Chapter 8
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 8
The first sensation was agonizingly soft. His assumption that it would be disgusting was utterly pointless—Vanessa was like warm, sweet quicksand, pulling him under.
Every time he drew her small, trembling tongue into his mouth, she tasted of honey. Her gray eyes, wide with surprise at his relentless invasion, slowly began to glaze over with heat. He devoured her breathless pants, one by one.
The scent that bloomed each time his lips pressed against hers was strikingly reminiscent of summer roses.
“Mmh…”
The moment their tongues tangled deeper, a shudder ran down Vanessa’s spine, and a soft whimper escaped her. As he thoroughly explored and devoured her mouth, her small hands hovered awkwardly in the air, trembling, with nowhere to go. Her reaction—gasping in the grip of an unfamiliar desire—was utterly innocent.
Theodore grabbed her slender wrists and pulled them firmly to his waist. The way her soft body melted into his embrace was deeply satisfying.
To him, women were easy yet audacious, shallow and boring. They blushed at his handsome face, offered cheeky sympathy for his family’s tragic history, and acted as if they’d strip to their undergarments at the slightest touch.
Then, just as suddenly, they would tremble and blush, shedding calculated tears to prove they weren’t cheap.
“Ah…”
This woman panting in his arms would be no different. Her innocent act was refreshing, but the conclusion was inevitable. If he trampled on her pride by claiming he felt nothing, she would slap him. If he was unlucky, she might even burst into tears.
Theodore swallowed a sigh and released her, creating a polite distance between them.
“Ah…”
Vanessa’s wet lips trembled in the lingering afterglow. Her sparkling gray eyes and flushed cheeks seemed to radiate the scent of sunlight. Her fresh, expectant face tilted up to meet his.
“How was it?”
Her boundless confidence that he must have enjoyed it was both ridiculous and cute. For a moment, it left him speechless.
“Was it good?”
Yes, Theodore readily admitted to himself. Vanessa Siren Somerset was monstrously seductive, a woman as sweetly ripe as a midsummer fruit.
He pressed his thumb against her soft lips, his thoughts moving at a leisurely pace.
‘Do I desire this woman?’
Perhaps.
‘Is that desire irreplaceable enough to warrant the trouble she’ll cause?’
No.
The conclusion came easily. It was time to wake from the spell cast by the summer garden.
“Hard to say.”
Theodore’s lips twisted into a slight, crooked smirk. His emotionless blue eyes slowly swept over Vanessa from head to toe, taking his time—long enough to make her shoulders tremble with humiliation.
“I don’t think it’s possible.”
The woman’s face, still clinging to a shred of hope, froze. Her eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
“That’s impossible.”
Her voice was dazed, as if she hadn’t yet returned to reality. He waited patiently for her to snap out of it and slap his face.
On the surface, Vanessa was his employer's niece. And Theodore, currently known as ‘River Ross,’ had no intention of ending this little escapade anytime soon. That being the case, it was cleaner to make his employer’s niece give up on him. So, right here…
“Do it again.”
“…What?”
“I’m confident I can do better this time.”
In just a few strides, Vanessa closed the distance he had so carefully created. Her gray eyes burned brightly, any trace of shock replaced by a stubborn, almost childish competitive spirit.
Her soft arms wrapped around his neck. In stark contrast to the sweet scent of roses wafting from her body, her attitude was as fierce as a general marching into battle. Was she trying to seduce him or issue a challenge to an enemy commander? Then again, to this woman, there was probably no difference. Theodore grabbed both of Vanessa’s wrists and pulled them away.
“Get a hold of yourself.”
“Thanks for the concern, but my mind is perfectly clear.”
“Will anything change if we do it again?”
“It was my first time, so I was unprepared. It will definitely be different this time.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said I felt nothing.”
At those words, Vanessa tilted her head, falling into deep thought as if his simple statement was incredibly difficult to comprehend. Then, her suspicious gaze swept over him from head to toe.
He realized for the first time that a pretty woman simply looking at him could feel this strange. And then, she suddenly blurted out:
“River Ross. By any chance, do you have… problems with your sex life?”
“Sex… what?”
“Your sex life.”
Not a shred of shame touched her clear face as she spoke so matter-of-factly. Theodore blinked his blue eyes and let out a dry laugh.
“Vanessa. Has it never occurred to you that you simply lack appeal?”
