Chapter 22

Rafael put down the glass filled with liquor. He couldn’t drink today unlike usual. It had become a habit before going to bed, but today he found that he was strangely reluctant. He thought it would be better to drink it slowly than chug it down like usual.

The sparkling golden liquor slowly flowed from the glass to his red lips. As he was savoring the taste and aroma of the liquor in his mouth, Rafael’s gaze soon turned to his side. There, an exhausted Annette had fallen into a deep sleep.

Annette’s pale eyelids were closed without making any movement. She was sleeping with her mouth slightly open and shallow breaths were coming out of it. The inside of her mouth was a very pale pink. Just by looking at this innocent appearance, no one would ever think she had just had a damn hot sex.

Annette was clinging to his side just like a puppy looking for its mother. Her little hands on his body were so light that he could barely even feel their weight. Strangely, a tickling feeling seemed to be transmitted from her white hand to his body. Rafael shoved her hand away heartlessly.

‘Strange woman.’

Still, her face was stunningly pretty. He could finally understand why the Bavarians took so much pride in themselves, as if they were a special race. Even though the damn Duke of Bavaria was an elegant middle-aged man with platinum-coloured hair, he still looked amazing. He could prove the fact that they were the wealthiest lineage with his face alone.

Rafael reached out for no reason and touched Annette’s cheeks. On the soft, round cheeks, a faint redness from their recent affair remained. As he looked at those reddened eyes, he felt all his blood flow down to his nether regions. But if he did give in to his desire, Annette would really become sick.

‘Anyway, she’s uselessly weak.’

Rafael clicked his tongue. He didn’t expect to have such a relationship with this woman. Rafael’s hostility towards the Duke of Bavaria was that great.

Rafael really hated the Duke Allamand Bavaria. He had opposed Rafael’s Marquis title until the last minute. Rafael still remembered the eyes of Allamand Bavaria, as he looked down at him with contempt. He considered himself superior and hated to even breathe the same air as an illegitimate child like Rafael.

So Rafael had accepted this wedding. Even if Annette was a vicious woman and her relationship with the Crown Prince was broken, he didn’t care much about it.

All Rafael needed was Annette’s lineage to compensate for his muddled blood. On top of that, it was not only fun to see the distorted expression of Duke Allamand Bavaria who became his father-in-law, but was also quite profitable to be able to see his work. Annette was only valuable to him in that aspect.

‘How many couples in the world love each other and get married?’

Rafael didn’t even believe in love. The only thing in this damn world he could believe in, was himself. He wanted to make his way up to the nobles, who laughed at him, and he needed Annette for that. Other than that, it didn’t matter to him what Annette did behind his back.

‘She’s from the noble Bavarian family anyway, so she’ll soon be fed up with her disgusting lowly husband.’ Rafael thought.

However, Annette turned out to be slightly different from his expectations. She acted as if she respected Rafael, and every time they quarreled, she tried to explain herself with sincerity. He couldn’t grasp yet whether she was pretending or being actually serious.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.’

There was nothing wrong with Annette pretending to respect him. Rather, it was advantageous for both of them. Rafael languidly swallowed down the hard liquor in his mouth. The leather choker still wrapped around her elegant neck caught his eyes. He left it on her because he was grumpy. But it wasn’t bad because Annette seemed to somehow belong to him.

Rafael snickered, while recalling Annette’s white naked body. At least she didn’t seem to have given herself up to Ludwig. Still, he felt strangely upset, when he imagined them affectionately crying and saying goodbye to each other.

He couldn’t bear the sight of Annette with another man. When he thought it didn’t matter what she did behind his back, he could not help but be angry and change his thoughts.

Still, it didn’t matter. Because he was an unsophisticated villain who crawled up from the bottom anyway, and Annette was a poor prisoner under his grasp.

“Um.”

Perhaps she felt a sense of crisis, Annette whimpered in pain. Looking at the woman, who was sleeping like a log, Rafael slowly brushed her luscious bottom lip with indifferent eyes. The flesh, which was slightly pushed under his fingertips, was very soft.

Annette mumbled something in her sleep and puckered her lips, making it look like she was kissing the tip of his finger. She looked quite cute. Seeing this, Rafael smiled and whispered in her ear.

“It would be better for you to forget everything about the Crown Prince, Annette. There’s nowhere for you to run now anyway.”

Rafael whispered in a low, harsh voice and bit her ears. The small white ears with his teeth marks were nice to see. Just like the choker wrapped around her slender neck.

