Chapter 33
Episode 33. Be Careful When Consummating
2023.10.03.
Watching the barely lit cigar burn away with the logs, Herdin headed to the table with the water pitcher. His throat felt parched.
Through the glass he drank from, he could see Blair sleeping soundly. It was then, as he quietly gazed at her.
A dizzying sensation washed over him, followed by a hazy vision unfolding before his eyes.
The bed before him was soaked in bright red blood, and Blair lay collapsed upon it. Bleeding profusely from her back.
Seeing that sight, Herdin’s heart plummeted. It felt as if all the blood drained from his body. Strength momentarily fled his hand holding the glass.
‘What…….’
At that instant, the vision vanished.
In its place lay Blair, sleeping just as before.
Herdin swiftly caught the glass he had nearly dropped.
What was that just now.
Though the vision had faded, his startled heart refused to calm easily.
Herdin strode to the sleeping Blair and placed his index finger between her lips and nose. He felt her exhaled breath.
Gently touching her cheek with his finger, he sensed its warmth. As if feeling it, Blair’s brows furrowed slightly.
“Mm……”
Only then did Herdin exhale the breath he had been holding.
‘My mental state must be quite disturbed.’
It had happened at New Year’s Festival too, and now again. Seeing illusions.
The vision was gone, but the emotions felt in that moment lingered like an afterimage, leaving him uneasy.
As Herdin withdrew the hand he had placed on Blair, her eyelids fluttered, and she opened her eyes. Violet eyes, absorbing the sunlight filtering into the room, blinked slowly.
Her gradually focusing gaze fixed on him.
“……Herdin?”
The breath escaping with her voice tickled his finger.
Gazing at Blair, he traced her lips with his index finger before leaning down to claim them.
Feeling her lips tremble, her pained moan, and their entwining hot breaths, the unpleasant afterimage of the vision finally dissipated.
The woman was alive. In his arms.
* * *
“His Excellency is still in the bedroom.”
Russ, who had arrived at the del Mark Duke’s Residence on time, heard that news first instead of a greeting from Mason.
Knowing what it implied, Russ furrowed his brows slightly.
It had already been ten days. Since Herdin began spending nights in Blair’s bedroom and staying until morning.
Precisely since he had been chased out of the office around lunchtime.
‘Back then, I was thrilled to have some free time.’
At that moment, Mason asked Russ heading to the drawing room.
“Shall I bring tea?”
“That sounds good. The same as yesterday, please.”
While Russ, arrived in the drawing room, opened his personal notebook to review Herdin’s schedule and key matters needing decision by today, Mason brought the tea.
He set it before Russ.
“How about adjusting your arrival time for the time being? After all, it is still your honeymoon period.”
“It’s fine. My commute times are set anyway. Besides, he’ll tire of it soon enough.”
Russ spoke nonchalantly, but inwardly, he was uneasy about Herdin’s interest in Blair.
His liege, who had never shown such attention to a woman before, suddenly fixating on one.
As a house valuing bloodlines, it should have been cause for joy, but the partner was the issue. Of all people, Katrina’s daughter.
As Russ sat lost in thought with his notebook open, Herdin appeared from behind and leisurely sat across from him. He appeared to have just washed, dressed in a robe.
‘You startled me.’
Usually, he would summon him to the office upon rising, so Russ hadn’t expected him to come to the drawing room himself.
Moreover, Herdin, having lived long on the battlefield, was adept at unintentionally masking his presence. Thus, Russ often startled when he appeared abruptly.
Especially when, like just now, he had been thinking of him.
“Good morning, Your Excellency.”
Herdin merely nodded, crossing his long legs, in response to Russ’s greeting. Just then, a servant brought Herdin’s tea and cigar, lit it for him, and left the drawing room.
Herdin inhaled and exhaled the cigar smoke while picking up one of the documents Russ had brought.
“Is this the mana stone mine development we discussed?”
“Yes. Please review and approve by today. And these are ones I selected for you to review together.”
