Chapter 59 A Tug Of War
“It’s nice to have someone to talk to like this.”
“Me too. I’m really enjoying our conversation.”
Delphine replied quickly.
Thanks to her, Delphine learned a lot of useful information today.
It was clear that this chatty lady would be a useful source of information in the future.
“You should come and visit me sometimes… My life is always full.”
Countess Megan smiled a little sadly.
Beyond her bubbly, chatty mask, she felt like she’d caught a glimpse of her real self.
Delphine replied with some sincerity.
“Of course. We’ll see you often.”
As they left the opulent drawing room, Delphine pondered.
If the Emperor himself had intervened, could he find out more by asking Ioannes?
He is a hero and a captain of the Praetorian Guard, a favorite of the Emperor.
She’ll find out when he gets home this evening, after she melted his heart again.
But as she made up her mind, she remembered the smile that curved the corners of his eyes as he watched her leisurely, and the hardness of his body pressed against her back.
Her heart suddenly constricted in her chest.
‘It must be because I have to… Kiss a man who is so cruel.’
Yes, it must be the anxiety, the unpleasantness.
Delphine blamed him for her momentary trembling, and climbed into the carriage.
Confident that she would be able to tug him to the point of melting him again today.
***
‘Wrong idea.’
Inside the darkened quarters, just coming to evening.
Delphine asked, trying not to sound overly awkward or flustered.
“What, what are you doing…?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Ioannes, who was holding her closely, wearing nothing but a thin shirt, spoke leisurely into her ear.
“Enjoying the hospitality of a wife, welcoming her husband home after a hard day’s work?”
“…”
Delphine barely swallowed an embarrassed gulp at his increasingly intimate touch.
This was not the scenario she had expected.
She had offered to help him get dressed after coming home early today.
Taking the jacket, she planned to ask casually about the Duke and Marquis’ duel while he removed the rest of his clothes.
He mentioned his visit to Countess Megan’s drawing room, a casual outing that any noblewoman might have.
But she didn’t expect to be hugging him in the heat of the moment.
A flustered Delphine groped for his thick forearm around my waist.
‘If you’re tired from a long day, I think it would be…’
Sounds good.
But Delphine didn’t get to finish her sentence.
Ioannes buried his face in the nape of her neck and inhaled deeply.
Delphine stuttered, startled by the unfamiliar sensation of his breath on her bare skin.
“What, what are you doing…”
“Resting, My Lady.”
The languid voice crashed down on her shoulder.
But in contrast to his calm, relaxed tone, his large hand was doing something else entirely.
‘I’d rather bury him quickly and be done with it.’
Determined, Delphine spoke, trying to ignore the way his hand moved over her body.
“I was at Countess Megan’s… Today, and she seemed to be doing well.”
“Hmm. Really?”
“Yes. And… You know about the Duke of Purcell, don’t you, Ioan?”
The gentle stroking of his hand over her body made her feel a strange sensation.
Delphine asked, trying to hold on to her flying sanity.
“Um… I know.”
Still burying his head in the nape of her neck, he replied simply.
“I heard, hmm… That His Majesty personally arbitrated a Duke’s duel not long ago.”
“He did.”
“Did you happen to hear anything about that? Countess Megan was wondering about it.”
“Umm. You know… Because I was there at the arbitration.”
Done.
It was a good choice to ask him.
Of course, she never saw this coming.
“… I see.”
Delphine asked casually, trying not to sound too surprised.
“… So, what did the Marquis say was his reason for challenging to a duel?”
“Hmm. I didn’t really listen to much. From the sounds of it, it was probably something to do with the Duke and the Marquis.”
“… What about? Hmm.”
Ioannes’s touch was getting out of hand now.
Delphine’s white cheeks had already flushed as ripe as a ripe apple.
His touch was gentle but insistent, and a tickling sensation in her lower belly was already spreading through her body.
Normally, she would have pulled away and gotten away from him.
But right now, there was still more to hear from him.
Ioannes continued to speak uncharacteristically slowly, and Delphine urged him on.
“Yes? About what?”
“… Mmm. That’s something the Marquis of Humphreys never talks about.”
With that, Ioannes swooped Delphine up and dropped her onto the bed.
When Delphine looked up at him in surprise, he leaned toward her and placed his hands on either side of the bed.
Delphine gasped at how close he had suddenly become.
When they were just a breath away from each other, Ioannes whispered low.
“… Would you like to know more, My Lady?”
He wondered what she wanted to know.
By her expression, her mood, her tone, Delphine recognized immediately that she was not asking about the duel now.
She should cut him off here and now.
But his boiling gaze seemed to have paralyzed her body.
Could this strange sensation of melting from the inside out with just his gaze be part of his strange magic?
“…”
When she didn’t answer, he slowly lifted his hand.
A large hand cupped her heated cheek gently.
His lips moved slowly toward hers, as if to say, “Avoid at all costs.”
… Delphine didn’t dodge in the end.
Between their pressed lips and the gaping chasm, an unfamiliar sensation rushed toward her like a roadblock.
It wasn’t the first time he’d kissed her.
The day he’d gone berserk when he’d found her back covered in scars, he’d seemed to devour her.
But tonight, even though it was the same man, the same lips, it felt different.
Tonight, this act was something else entirely, something wild and savage.
Tender, melt-in-your-face.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t prepared herself for this to happen at some point whenever she seduced him.
But she hadn’t expected to feel something so foreign in the process.
He’s the enemy.
He’s supposed to be so cruel.
Why are his lips so soft and sweet when his whole body is so hard?
Her initial purpose of extracting information from him had long since faded.
After a long time of slowly exploring each other, their lips parted.
Her closed eyes opened and her gaze met his, who was staring at her as if he wanted to eat her.
… Was she looking at him like that right now?
“What the hell is wrong with me?
Is this what it means for a man and a woman to bump into each other?
Even though she doesn’t feel love for him.
Even though he probably doesn’t even truly love her yet, there’s something between their overlapping lips, something between their lips.
“Delphine…”
He called her name like an affectionate plea.
The sound of his voice sent sanity flying through her head once again.
“… Ioan.”
Their lips touched once more.
Her hand casually curled around the back of his neck.
The thought that she was only pretending to love him, pretending to make him love her, was long gone.
She couldn’t think of anything.
Just that he was deeper, deeper…
‘What am I thinking now?’
Delphine jerked away from him, furious, as if she’d been set on fire.
“Delphine…”
But Ioannes didn’t look at all disappointed or regretful.
Rather, he looked strangely amused.
“Uh, come on, let’s go downstairs…!”
Delphine tried to make an excuse, but he just gave up and sprinted out of the room.
An empty room, alone.
Standing tall, Ioannes grinned, the corners of his mouth twitching upward in an expression of madness.
He found her.
A way to keep her by his side forever.
A way to steal her attention away from the merciless truth those rats were out to uncover.
She was once a saint in the distance, a love-hate relationship.
But now she’s just his rightful wife.
So in the name of marriage, in the name of love.
If he can make her look beyond herself.
She and Ioannes can live happily ever after in this sugary world.
Having come to this twisted conclusion, Ioannes smiled serenely in the darkened room.
***
It was an act.
A very thorough one.
Delphine, curled up on the couch in the study, brushed her lips idly over him in confusion.
She’d been so engrossed, she’d been swept up in his enthusiasm.
He was a man with animal instincts to begin with.
She could never have fooled him if she hadn’t been so engrossed.
That’s why she did it.
Even if she was now bound to him in the name of marriage, even if she was on a mission to make him fall in love with her.
‘This is never love.’
In her brightly lit study, Delphine closed her eyes silently as she told herself that.