* * *

Annette woke up and was devastated when she saw the afternoon sun coming through the window. She always used to wake up early in the morning because of the strict education she received from her family. But she overslept yesterday because of the intense love affair she had with Rafael.

Annette sighed and as she tried to get out of the bed, she suddenly found the choker on her neck. Annette blushed remembering what had happened last night.

‘Anyway, he’s so mean.’

Fortunately, there was a knife for opening letters on the table. Annette used the knife to cut off the choker around her neck. She was sorry to do that since it was a gift from her new sister-in-law, Claire. But she knew Claire would be satisfied knowing her gift fulfilled her purpose very well.

Annette sighed as she recalled yesterday’s Rafael. Although his anger seemed to have been a little subdued through their affair, he seemed quite displeased hearing about her meeting with Ludwig.

‘It would be better to make him feel better.’

Annette felt sorry for him and made up her mind. No matter how little Rafael loved her, it would still be unpleasant to see his wife have a private conversation with her ex-fiance. After getting dressed, Annette went downstairs to find Rafael. On the way, she ran into a maid and asked her thoughtlessly.

“Do you happen to know where he is?”

“Sir has gone out, Madam. He said he was going to the royal palace.”

The maid answered, bowing her head politely. Annette nodded and passed her with a nonchalant face. It was a bit disappointing that Rafael went out without leaving a note, but anyway, he never went around revealing his destination. He was angry with Annette, so he probably must have gone out to vent that anger.

Annette sighed and decided to go to the study. She luckily hoped that she could find more books on regressors. But Annette’s plan was unintentionally halted. It was because she found an unexpected person coming out of the reception room.

‘Gerard?’

The tall, elegant-looking young man with blond hair, was Gerard, the butler of the Bavarian family. Last time, he was severely rebuked when he came to return the wedding presents from Rafael. Annette thought he would never visit the Mansion of Carnesis again.

Gerard, who had not yet noticed Annette’s presence, headed for the front door with an indifferent face. Just as he was about to leave, he told the servant who came out to see him off,

“Then, I will visit again when Your Excellency, Marquis of Carnesis is present.”

Annette’s eyes narrowed hearing his words. Although Rafael was absent, the hostess herself was definitely there. However, Gerard dared to return, saying, ‘I will visit again when Your Excellency is present.’ Annette found Gerard’s actions very suspicious.

‘You’re not trying to insult Rafael again, are you?’ Annette was on the edge, feeling an ominous premonition. If that was the case, she couldn’t let Gerard go back like this. If Gerard revisited when she was not in the mansion and provoked Rafael’s anger again, then the worst would happen.

So, just before Gerard could leave the mansion, Annette quickly called him. Her voice sounded very pretentious even to her own ears.

“Gerard! What are you doing here?It’s good to see you again.”

“Greetings to the Marchioness. Have you been well?”

Gerard seemed to have made up his mind. He bowed politely to Annette as if he had just met her. Looking at Gerard’s businesslike attitude, who could guess that he had served Annette for nearly a decade?

Annette nodded gracefully. Just like he knew her, Annette also knew him quite well. Annette could see a little bit of dismay on Gerard’s smooth face when she encountered him. Pretending not to have seen this, she calmly said to Gerard.

“I was too heartless the other day, wasn’t I, Gerard? But I won’t apologize. As a wife, I can’t stand anyone insulting my husband. But still I’d like to invite you for a cup of tea for old times sake. Let’s talk about the old times. Now, follow me.”

Annette turned around naturally. Then, Gerard’s mouth became a little stiff. He was eager to somehow avoid being alone with Annette.

“I wish I could, but I must obey the Duke’s orders. I think I should go now. I’m sorry, Madam.”

Sure enough, he rejected Annette’s request. At that, Annette’s eyes widened and she covered  her mouth in amazement. She looked at Gerard with a hurt face.

“Oh, my God! Did my father order you not to even have a cup of tea with me? No matter how busy you are, how can he not even allow me to say hello to the old butler? I can’t… I’ll write a letter to my father right now…”

Gerard was very embarrassed when he  saw Annette protesting directly against her father. It was already a disaster for Gerard to face Annette instead of Rafael in the first place. If Annette’s letter of protest was also added to this, it would be impossible to deal with the mess. Allamand who was already once disappointed with Gerard, would not forgive him twice. Gerard finally accepted Annette’s request helplessly.

“A cup of tea will do. Thank you for your kindness.”

Annette took the lead and headed to the parlor with a victorious smile. Now, through Gerard, it was time to dig deeper into her father’s intentions.