CH 8.7

They were having a quiet staring contest when there was a knock on the door.

Michael was the first to greet Jessie, who had arrived with fruit, tea, and the finished play equipment.

A variety of berries, green and red grapes, were served in a crystal bowl that kept them at just the right temperature.

After bringing an assortment of cold and hot teas, Jessie pulled a large box from the bottom of the trolley.

The faintly silvery wooden box was quite heavy. Setting it quietly on the table with both hands, Jessie bowed.

“If you need something, please call for me immediately, my lady.”

Lucas and Michael nodded approvingly at Jessie, who was the first of the three to ask her permission.

Even with the Duke and young master, Jessie was still the Duchess’s exclusive handmaiden, so her behavior was proper.

After Jessie left, the three sat side by side on another couch and drank tea.

As they munched on the tangy fruit, Michael spoke up impatiently.

“I’m curious. Can we open it?”

“Why not?”

Lila said, wiping her hands on a handkerchief. Lucas, sitting comfortably cross-legged beside her, popped a green grape into his mouth.

“Shall we open it?”

“Yeah, why don’t we open it together?”

Lila opened the wooden box with Michael. Inside the wooden box, which creaked open, was a pile of square jewelry.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just a square. It was a block with four rounded sections sticking out of it.

“Whoa…”

“It’s amazing”

Lila and Michael couldn’t take their eyes off the box. Lucas’s eyes lit up as he watched from a few feet away.

“Lila, how do we do this?”

“Oh, wait.”

Lila set the lid of the box on the table. Then she began to stack the blue blocks one by one. Michael’s eyes lit up as he watched the blocks stack solidly, with rounded edges meeting concave edges.

“You can stack them like this to make anything you want. I’m going to make a wave.”

Michael said, his voice filled with excitement as he watched Lila make waves with the blue blocks.

“Then I’ll make a cottage next to it.”

The blocks were colorful, made from a wider variety of gemstones than the ones Michael had given her.

The two sat down on the couch and began to build intently.

“You’re amazing, Michael. It already looks like a vacation home.”

“You’re amazing, Lila. It’s like a real wave.”

As they complimented each other on their blocks, Lucas watched with a sour expression on his face.

As much fun as it was, Lucas had other things to do with Lila. And soon, it would be time for his nephew’s class, so he quietly sipped his tea and waited.

Knock knock.

“Young master, it’s Henry.”

“Come in.”

Michael was very disappointed that it was time to go to class. Henry entered the room, the butler Lila had chosen after talking to him in person.

For reference, as he was preparing to become a butler, he was also a person who suffered quite a bit of trouble among the attendants because of his freckles. But he had a meticulous and bright personality.

“It’s time for your history and mythology class, young master.”

“…Lila, leave this as it is. You have to do this with me. You can’t do this alone. Got it?”

“Yes, I got it. Please listen carefully in class.”

“Okay.”

After seeing Michael off to the door, Lila watched his back for a moment before closing the door behind him as he called after her.

“If you’ll excuse me, my lady, and come this way.”

As Michael disappeared, Lucas’s scent seemed to intensify. Lila slowed her steps, feeling her heart pounding.

She tried to pretend it wasn’t happening, but ever since that night, every time she sees Lucas, her heart fluttered.

His low voice, ragged breathing, warm hands and hard body automatically came to mind, causing her palms to sweat and her heart to race.

Avoiding Lucas, who was leaning loosely against the end of the couch, Lila sat down on the opposite end.

He stood up slowly and came to sit beside her, seemingly intentionally distant.

“Why, why are you coming closer?”

Lucas said, leaning in slowly and closely to Lila’s side as she raised her voice in surprise.

“Why, can’t I do this? You only love Michael so…”

Resting his head on her shoulder, he continued.

“You make me jealous.”

Lila’s face turned red at his sudden words.

Starting that night, Lucas would often say these.

I think I’m going to be jealous.

You smell so sweet and I don’t want to let you go.

Your smile is beautiful.

I like the sound of your voice and I want you to keep talking.

Like such. He spat out those unfamiliar words casually.

“Also…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Lucas popped a green grape into her mouth.

It popped open, filling her mouth with a tart, sweet flavor. The fruit from the north was much juicier and sweeter than those from the capital.

“It’s sweet…”

“Isn’t it?”

As he asked with a bright smile, Lila nodded slowly. Lucas picked another grape, this time a red one, and popped it into her mouth.

“Eat some more.”

Lucas lowered his eyes as he popped the grape into her red mouth. The pink moving lips looked more delicious than the purple skin.

Feeling overwhelmed by Lucas shoving another grape into her mouth, Lila said.

“I’ll eat it myself, Duke.”

Lucas, who had already picked up the grape, replied with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re a married couple, so why not?”

“No, we’re a contract couple…”

He don’t think this is. Putting a grape in her mouth as she was about to say it, with a nuance of just thinking about it, Lucas said.

“When should we set up our first night? Tonight or tomorrow night?”

Lila’s mouth dropped open in surprise at his words. Forgetting the grape in her mouth, she tried to answer.

She wanted to say, ‘Who was it who said we didn’t need the obligations of a pre-wedding cohabitation period?’ but she couldn’t.

