“……Pardon?”
Asrahan asked back blankly. The end of his voice trembled faintly with bewilderment.
He must have heard wrong. He muttered inwardly. No matter that it was her, there was no way she would suddenly ask him to wash her.
Attending someone in the bath meant gently rubbing her naked body with a soft sponge, rinsing her with water, and even drying every last drop of moisture from her. It was not something for two people who had done no more than kiss.
But Lariette answered brightly, as if wondering what the problem was.
“I asked you to attend me in the bath, Duke Candel!”
Lariette still seemed weak, her complexion pale, but her voice was nothing but playful. Even she found it amusing to dare entrust a duke with attending her, so she had deliberately changed the way she addressed him.
And at her words, Asrahan’s complexion now turned just as pale as Lariette’s. He seemed terribly shocked.
If she teased him any more, he looked as though he might run away again, so Lariette hurriedly corrected herself.
“I’m not asking you to wash me. I’m asking you to keep me company. I’ll go in wearing clothes.”
“……However.”
Thanks to her added explanation, Asrahan’s face improved considerably. But no matter that she would enter the bathwater clothed, there was no way his heart could be at ease.
He would have to see Lariette in wet clothes. She might think nothing of it, but for Asrahan, it was certain to be an enormous stimulus.
That was why he was about to refuse. But Lariette beat him to it.
“Ugh, I used too much mana, so I’m freezing and feel awful…… You won’t help me, Asrahan?”
Lariette lowered her eyebrows and put on a pitiful expression. Her clear violet eyes shimmered plaintively.
Though she continued to speak as if joking, her body was truly still cold and damp with sweat. She seemed as if she might fall seriously ill if things went wrong.
Moreover, the reason Lariette had ended up like this was to purify Asrahan. He felt a terrible guilt at the thought that she was suffering because of him.
In the end, Asrahan was helplessly defeated by the attack of her gaze.
***
“Do we really have to go this far?”
“Yes, we do.”
Sitting in the bathtub where warm water lapped gently, Lariette spoke with a sullen pout. But Asrahan only answered firmly.
Because of his forceful demand, Lariette had changed into clothes that were extremely loose, thick, and not see-through.
Since she obviously could not enter the water in a splendid dress, she had intended to change clothes anyway, but being defended against this thoroughly made her feel deflated.
“For what?”
“……For my sake.”
So that I do not give in to instinct and take you. Asrahan muttered inwardly, then changed the subject.
“Is the water temperature all right? Shall I tell them to bring more hot water?”
“The temperature is fine……”
It’s this situation that isn’t fine! Lariette bit her lip hard and swallowed the words.
“Please tell me whenever you need anything.”
Asrahan answered while staring fixedly at the bathroom wall instead of Lariette’s face.
He was sitting on the edge of the large bathtub with his back turned to Lariette. He had insisted that since she had only asked him to keep her company, their eyes did not need to meet.
At his resolute attitude, Lariette clicked her tongue. If things went on like this, she really would spend the entire bath looking only at Asrahan’s back.
‘That won’t do.’
After going to the trouble of creating this opportunity, she could not let it slip away in vain. Steeling herself, she tapped Asrahan on the back. The instant her fingers touched him, his broad back flinched.
“Asrahan, look at my face when you talk to me.”
“I am fine.”
“Well, I’m not fine.”
Lariette quickly grabbed his forearm. Then his body flapped like a freshly caught fish. He seemed ready to flee.
“I’m warning you, if you run away this time too!”
She shouted in a stern voice. Her hand was firmly holding his arm in place.
But despite speaking so loudly, she had not thought of what to say next. Lariette hurriedly racked her brain and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“I’ll run away too!”
In that instant, Asrahan’s body stiffened like stone. A silence as cold as midwinter settled between them.
Asrahan slowly turned and looked down at Lariette. His expression was fierce, as if he had never been embarrassed at all.
“……Do you mean that?”
His blue eyes, resembling the sea, wavered miserably. He seemed hurt. And behind that misery, a frighteningly thick possessiveness gleamed.
Realizing she had chosen the wrong words, Lariette stammered in confusion. The sudden change flustered her.
“No, that’s not what I meant……”
“How can you say such a thing?”
It was a sinister face she had not seen in a while. It even seemed as though black energy was surging around him.
Thinking that things might go terribly wrong, Lariette hastily corrected herself.
“I meant I’d run around inside this mansion. Like playing tag.”
“……Is that what you meant?”
“Of course! Obviously.”
Lariette awkwardly laughed, heh heh, as she made her excuse. Then Asrahan’s face relaxed in an instant. He smiled gently and continued.
“I misunderstood. I apologize, Lariette.”
“You misunderstood. That can happen.”
“Yes. For a moment, I wondered whether I ought to bind you.”
“Haha, what a joke.”
Saying he made the strangest jokes, she slapped Asrahan on the shoulder.
Asrahan merely smiled faintly and gave no answer. Lariette felt an inexplicable chill down her spine, but dismissed it as her imagination.
