The Duke of Hermont’s Male Mistress
Chapter 13
Vitor muttered barely audibly. A sharp glint briefly flickered in his eyes, but he shook his head with a short motion.
“No. Forget it. It’s not what’s important.”
Before Roy realized it, Vitor had stepped back a few paces, standing with one hand resting against his waist.
“In any case, I feel an oddly low level of reluctance toward you, Roy-ssi. So you don’t need to worry about me. Though I suspect you asked more out of your own discomfort than concern for mine.”
“…….”
“Are you unable to do it?”
Not a trace of amusement remained on Vitor’s face. He looked coolly detached, like a man ready to terminate the contract on the spot depending on Roy’s answer.
Roy curled her fingers into fists.
That was right. Even if Vitor had made the proposal first, Roy was the one in desperate need. With the amount he was paying, he could easily find someone to replace her ten times over.
Her family was not the only one drowning in debt in Clareville. She had been naive to think she could receive an abnormally large sum of money without enduring some uncomfortable situations.
She had been so confident that she would do anything to pay off the debt. What was a little kiss with a strange man in comparison?
It was ridiculous to hesitate now.
“No. I’m fine with it too.”
Even after giving in, the reality that she was engaging in physical intimacy for money weighed heavily on her chest, but Roy managed to pull the corners of her mouth upward.
“I like your face, after all, Duke. I don’t feel much reluctance either.”
Vitor remained silent for a long time, doing nothing but gazing steadily down at Roy.
Beneath his gaze, she felt strangely laid bare. Feeling this miserable, had he seen through her composed facade?
He’s sharp. I just hope he plays along and lets it slide……
It had been fully anticipated.
He had already accounted for the possibility that Roy might feel an instinctive repulsion.
If Roy agreed to bear it, they would simply proceed; if not, since they hadn’t even begun, he could just step back.
It was an exceedingly simple, clear calculation.
‘Still, this is strange……. Why do I feel like I’m doing something terrible?’
Vitor felt as though he were shoving someone off a cliff. It was only natural that deceiving someone was immoral.
Yet despite deceiving countless women in the past, Vitor had never experienced this kind of guilt.
They hadn’t approached him out of genuine love either, and had anyone approached him with pure feelings in the first place, Vitor would never have entertained them.
So this emotion was entirely unfamiliar to him.
‘Ah. Is that it?’
After pondering for a long while, Vitor arrived at a plausible reason.
Roy wasn’t merely ‘acting distressed.’ Roy genuinely didn’t want to do this, yet was swallowing it down and smiling through it anyway.
Unable to say what was uncomfortable was uncomfortable, Roy hid genuine feelings behind a smiling mask.
The performance was natural enough that anyone else would have let it slide.
Yet for Vitor, who knew how steadfastly Roy had endured to get this far, the act didn’t work.
He was already vaguely aware of Roy’s family circumstances and personality.
In other words, this was the sort of behavior typical of rotten nobles trampling over a commoner who was just struggling to survive. Despising that side of the nobility more than anyone, Vitor couldn’t help but feel a natural aversion to it.
Yet the fact that he had no intention of backing out now was proof that Vitor, too, was no different from those nobles.
“Are you truly all right with this? Even if I touch you like this?”
Vitor slowly raised his hand, cradling Roy’s cheek once more. Even the skin was as soft as flower petals.
His large hand traced down the jawline, gently kneading the nape of Roy’s neck. His mouth went dry.
Roy drew her shoulders in slightly and answered in a small voice.
“……Yes, I’m fine.”
“I won’t ask again after this.”
“You don’t need to ask.”
Vitor let out a faint sigh. The words to call it off rose to the tip of his tongue and were swallowed back down again and again.
Did he really have such a base, wretched side to him?
The light sheen of sweat on the nape of Roy’s neck was so soft it felt as if it were clinging to his palm. The cheeks were flushed so beautifully that it seemed sweet nectar would seep out if bitten—like a ripe peach.
