Chapter 63

“…Edmond?”

When he didn’t do anything to her even though she closed her eyes and waited, Ezet slowly opened his eyes.

“Milady, do you hate me?”

“What?”

“Or have you lost interest after hearing my past stories?”

“What are you talking about? It has nothing to do with that.”

Edmond couldn’t guess why her attitude suddenly changed. Did Ezet sympathize with him after hearing what he said about his tragic past (though he didn’t think his past was miserable at all)?

Or that he no longer feels like a nice duke, so she didn’t feel sexual excitement.

‘Oh, my god. That’s not it.’

He planned to teach her a new play and mix up passionately until the sun sets and the night falls, but everything went wrong.

He couldn’t make love in this mood. Edmond couldn’t do anything to her if Ezet wasn’t happy.

Sighing and washing his face dry, Edmond lay next to Ezet. When the man, who was about to undress and caress at any moment, gave up his hand, Ezet looked at him with his eyes wide open in surprise.

“Edmond, why…”

“I’m afraid Milady’ll hate me if I hug her now.”

“No, it can’t be.”

No, he is sure it will. He didn’t know what made Ezet suddenly depressed, but if he tried to commit it out of now, there would be an invisible wall between them.

Ezet is sweet-tempered, vulnerable to temptation, and can’t say no, but she was never the one to reopen the door to her once closed heart.

Edmond was a tyrant of the Apostles, but he didn’t want to bully Ezet. No, it wasn’t precisely this kind of ‘bullying’ he wanted.

I wanted to see you in trouble but happy to be ruled by me, not forcefully commit a woman who truly hates him.’

Patting her thick lips with his fingertips, she blinks at him. The face was lovely, Edmond whispered affectionately, passing her flowing side hair behind her ear.

“I want to sleep next to you like this today. Will that be okay?”

“That…… Is it okay if we don’t do that?”

“Sometimes being patient is a fresh stimulus.”

Edmond was not a patient man. But now, he was acutely feeling the need for a process of perseverance to get what he wanted.

“Go to sleep, Milady. Tomorrow we have to go see the Emperor and the Empress.”

“It’s still bright.”

“Then let’s close the curtains.”

When he pulled the white string on the head of the bed, the light purple canopy that had been lifted came down, and when he pulled the gold string, a dark purple cloth came down on top of it. In an instant, the bed became as dark as night.

“It’s dark.”

“It’s like night because there’s no light, right?”

“I can’t even see your face.”

Ezet reached out to Edmond in the dark. Cravat, wrapped around his neck at her fingertips, touched. As her hand went up, she passed through a solid jaw and lead to smooth lips, a slim nose, and a straight forehead.

His neat face with a clear outline did not lose its beauty in the dark.

‘How can he be so handsome even though he can’t see his face?’

Ezet closed her eyes and stuttered his face. Even if it is a lifelong masterpiece created by the best sculptor, one will be deceived. When she first saw him in the doll’s room, she mistook him for a doll.

‘But dolls don’t have body temperature.’

When she’s in his warm arms, she can hear the beating of his heart. When the elastic beat that did not exist in the dolls because they did not contain life was delivered through the chest, Ezet somehow seemed to cry.

It is not just the appearance that the darkness hides. The darkness was cozy as if it covered her heavy feelings of guilt and depression.

“Good night, Edmond.”

“Good night, Milady.”

It was still a little free time for the sun to fall. However, whether it was dark due to the curtains or because she had been bullied so hard by him last night, Ezet yawned for a long time and then fell asleep.

* * *

It was dawn when she woke up.

“Yes…”

Silver moonlight permeated the window. She drew a blackout curtain that blocked the light, and when were they drawn?

Ezet, lifting her body, was surprised to find herself in a slip and panties.

‘I didn’t take my clothes off before I went to bed. Did Edmond take it off?’

There is no diamond necklace or choker. She fell asleep in her dress and slept like a log without knowing Edmond was undressing her. Ezet was a little embarrassed.

‘I’m gonna wake him up.’

She turned her head and looked at Edmond, who was fast asleep next to her. He was dressed in a gown, perhaps after Ezet went to bed after taking a bath. It was her first time seeing his sleeping face. When she’s in the Duke’s Castle, it’s scary when the sun goes down.