Russ handed over documents summarizing related business proposals and looked at Herdin.
His well-toned body glimpsed through the loosely tied robe, his captivating face that could daze anyone, and the sight of him with the cigar—sensual even to another man like himself.
Many women sought even a word with him wherever he went. It was a source of great pride for Russ.
His relationship with Blair should have been like that with any other woman. Her unrequited affection for him, and his indifference.
But their relationship seemed somewhat different from his hopes. Unable to know details since he never discussed personal matters, Russ sensed it instinctively.
Perhaps related to why Herdin had taken no action when he had suggested marrying an appropriate woman before the imperial edict.
“Your Excellency.”
Herdin lifted his gaze from the documents to look at Russ in lieu of a reply.
“I know you’ll handle it wisely, but just in case…… Be careful when consummating.”
At Blair’s name from Russ’s lips, Herdin’s eyes chilled coldly. Like a beast eyeing an intruder touching its prey.
“Warning me she might hide a dagger and stab me?”
“As if Your Excellency would fall to such a crude attack. I mean, not that…….”
Russ trailed off with a cough, then added in a lowered voice.
“Contraception. The imperial family might be waiting for the wife to bear the del Mark heir.”
This meant concern that, after Blair bore the del Mark heir, they would kill Herdin and absorb the del Mark forces into her maternal imperial family.
Thus, Russ had suggested a bastard child beforehand.
He held no grudge against Blair. She had seemed a different sort from her mother upon meeting her.
But blood is thicker than water.
From Russ’s position serving del Mark, she was someone he could never lower his guard against simply because she was imperial.
He knew bearing a bastard was immoral and would shake the family’s prestige, but to Russ, nothing mattered more than Herdin’s safety.
As the late Duchess, who had given him a second life, would have wished.
As Herdin listened to Russ, he thought of Blair. And the contraceptive pills always on her bedside table.
A woman intent only on ending this contractual marriage and leaving his side somehow. Thus, a child would trouble her too.
But since Russ didn’t know of any contract between them, his worry was understandable.
Herdin raked back his still-damp hair, extinguished his cigar, and stated firmly.
“That won’t happen.”
Things with Blair would end cleanly. For the sake of the lover she loved so desperately, too.
He didn’t know why that fact soured his mood.
* * *
Blair finally opened her eyes around lunchtime.
Ten days had passed since that day she had surrendered to him in the office. In those ten days, she had scarcely left the bedroom.
The clause specifying ‘up to twice a month’ in the contract held no power.
He interpreted the contract at will.
‘Only consummation counts, so kisses don’t matter, right?’
In that vein, he kissed her body everywhere, teasing her relentlessly.
‘If the other party wants it, then mutual desire isn’t specified with a limit in the contract.’
He made her want him inescapably, then embraced her as if he had been waiting.
Blair, who had protested at first, eventually gave up.
Thus, every night—from as early as late afternoon when his work ended—she suffered under him until dawn. She fell asleep like fainting, and even upon barely regaining senses, she was still in his arms.
And then again…….
He tormented her so obsessively through the night that now, his absence felt emptily devoid.
After such nights, even during the day when he attended to work, she could scarcely collect her wits.
It felt exactly as if he had drained all her energy.
‘How can a human have such stamina?’
Thinking back, it had been the same in her past life.
The Herdin of her past life had clung to her like a beast every night until late spring, when their relationship soured after marriage.
‘I thought even that was an act…….’
This time, being a contractual marriage, she had thought he wouldn’t share nights with an unwanted wife anymore. But his desire evident on her body seemed genuine.
She knew this interest would fade soon anyway, but there was no need to clash with him. Their current cooperative relationship was good.
She had been uneasy with no visible progress in recovering fire incident memories. Thinking she could give him what he wanted eased her mind.
‘Since he promised no more suspicions, I can move more freely now.’
Blair forcibly rose her aching body and pulled the bell cord.
She couldn’t lie in bed all day today either. There was much to do.
Planning for after the divorce, tracking the assailant who had killed her.
