Mismatched Signals?
It had been quite a while since the night I’d had quasi-sex with Lady Angela.
That had been Saturday night, and today was Friday, so nearly a full week had passed.
Of course, my courtship had continued ever since.
Using practice for showing affection as my excuse, I kissed and fondled Lady Angela whenever I found the chance, and when we had time to spare, we even rubbed against each other’s more private places.
The reason I’d been able to keep practicing regardless of time or place was entirely thanks to Lady Verita.
She went out of her way to leave me alone with Lady Angela and blocked any possibility of anyone else coming by, so it wasn’t really an assist so much as feeding it straight to me.
As time went on, Lady Angela’s guard gradually loosened.
The woman who had once only blushed whenever I spoke affection to her was now beginning to show honest delight.
She had grown accustomed to my hands and tongue, and though she wasn’t exactly proactive, she had even started kissing me of her own accord.
Unfortunately, I still hadn’t made it to penetration.
I could feel her heart opening little by little, but the final wall was thicker than I’d expected.
Still, I wasn’t especially impatient.
I still had Lady Verita’s help, and above all, Lady Angela’s attitude was growing softer by the day.
Determined to push things further tonight, I sat down at the table to eat dinner.
---
It was an ordinary dinner scene.
Angela, true to her position as a member of a wealthy family, was eating with refined, elegant movements.
But inside, she was in a terrible state, unable to settle the tangled emotions in her chest.
The reason, of course, was Ian, who sat across from her.
Angela had been troubled by the increasingly intense affection he showed her.
Any time the two of them were alone, they ended up doing things so brazen they were no different from actual lovers, and lately it had become so frequent that she sometimes felt like the only thing she did at home with him was indecent things.
We’re meant to become mother-in-law and son-in-law in the future….
Even if he called it practice for showing affection, Angela could tell—even with her rather dull sense when it came to men and women—that Ian’s feelings for her were real.
And yet she didn’t stop, because she believed that once the practice was over, Ian would marry Selena as promised.
Viewed that way, the situation didn’t seem to be a problem at all.
Ian was a little too forward, but he would keep his promise in the end, and then Selena would be able to enjoy a normal married life.
But the real problem was Angela herself.
Her heart was tilting further and further under the endless affection he showered on her.
Her body had grown more and more accustomed to Ian’s touch.
With a man’s sincere affection—something she had never felt in her life—before long, she had begun to look forward to those moments when they were left alone together.
But Ian will be with Selena….
Once Ian married Selena, they would no longer need to do these things.
He would no longer be able to tell her he loved her, and she would no longer be able to feel the joy of being wanted as a woman.
So the closer her heart came to him now, the greater the sense of loss would be later.
Then again, even if Ian chose her instead of Selena, that wouldn’t really solve anything.
He still didn’t know everything about her, and if they grew even closer, what if he changed into the same sort of husband her late spouse had once been?
The happiness Angela felt now was little more than a mirage that would one day vanish.
I need to steel myself….
But the happiness she felt when she was with Ian was far too sweet.
He showed her a side of herself as a woman she had never even known was there, and the fact that he needed her made her unbearably happy.
Lost in those thoughts, she lifted her head and met Ian’s eyes.
They were the kind of eyes her husband had never once shown her in life—eyes filled with affection and consideration for the other person.
They were so warm that, even knowing this arrangement would one day end, they made her want to settle into it and stay there forever.
A little longer… just a little longer.
Compromising with herself like that, Angela took another bite of her food.
---
“Mm. These are delicious?”
When I said that after picking up a cookie from the table, Lady Angela smiled her usual gentle smile.
“I’m glad. They said they’d made a new batch at the shop I go to often, so I bought them because I was curious.”
It was an hour or two after dinner ended.
We were sitting on the living room sofa, enjoying tea and snacks.
Though technically it was a master-and-servant relationship, Lady Angela didn’t particularly care about that sort of thing, so gatherings like this happened often enough.
Of course, since Selena and Dania were having their own tea in Selena’s room, it was just the three of us in the living room: me, Lady Angela, and Lady Verita.
“Haah…. I can’t even remember the last time my daughter and I were together.”
Lady Angela let out a dejected sigh.
Since her daughter being holed up in her room was one hundred percent my fault, the guilt I’d managed to forget for a while poked its head back up.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. My daughter’s the strange one here. Honestly, I never expected her to hold out this long.”
I agreed with that wholeheartedly.
Maybe she really was the most stubborn woman in this world?
Which was why she even tried to frame an innocent person.
“Still, I believe she’ll change once she meets a good match.”
It seemed the lady of the house had very high hopes for me.
I was truly sorry, but a happy married life with Selena was not part of my future plans.
On the other hand, I did have plans to make the lady of the house happy myself.
“In my opinion, finding a partner for the young lady is important, but I think you should also be paying attention to your own partner, Chairwoman.”
At Lady Verita’s quiet remark, who had been listening silently the whole time, Lady Angela waved her hands flusteredly.
“V-Verita, really. I’m past that stage, aren’t I?”
