Blair reflexively bit her lip to stifle the moan that was about to escape.

In truth, she wasn’t in the mood to be embraced by him right now. After all, he might have been the one who tried to kill her.

But she hesitated to refuse him, worried about the letter on the table. If she didn’t offer her body, he might turn his attention back to the letter.

Blair surrendered herself to Herdin’s hands, staring blankly at the sunset light filtering into the balcony.

At that moment, Herdin turned Blair’s body to face him. Then he kissed her and asked,

“What are you thinking about so intently?”

His unfathomable eyes, now so close, seemed to search every corner of her mind.

After a brief hesitation, Blair opened her mouth.

“About Lord Caligo.”

As Caligo’s name left her lips, Herdin’s gaze turned cold.

He was displeased to hear another man’s name from those lips he had just kissed. Especially at a moment like this.

But Blair, seemingly oblivious to his reaction, asked:

“Is he one of your trusted subordinates?”

“He’s someone I’ve been through life and death with.”

Herdin replied halfheartedly and captured her lips again. Realizing he didn’t want to discuss it further, she quietly yielded her body to him.

Though he got what he wanted, her passive compliance irritated him. That attitude, devoid of any emotion, as if merely nursing a crying child.

The problem was that he, like a damn beast, couldn’t bring himself to reject it.

Herdin lifted Blair’s pale white body and carried her to the bed.

Blair’s clothes fell one by one in their wake.

After laying Blair on the bed, Herdin immediately took her. Unlike usual, he had no patience to wait today.

“Ah…”

Blair’s body was still somewhat tense, not fully relaxed.

Her slender arms wrapped around Herdin’s back. Though overwhelmed and breathing heavily, Blair responded to him, albeit clumsily.

That gesture, those eyes focused solely on him, were beautiful.

Herdin pressed his lips to hers, mixing their breaths as if to share his with her gasping for air.

In the end, it was more like stealing her breath away.

Before long, the room was filled with the evening glow and the sound of their breathing. The grandfather clock broke that quiet scene.

Ding― Ding―

The clock chimed 5 PM.

Blair, who had been in a daze in his arms, suddenly came to her senses and pushed against his chest.

But Herdin didn’t stop. He had no reason left to do so.

Blair struggled and desperately tried to speak.

“Medicine… It’s time for my medicine.”

“…Medicine? Ah.”

Blair took contraceptive pills at this time every day.

She was often in a daze until morning after being tormented by him until dawn, so she might forget in the morning. During the day, she was busy with her own routines.

At night, once they started, she was rarely in her right mind until dawn, so nighttime was also difficult.

That’s why she had set this awkward time to take her medicine.

“If I don’t take it now, I might forget…”

Blair reached for the nightstand beside the bed. A pill bottle she had taken out earlier was sitting on top.

Seeing it, Herdin’s eyes turned cold. He didn’t like that desperate gesture trying to grab the pill bottle at all costs.

Is completing this contract marriage safely really the only thing on this woman’s mind? Does she not consider any other possibilities at all?

How can she have the luxury to think about such things while doing this with me?

After I’ve driven you this crazy.

The fact that there was room in this woman’s mind for thoughts other than him greatly irritated him.

“It seems you have the luxury for other thoughts.”

Just as Blair’s hand touched the pill bottle, Herdin’s body moved.

“Ah!”

The impact made Blair’s body shake, and the pill bottle fell to the floor.

Herdin forcibly turned Blair’s gaze away from the nightstand and whispered:

“Skipping one day won’t hurt.”

“No, I can’t.”

Blair’s face turned pale. Seeing that face, sadistic urges and irritation welled up in him simultaneously.

He sealed her lips with his own to prevent her from resisting further. It wasn’t a moment he could stop at anyway.

Blair swallowed her cries as if resisting him. But Herdin wasn’t one to let that slide.

He growled in a rough voice that seemed to scrape his throat:

“Let me hear you.”

Under his increasingly persistent actions, Blair finally couldn’t hold back and let out her breath. It was a fight she had no chance of winning from the start.

Herdin pulled Blair in even deeper and embraced her.

