A faint smile adorned Walter’s lips as he mentioned the contractual condition.
However, their eye contact was charged with intense tension.
Perhaps because of that gaze.
No answer came forth, but Walter didn’t press for one either.
Instead, their lips met.
What started as a deception for Arnolt had become surprisingly familiar within days.
Even the persistent motions trying to steal her breath, the contact moistening her dry lips as their breaths crossed.
Thanks to this, Odette could now recognize the prelude to a kiss.
‘When the eyes meet at close range… and the gaze brushes past the lips.’
The hand stroking her cheek now caresses her earlobe and so on.
All these precursors held true even as their lips met.
The hand gently cradling her cheek skimmed her earlobe or enveloped the back of her head.
Contrary to his usual authoritative and arrogant demeanor, his actions felt incredibly tender and cautious when her eyes were closed.
Sometimes, it made her wonder if it was the same person.
The long kiss ended, and Walter, as if reluctant to part, gently pressed his lips to her moist lips once more before slowly pulling away.
Looking up, Walter always had a similar expression when looking at Odette.
His eyes seemed slightly furrowed, an intense green.
An unsettling sensation that was…
If it’s not pity, if it’s not because of Cedric’s will, if I say it’s because I want you…
Will you accept me then?
That gaze reminded her of a dream she had the day she woke up in Ertman Duke’s mansion.
Odette had long forgotten that dream.
She was living in reality, and revisiting a meaningless dream offered her nothing.
It must be a vain illusion born of lingering regrets I haven’t yet let go of, I thought.
Why, then, do you look at me with the same eyes as in that dream?
“Because of a contract clause that says you have to love me?”
A surge of emotion unexpectedly welled up within me.
I wanted to place the blame for this ambiguous feeling on Walter.
If only you had remained as rude and arrogant as you first appeared.
“I wouldn’t have had such thoughts then….”
Somewhere in my confused mind was the thought that everything Walter was doing was an act, and that the only one faltering was me.
Odette had already gone through Regis’s case.
Above all, she knew that Walter was hiding something.
She wouldn’t normally have given much thought to this fact.
After all, not everyone lives an open life.
But Eli’s behavior today had somehow unsettled her.
Your Highness, doesn’t the Duke act suspiciously? Do you have any concerns?
She had asked this several times.
Odette considered revealing that Walter was sneaking out at night, but decided to keep quiet.
Not at all. Walter treats me very well.
Just because he treats you well doesn’t mean you should trust him blindly! Men who cheat usually act nicely to their wives out of guilt. If you have any suspicions, you must tell me!
Eli seemed to persistently distrust Walter, advising Odette until the end.
That made Odette recall something she had almost forgotten.
Walter Ertman, he is deceiving you!
Louie’s outcry, which she had dismissed as trivial and forgotten.
These overlapping events had deepened her thoughts unknowingly.
“What is Walter hiding?”
Will he not tell me?
After a moment’s hesitation, Odette spoke.
“Walter. I have a request.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you… want to sleep together tonight?”
For a split second, Walter’s expression hardened.
It was fleeting, but the crack in Walter’s face was unmistakable.
He’d been hit where it hurt.
“…Surely my princess isn’t suddenly scared of the dark like a child.”
“I’ve been restless for a few days. I have to go to the palace tomorrow… I don’t want to sleep alone. You said you’d miss me too.”
Odette hesitated for a moment, then lightly grabbed Walter’s sleeve.
“We’ll share a bedroom after we’re married anyway. Sleeping together one night before won’t change much.”
“Is that so. So, are you trying to seduce me now?”
“If necessary.”
It wasn’t an empty statement.
Both the desire to sleep with Walter, and the readiness to seduce him if need be.
Walter responded with a cold smile.
Before she could even understand what that fleeting smile meant, she felt a hand pulling her closer.
They were face to face.
“Do you know,”
A voice low enough to take her breath away whispered into her ear.
“Even a mere touch from you… is temptation to me.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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