As if the waiting were too much to bear, Roy shut both eyes completely. Biting firmly on the lower lip, Roy waited for him to get it over with, ready to endure whatever came. Thick, long eyelashes fluttered faintly.
‘Reluctance aside, I didn’t expect this much tension over a mere kiss.’
Involuntarily parting Roy’s lower lip with his finger to stop the biting, Vitor asked with curiosity,
“I’m just asking just in case. Is it your first time?”
A man with a long-time girlfriend wouldn’t be, but there was always a possibility.
Roy’s eyelids slowly lifted.
“……Does it matter?”
It was an answer that neither confirmed nor denied.
Piercing straight through the core of the conversation.
Right. It was hardly an important matter between them. After all, theirs was a contractual relationship.
A relationship where they only needed to give and take what each required. What difference did it make whether it was a first or not? And yet.
“If you say it’s your first, I might show some leniency. No man would want his first kiss to be with another guy having the same parts as him.”
“…….”
Vitor tilted his head slightly with a casual, joking tone. Roy was lost in thought for a moment before asking cautiously,
“Why do you go so far out of your way to be considerate?”
Looking down at Roy, who seemed almost defensive, Vitor spoke again.
“Even if ours is a contractual relationship, I believe some degree of consideration is necessary between us. That is generally the better way to build trust, anyway.”
Vitor’s voice was soft, yet utterly serious.
“A partner who strictly fulfills conditions and keeps boundaries may look reliable on the surface, but they can turn their back the moment things go awry. Can deep trust truly form in a relationship like that?”
“And if one gets used to it……”
Roy spoke as if dragging up a heavy inner thought.
“What if I grow used to that consideration and start wanting to lean on you? Wouldn’t that be forgetting the nature of a contract?”
At those words, Vitor realized it with certainty.
That was the ultimate reason Roy could not accept his goodwill.
Fearing the habit of expecting to rely on someone.
A foreboding sense that, having locked herself within the boundary of a ‘contract,’ she might not be able to handle that frame crumbling away.
Yes. Considering Roy’s nature of always shouldering everything alone, it was understandable to feel that way.
Yet what did that matter to Vitor?
“If you want to lean, then lean. My shoulders won’t grow heavy just because you lean on me, Roy-ssi.”
Vitor tapped his own shoulder pointedly and gave a playful, sly grin.
“I’ve trained them plenty sturdy over the years.”
Though he spoke as if joking, he truly felt like a colossal mountain. It was not merely because of his large physique.
It was his wealth and power, as well as the wisdom and experience accumulated over vast seas that Roy could never even imagine.
Problems that would torment Roy for days on end would be simple matters solved by extending a single hand for him.
While other nobles turned away from what came so easily, Vitor did not.
At the comfort extended like a joke, the ironclad composure on Roy’s face cracked for the first time. Heat surged into her cheeks, and the rims of her eyes burned.
Had it been so hard on her all this time?
Roy reined in the surge of emotion and barely parted her lips.
“I appreciate the thought.”
“I’m not just saying words.”
“I know. But how could I ever presume to be so familiar with you, Duke?”
Comfort was comfort. Reality remained harsh.
This gamekeeper did not seem the type to be swept away by emotion, even in a situation like this.
Seeing that tugged at his heart with a pang of pity. This man, soft on the inside while wearing a hard shell like a shield, stirred Vitor’s protective instincts.
‘Is this what it would feel like to have a younger brother?’
Though there seemed to be some subtle difference from what one would feel for family, he figured it was something similar.
“He said he’d be right back, so why isn’t he here?”
Just then, the voice of the young Lady Lucen drifted from a distance. Vitor’s and Roy’s gazes collided at the same time.
Before anything could be said, Vitor closed the distance in a stride. Wrapping one arm around Roy’s waist and pulling close, he said,
“Then we have a deal on saving just your first kiss?”
His thumb rested over Roy’s plump lips.
And immediately after, his lips pressed over it.
“……!”
Roy’s shoulders gave a violent shudder.
The Duke of Hermont’s male paramour.
