Chapter 64

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Chapter 64

Hannah looked up at him with pure eyes. Speechless, he coughed awkwardly and turned his gaze away from her.

“Th-the fireplace should have been hot…” Jansen forced his mouth that was trying to say something else to say those words.

Hannah nodded innocently.

He turned his head slightly away from her and thought, ‘Damn it, every time I look at those crystal clear eyes, I feel like I’m a trash-like man.’

[tl/n: meaning he wants to do bad things to our Hannah]

That afternoon, Rose and Maxim looked at each other inside the carriage. The road was a mess due to last night’s heavy rain.

Whenever the wagon rattled, Rose kept falling to his side, so she had to hold his hand tight. Still, she was satisfied with Maxim going with her. For Mrs. Audrey, a thorough and thoughtful mother, this party was too hasty.

She didn’t know why, but it seemed that after the day they first saw Maxim, they decided to accept him completely as the son-in-law of the Etoile family.

She was only now starting to understand the incomprehensible words that Hans said after visiting Helevant.

The entire Solstern was excited about the wedding of the Crown Prince, but only the Etoile family had no interest in it.

The most important thing to them was that their only daughter was at home and that she had brought her husband. Whether he’s the King of the North or Solstern’s enemy, it didn’t matter now. It was more important that he was their daughter’s husband and their son-in-law.

After the Crown Prince’s wedding, there would not be much time until she had to return to the North. Count Jared and his wife would do anything to create time to be with their daughter.

“I’m telling you in advance, it won’t be the kind of atmosphere you’ll like.” Rose slowly opened her mouth.

A crowded place, unknown faces approaching recklessly, trying to act friendly (although it is doubtful whether they dare to do so to Maxim) and offering drinks nonstop.

Even if she didn’t see it yet, it was pictured in her mind. It was the scene she had always seen as she grew up in the Etoile family, so there was no expectation that it would be particularly different now.

“It’s a very close-knit family.”

She couldn’t say that it was a family overflowing with fraternal love. In general, wealthy families tended to quarrel between their eldest son and the head of the household, over property issues, or behave like strangers out of jealousy and envy.

The people of the Etoile household were different. Whether it was genetically innate from birth, or because of the unique education they had received for a long time, they were always united.

From siblings to distant cousins, there were no exceptions. If they had the surname of Etoile, they would support each other, and they have maintained a solid legacy as a powerful and historic family for hundreds of years.

Their personal connections were connected like a giant spider’s web, and they built one huge world of their own, encompassing commerce, diplomacy, art, and religion.

‘Because of that, my innocent uncles suffered a lot of damage…’

Rose recalled the days when Cassiax framed her father. Her uncles were devastated and even lost their lives trying to save her father. As she thought about it, she suddenly became quiet and let out a heavy sigh.

‘That won’t ever happen again.’

Maxim immediately noticed that Rose’s face had changed. As she was lost in her thoughts, her body was trembling as if she was about to fall, but her gaze was wandering somewhere in the air.

Maybe that’s why Rose didn’t even know that Maxim was staring at her.

The two have never sat face to face in such an enclosed space. It meant that Maxim had a legitimate chance to look at Rose to his heart’s content. He, who was looking out the window with his arms crossed, slowly turned his eyes at some point and filled his gaze with the figure of the woman in front of him.

A light sky-blue dress that could be blown away at any moment was wrapped around her flawless skin.

A silver lace woven into her braided red hair was tossed over her shoulder.

Every time the carriage swayed, the water-drop-like jewels on her ears dangled, giving off a mysterious multicolored light. To think she had gone voluntarily to the North, which everyone was reluctant and fearful of and called them savages.

Rose Etoile was the noblest woman in the capital. She was sparkling and beautiful, extravagant in her own way, and haughty enough to leave you out of breath. As much as his mother, she was a woman who was much more suited to a noble and elegant figure.

The day they first met contrasted with her current appearance, where she wore an old robe with her red hair soaked in the rain.

‘Why were those eyes so desperate at that time?’ This time, Maxim’s gaze stopped at the rose-like lips closed softly.

She was just about to tell him something about her family and friends, but for some reason, she kept her lips shut like that.

The red-purple eyes contained a secret concern. Her long eyelashes were slightly lowered, and she had only been staring at the corner of the carriage floor since before. Whenever he saw her eyes like that every once in a while, he became suspicious.

‘Why does she, who must have grown up brighter and happier than anyone else, look like she has lost everything in the world?’