“Certainly not. You are still in your prime, Chairwoman. Ian, would you not agree?”
Why ask me that all of a sudden?
Still, I answered with a soft smile.
“Yes. Lady Angela is incredibly beautiful.”
“Th-thank you….”
The way she fidgeted after receiving a compliment was refreshingly innocent for someone her age.
“So I hope you’ll also find someone whose heart matches yours, Chairwoman. Before it gets too late.”
“Of course I’d like that, but it’s not something you can just decide to do….”
“There’s no need to make it difficult. Fate often hides close to home.”
With that, Lady Verita rested a hand on my shoulder.
“Coincidentally, there’s a young, fresh man sitting right here, served up and ready to eat.”
“What?”
This time, I was startled too.
It looked like she was trying to test Lady Angela’s feelings, but wasn’t that a little too abrupt, even for an ally like me?
“V-Verita, that joke is a little too much….”
Lady Angela did her best to keep her composure, but Lady Verita didn’t ease up in the slightest.
“I’m speaking quite seriously. Men accumulate experience as they grow older, and then their tastes in women become fixed. You should make him yours before that happens.”
“I-I’m sure Ian has his own preferences too.”
Even while being put on the spot, Lady Angela answered dutifully.
That only encouraged Lady Verita to keep going.
“No. Men at this age are full only of breeding instincts. They can get aroused just by looking at the pictogram on the sign for the women’s restroom. The reason men who see the women’s restroom go straight into the men’s restroom afterward is to quickly calm their excited bodies.”
No, I think you’ve got the cause and effect backward.
Isn’t it more natural that if you’re heading for the men’s restroom, you’d inevitably see the women’s restroom sign right next to it?
“Oh my, I had no idea.”
It was only natural Lady Angela wouldn’t know. It wasn’t true.
It was honestly astonishingly innocent of her to believe that kind of thing.
...Is this because of me?
I’d latched onto her like a rutting monkey every time I saw her, so maybe that made it easier for her to believe Lady Verita’s claim that all men in their twenties were nothing but bundles of lust.
I listened to the rest of Lady Verita’s nonsense with one ear in and one ear out while nibbling a cookie, when all of a sudden Lady Verita stood up.
“Chairwoman, may I excuse myself for a moment? I have somewhere I need to make a call from.”
“Yes, of course. Take your time.”
“Thank you. Then I’ll be back shortly.”
Lady Angela looked bewildered at Lady Verita’s abrupt departure, but I wasn’t surprised at all.
I understood her intent too well.
When it was just the three of us, she suddenly left the room?
There was only one reason: to leave me alone with Lady Angela.
Not wanting to waste Lady Verita’s help, I moved closer to Lady Angela on the sofa.
“Lady Angela….”
“I-Ian. Just now is a little…. What if Verita comes back any minute?”
“It’s fine. I’ll make it quick.”
Normally, when she left us like this, she gave us plenty of time—enough for two rounds, if possible.
And she’d also keep anyone else from coming, so there was nothing to worry about.
“Still….”
Maybe because this was the first time we’d done it in such an open living room, Lady Angela looked away bashfully.
But I paid that no mind and pressed our lips together.
“Mmm, mmph… huup, haah…!”
As expected, the week or so that had passed since then hadn’t been wasted; the instant my lips and tongue touched hers, she went docile.
After thoroughly tasting her mouth, I laid her down on the sofa and tugged her house dress up from the hem.
Her milky-white thighs and panties were exposed, but I didn’t stop there and stripped them away completely.
“It’s dangerous to undress me all the way, Ian….”
I understood what she meant, but this wasn’t some accident—it had all been orchestrated by Lady Verita, so there was no problem.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help myself.”
When I lifted her bra, her breasts spilled out, and I caught them in both hands.
Drawing the two mounds together, I took both nipples into my mouth at once and sucked on them.
“Ahhh, Ian….”
The pair of buds rolling against my tongue grew firmer and firmer in my mouth.
While I sucked hard on them, I rubbed my already hard cock against the top of her panties.
The feel of silk underwear was pleasantly intoxicating.
Every time I pressed my cock against her, the soft flesh beneath seemed to sink in, and I could vividly imagine the pussy hidden inside those panties.
Wanting to see for myself, I grabbed the panties and boldly pulled them down.
At that very moment—
“Ah.”
A voice came from behind me.
At the same time, Lady Angela’s face froze solid.
When I turned around, Lady Verita—who had somehow already returned—was standing there, looking down at us tangled together on the sofa with a blank expression.
“…”
The silence was so heavy it felt suffocating, like being trapped in a sauna.
Why had she come back so early? I still hadn’t even finished once.
Normally she should’ve been gone much longer.
As my mind spun with different thoughts, one possibility suddenly surfaced.
Could it be that she hadn’t gone out to give us time at all, but had really gone to make a call?
Looking at Lady Verita again, I saw that even her always-calm brows were trembling ever so slightly.
Lady Angela, needless to say, looked as though the sky had just fallen on her.
Ah.
Seeing that expression, I had no choice but to accept it.
I had made a colossal mistake.
---