A long finger slipped into her mouth, squeezed a grape, and popped it. Lila’s lips parted at the texture and sweet juice.

She sucked on it, but then something went wrong. Lucas didn’t pull his finger out, as if he was still admiring the inside of her mouth. Instead, he watched her do it with a glint in his eye.

His mint-colored eyes seemed to consume her, and Lila’s mind flashed back to that night.

It was sticky and hot…

Lost in thought for a moment, Lila arched her back, startled by the sensation of firm fingertips pressing against her.

She opened her lips to spit out his fingers. Her eyes reddened with embarrassment.

“Haa…”

Lucas, watching her expression, watching her every breath, twirled his finger around and grabbed her waist with his other hand.

Gently lifting Lila onto his lap with one hand, Lucas swallowed hard at the hot, soft feel of his fingertips.

Her sweet scent wafted out like a pent-up drip. He wanted to lick it, to chase the substance.

He pressed his fingers against the curve of her tongue and leaned down to lick the white nape of her neck.

The scent turned to sugar and clumped on his tongue. His tongue tingled at the sensation.

“S, Stop!”

Lila turned her head away from the hard fingers moving inside her mouth like they were supposed to be there.

The instantaneous surge of heat made her dizzy. His scent, thick as damp air, seemed to settle on her skin, enveloping her.

Like a small animal caught in a trap, Lila rustled and put her hands on his shoulders.

“Why.”

The question came out in a ragged breath.

“…Yes?”

Catching her chin as she gasped for air, Lucas pressed a saliva-covered finger to her full lips.

“Why do we have to stop? We’re a couple.”

“You told me before that I don’t need to be obligated…”

They would be separated in two years at the earliest, three at the latest, as written in their contract. Remembering that fact clearly, she said.

“I don’t understand why you’re suddenly acting like this, surely you’re the one who told me I only had to fulfill my public obligations.”

Lucas, his fingers moving lazily from the tip of her chin to rub her earlobe, never taking his gaze from her eyes, spoke.

“I did.”

“Then…”

“But then I changed my mind.”

Swept up in the mood, Lila thought she could correct him, but his response shocked her like a blow to the head.

“What?”

Lucas curled the corner of his lips as he stared intently into her wide-open cobalt eyes.

“Apart from that, is it not written in the contract? That you don’t have to do your marital duties…”

He added, his hand lazily caressing her waist as she pursed her lips in silence.

“Actually, I don’t care about contracts or whatever.”

Tugging at her waist, Lucas lightly kissed the tip of Lila’s jaw.

Lucas nibbled lightly on her pink bottom lip before letting go.

The scent seemed to bind her like a chain. Lila could barely breathe, his scent was so thick and intense that it seemed to suffocate her.

“It’s a shame we’re already a couple, but…”

A large hand slowly roamed up her back, gently brushing through her hair before wrapping around the nape of her neck.

Leaning his head back against the back of the couch, Lucas looked up at her.

“Shall we fall in love?”

With that, Lucas’s darkly arched head lifted and tilted.

Lila gripped his shoulders tightly and let out a slow breath. Her dizzy head had already been eroded by his scent, and her vision was blurred by the mint-colored eyes that held her gaze and refused to let go.

Red lips pressed against pink ones, and he spoke slowly, his words coming out only in the shape of his mouth.

‘It’s already too late.’

…he said.

She wanted to ask what was late, but his lips, filled with hot breath, silenced her.

Heated flesh invaded roughly. It stole her breath away with a rough stroke, then a gentle sweep.

Strong hands gripped her waist and Lila moaned, and it all flowed into Lucas’s mouth.

Lifting Lila up, her legs struggling in her tattered dress, Lucas stood. Spinning her around, he sat her down on the couch.

His lips, still parted, moved, and his head turned with them. Lila tightened her grip on his shoulders, fully realizing what it was like to be suffocated.

At the slightest touch, Lucas slowly pulled his lips away.

Lucas smiled broadly as he pressed a light kiss to Lila’s lips as she gasped for air.

“Haa… I don’t quite understand.”

“What?”

Leila narrowed her eyes at Lucas, who was naturally short-spoken in response to her being out of breath.

“Why do you keep talking informally? Didn’t you say you’d be polite as a husband?”

Lucas replied without lifting an eyebrow even at her broken words.

“You don’t like talking informally? Then I’ll be polite.”

“No, just now too…”

“Of course, as a husband, I owe my wife every courtesy. That’s why I’m letting you off the hook now. I’m going to take a step-by-step to the first night.”

He pressed on with his muscle-covered upper body.

“So, speaking of which, shall we have our first night tonight?”

He whispered, slowly pressing his lips to Lila’s ear as she hardened in awe at his words.

“Or right now?”

Lila’s lips parted in disbelief.

Lucas, who had been kneeling on the floor, swiftly moved up to the couch and placed his hands on the backrest, looking down at her.

His mesmerizing, slanted eyes stared back at her intently.

Trapped by him, Lila gasped for breath as if she were suffocating because of the scent that seemed to ride up from her legs silently rather than his body blocking her light.

What the hell this scent was, she wanted to know now, desperately.

Turning to Lila, who was perfectly trapped by him, Lucas slowly bowed his head and spoke.

“Then, today is our first day.”