Chapter 14
She managed to get through her period with herbal tea and sweet food. The pain itself that she felt wasn’t severe, but since she wasn’t feeling well in general, her mood plummeted to the ground.
She made an effort to prevent her condition from deteriorating somehow. Strangely, the amount of blood that she shed this time wasn’t much, but her discomfort remained.
One time, Nadia ate some sugary, cream-filled pie that she normally wouldn’t have eaten. And she spent time at the greenhouse, dazed under the sun’s warmth like an old cat.
The colorful and exotic flowers were all around her and filled the air with a pleasant aroma. It was a little too warm in the greenhouse, so there was a little sweat along her forehead. Nevertheless, it was perfect for her because she usually had chills during her period. But going by the usual cycle, this would be over by the day after tomorrow.
Nadia heard the door quietly open and close. With her eyes still closed, she thought it was Susan. But as she was half asleep, the touch of a man could be felt on her cheek.
She opened her eyes languidly.
“Edwin…?”
But the hand stopped. Nadia, who came to her senses belatedly, raised her gaze. She made eye contact with the man in front of her, looking at her as he was on one knee in front of the couch.
“Asheel!”
Nadia looked around in a hurry. There was no one else there. A while ago, she told the employees that no one should come inside, and because of this, she didn’t know if it was fortunate or not.
This small greenhouse was for her personal use. Only a few maids and her husband, Edwin, could come in. Even though he was a knight belonging to a chivalric order that is held to the highest esteem in the Empire, he still should not have entered this place recklessly.
For what reason should a knight privately meet his lord’s wife in the first place? She couldn’t understand why he didn’t stop himself from coming here, whether or not he was caught by someone. His shamelessness knew no bounds.
Nadia flinched away from him, lifting her blanket higher as though it was a shield.
“You’re not allowed here.”
Nadia was on her guard for fear of him assaulting her, and she stood up in a hurry. If he wouldn’t leave, then she’d leave instead.
Nadia rushed to the door leading to her room and locked it. She didn’t care about the reason for his visit. If he had something to tell her, she didn’t want to hear it. She only locked the door because she didn’t want anyone to see him there.
Regardless of her past feelings for him, she was too scared to take any risks.
“Nadia.”
“Don’t call me that!”
Her scream echoed throughout the greenhouse. The determined mask that she was desperately trying to keep up was shattered with just those four words. Nadia stopped in front of the stairs and hesitated, but she barely turned around to face Asheel.
“Please, please—I beg you. Don’t do anything. Just leave me alone.”
With her eyes closed, she clutched her hands together and spoke as though she was begging. Nadia was not the type to enjoy risqué adventures or thrills. She hated scandals most of all.
She had no desire to walk between two men on a tightrope. All she wanted was to spend her days quietly without any anxiety or excitement, not like the past few days.
But this moment—it was so dangerous. It would be over the moment a maid would come in here and ask if there was something she needed. Even though Nadia couldn’t talk properly, she continued to speak, almost unintelligibly.
“I-I don’t know why you’re doing this to me. Our relationship was one that would have ended soon anyway, so I don’t understand why you’re so angry…!”
Despite her desperate efforts to keep him from approaching, Asheel was only a few steps away from her. He grabbed her hands that were clasped together and spoke with a harsh expression.
“Why are you ending it all on your own terms? I said it before. I’m not done with you.”
Nadia looked up at his face that was full of impassioned anger, and she trembled, not knowing whether it was because of shock or trepidation. But he was not finished speaking.
“It might have been simple for you to cut me off so easily, but that’s not the case for me. Do you understand? I can’t do that!”
Asheel’s voice echoed in her mind, but inside her, she knew that she was refusing to try and understand his words.
She slapped off his hand as hard as she could and returned to her room as if she was running away, locking the door behind her. Her heart was beating so fast that it hurt. An unknown fear crept over her whole body. Nadia wrapped her arms around herself and lowered her head.
She was so scared, but at the same time, she wondered what Asheel would have said if she stayed there. It was the same just like then, and she ran away again.
Nadia muttered many excuses to herself. Nothing would change even if she stayed and listened to him. Even if he didn’t want to end it, it’s already over. It’s okay if she didn’t listen. It was fine.
In the end, she didn’t even get the opportunity to think about turning back because she was so terrified to face him. His hands over hers, his cold expression as he looked at her… it was stamped so vividly in her mind.
“Madam?”
After she heard a knock, the door from the hallway opened. A maid poked her head inside to see. Nadia answered and stood up casually.
“…What is it?”
“Milord has asked for you.”
He hadn’t seen his face for nearly a week, but this was still sudden. Even so, Nadia trudged to his office without saying anything, her face half-worn out.
