He led Blair out to the balcony. Blair, trotting after him, muttered to herself.
“That person from earlier, what if he’s badly hurt……?”
Headrin stopped in his tracks. His rage flared; she was worrying about Wesley’s condition even now.
“Are you worried about that bastard? Do you have any idea what that piece of trash spat at you?”
“But today is your mother’s birthday banquet.”
Now, she was worrying about Katrina. She had no regard for her own safety.
Headrin was about to snap, but an ill-timed hiccup burst from Blair’s lips.
*Hic. Hic. Hic……*
The hiccups continued without pause. Even when she clamped her mouth shut, the sound leaked out.
Now that he thought about it, he could smell alcohol on her breath. Headrin’s brow furrowed.
“……Are you drunk?”
“I’m not drunk.”
The answer was immediate, yet her pronunciation was strangely slurry. Headrin held up two fingers.
“How many do you see?”
Blair pouted.
“……You said you wouldn’t doubt me.”
Her uncharacteristic pout was cute, but Headrin did not back down. If anything, he grew more persistent.
“So, how many does it look like?”
“Just stay still.”
Swaying slightly, Blair grabbed his hand with both of hers. Headrin hesitated, but Blair, oblivious, began fidgeting with his fingers.
The sensation of her small hands fussing against his skin was ticklish, but he didn’t dislike it. After knitting her fair brows in deep concentration, she finally provided an answer.
“It’s two.”
Her tone implied, *Do you think I’m that stupid?*
Headrin burst into laughter while his fingers remained captive in her grip. The foul mood from seeing Wesley shoved to the floor a moment ago was long forgotten.
His drunken wife tilted her head, clearly perplexed by his amusement. Even then, the hiccups persisted.
As another one shook her frame, Blair frowned with frustration and tapped her chest.
Headrin, eyes dancing with laughter, asked.
“Shall I make them stop for you?”
Blair looked up, blinking in confusion. It was only a split second before his face loomed close.
*Smack.*
Something hot and soft brushed her lips and pulled away. Blair’s eyes went wide, unable to grasp what had just occurred.
Headrin chuckled as he watched her stare at him like a startled rabbit.
“They’ve stopped now.”
His low, languid voice struck her heart a beat late.
Blair listened to her own heartbeat thundering against her ears. She looked up at Headrin, bewildered. She couldn’t understand why he was doing this.
*You don’t love me. That’s how it’s supposed to be.*
She hated how he dug into her defenses, shaking her resolve. She didn’t want to be shaken; it was agonizing to have her heart pounding against her will.
She drew her own conclusion about his actions.
“Do you want to do it with me?”
This man, if nothing else, had always liked her body quite a bit.
*Yes, it must be that.* It had to be simply that.
Of course, had she been sober, she would never have been able to say such a thing out loud.
Upon hearing those words, all laughter vanished from Headrin’s face. His gaze turned as cold as a winter blade.
Headrin let out a dry, mirthless laugh.
His wife had been treating him like a beast crazed by lust since last time. It wasn’t entirely wrong—his mind was currently filled with nothing but lewd fantasies surrounding her.
“……And what if I said yes?”
“You said we would share a room twice a month. There’s still one time left, so if you want it, as much as you like……”
Her tone was that of someone offering charity. A statement devoid of any of her own feelings or intentions.
Such an attitude grated on Headrin’s nerves. Yet, ironically, as soon as her permission was granted, his desire boiled over into sharp anticipation, overriding the earlier anger that had plunged him into the mud.
Was there any reason to refuse a woman who offered herself?
He desired her; she was his wife on paper; and she said she would accept him without resistance.
There was no reason for his desire to be a problem. None at all.
Headrin swept Blair into a nearby room. She was dragged along limply, stumbling.
He closed the door and trapped her between himself and the wood. He began to kiss her slender wrists, which he had been holding.
“Can I do it here?”
As his lips moved against her skin, Blair’s body shuddered. Her chest heaved in ragged, shallow breaths. Even that sight was beautiful.
Blair nodded slowly. As soon as the permission was given, his large hand began to trace a path up her waist.
Simultaneously, his lips teased her wrists and palms—the very fingers that had fearlessly groped and stimulated him just moments ago.
His eyes never left her, as if he were carving every tiny reaction into his pupils.
“Ah……”
Blair writhed involuntarily at the touch of his hot, moist mouth against her pulse points.
It was only her palms and wrists, yet her insides felt achingly sensitive. Perhaps it was his gaze—heavy and unblinking—that made her breathing grow ragged, even though he hadn’t yet stolen her breath.
As Blair instinctively grabbed his arm for support, Headrin finally released her wrists to pull her waist flush against him. He buried his lips in her porcelain-white neck.
Pressed against him, she felt the searing heat radiating from his body. Her nerves stood on edge.
Blair twisted, trying to escape, but he only tightened his arms, pressing her closer. The more she squirmed, the more clearly she felt his arousal.
“Headrin……”
It was a call whose meaning she didn’t know—a plea to stop, or perhaps to continue.
Headrin interpreted the call as he pleased. Since she had spoken in such an ardent voice, she was surely egging him on.
He nibbled and tormented the tender skin between her neck and collarbone, then captured her lips.
As his hand roamed lower, Blair writhed and let out a moan. Her fingers tightened on his arm.
Every time her pained moan echoed in his ears, memories of their first night surged forward. He felt like he would go mad with the urge to take her right there.
He pried her lower lip open, invading her mouth.
The scent of sweet wine drifted through the opening she yielded without resistance. At that moment, the foul mood he had suppressed in favor of his lust reared its head again.
*Does this woman even remember what she said or what she did?*
His mind cooled as if doused in ice water, despite his desperate desire to lay her down and satisfy his greed.
When he suddenly pulled his lips away, Blair blinked up at him.
“……Headrin?”
His own reflection was caught in her purple eyes, which were hazy with alcohol. Looking into them made him feel as if he would drown.
Headrin loosened the arms wrapped around her waist. Covering his eyes with a hand, he let out a pained, shaky sigh.
After steadying his breath, he looked at her.
“Now that I think about it, this seems a bit unfair.”
“Unfair……?”
Even in her drunken state, Blair moved her small lips, mimicking his words like a parrot.
The sight was absurdly cute, and the way her reddish lips glistened with his saliva was unbearably lewd. *Damn it.*
Headrin ground his teeth.
“Once you sober up, you’re going to forget everything that happened today, aren’t you?”
*I want you to remember everything.*
He wanted her to be sober and to have these sensations imprinted on her mind. He wanted her to have no choice but to think of him if she only brushed her fingertips against something. He wanted her to react to him instinctively.
Blair blinked slowly, then slid forward, burying her head in his chest.
“Headrin, I’m sleepy……”
She hadn’t even heard him. Or perhaps she was simply past the point of understanding.
Headrin laughed in disbelief, but he held her small body steady as she leaned into him.
He whispered into her ear with a pained, heavy sigh.
“……Prepare yourself when you wake up.”