CH 21

Following the butler to the parlor, Ivan suddenly wrapped his arms around his stomach and crossed his legs.

“Wh, where is the restroom in here?”

“What?”

“Tell me quickly!”

“It’s in the far end room, around the left corner from there.”

At the butler’s words, Ivan hastily rounded the corner.

As soon as he was out of the butler’s sight, he stopped acting and looked around.

All so he could find Katya without the butler’s knowledge.

So he purposely lurked in front of the Duke’s office and visited after he saw Duke Smirnov going out.

If he couldn’t kidnap her and take her away, he could blackmail her with her secret and make her follow him.

‘If I’d known this would happen, I’d have waited until the wedding day to do it.’

Ivan wanted to conquer Katya, who didn’t care for him, no matter what.

If he’d gone around proclaiming that he’d slept with her, she would have been so embarrassed that she would never have thought of running away.

He cursed himself for not being more subtle.

Only Ivan himself didn’t realize that the whole thing was a bunch of bullshit.

***

While Ivan was searching the Duke’s house, relying on his not-so-helpful childhood memories, Katya and Nikolai were in the study together.

As they walked around the room, Laika laid down on the marble floor and wagged her tail gently.

As she looked around the room, her eyes caught the title of her favorite book.

The Duke had recently brought in new books, and the ones that had previously been in the bottom shelf by title were now in the top shelf next to it.

“Oh, there it is! Just a moment, Grand Duke. I’ll get it right away.”

Katya climbed to the top of the ladder that spanned the bookshelves and stretched her arms out to reach the book.

But the bookshelf was too high for her to reach.

“Gotcha!”

She stood holding the bar, picked up a book and lowered her arm, but her foot slipped, causing her to stumble backward and fall.

As she fell, thinking she was going to break one of her arms at this rate, a familiar scent wafted toward her.

It was Nikolai.

His lips moved slightly as he caught the falling Katya in a princess-carrying position.

“Be careful.”

His voice was barely audible, and she nodded slightly, her face flushed.

In Nikolai’s arms, she remembered sleeping in the same bed with him.

His claim that she had stolen his chastity came automatically.

Did he really think she’d molested him by drooling on the Grand Duke’s chest?

If true, he was a pervert.

Nikolai gently set her down on the floor, lost in thought.

“Here, Grand Duke, this is the book I was talking about. Ouch!”

She reached for the book clutched in her arms and cut her hand on the corner of the cover.

“Are you okay?”

Nikolai asked thoughtfully, taking her hand, which was dripping with blood.

He poured water from his water bottle over her hand and washed the wound before she could say yes.

Then, without hesitation, he tore off the end of the chemise he wore underneath his coat and wrapped it around her index finger.

He wound it all the way around until the top of Katya’s index finger was as fat as a frog’s foot.

“Grand Duke, I think this is too much for such a small cut.”

But her words fell on Nikolai’s dead ears, who had already snapped the strings of reason.

“Who’s your publisher, and how do they make covers like this?”

“I, Grand Duke…….”

“I thought you’d be safe inside, so how is it that such dangerous things exist even in your own home?”

“Grand Duke!”

Katya called out to him in a loud voice, and Nikolai, who had been squeezing her tiny hand, looked up.

“What’s wrong, my lady. Are you sick?”

“Not really, I just need to go out for a while.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“You can’t go out like this.”

“Why?”

Nikolai followed her gaze and lowered his head back down.

The tear in his chemise exposed his abdominal muscles.

“I’m going to get a chemise from my father’s room, and you can wait inside.”

As she turned to leave, Nikolai gently grabbed her hand from behind.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll be right back.”

“Of course.”

“Come as soon as you can.”

“Why?”

Curiosity flared in Katya’s green eyes.

Nikolai leaned in closer, intrigued that she was so skilled with a gun and a sword and yet knew nothing about love.

The distance between them closed until their noses touched.

“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“I’m asking because I don’t know.”

“Because I want to see it.”

“Oh…….”

“I always used to go without seeing you, for fear of being a burden to you, but now that we’ve met, I don’t want to be apart for even a moment.”

Katya still hadn’t gotten used to this man’s unannounced confessions.

“I’ll have to let you go even if I don’t want to, won’t I?”

Nikolai wiggled his eyebrows and gave her an amused look, then slowly released her hand.