She still felt so nervous every time she thought about her husband. Because his office wasn’t far away, she went there without having to be guided by the maid.
Knocking a couple of times on the large door, she stood outside until she heard the monotonous voice inside say, “Come in.” Nadia opened the door, feeling both wonder and dread. There was still a different visitor inside.
“It might be nice to try and go there.”
Edwin gestured lightly with his hand, perhaps because their talk was already over. The middle-aged knight, who was wearing red armor with the chivalric order’s insignia emblazoned on it, greeted her politely then passed by her. He closed the door behind him.
At the sound of his armored footsteps moving away, Edwin leaned back on his chair and took off his glasses. Nadia waited quietly, watching him tiredly rub his eyes.
Edwin’s face was slightly gaunt, and this made Nadia think that perhaps he wasn’t only saying that he was busy. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he lost weight overall. His hair was neat and his clothes were immaculately without any wrinkles, but his fatigue couldn’t be easily disguised.
Nadia grew more uneasy as time went on because she couldn’t guess at all why he called her.
What was the point in asking her to come here, taking time out of his hectic schedule? Maybe Asheel’s visit had already reached his ears. Her heart leaped out of its cage at the thought, as though it was about to jump out of her throat.
The silence was deafening, and she thought about speaking up first several times, but she couldn’t bring herself to. It wasn’t until about her third attempt that Edwin looked at her.
“How have you been? Is everything to your liking?”
“Yes, everything’s perfect. The garden is beautiful, and I like my room…”
Because of how nervous she was, she chattered on without any more prompting. He touched his lower lip then smirked.
“That’s great. But if there’s something you want to change, you can do whatever you want.”
With his persistent gaze on her, Nadia felt burdened. She could only nod with her head down. Did he really call her here just to ask this?
“Come here.”
Nadia lifted her head, and their gazes met. She was entranced by his lips that were slightly curled up. Only the two of them were in this room, so there was no one else that he was calling to him.
Nadia hesitated, but soon walked towards the front of his huge desk. He smiled again, but Nadia only stared at the golden accents at the end of the elegant mahogany desk.
“Closer.”
Uncertainly, she took a couple more steps, but the man sighed softly as though he wasn’t satisfied.
“Are you being coy? Come over here.”
Edwin patted his lap, and at this, Nadia was visibly flustered. He wanted her to sit on his lap. As she was confused and doubtful, he eventually reached out to Nadia’s wrist to pull her closer.
Right then, she was in Edwin’s arms. His arm was around her waist as he pulled her down to have her sit on his lap, then he went on to pull the string in front of her dress.
She trembled like a deer caught in a snare, looking up at him cautiously. Their eyes met again. His dark purple irises glinted mischievously, and his face was now closer to hers.
Nadia closed her eyes tightly. But time passed and she didn’t feel anything on her lips, so she silently opened her eyes again.
She saw him smiling broadly, their noses only a very small distance apart, as if he had been observing her the entire time she had her eyes closed. Her face instantly flushed red. She assumed that he would kiss her right then. As he came closer, the tops of their noses touching now, he persistently looked into her eyes, then whispered.
“Kiss me.”
As he spoke, his breath touched her lips and tickled her. Nadia gently closed her eyes and kissed him as he said, as though she was hypnotized.
Because they were already so close, their lips touched just by her moving closer by a fraction of an inch. Somehow, this moment felt sweet, delicate. It could be because she was swept away by the atmosphere, or it could be because of his beautiful features or his deep voice.
He suckled her upper lip softly. Whenever their lips would intertwine, there was a moist sound reverberating in her ears. A weak moan escaped from her throat—there was a gentle touch on her waist.
Before she knew it, she suddenly felt her clothes become loose, and there was a hand that went straight to grab her chest. As if this was the trigger, heat pooled in her stomach.
As his hands kneaded her breasts, he pinched the pert nipples and freed both mounds out of her clothes. Her body, which slowly heated up, shuddered.
“Hmngh!”
As Nadia flinched and moaned, he didn’t waste the opportunity and pushed his tongue into her lips. He was relentless inside her mouth. She grasped Edwin’s shoulder tightly as he licked the soft part of the roof of her mouth, then soon persistently entwined with Nadia’s tongue.
At a loss, she accepted everything that he did. She was out of breath in no time. Noticing that she was getting overwhelmed, Edwin took his lips off her for a while, but he leaned down and soon sucked and bit one of her nipples, which had become sensitive because of his earlier ministrations.
The fleeting thought passed through Nadia’s mind that she couldn’t believe he was planning to do this here. But as soon as he sucked her nipple harder, this thought disappeared and was washed away by a sharp pleasure.