Chapter 32
Episode 32. A Fair Trade
2023.10.02.
Blair averted her gaze from that look and hastily adjusted her clothes as she pleaded with him.
“Herdin, let’s go to the bedroom. Anyone could come into this room.”
“What if we end up doing it in the hallway then? Would that be alright?”
As if adding reason to his words, Herdin pulled her tightly against him. Through the clinging fabric, she could feel his body burning with heat.
“I don’t think I can even wait that long.”
Blair’s lips parted in shock. Seeing the way his eyes devoured her, as if ready to swallow her whole, she believed he truly meant it.
Herdin smirked down at Blair, who could no longer insist they go to the bedroom, and immediately overlapped their lips again. Then, slipping his hand between the clothes she had tried to fix, he kneaded her soft flesh like dough and whispered,
“This is what you wanted.”
Without regard for your will, doing as I please.
Just like you said, I’m simply desiring you like any other man.
As Herdin lowered his head to bite her, Blair’s back arched backward.
Herdin, who had been relentlessly tormenting her soft lips, seized Blair’s ankle. His hand, thinner than his forearm, slid up her leg and slipped under her skirt.
“Herdin……!”
Blair tried to close her legs, but Herdin was already blocking her, leaving her unable to move.
Blair bit her lips tightly to stifle the sounds escaping unwittingly. The office door right in front of her terrified her. Yet that fear only heightened the dizzying pleasure.
Now nearly lying on the desk, Blair stared blankly out the window by her head.
The cloudless winter sky sparkled dazzlingly. Her violet eyes, capturing that scenery, blinked slowly.
It no longer mattered.
If this was what he wanted.
At that moment, a large shadow fell over Blair’s body, accompanied by a heavy weight pressing down. Unable to bear the overwhelming sensation, Blair bit the back of her own hand.
But Herdin captured both her hands with one of his, binding them.
Blair glared up at Herdin with resentful eyes and bit her lips hard to seal her mouth. Seeing that, Herdin’s brows furrowed.
Always so stubborn.
Her futile resistance was laughable and annoying, yet he didn’t dislike it. No, it was quite endearing because it was so her.
Herdin leaned toward Blair, who desperately held back her sounds with eyes on the verge of tears, and lightly sucked on her lips before releasing them, whispering,
“Don’t bite your lips.”
Blair, who had held her breath for a while, finally surrendered. Satisfied, Herdin repeatedly kissed her flushed cheeks and earlobes burning with heat.
“Herdin……”
Blair called his name and clung to him.
Her breathless voice calling his name helplessly was pleasing. Her desperate embrace, as if refusing to let go, was good.
To the point where suppressing his desire until now felt pathetic.
Moments later, the office, filled with a cacophony of sounds, fell silent in an instant.
In the finally arrived quiet, their rough breaths echoed. Blair’s body, trapped in his arms, trembled faintly.
Herdin savored the afterglow, kissing the underside of her cheek, and only rose once her trembling ceased.
Her water-filled eyes gazing at him as she caught her breath entered his view.
A wanton woman sprawled across his desk.
Yet that lascivious sight was breathtakingly beautiful.
Suddenly, Johannes’s words from yesterday came to mind.
‘Well, honestly, she is pretty. What man wouldn’t fall for that face and figure.’
Seeing every man act like fools around this woman, his own desire for her was probably nothing special either.
Just instinctually drawn to beauty.
Yes, honestly, she was pretty.
Pretty enough that any man would want to hold her hand once, strike up a conversation.
Such a woman had become his contractual wife. And she even offered her body if he wanted it.
Perhaps this was all because of the man she loved.
For a fleeting moment, he pitied that fool, but soon dismissed the thought.
‘But do I really need to know the reason?’
Either way, this woman was before his eyes right now. She was his wife, at least in name.
A fool who lost his woman due to status would have his first night stolen too, unable even to meet her freely.
A woman forced to pretend to be a couple with a man she didn’t love for a future with the one she did.
