The Devil's Whisper
Wasn’t that against the rules? Everyone in the Toulouse territory knew that the suitors lined up for her only after meeting the conditions she herself had set, and that each of them then fought desperately to win her heart.
“Is that so?”
Her voice held not the slightest concern. For reasons he could not name, Cesare clenched his fist and then let it open again. A strange sourness twisted in his gut.
“If it were a suitor who truly liked you—”
“Haha.”
She let out a dry laugh. It was not meant to mock him; the sound simply burst free, impossible to hold back.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re telling such a romantic story. It’s so unlike you.”
“…Unlike me. What exactly do you think you know about me?”
She was not wrong, yet the certainty in her voice forced the reply out of him. Emotion made his tone sharper than he intended. Realizing too late that the words could have reduced any sheltered young lady to tears, he glanced quickly at her face.
“If he had truly liked me, he wouldn’t have come to the mansion claiming to be a suitor, brought a friend along, and rolled dice with him in perfect harmony.”
When she lowered her eyes, the shadows cast by her lashes trembled. At the sight of her like that, Cesare opened his mouth before he could stop himself, ready to offer some excuse.
“…That was…”
His voice faltered. Somehow he felt as though every path of retreat had already been cut off.
“I’m not saying your feelings are false.”
“It would be better if we ended this conversation here.”
If they spoke any longer, even the parts of himself he never wanted exposed would come spilling out. Cesare severed the exchange with abrupt haste.
“Are you going to send me home?”
Her sudden question froze his expression.
“…Wouldn’t that be better than remaining like this? It’s cold here… and I have no wish to invite needless misunderstanding from the household.”
His voice sharpened of its own accord.
Delphina curled a little deeper into the blanket and turned her gaze toward the fireplace.
“If this is not a meeting between suitor and lady, then there’s no need for either of us to know anything, is there?”
The whisper that this was the perfect chance rose unbidden; Cesare fought to clear his head.
“If not as a suitor, then just how am I supposed to treat you?”
He asked the question low, then found his own voice softening almost to a murmur. Confusion knotted inside him.
“We met before we ever saw each other at the mansion, didn’t we?”
Strangely she made him think of his most fragile younger sister; the next moment it felt as though the softest flesh he had armored in the hardest shell was being pierced clean through.
Cesare slowly raked wet hair back from his forehead.
“So you haven’t forgotten.”
“How could I possibly forget?”
“...........”
After all that careful pretense of ignorance. When he lowered his eyes he saw Delphina’s dripping hair.
Drip. Drip.
Water fell. Cesare’s arm moved on pure reflex to wipe it away; she caught his wrist and drew him closer.
“You said you liked me. Are you going to let an opportunity like this slip past?”
“Young lady.”
“I don’t mind what you do.”
It was the devil’s whisper, without question. A hunger he had never even known he possessed stirred and stretched. The right course was to refuse. A proper gentleman protected a woman’s vulnerability. Even if she had pulled him in, shaking free would have been nothing.
Cesare lifted her lightly into his arms. In a single motion their positions reversed. He caged her beneath both arms and looked down.
Why did she, who possessed the wealth and power everyone else envied, look so perilously fragile?
“Do you have any idea what I might do?”
Firelight from the hearth wavered across her face.
“Whatever it is.”
But Cesare was not one of those soft-handed gentlemen. Opportunity never escaped him. The memory of her skin, tasted once already, was more than enough to conquer the wooden restraint he usually wore. A great wave smashed the dam of reason and flooded everything. His hard jaw stood out sharp.
Crash—!
Lightning split the sky.
With every flash of lightning a brief radiance passed through the stained glass and spilled across the cold cathedral floor in fractured color. He felt the taut air snap and fall away.
Everything blurred until only her gaze, her warmth, her breathing remained sharp. Words no longer passed between them.
Whether what he felt for her was desire or pity or something else entirely, Cesare could not tell.
He lowered his head and took her still-cold lower lip between his own. For all her bold invitation, a faint tremor ran through her. It had been the same that night. The pitiful arms that had clung to him so desperately, seeking warmth though they barely knew how, remained vivid in his memory.
A hot tongue pushed past her lips.
Tsk.
“Hnn…”
He traced the neat row of her teeth and tangled their tongues together. Saliva mixed; breath grew rough. Only when her chilled body had begun to warm did he draw back. A thin, glistening thread stretched between them.
Cesare bent lower still. When he eased the blanket down, her white nakedness was laid bare. She rounded her shoulders against air that had not yet fully warmed.
He did not hesitate. His mouth closed over her breast.
That scent from back then.
The green smell of the grass in her garden. When he took the still-soft nipple into his mouth and rolled it, he felt her body lock. He did not stop. Each relentless suck drew a faint, broken sound from her throat.
“Hah…!”
By then the rain had already ceased. Only their ragged breathing filled the prayer room.
They’ll be looking for me.
Unlike her first flight, this had been pure impulse, no plan at all. She would have to return to the mansion. The thought of the monstrous man who lived inside the house she loved made her chest tighten. Rosetta would not look kindly on Evelyn coming back alone; for now it was enough simply to drive a little space between the two of them.
“Seems you still have room for other thoughts.”
The man parted her legs and sucked the delicate white flesh of her inner thigh. With every pull, red bloomed across the thin skin.
“Ah—euk!”
She had thought him nothing more than a single night’s escape. She had never expected to meet him again at the mansion, and least of all before her father’s grave.
His thick-knuckled fingers rubbed her clit with slow, grinding pressure. Wetness spilled suddenly between her thighs. Pleasure arched her spine; her eyes met those of a benevolent-looking portrait.
“Then I needn’t go easy on you.”
“Hic—w-wait…!”
But the guilt that tried to rise was shattered to pieces by Cesare.
He gripped her waist hard and held her still. The blunt, burning head of him pressed against her most sensitive place. Then it was over in an instant.
“Heuk! Aaa…!”
Muscles carved as finely as sculpture flexed; his cock drove into her to the root.
“Why is this hole clamping down like it’s trying to snap my dick off?”
“Y-you’re too b-big… hic—s-slow…!”
Her back bowed sharply under the sudden stretch. He slid a hand beneath her and gathered her close.
“I won’t move until you’ve adjusted.”
“Ah, hnn, uhh…!”
“Shhh.”
He wanted to move like a starved beast. The restrained voice soothed her instead. Her walls were forced to their limit; the crushing fullness inside left her mind swimming.
“Ah…”
So she could loosen, he pressed small kisses to the curve of her shoulder, to her collarbone, to the nape of her neck. His hand slipped under the arch of her back and stroked slowly upward. Fingers traveling the length of her spine mapped every vertebra as though they meant to learn her entire body.
It was pain she had already known once, and the kisses seemed to remind her that beyond a moment’s endurance waited pleasure like hellfire—pleasure she already knew. Slowly her body yielded.
“Haa… euk.”
Calloused palms glided up the straight line of her back.
Life leaves its marks on the body. His hands were proof. The past that had gripped rags, newspapers, and guns still lived in his fingertips.
You must never have known a single day of hardship.
Her skin was flawlessly smooth, endlessly beautiful. Against the self-mocking thought, fierce excitement flared.
When his fingers reached the wings of her shoulder blades, he knew her cooled body had finally caught fire.
“Ahheuk…”
He gave a single shallow thrust; a moan spilled from her lips.