Chapter 98

Liv had thought that he might want her.

Although she couldn’t be sure if he would have wanted her in this way, she felt a strange, unfounded confidence that at least she would not get a humiliating rejection.

That confidence encouraged the lustful desire that Liv had been secretly nurturing as she met him. A raw desire to sleep with him, just once. And as expected, he held her.

It was more intense than she had expected.

Standing under the trickling water in the bathroom, Liv looked down at her body for a moment. Her once white and clean body was dotted with marks. Handprints from the man’s large hands, bruises from his vicious bites, and minor cuts caused by the friction against his clothes.

Was that all? Everything below her waist was so numb that she could barely stand.

Even the slightest stroke of a finger across her skin brought a tingling pain. The sensation triggered a vivid recollection of what had just happened.

It was a tantalizing, blissful moment of ecstasy that she had never experienced in her life. She was definitely… excited. Most definitely sexually.

It was just that she had no clue that the end of that storm of pleasure would leave her with such a hollow feeling.

Unlike her, who had blackened out so many times, the Marquis remained unruffled until the moment he ejaculated. His relaxed demeanor was also evident in the clothes he didn’t remove until the very end, even though they were stained with bodily fluids. That said, he did click his tongue briefly, as if to express his displeasure with the rumpled and stained clothes.

After checking out his appearance, he got out of bed as if to leave the room right away. However, instead of going right away, he took out a cigar and brought it to his mouth.

By then, Liv was still lying in bed, gasping for air.

“I’ve instructed the nude painting work to be put on hold for the time being.”

The Marquis, puffing out a thick smoke in front of the table, spoke first. Liv was exhausted and didn’t have the energy to get up, but she couldn’t have a conversation while lying down, so she forced herself up.

“I’ve heard about it.”

“He claimed to have developed some kind of art technique and implored me to sponsor him. When I turned him down, he said he was sick.”

The Marquis, as expected, didn’t seem to buy Brad’s excuse about being ill at all. The evidence was the slightest hint of mockery in his impassive voice.

Liv glanced away, feeling her face heat up for no good reason.

“Brad may be… a little short tempered, but I don’t think he’s doing it out of malice. He’s not wise, but he’s not an evil person who’s going to cheat and be mean to anyone. I think he’s just having some impossible wishes because he’s been going through a rough time lately.”

He was just a carefree guy who didn’t think thoroughly, but he wasn’t a bad person by nature. Liv looked pensive as she remembered Brad’s wife, who turned around in frustration the other day.

The fact that he had gone to the capital made her unnerving, but if he could get to his senses by now, he might be able to avoid getting into trouble. Moreover, the painting was far from finished, so it would be wise to speak positively about Brad to the Marquis.

“What’s your relationship with him?”

Liv, who was trying her best to speak up for Brad, looked up at once. The Marquis, standing at an angle, eyed her intently.

“A painter and a model, obviously.”

“You seem to be advocating for him quite zealously for such a relationship. Is there something more to it?”

It was a vague question, but the implication was clear. Liv’s cheeks flushed in exasperation.

Didn’t her disheveled appearance at this moment prove whether or not she had been such an easy woman, meeting people casually?

Besides, Brad was a married man! Though she wouldn’t have fooled around with him even if he was an unmarried man, Liv wasn’t one of those people with prurient morals who would play around with someone with a spouse. As such, she found the Marquis’ casual, rude question insulting.

“When I first set foot in Buerno, Brad saved me from a scam. He also offered me a second job because I was having a hard time making ends meet.”

This might have seemed insignificant to the Marquis, but to Liv, it was a big deal.

“Is that all?”

“I’m only feeling grateful for his help. You may think I am an easy woman, but nothing like today has ever happened in my life.”