Chapter 90

10. I thought it had changed.

Since then, I hadn’t been able to pull myself together. It was because, since that day, Lucian had blatantly exposed his affection to me.

…How had he been holding on? No, how did he hide it? Even right now, as I was sorting out the invitations, I had to pretend not to notice his hot gaze, who still gazed at me as if he was going to ignite me.

His invitation.

How much longer do I hate to wait for him to be satisfied?

I glanced at the invitations piling up by the side of the chair I was sitting in and then put the invitations in my hand down on the desk.

I felt a little tired.

Since I had kept my head down from looking at the invitations, my shoulders and neck hurt. Lucian quickly noticed my condition with the slightest sigh and tapped the desk.

Then, the aides who were working with their noses stuck at the desks all raised their heads in unison. The aides, who sat at their desks on either side and turned their heads towards us, seemed a little frightened.

Lucian said coldly, putting his papers aside.

“Everyone, get out.”

“Yes!”

“Understand, Duke!”

With more coordinated movements than the knights, the aides left the office quickly. I glared at Lucian with a puzzled face.

When he was like this, there was only one reason.

“My lips hurt!”

I covered my mouth with my hand and protested weakly.

He coveted my lips every day. I think I saw the morning sun one day, but after kissing, it felt like the sun was setting.

“Brother, aren’t you working? I think things are going to be delayed?”

While I was shooting back at him fiercely, I covered my mouth with both hands with a ‘gasp’sound. This was the reason why my lips were taken by him over and over again. He relentlessly stuck to his declaration that day.

As if he really would definitely change my habit, he pushed me so hard no matter where I was.

However, since childhood, I had called him ‘brother.’ Although my real age was already older than him, I had called him brother for a very long time. How could I just suddenly change my habit like flipping the palm of your hand…?

As I hurriedly left my seat, he was one step faster. Lucian, who was already up, gently pressed my shoulder as I was about to get up. Even with that light gesture, I couldn’t move. He had great strength as he had been training for a long time.

Still, I didn’t want to be swayed by him anymore. I don’t know my feelings yet, and I don’t even know what’s changed now, and again…

“It really hurts… Ouch…”

My lips were really hurt.

“Ugh… my shoulder hurts.”

“…What?”

I thought my lips would get eaten again this time, but Lucian gently rubbed my shoulder instead.

“Haa…”

It was really nice. It felt like he was only pressing at it, though he pressed exactly the part that felt tight and pressed it firmly. Because of that, a sigh leaked out from my mouth.

It wasn’t because I didn’t like it, but it was a sigh of satisfaction.

“Um…”

He grabbed the nape of my neck and rubbed my shoulders. I felt drowsy at the kneading hand that felt like drawing circles.

“Ha, so good.”

I shut my eyes and savored it. It was so nice that I was thrilled all the way to the tip of my toes.

While he stood behind me and gave me a massage, Lucian pressed down my shoulders, neck, and spine as his hand went down. It could not be compared to what Amber did. It seemed like a difference in grip strength.

As I was entrusting myself to him for a while, it seemed that the touch had changed a bit.

…His fingertips that felt neat have gotten a bit clingy?

“Hmm?”

When I opened my closed eyes, I met his golden eyes. He was standing behind me with his head down, and when our eyes met, he smiled softly.

It was really mysterious.

Whenever Lucian, who I thought was honest and naive, gave such a wild smile, I couldn’t shake the thought that I had been deceived.

I didn’t know that the tear dot that stuck underneath the left corner of the lightly folded eyes would feel so lewd. Was it because he had some kind of trick that made me fall for him helplessly regardless of my will?

I stared at him, unable to take my eyes off his slowly approaching face.

As expected, he always came slowly as if he wanted to see my reaction.

Though today was a little different from any other day. Lucian pressed his lips to mine very lightly and then slowly pulled it off.

I felt his long fingers brushing away the hair covering my shoulders. Goosebumps stood up as he brushed away the hair that was wrapped around the nape of my neck. He pressed his fingertips down just below my ears and rubbed them in a circular motion.

The act that would have felt nice just a moment ago tickled me strangely.

I reflexively shrunk my shoulders and turned my head. The next moment, I felt his hot lips touching just below my ear.

“Huh!”

