse, frantic and fast like a small animal’s. It felt as if he were clutching her very heart.

When he slowly pulled away, her ragged breath spilled over his face. He brushed his thumb against Vanessa’s swollen lips.

“Even now?”

“Now, I….”

Disheveled and stammering, Vanessa averted her gaze, panting. Her ears, peeking through her blonde hair, were so flushed they couldn’t possibly get any redder.

He loosened his grip on the corset strings. The tightening laces went slack.

He was satisfied to see the face of a beauty who was beyond classic, even modest, flushed with such wanton color. Smiling, he kissed the nape of her neck.

“Come out just like this.”

“…What?”

“There’s no need to lace it up and wrap yourself any tighter.”

The hand that had been caressing her body slid smoothly downward.

“You’re always more beautiful when you’re completely naked.”

Returning to his persona as a refined gentleman, he gestured toward a paper bag with his chin. Seeing as it was already wrapped, it seemed he had purchased it beforehand. To give it to her as a gift….

River Ross, who was holding the curtain back, turned around as if he had just remembered something.

“And don’t wear that damn corset.”

His lips touched her forehead and then pulled away, like a tender request.

---

“I’ve sewn the shirt and skirt together and put them inside. You can just wear it as a dress.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t worry about the money. The gentleman who came with you paid for everything.”

“…Pardon?”

Vanessa blinked her wide eyes at the shop owner. When she asked back blankly, unable to grasp the situation, the shop owner’s eyes crinkled into a smile.

“He gave me his checkbook before he went upstairs. He said he would purchase everything you looked at, touched, or tried on. I did charge him extra for the accessories since they weren’t in the range he mentioned, though.”

Only then did Vanessa understand that unnatural smile that had been plastered on the shop owner’s face the whole time. And her suddenly tender, kind attitude. At the owner’s signal, the employees began carrying wrapped boxes and paper bags, stacking them at Vanessa’s feet.

Vanessa stared at the mountain of items with dazed eyes. There were even more things behind them that hadn’t been wrapped yet. Hats, parasols, and even underwear with delicate lace she had never seen before….

“If it’s difficult for you to carry them all now, you can leave them here and pick them up whenever you go out,” the shop owner suggested in a kind tone, seeing her stunned expression.

Vanessa barely managed to snap out of it and shook her head.

“There must be some mistake.”

“The gentleman didn’t make a mistake. He used a check issued by the Admiralty.”

“I… I don’t need things like this.”

“The gentleman must have thought you did. Even if only for the sake of his own dignity.”

Vanessa read a faint mixture of pity and contempt in the woman’s eyes. As if looking at a woman who had been swindled without knowing any better, the owner coaxed her in a voice that had grown much softer, like one soothing a child.

“You’re probably flustered because it’s your first time… but this isn’t rare. Men in the military tend to be big spenders. Trust me, dear. In a relationship like this, it’s to your advantage to take whatever you can get.”

“It’s not that kind of relationship in the first place.”

“Of course it isn’t….”

The shop owner’s smile was bitter, as if she already knew everything. Her eyes, which had sunk deep as if reminiscing about the past, finally looked straight at Vanessa.

“Don’t lose your heart to someone who’s going to leave.”

Vanessa froze, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Contrary to the woman’s assumption, she had never once thought her relationship with this man would be forever.

From the start, they were allies who had formed a temporary pact for their own purposes, an equal contractual relationship where they paid each other a fair price. She wasn’t a woman who had surrendered her virtue after falling for a soldier’s cheap promises of a future…. She wasn’t some lovely plaything of the navy.

But she would look ‘that way’ to anyone else. The realization took her breath away. She finally understood that the gazes she would endure from now on, and the lifelong stigma that would follow her after this relationship ended, would be exactly like this.

---

Vanessa flung the shop door open and marched toward him. Seeing her vigorous stride, Theodore quickly extinguished the cigar he was holding and waved away the smoke. The woman, whose brow furrowed as she caught the scent, raised her eyes as if to demand an explanation.

“Cancel it.”

“What?”

“Those clothes. I heard you bought all of them.”

Vanessa emphasized ‘those clothes’ and pointed toward the shop. Through the glass window, boxes and paper bags were piled up like a mountain. It looked as if he intended to wrap up the entire store and hand it over.

Theodore looked at the scene for a moment in disbelief, then turned his gaze back down to Vanessa. She didn’t look happy at all. Her cheeks were flushed as if she had received an insult rather than a gift.

“This is too much.”

“It’s just one shop. And one tucked away in the countryside at that.”

“Please, River….”

“It’s not like I spent a fortune. And these are things you need.”

“…….”

Vanessa clamped her lips shut, having opened them to protest. To think that a shop that seemed so grand to her meant nothing to him. River Ross even looked slightly annoyed. That gap made her feel pathetic.

“…It was a fortune to me. And I’ve never heard that the Ross family was that wealthy.”

“The income of a navy officer is quite decent.”

“Decent enough to do something like this?”

“I told you from the start that I wasn’t that desperate for money.”

“It’s an important matter to me. So cancel it right now.”

“Can’t you just accept it graciously?”

He let out a long sigh and ran his right hand through his wind-blown bangs. His deep sea-blue eyes sank coldly, as if looking at something he couldn’t understand.

“Why are you suddenly getting so upset…?”

Her heart sank at that look. Like a dog wagging its tail at its master’s every gesture. She was terrified that he, having found everything bothersome and annoying, would tell her to forget the whole thing….

There were still so many things she wanted to say. That this wasn’t something agreed upon between them. That if she accepted a ‘gift,’ it was no different from being paid for her services. That once she started falling into debt, the relationship would only continue to tilt.

But just as she was hesitating, unable to bring herself to speak, a cool voice fell over her head.

“If they’re such unpleasant and unnecessary things, then throw them away.”

“How could I…?”

His gaze was icy, as if telling her to stop being so fastidious. Perhaps she was overreacting, just as he said. Was this sort of thing common between men and women in the capital? Perhaps River Ross was the kind of man who showered every woman he met briefly with gifts of this magnitude….

“Are we going or not?”

Vanessa jerked her head up. He seemed to have no intention of continuing this topic. Seeing the man’s grim expression as if the prolonged silence was grating on him, she grew anxious. Until just a moment ago, their relationship had been better than ever. Before she had started reacting so sensitively for no reason.

Before she could think further, her body moved first. Vanessa stepped toward him hesitantly and grabbed his sleeve.