The more he looked at her, the more he got to know her, the more he doubted her identity.

“So what I’m saying is… I’m asking for your understanding even if the family is a little unusual.”

Rose, who emerged from her thoughts, gently opened her pretty lips.

Maxim’s eyes, which had been observing her with a cynical gaze, shook.

The moment she looked at him, somewhere in his heart and his fingertips felt numb.

At the same time as the sudden emotions that hit him, the carriage rattled loudly.

“Ah!”

The wagon suddenly stopped with a slight inclination as if one of the wheels was caught in a stone beak.

It happened when she had relaxed the hand holding the armrest. Rose stretched out, falling forward and flat on Maxim. Maxim put his hands under her shoulders as if to catch an object falling in front of his face.

‘Oh my god.’

Rose muttered in disbelief. It was the first time she had fallen in such an odd position in a wagon.

‘How can I show such a ridiculous appearance in front of Maxim?’ She wanted to hide inside a rat hole and come out after a hundred years.

‘It would have been better if I hit my head and passed out.’

An embarrassing moan came out of her mouth at the thought of having to get up and sit face to face with him again, pretending it was nothing.

She put strength on her arm to raise her body, but what Rose grabbed was not the armchair, but his hard thighs.

“I-I-I’m sorry!”

She was so ashamed that she couldn’t even look at him.

She turned her head and tried to step back quickly, but suddenly her body was pulled up.

‘Huh?’

As if she was a light feather, Rose was being carried by Maxim. She looked up at him in surprise. His golden eyes were a bit darker than usual, but she couldn’t read anything from them.

‘What’s with this situation? What’s he doing? Why are you doing this?’

What was even more disconcerting was that Maxim didn’t seem to want to let her go easily. His arms around Rose’s waist tightened like a snare. She muttered absentmindedly.

“Why…”

Rose breathed in. Their lips were so close that they were about to touch. Maxim lowered his gaze and whispered, staring at Rose’s lips.

“It’s strange.”

“What is it…”

“I really want it.”

Maxim lowered Rose’s arm, which was grabbing his shoulder, and kissed the inside of her white wrist. Her head went blank at the strange sensation of gently pressing and light sucking.

As the horseman struggled to get the wheel out of the stone beak, a suffocatingly hot air wafted through inside the wagon.

His lips, which started from the wrist and climbed up gradually, moved over Rose’s lips. She didn’t even realize his lips were touching hers as she closed her eyes due to the unexpected sensations.

As if savoring the sweet rose-scented lips, Maxim’s tongue gently brushed Rose’s lower lip, opening a gap between them. She knew she had to get away from him, but strangely, she couldn’t move a finger.

Was her body as paralyzed as her reasoning? As if kissing was such a good feeling, she didn’t want to remove her lips.

His tongue gently brushed the insides of her mouth and subtly intertwined with hers. Whenever he did it, something inside her lower abdomen tingled and twisted on its own. Maxim pulled Rose close to him, completely onto his thigh, and gently swept her back.

‘Why did this happen all of a sudden?’ He was definitely indifferent until just now while listening to her story.

‘Did I say anything to provoke him?’ Rose tried to make her head work amid her body getting hotter, but she couldn’t think of doing anything to provoke him.

“Maxim. S-stop…”

The wagon rattled from time to time, and every part of their bodies touching felt a strange sensation as excitement arose. The feeling of wanting something they shouldn’t engulfed the two of them intensely.

There had been several dangerous moments like this, but she had never seen him as excited as he was now.

Rose, who would normally have removed herself from him, responded to his kiss, perhaps intoxicated by the strange air flowing inside the carriage. She was breathing heavily, holding herself on top of Maxim.

“We have arrived.”

Before saying that, the carriage door opened politely. A sudden gush of fresh air rushed in, and the two turned their heads in surprise.

‘Wait, when did we arrive? I didn’t even know the carriage stopped.’

Rose was as still as a statue, and her heart seemed to stop beating.

“Sh*t.”

Maxim murmured as he let out a rough breath accompanied by a sigh on the nape of her neck.

Even more surprised than the two inside the wagon were the people waiting outside. The butler, who opened the door, quickly turned his head, coughing embarrassed with his eyes wide.

In addition to the butler and the misfortune, it was her parents who witnessed the actions of the two.

The expressions of Count Jared and the Countess, who were waiting from afar to see their daughter, were spectacular.

Forgetting to keep their composure, the two of them opened their mouths wide as if their spirits had left their bodies.

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