In any case, though the atmosphere had briefly turned cold, she had achieved what she wanted. Riding that momentum, Lariette stealthily added another request.
“Asrahan, you’re sorry you misunderstood, right? I was scared.”
“You were frightened? I apologize, Lariette.”
“Then I’ll forgive you, so will you wash my hair?”
Asrahan remained silent for a long while, then nodded as if he had made up his mind. He carefully reached out and began washing Lariette’s soft hair.
When his stiff fingertips touched her head, it felt strange. Compared to Anne’s touch, his service was terribly clumsy and awkward, but even that seemed cute to Lariette.
“……What is this scar?”
Asrahan felt a raised texture near the nape of Lariette’s neck and asked. It was too small and hidden by her hair, so he had never noticed the scar before.
“Ah, that. When I was little, Raon accidentally pushed me and I rolled down the stairs.”
Lariette answered in a calm voice. Remembering that time made a bitter smile rise on its own. Back then, she had thought it was an accident, but now that she thought about it, she wondered whether it truly had been.
“But I was the one who got scolded by my parents. For rolling down the stairs despite being a duke’s daughter.”
At the time, Raon had lied to the ducal couple and said Lariette had charged at him first, so he had accidentally pushed her, and they had naturally taken Raon’s side. For daring to defy the heir of the ducal house and her elder brother, she had to be punished.
Lariette spoke in as light a tone as possible, as if talking about a cute memory from the past. But even that was enough for Asrahan’s hands to stiffen with rage.
‘I should have crushed his hands.’
Asrahan clenched his molars and regretted it.
He had crushed Raon’s face because he had not received Lariette’s permission. But if he had known such a thing had happened, he would have cut off both his hands without hesitation.
Barely swallowing his boiling rage, he lathered soap into her pink hair. With her eyes closed, Lariette slowly continued.
“I was locked in my room as punishment…… I remember just staring at the door endlessly. Open, hurry and open—like that.”
“……Were you locked up for long?”
“No, just. A reasonable amount.”
Lariette frowned slightly to avoid the suds and smiled clumsily. She had shortened the story as much as possible for Asrahan, but the hours she had spent being punished as a child were her most terrible memories.
Because Lariette was a duke’s daughter, she did not receive direct corporal punishment. But she would be confined in her room for days, starved, and unable to do anything except sit still.
All she could do was wait and wait for the door to open and the punishment to end. The duchess explained that it was punishment meant to teach patience, but to Lariette, it was time spent learning resignation and helplessness.
Asrahan rinsed her hair with water and looked down at Lariette’s face. She was smiling, but somehow, she looked sad.
“By the way, Asrahan, don’t you dislike my hair color? Someone once said it was hard on the eyes and not very nice.”
Thinking she had needlessly made the mood gloomy, Lariette quickly changed the subject. Since the suds had all been rinsed away, she could now open her eyes.
She raised her upper body and faced Asrahan. Water dripped from her thoroughly soaked hair.
“What bastard said such a thing? Tell me, and I will cut out his tongue at once.”
“Haha, no need. Just answer me! Do you dislike it or not?”
At Asrahan’s ever-consistent reaction, Lariette laughed softly.
But when she thought that he was someone who could really do that, it was a little frightening. If she actually told him the name, Marquis Segreb would lose his tongue on top of his hand.
“How could I possibly dislike it?”
“Then do you like it?”
Lariette asked with a sly smile on her lips. Asrahan’s answer was concise.
“Yes.”
“Is my hair pretty?”
“Yes.”
“Only my hair?”
“……All of you is beautiful.”
Asrahan seemed embarrassed, hesitating as he answered. But Lariette began teasing him in a mischievous voice.
“How can I believe you?”
“Pardon?”
“How can I know whether your words are sincere or not, Asrahan?”
“……What must I do for you to believe me?”
When the words she had expected came out, Lariette’s playful smile deepened. She subtly placed her hand over his. It was a gesture that seemed to tempt him.
“Kiss the pretty places.”
Beneath her long lashes, lowered lightly, coquettish violet eyes were revealed. The moment Asrahan met that gaze, his entire body stiffened and heated with tension.
Even without that, the situation was already difficult for Asrahan to endure.
He was alone in the bathroom with the woman he liked, and no matter how thick her clothes were, Lariette was wet from head to toe.
Their touching hands were hot, as if burned by fire. When droplets of water ran down her fingers and traced over his skin, he felt as though his whole body were scorching.
Just as when he had lost reason and embraced Lariette, the worries that had been dizzying his mind vanished in an instant. And hot desire took their place.
Slowly, yet without hesitation, Asrahan reached out and took hold of Lariette’s hair. Then he pressed his lips to her hair.
A gaze filled with lust poured thickly toward Lariette.
“There is nowhere that is not beautiful.”
A soft smack. The sound of wet hair and lips parting rang especially loud.
Asrahan released the hair he had been holding and this time gently wrapped his hand around Lariette’s fingers.