It reminded me of the hot melted wax when I wrote letters to Bellisa.

Even if I carefully pour the melted wax from the small spoon over the envelope, I always make a mistake. It was as hot as the wax I had touched at that time, but it felt like it was permeating all over my skin.

I could feel the lips touching up against the skin. And then he sucked hard.

“Ah, huh.”

My lips parted open and a strange sound came out.

Startled, I hurriedly covered my mouth, but he sucked in my flesh more strongly than before. At the same time, I hated the way he gently massaged the bottom of my opposite ear with his fingertips.

His eyes met mine as tears started to form.

The thin curved eyes once again were really distracting.

What made him so happy after putting such a huge worry on me? I couldn’t sleep these days because of him. I knew the original story had gone wrong at this point, but what he was doing was…

Exactly… like the behavior I saw in the original story…

It wasn’t the ending I wanted, but obviously, the original story had gone wrong…

Why was he gazing at me with the same eyes he saw Noah in the original story?

…Had he become a friendly seme? Why was Lucian still looking at me with those terrifying yandere eyes?

Why were those eyes…

…Was it meant for me?

It was really confusing.

That was the only emotion I’d been feeling lately… Very, very confused. Even so, my heart that couldn’t reject him harshly was the most annoying.

After finishing all the schedule, I returned to my room, did a warm wash up and changed into pajamas. Normally, Lucian would have sat on the sofa and waited for me while looking at the papers, but he was still in the office to get the rest of the work done.

It definitely felt like a lot of his work had increased. He became the Duke, so perhaps because of that, but now was an important time for farming, so he would need to pay more attention.

“Lady, would you like some cold tea?”

Amber was a person who knew well that I liked cold tea more than hot tea. As she asked, she actually had already made the preparations, I gave a small smile to her cute behavior.

“If you already have it, just give it to me.”

“Yes.”

She also brought iced tea with a smile on her face as if it was funny.

“Ha, so good.”

“Hoho, you worked hard.”

“Well, all I do is sort invitations, so I wouldn’t call that hard.”

“You don’t know how important an invitation is, don’t you?”

“…It is?”

“Of course. I am the only one who manages the Lady’s invitations?”

“Most of my work is done by you alone.”

“Even so, dress repairs and food items are not done by me. Maybe, it’s just about conveying the Lady’s taste instead?”

“Isn’t that obvious? If you do all that, will you be able to sleep?”

“Well, that’s right. Still, the invitation sorting is never done in the hands of anyone else. That’s why invitations are so important that you don’t entrust them to just anyone.”

“Well…”

Hearing Amber’s words, it was certainly true. If I was doing it for Lucian, I would have delivered to him mainly invitations from people around me.

To put it simply, the invitation of the Bellisa family to business or social gatherings was number one. Then, public opinion would think that the Duchy Leon gave strength to Marquisate Bourgne. The smaller families will try to somehow tie strings to Marquisate Bourgne.

Anyway, as it was a hierarchical society, Duchy Leon, the highest among the nobles, was in a position to save a single noble family just by their name.

“Certainly… Amber, I think you’re right.”

“Yes! So, from generation to generation, the Duke’s invitations were managed separately by the Duchess or the butler.”

Following Amber’s words, I choked while drinking the remaining iced tea.

“Cough, kugh.”

“Lady, be careful.”

She quickly took a handkerchief and wiped the corners of my mouth and wet areas.

“…That’s strange.”

I uttered to her after taking the handkerchief and wiping my hands.

“What?”

“That’s well… Why am I, his sister, doing something important enough for the Duchess to do? Isn’t it a bit strange?”

Amber’s expression darkened at my words. I swallowed a gulp as her eyes were as if seeing something very strange. She stared at me with strange eyes and came up to me and whispered in a small voice.

“Weren’t you two dating?”

“…What?”

“I thought you were definitely dating, you’re not?”

I jumped to my feet at her remark, which I had never expected.

“Amber, are you crazy? No matter how we are not blood-related, brother and I are siblings in the family register.”

Amber gave me another strange look as I said that, and she sighed.

“In the past, there were many cases where they deliberately brought the family member into the house in advance and let them stay together before marrying them. As the Lady said, you’re not blood-related, so what kind of siblings are you? It’s between men and women.”

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