“Please don’t keep looking at me with those eyes.”

“What eyes?”

“The ones where you look at me like honey is about to drip out of your eyes.”

“Is that the way my eyes look when I look at you?”

“Oh my God, are you still like that?”

“Well, love is hard to hide. So you have to bear with it.”

“It seems like you’ve had quite a lot of dating experience. You’re quite the expert, huh?”

Katya grumbled, feeling unnecessarily frustrated.

“I told you, it was you who took my chastity—”

Nikolai stopped mid-sentence.

“A chastity is a chastity and a love affair is a love affair, why do you say that all of a sudden?”

“To me, they are the same. Giving your my heart and giving you my body, you are my first.”

“Why do you keep speaking like that? As if I’ve taken possession of the Duke’s body! I haven’t received anything!”

“Right. It’s just how the one who was taken remembers.”

Nikolai laughed, poking her cheek with his index finger as she objected, jumping up.

“Come back soon. Don’t get distracted along the way.”

“Why are you treating me like a child running errands? I’ve been an adult for years!”

“It means not to pay attention to anything other than me.”

Katya managed to escape the clutches of the potential stalker and stepped out into the corridor.

She was heading towards her father’s dressing room when suddenly someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a corner.

“How have you been, Katya?”

“Wait, how did you get here?!”

Ivan had been looking for Katya and had seen her a few moments earlier, in the study with the door half open, holding hands affectionately with another man.

He had been gritting his teeth ever since, waiting for her to come out.

“You’re good at this, have you switched to another man?”

“What nonsense, can you let go?”

She tried to pull away, but Ivan just gripped her wrist tighter.

“Aah! It hurts!”

“Thud!”

Just then, Laika, sensing the scent of her enemy, lunged at Ivan, baring her teeth.

As soon as she saw Ivan raise his leg to kick Laika, Katya’s eyes widened and she kicked him in the shin.

“Ouch!”

But he didn’t let go of her despite the pain.

“You touch my Laika one more time and I’ll kill you!”

“How dare you do this to your heavenly husband for that little bastard?”

“Who’s my husband, and what’s heaven?”

“Don’t you know, husbands are the heavens, wives are the earth, and that’s why all wives are supposed to respect, admire, and submit to their husbands!”

“Do you really need to be beaten to wake up?”

“Does he know that you’re living with a man, that you’re a slut, and that you’re being kept alive because of me? Kekek!”

Before he could finish my sentence, she heard Ivan’s feet on the floor.

When Nikolai finally followed after Katya, he witnessed the scene. Without hesitation, he immediately grabbed Ivan’s neck with one hand and lifted him off the ground.

“I wish I was as muscular and strong as you.”

“What?”

“If I’m strong, no one will look down on me.”

Upon seeing Ivan mistreating Katya, who had been raised as a noblewoman, he finally understood why she had spoken those words back then.

It was this scumbag who made her feel that way.

“I, Your Highness? Ugh—”

Ivan, who recognized him belatedly, stumbled back in the air.

From a distance, he hadn’t noticed due to jealousy, but up close, he realized it was the Grand Duke.

“Are you trying to poison me by sending me tea or something? The Petrozky family is a founding master—”

“So, you were the one babbling such nonsense to Tia.”

With the slightest twitch of his hand, he could have twisted his throat right then and there, but Nikolai didn’t.

He thought of a better alternative.

Nikolai picked Ivan up and laid him on his back on the window sill.

Ivan’s head and upper body were dangling precariously, as if he could fall at any moment.

His legs couldn’t even reach the ground, so he was helplessly in Nikolai’s hands.

If Nikolai let go of his grip, his body would plummet out the window.

Ivan’s bloodshot face turned purple as he hung upside down.

“Do you think I would kill a man with a mere cup of tea?”

“Oh, spare me, Your Highness!”

“Wrong, I kill anyone I want to kill with my own hands, it’s more fun that way.”

“Please……!”

“Why else would I be called the Grand Duke of Blood? It means I must see blood. It’s the only thing that really takes my breath away, right?”

Seeing the murder in Nikolai’s eyes, Ivan felt a chill run down his spine.

“Husbands are heavenly, wives are earthly, so I suppose we’ll just keep the women on earth and send all the honorable men like you to heaven.”

With those words, the Grand Duke released his grip on Ivan.

“Aaahhhhh—!”