“Then must I kiss every place?”
He kissed the woman’s slender fingers one by one. At the ticklish sensation, Lariette shivered. But she had no intention of stopping here.
“Start with the place you want to kiss most.”
Lariette answered with a smiling gaze. And the moment she finished speaking, firm hands pushed her shoulders.
When she closed her eyes and opened them again, Lariette found herself with her back against the wall beside the bathtub.
And before her eyes was Asrahan’s smooth face. Their lips were close enough to touch at any moment.
‘I have to hold back.’
Asrahan thought, putting all his strength into the hand braced against the bathtub.
‘I have to hold back, but……’
It was far too difficult. With her this close, looking so full of temptation, there was no way he could endure it.
A deep crease formed between Asrahan’s brows. His already sharp eyes grew even keener.
In the end, as if giving up, he lowered his head. And at the same time, their lips met.
When the rough-feeling lips touched her own, Lariette’s eyes widened of their own accord. From the chest she had braced herself against as she nearly fell backward, she could feel the pounding of his heart.
Asrahan’s lips pressed hard against Lariette’s, as though he were enduring something. The way they seemed about to part but never quite did was achingly tender.
“Hoo……”
With a soft, wet sound, their lips separated, and he let out a low breath by Lariette’s ear. Her body trembled slightly at it.
Lariette opened the eyes she had closed and slowly studied Asrahan’s face. In the eyes that had once been emotionless, a deep, tenacious affection for her now swayed, and the tips of his ears were flushed red.
His blue pupils trembled faintly. It had not even been a kiss, merely a peck, and yet he wore the face of someone who had committed some tremendous act. It seemed this was his limit for today.
Lariette suddenly found him terribly adorable. It was not yet satisfying, but compared to the days when he would skitter away at the mere attempt to touch him, this was remarkable progress.
“Well done.”
Lariette smiled brightly and stroked his cheek with her thumb as though praising him.
And what followed was more than enough to make Asrahan’s face burn even hotter.
“Next time, you’ll part your lips when you do it, right?”
To Asrahan, the words were unbearably indecent, but Lariette’s face remained nothing but innocent.
In the end, under her continued urging, Asrahan nodded. It was a moment that made the next time terribly worth anticipating.
***
Starting the next day, Lariette began lying in wait for any opportunity to move on to the next step.
She was so blatantly obvious about it that even Asrahan noticed and deliberately tried not to create that sort of atmosphere.
At that, Lariette stuck out her lips in a pout, expressing her disappointment. But no matter what she did, Asrahan’s iron wall remained as solid as ever.
Even during their date in town, their taut battle continued.
“Shall we have a drink together tonight, just the two of us?”
“Did we not decide to go to the boutique today? We must buy your clothes.”
“I already have plenty of clothes…… Will you help me put them on?”
“Madame Charvet will assist you.”
Asrahan swiftly evaded Lariette’s temptations, whose intentions were plain to see. It was because he thought it was still too early to kiss.
Infuriated by his firm attitude, Lariette finally could not hold back and vented her irritation.
“Ugh, seriously! You’re so annoying!”
Throwing away all dignity befitting a duke’s daughter, she smacked his forearm. But what came back was pain in her own hand.
“Ow! Why are you so hard!”
“Was that a massage? Thank you.”
Asrahan replied leisurely and shrugged. Lariette snorted in indignation.
Even so, Lariette felt proud that Asrahan now even joked with her. He was still blunt, but compared to the cold attitude he had shown when they first met, the change was stark.
“……Lariette, may I step away for a moment?”
When they arrived in front of the boutique, Asrahan suddenly made an out-of-the-blue request. To Lariette, it was extremely abrupt, but Asrahan had his own reason.
Gerard, who was hiding from Lariette’s sight, had sent him a kind of signal that he had something to say.
Asrahan had sternly told him not to interfere when he was with her, so the fact that he was signaling anyway meant it seemed to be a fairly serious matter.
Since the boutique was right in front of them anyway, Lariette nodded for him to go. Only after watching her enter the building did Asrahan leave.
“Madame Charvet, it’s been a long time.”
Finding Madame Charvet inside the door, Lariette greeted her with a bright smile.
Strangely, however, the moment their eyes met, Madame Charvet’s face visibly stiffened.
“Um…… well, just a moment.”
“Oh, did you already have a guest? I apologize for intruding.”
Madame Charvet kept hesitating and glancing behind her. Lariette could not see because she was blocking the view, but it seemed there was a customer who had arrived first.
Even so, it was strange for her to look so flustered. After all, while she might not take several guests at once, handling two should have been possible.
“……Lariette?”
But soon, Lariette understood Madame Charvet’s bewilderment.
The guest was someone Lariette knew as well. At the familiar voice ringing in her ears, Lariette’s heart sank with a thud.
She slowly turned her head and looked at the owner of the voice.
“……Mother?”
She saw the shocked face of the Duchess Blanche.