Lina, with her body stiffly frozen, licked her dry lips.
“If you need help with your bath, I’ll quickly go out and fetch a male servant…”
At Lina’s words about fetching someone else, the Duke looked at her with a bewildered expression.
“What for? You’re here.”
“…But there could be pointless rumors.”
“Pointless rumors? What kind of?”
“Something that…! Could severely damage your reputation…!”
He twisted one corner of his mouth as if amused.
“My reputation is at stake just because a maid helps me with my bath. I don’t even understand what’s wrong with a maid attending to her master.”
“That’s…!”
‘You’re talking about when you were a noble young lady!’
Lina grabbed her hem, swallowing a screamlike word.
‘No, you really don’t understand what it means for a servant of the opposite sex to help you with a bath!?’
Unlike her, who was inwardly shouting, the Duke’s expression remained relaxed.
‘I’ve dug my own grave; I just wanted to quickly put the Duke to sleep and rest… I should have just quickly massaged his shoulders!’
Since she was the one who first offered the Duke a bath, there was no one else to blame.
“What are you doing, undress me.”
The Duke seemed to have no intention of listening to her any longer. The man’s selfassured attitude as he instructed her to undress him seemed downright brazen.
Lina realized that there was no way out of the Duke’s firm attitude.
‘Ah How to somehow accept giving him a bath…’
Finally, Lina sighed softly in resignation and approached him.
“…Yes.”
The Duke’s attire, as he had been in the mansion all day, was light, so there were not many clothes to remove.
Lina began to undress the Duke, strenuously ignoring her pounding heart.
Inside the bathroom, only the soft sound of breathing and the rustle of clothing quietly echoed.
Soon, only a thin shirt was left on the Duke’s body. Through the thin cotton fabric, the solid body of a man could be felt. Unconsciously, Lina swallowed her dry saliva.
Her fingertips, fumbling with the shirt’s buttons, began to tremble slightly.
‘Once this shirt is off, now…?’
The Duke looked down at the young maid undressing him with a face like a condemned criminal.
“Enough.”
With a displeased click of his tongue, the Duke grabbed Lina’s hand.
“Waiting for you to undress me, I’ll probably only be able to bathe after seeing the sun rise.”
Then he quickly began to unbutton the remaining buttons of his shirt. The clothes he had been wearing began to fall to the floor one by one with a thump.
Suddenly, Lina bowed her head, looking at the Duke, now wearing nothing at all.
‘How can I touch and wash a naked body when I can’t even properly look at it…!’
Whether he knew of Lina’s mind or not, the Duke laid his body in the bathtub with a calm gesture.
“Stop looking at the floor and come wipe me, will you?”
Valige gestured for Lina to come closer.
“…Yes. Understood.”
The steam from the hot water filled the gap between the two.
‘It’s lucky that I can’t see clearly in front of me because of the steam.’
Thanks to the white mist rising hazily, her vision became blurry.
With newfound courage, Lina began to wash the Duke, tightly holding a wet washcloth in one hand.
The splashing sound of water echoed through the bathroom like a reverberation. Every time her fingertips grazed the Duke’s flesh, her cheeks burned as if on fire.
‘Think about it, we’ve already spent the night together, and I’m this shy. I did more than this…’
Lina, who was fluttering so much just from washing him, even found herself ridiculous.
‘But I’ve never washed a grown man’s body before!’
Lina was almost amused by her reaction to merely washing a body when they had already been so intimate.
‘But I’ve never washed a grown man’s body before!’
Even now, she was not in the form of a beauty. And for some reason, whenever she was in this appearance, the dignity she once possessed seemed to vanish.
Lina tried to calm her heart, and with a slow touch, washed the Duke’s body.
Meanwhile, Valige looked at the maid with indifferent eyes. Though obscured by the hot steam, her complexion was as red as a ripe apple.
Seeing her embarrassed face, he felt like a wicked employer who tormented a young employee. However.
‘Tsk. Annoying.’
Valige glanced at the washcloth in Lina’s hand. From the beginning, the reason for having her attend to him during the bath was to let the maid’s hand touch his body a little.
Her fingers touched his body slightly, holding the washcloth, but that alone was…
‘Not enough.’
With a furrowed brow, Valige closed his eyes.
“Your Grace, it is done.”
Lina, with a face that seemed to have completed a difficult task, hurriedly got up.
“Then… may I leave?”
Valige, who had gently opened his eyes, looked at Lina, who was now standing some distance away.
“Is it over?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Lina began to feel uneasy as she looked at the man who was tilting his head to look at her.
“How can it be?”
“…Pardon?”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
Link to read