The woman was warm and soft. When he held her, she smelled fragrant, and when he bit her, she tasted sweet. When he buried himself in her embrace like an inescapable swamp, everything became distant.

But along with that satisfaction came an anxiety that she might disappear even while in his arms. Like sand slipping through his fingers.

That’s why he tormented Blair even more persistently. The more she cried out and responded to him, the more real it felt that she was in his arms.

Eventually, pent-up breaths burst from both their mouths.

Herdin held back his passion until Blair’s trembling body calmed down, then slowly pulled away.

As their rapid breathing gradually steadied, focus returned to Blair’s hazy eyes. Her tear-filled eyes were full of resentment towards him.

Blair pushed against his chest as he tried to embrace her again. Though such a weak force couldn’t possibly move him, Herdin unexpectedly withdrew obediently.

Blair tried to get up to pick up the pill bottle that had fallen on the carpet under the bed. At that moment, her legs gave out and she collapsed.

But as if it didn’t matter, Blair took out a pill from the bottle and swallowed it. In her urgency, she managed to swallow the pill without water, which she usually couldn’t do.

Only then did a sigh of relief escape her.

She couldn’t have a child at this time. The chances were high that it wouldn’t be Asiel.

‘Asiel…’

Asiel was her driving force.

If she couldn’t meet that lovable child again, this second life she had miraculously gained would have no meaning to her.

Thinking that she had almost lost such a child because of him, her blood ran cold.

Herdin, who had been quietly watching her sitting on the carpet unable to get up, picked Blair up.

Blair didn’t push away his touch, but her eyes meeting his were full of undisguised resentment.

Herdin sighed and opened his mouth.

“If by any chance you do become pregnant, I’ll take responsibility―”

“…No, that won’t happen.”

Blair’s voice, cutting off his words, was subtly trembling.

But the words that followed, after composing her emotions, were resolute without a trace of hesitation.

“We will divorce. As per the contract.”

* * *

After finishing his bath, Herdin entered the bedroom carrying a simple breakfast handed to him by the maid.

Blair was lying down with her back to him.

Her already small frame looked even tinier buried under the blanket. She seemed to be pretending to be asleep, but Herdin wasn’t one to be fooled by such an act.

Herdin gazed at her with coldly sunken eyes.

She had been like this all night since yesterday.

When he embraced her, she quietly offered her body, but that was all. Blair didn’t resist, but Herdin noticed.

That she was simply enduring silently, waiting for this night to end. He knew this was her maximum form of resistance.

Herdin set the tray down on the nightstand and lifted Blair up. But Blair slipped out of his arms.

“…I’ll eat later.”

“Why.”

“I don’t feel well. I want to rest.”

Seeing Blair not even looking him in the eye, Herdin’s lips twisted.

Now even a hunger strike.

Herdin set the tray down in front of Blair. Seeing it, Blair’s delicate brow furrowed.

“I don’t want to eat right now―”

At that moment, Herdin cupped Blair’s cheek and pressed his lips to hers. Sweet fruit juice passed between their joined lips. It was a strawberry that had been on top of the pancakes.

Surprised by the sudden kiss, Blair unconsciously swallowed the strawberry that entered her mouth. Only then did Herdin’s lips part from hers.

Herdin wiped the strawberry juice from Blair’s lips with his thumb and looked at her.

Blair’s eyes, which had widened in surprise, were now contorted as if about to cry. Her large eyes were full of resentment.

But even that look seemed pretty, probably because this woman was born with such a damnably beautiful face.

Herdin placed a fork in Blair’s hand.

“Eat. Before I feed you everything.”

Though it sounded like a suggestion, Blair knew the meaning was closer to a threat.

She also knew that his ‘feeding’ would likely be more like the action he had just demonstrated, rather than the usual meaning.

Blair looked back and forth between the food in front of her and him, then set down the fork.

A suffocating silence fell between them.

Blair looked him straight in the eye and opened her mouth.

“…I don’t want to.”

“…”

“I really… hate you…”

Emotions that had been tightly suppressed flowed out.

Her eyes, on the verge of tears, didn’t end up shedding any. However, Blair’s hands, clutching the blanket instead of the fork, were trembling.

Herdin gazed at her with piercingly blue eyes, then turned and left the room.