“Are you serious?”
“If I only cared for a pretty face, I would have bought a pretty doll to hold long ago.”
The face of the woman who had just been talking so casually about sex lives flushed bright red, as if she had never heard such a vulgar remark in her life. Then, she seemed to grasp his meaning perfectly.
“That’s impossible.”
Her instantly dazed expression was amusing. So was the way she repeated the same words, like someone facing utter despair. Listening to her chatter had been annoying, but seeing her like this, she was a little…
‘It’s a meaningless sentiment now.’
He leisurely stubbed out his cigarette on his case and walked past her. The scent lingering on his lips like an aftertaste bothered him for a moment, but that was all.
* * *
“She’s watching from over there again.”
At River’s words, Theodore stopped planting saplings and looked up. Turning his gaze in the direction the sergeant pointed, he met the direct stare of the small face watching them. As if she hadn’t expected to be caught, she ducked out of sight like a startled cat, making him laugh dryly.
A week had passed since that day, and the woman still hovered around him from a safe distance. Whenever he looked up from his work, she was always there, wherever he felt her gaze coming from. That woman, Vanessa. Sometimes hiding behind a tree, other days from a second-floor window, and today at the entrance of the garden…
By now, Theodore had to admit he had underestimated Vanessa’s persistence.
“Are you just going to leave her like that?”
As River came to stand beside him, Theodore shrugged.
“What else can I do? She’s the employer’s niece.”
“How about revealing your identity? If telling the lady is too much, you could at least hint at it to Count Somerset…”
“The day I do that is the day the Dowager Duchess finds out my whereabouts. And I’ll be dragged straight to the altar.”
“Do you dislike marriage?”
“I dislike the hatred, contempt, and deception that would inevitably follow.”
It was an excessively cynical perspective for a man of marriageable age. Even after hearing the clear answer, River Ross hesitated, looking as if he had more to say. Noticing his demeanor, Theodore turned to him.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“Um… Even if you continue to hide your identity, how about at least changing your lodging?”
“Lodging? Why?”
“It just weighs on my mind that you’re staying in the warehouse. No matter how neatly it’s been cleaned, the Rose Garden itself has barely been touched by human hands. Wouldn’t it be better for you to use my uncle’s cabin, while my uncle and I use the warehouse?”
“Your uncle had back surgery last week. You want me to take a patient’s bed and sleep comfortably?”
“Everything must be so inconvenient for you.”
“It’s livable. It’s spacious compared to a ship’s cabin, and it’s even anchored to land.”
“You could stay at a nearby villa…”
At his superior’s sharp look, River Ross swallowed his foolish words. If Theodore took a single step into any villa or estate of the Battenberg family, the Duke’s whereabouts would be splashed across the headlines of tomorrow’s newspaper.
In that sense, Gloucester in the South, which had no connection to him whatsoever, was the best choice. It was home to a Count’s family that was once great nobility but had now fallen so far they couldn’t even set foot in the capital. A Count who had been disowned by his family and expelled from high society decades ago, never to return.
It was a completely old-fashioned country village where the only newspaper was delivered once a week by a postman from the next town over. Although there were a few minor inconveniences… in this day and age, it was an excellent place to hide.
Sometimes, there was pleasure in a simple life. Moving one’s body, washing, eating, sleeping, and waking with the sun… Perhaps even the Dowager Duchess would welcome her grandson’s wholesome little detour. She possessed a noble disposition and a particular loathing for the trend of young nobles frequenting social clubs.
Theodore patted his loyal subordinate’s shoulder encouragingly and walked toward a peach tree that was beginning to bear fruit. For a while, they worked in silence, leisurely thinning out the small, worm-eaten, or misshapen fruit.
Growing fruit-bearing trees in a garden was considered undignified, but this was a family that fell short of propriety in many ways.
The famous paintings in the hallways were all replicas, the carpets were rough and of low quality, and even the family crest, which should have been cast in gold, was a cheap imitation mixed with copper. The silverware, which a butler should have personally managed, seemed to have been sold off long ago. At this point, growing their own fruit was hardly a flaw.
There was only one thing in this castle that could be considered genuine: Lady Vanessa, who had caused a stir throughout Ingram with her pretty face since she was six or seven years old.
“Huh?”
When he reflexively looked up at River’s startled exclamation, that ‘genuine’ article was limping toward them.