A man forced to watch the woman he loved taken by another due to his birth.
And a man used for other gains, their love merely a tool.
Who was the most pitiful?
Objectively, it wasn’t him.
But humans were ultimately self-centered creatures, so his mood soured. Even after obtaining the body of the woman he wanted, he felt the most pitiful.
He wasn’t accustomed to sharing what he had once claimed. He probably never would be in his lifetime. Born and raised that way.
Herdin lifted Blair from the desk. Due to the aftermath, she couldn’t even stand properly and staggered.
He turned her unsteady body to brace against the desk.
“……Herdin?”
Only then sensing something amiss, Blair tried to pull away from his arms, but Herdin embraced her as she was.
“Ah……!”
Blair’s body, trembling in his arms, gave him a strange sense of fulfillment. Holding her precariously close to collapse, he kissed her fully exposed snowy back.
This was a contract.
Taking what each wanted until it ended.
He didn’t know what Blair wanted, but she would surely take something from him, so he too could take what he desired from her freely.
Thus, this was clearly a fair trade.
* * *
The Empress’s Palace had a grand greenhouse.
It had been built for the late Emperor’s beloved Empress Katrina.
Not just the greenhouse, but the entire current Empress’s Palace, rebuilt after the fire that destroyed Esmeralda’s residence, was practically a gift the late Emperor had prepared for Katrina.
Katrina loved everything in this Empress’s Palace. Just like her children.
For all of it proved the love from the man who had ruled this vast empire.
The mornings greeted in this greenhouse, filled with exotic rare flowers and trees and colorful birds chirping, were among the things she cherished for the same reason.
Katrina stirred her black tea with a teaspoon amid the birds’ chirps. Her elegance was such that no one would dare imagine her commoner birth.
Setting down the teaspoon, she lifted the teacup. Over her impassive reflection on the tea’s surface, a voice from a few days ago suddenly resurfaced.
‘Am I frightening to you, Your Majesty?’
‘…….’
‘You’re brainwashing me as if afraid I’ll uncover the truth.’
Katrina paused midway to sip. Recalling that voice and its owner, the corners of her mouth curved slyly upward.
“……How impertinent.”
After a moment’s contemplation, Katrina set down the untouched cup.
The Magrid Countess, waiting behind her, keenly perceived the meaning and approached her side.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“We need to plant someone in the Delmark Duke family. I’m curious how Blair is faring. And worried.”
Katrina’s gentle voice sounded truly like a mother concerned for her daughter.
* * *
Herdin opened his eyes at the sound of Blair’s dry cough. He felt refreshed, as if after a full day of training.
His last memory was the dim dawn light; judging by the light filtering through the window, it was quite late now.
Sensing a presence, he turned his head to see Blair asleep beside him.
Yesterday afternoon, after entangling with Blair multiple times in the office and yielding to her pleas, they had moved to the bedroom.
After that, he had embraced her like a beast. They even ate in bed. After feeding her, who couldn’t even lift a finger, he would devour her next.
The desire he had forcibly suppressed exploded uncontrollably once unleashed. Like drinking seawater—the more he had, the thirstier he grew.
Blair had coaxed, pleaded, even wept in exhaustion, but that only stimulated him further.
Recalling her teary face, his body reacted despite having sated his lust all night.
‘……Madman.’
Herdin mocked himself, suppressing the rising heat in his lower abdomen as he rose.
His foot kicked scattered clothes on the floor. Being Blair’s room, there were no other garments suitable for him.
Instinctively reaching for the bell cord, Herdin lowered his hand. Somehow, he didn’t want to shatter this quiet peace.
He haphazardly donned pants and a shirt, approached the fireplace, and lit it. Staring absently at the burning logs, he habitually pulled a cigar from his back pocket and lit it.
Herdin’s hand paused bringing the lit cigar to his lips. At the same time, he furrowed his brows and sighed.
The cigar was tossed into the fireplace before he could even take a single puff.
