It Seems Like The Infamous Trash Can is Right Here! - Chapter 123
I needed someone to protect me. I believed Lionel was the most suitable for that role.
It was true that I had taken his hand for those reasons.
But that wasn’t all.
If I had truly been free, I would have loved him even more to my heart’s content.
If I could have shaken off the guilt and discomfort that weighed on my chest from all that I had received and received again, I could have expressed my feelings for Lionel far more honestly than I do now.
Maybe I would have made my debut like any other girl, gazing at Lionel with longing eyes from across the ballroom, standing among the other young ladies. Maybe I would have wandered in circles around him, suffering the fever of a first unrequited love.
Surely, among the mountain of proposals piled on his desk in the Luanax estate, there would have been one from Solen as well.
Not like now, not clinging to him with nothing of my own.
“……”
Was my confession unexpected?
Lionel stared at me, his eyes slightly widened.
Even Halid had frozen in place, halfway through setting down the teapot, as if time itself had stopped.
Only after a long pause did I hear the quiet clink of the teaware meeting the table.
“…I’ll go check if the dinner preparations are going well.”
Mumbling an absurd excuse, Halid left the drawing room. There had been something like shock in the low murmur of his voice, but I didn’t have the time to care.
Because the moment the door closed, Lionel reached out to me.
The instant I felt his fingertips brush my cheek, my vision filled with him.
His lips crashed over mine, hungry enough to devour, and with that overwhelming force pressing in, my balance tipped.
“Lionel, wai— mm….”
He didn’t give me a chance to speak as his tongue slid between my parted lips, gliding over the tip of mine and tangling deep inside. The dizzying sensation made tension curl all the way to my toes.
This wasn’t something anyone should be doing in someone else’s drawing room.
And yet, the urgency, the desperation with which Lionel devoured me made it impossible to push him away.
All it would take was a light press against his chest, and he would draw back immediately. That knowledge made it harder still.
My back met the sofa.
Lionel hovered over me, half-mad. Truthfully, I wasn’t any different.
“Ah… ngh…”
Wasn’t this no better than Dantère? But still…
Lionel didn’t bare my body in a place where anyone could walk in. He didn’t go that far.
He only kissed me mindlessly, ravaged the inside of my mouth, touched and stroked me over my clothes.
Our hips met as he moved, grinding his lower body against mine, but unlike the dress I had worn to the masquerade yesterday, this one had a voluminous skirt that made it less stimulating than I’d hoped.
My body, already burning, throbbed with excitement and need.
If I’d never known anything, maybe I wouldn’t be like this. But I had already tasted the peak of pleasure Lionel could give.
Forget the dinner. I wanted nothing more than to find a place where we could be alone, tear off every last scrap of fabric between us, and throw it all to the floor.
If I didn’t, I really might end up making a scene right here.
Lionel seemed to be thinking the same. Without realizing it, his hand had slipped under the hem of my dress, only to stop, trembling, and let out a pained groan.
His reluctance was written all over his face as he barely pulled back and rested his forehead against mine.
“…I’m sorry for rushing at you like that.”
Between his parted lips and mine, a faint, glistening thread still lingered.
The corners of his eyes were flushed red, damp with restrained heat.
It was so unbearably lewd I swallowed hard before speaking.
“Do you have a lot left to discuss with the Duke Calitas?”
“Not in the least.”
