Episode 17. Refrain from Sexual Contact
Adel had no choice but to grab clean cotton, bandages, medical tape, and the like before heading to Gray's office.
It was right above her own office, a room he shared with Doran, his personal aide who had come from Hallock.
Knock knock knock.
"Come in."
Gray's voice was heavier than usual.
Adel, who had lived her life reading others' reactions, appeared indifferent on the outside but was actually more sensitive to them than anyone. She paid especially close attention to her employer's tone, expression, and gaze.
Thus, she knew. He was lost in deep thought right now.
Opening the door, she saw Gray with his long legs crossed and propped on the desk, idly rocking the chair he was half-sitting on. His hands were clasped behind his head as he stared at the ceiling, then he slowly turned his head.
His blue eyes, which had been pale and vacant as if lost in thought, darkened in an instant as they swept over Adel. Then he smiled. Back to innocent.
"You really came."
"Should I go back?"
"No. You know you're always welcome."
He lowered his legs one by one from the desk, shoved both hands into his pants pockets, and tilted his head sideways. A gesture to come closer.
Adel approached and set the medical supplies on his desk. She pulled over a chair from against the wall and sat facing him.
"Where's Doran-nim?"
"Sent him away."
"Why?"
"Because you're coming. He's oblivious and always interrupts our alone time."
He had surely sent him on some important errand or outing. And yet Gray always played these games like this.
Adel held out her open palm before him. He obediently placed his injured hand from his pants pocket onto it.
Adel unwittingly frowned. Red scabs had formed over the scattered bruises.
"Didn't it hurt?"
"It did."
Though he said that, his face hadn't shown pain then, nor did it now.
Adel often wondered about this young master's true nature.
Not his status, position, or tendencies. At some point, she had sensed he was more than what he appeared.
He seemed indifferent to worldly affairs, merely a playboy who loved to frolic, yet he seemed to know everything from the occasional remarks he let slip.
He seemed dramatic about pain, yet was more detached from it than anyone; he toyed with women effortlessly, but she could count on one hand the times she'd seen him stick with any one for long.
He even avoided forming special bonds with anyone. He seemed casually close to everyone, yet the number of people he truly opened up to was minuscule. The fact that his only official relationship had been with Hallock's grand duchess...
Thinking that far, Adel unwittingly glared at Gray.
"Word is already widespread that Hallock's grand duchess couldn't forget you and worked our royals directly."
How could she not forget a wastrel like this? How unfortunate for her.
"Why glare again? Too handsome?"
Adel lightly ignored Gray's nonsense.
"Must've hurt."
With her other hand, she picked up the ointment, opened the cap with her teeth, spat it on the desk, and squeezed some onto the dark red wound. It was disinfectant.
As she spread it, she checked his expression for stinging. But Gray just stared at her blankly, showing no reaction.
Once the disinfectant dried, she applied an eastern ointment good for skin regeneration meticulously.
Gray lay his one captured hand on the desk. His blue eyes, the color of the sky outside the window, remained fixed on Adel. His silver hair, long enough to brush his eyebrows, spilled over the reddish-brown desk.
"Not stuffy?"
"What?"
"Your glasses."
"……."
"You can take them off around me."
"Not stuffy."
"I see."
As abrupt as the suggestion, his acceptance was curt.
Adel set the finished ointment on the desk and met Gray's eyes. Heat rushed back to her ear, which had warmed arbitrarily since the duke's office.
Adel lowered her gaze. To dry the ointment on his hand quickly, she blew on it. Fanned with her other hand and blew diligently.
Then the warmth nestled in her hand slipped away and rose above her head. Adel's busy mouth and hand stopped.
"What are you doing?"
"Did you feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"Earlier, when I held you—did it feel sexual? It shouldn't."
On the day she became Gray's personal aide, she and Gray had made that contract.
'Refrain from sexual contact.'
It was Adel's request.
Largely because she had witnessed the open social clubs of the upper class. Seeing Gray at Hawks House holding hands with a half-naked woman had factored in too.
In any case, it was a clause added just in case.
She had initially asked to avoid all contact, but after Gray questioned if even brushing hands while handing documents would void the contract, they modified it slightly.
'Sexual' contact to be avoided.
Highly subjective, but not bad. The subjectivity was entirely up to Adel's judgment, so nothing bad for her.
With Gray's injured hand still atop her head, Adel answered flatly.
"No."
Not at all.
As if that mere thing could.
Seeing Adel's defiant spark beneath feigned composure, Gray might normally have chuckled, but today he showed no reaction.
Gray's hand slid down her head as before, covering her ear fully. His thumb slowly stroked her cheek.
"So where'd you learn to pick locks, Adel?"
Somewhere half-entranced, Adel snapped to attention.
"Didn't you say spirit of fair play?"
"Yeah. We agreed not to ask why we were there."
"Then?"
"I'm asking about your special talent."
You bastard.
In that instant, Adel pondered what to say to avoid fueling his suspicions more. The answer came immediately.
"Sorry. Learned from a deckhand on the Sunflower Ho."
No hesitation, state the facts.
Except for a few fatally hidden secrets that must never be revealed, quickly admit and apologize for anything revealable or any faults.
That way, even if seen as having nimble fingers, she avoided the worst of being utterly untrustworthy. This was Adel's best strategy.
Gray peered deeply into the pink well behind her dark lenses, as if the truth of her answer lay in her eyes. Adel hid her tension with her familiar impassive face. But when he lifted her glasses with the hand that had stroked her cheek, she startled and widened her eyes.
"The glasses... why?"
"Don't like it?"
"Yes."
"Should I not? Really don't want me to?"
"……."
Cunning.
Asking so persistently if she disliked it right after she admitted fault—how could she refuse?
Adel glared at Gray fiercely in lieu of an answer. As if her glare didn't exist, Gray fully removed her glasses.
Adel had no choice but to bite her lip and lower her gaze. Strangely, she felt more tense now than when caught stealing the duke's documents—almost ten years since living as Adel without showing her bare eyes to others, it felt like exposing her insides, shameful.
"Look at me, Adel."
As her gaze rose, Gray savored her clear eyes.
"Which deckhand?"
Did he even know the name? The Sunflower Ho went to the East and rarely docked here.
Still, Adel stuck to her strategy of avoiding flimsy lies that could shatter all trust if discovered.
"Harian."
Gray, whose thumb had shifted from rubbing her cheek to stroking her lashes, smiled in satisfaction.
His eyes, softly folding right above the desk, somehow felt more languid and ticklish. Unwittingly, Adel wondered if she'd swallowed a bird's down feathers moments ago.
Gray kept rubbing her eye area for a long while like that, and during it all, Adel couldn't rebel or evade strangely.
"Got it. Next time you do that, be more cautious. What if it had been someone else there instead of me?"
His hand tapped her cheek lightly before finally withdrawing.
"Is that all?"
"What more should I say?"
"……."
"Ah, 'your legs are killer even on second look'?"
This guy really.
As Adel glared at Gray again, footsteps echoed from afar. Someone rounding the corridor corner and approaching.
Startled, Adel hastily grabbed and donned her glasses. Gray smiled nonchalantly.
"Thought the liver was swollen, but guess not."
At the same time, the door opened.
"Gray! Do you know what I just heard...? Huh? Adel's here?"
