IWAP - Chapter 72

"If you came after hearing the rumors..."

"I don't care about those rumors." 

He leaned his face close to mine and growled.

"I would actually be very happy if the rumors were true—that damn bastard you called your man with your own mouth—and he were dead."

His words, which were tantamount to verbal abuse, made me seethe with anger as well. It was wrong to proceed with the work on my own without consulting him, but it was not something that deserved such criticism.

"Why on earth are you angry?"

"Are you asking because you don't know that?" 

"Yes. I don't know. That is why I am asking."

I raised my head and glared at him. His blazing golden eyes were staring at me, but I met his gaze straight in, regardless.

"It is my business. I am just saying I will handle my own affairs as I please, so I do not understand why you are getting so angry."

"Ha! Is it your business?"

“Yes. It’s my job.”

He closed his mouth. It was the time when the sun began to set. The red glow streamed into the room through the open window.

"You are always like that. With a face that shows no lingering attachment to anything, you step back, ready to run away at any moment."

He tightened his grip on my wrist and pulled me close.

"As if no one is needed." 

“I’ve never done that.”

"Then I guess it's just me." 

He gritted his teeth as if chewing them. Red blood vessels were visible around his golden eyes.

"Was it just my imagination that I felt your heart had turned toward me, even just a little?" 

“Sis.”

"Rather!"

He let out a scream-like shout.

"I wish you hadn't called me by that name."

His face was horribly contorted. He had never made such a pained expression, even when he was struggling in agony inside the cave.

"If only that had happened, I wouldn't be in this pain."

It was a growling voice that sounded threatening. However, that growling felt like the sound of a wounded beast crying out in pain.

"Did you want to break off the engagement with me so badly that you went to such lengths?"

I came to my senses at the mention of the broken engagement. The reason he was acting so wildly was ultimately because of the breakup my father had informed him of.

"I will never let you go." 

Perhaps displeased that my gaze was directed elsewhere, he grabbed my chin and looked at himself.

It was firmly fixed so that it could be seen.

"No matter what happens, I have no intention of letting you go, so you'd better give up on the idea of running away from me, my Bee."

I felt a sense of resistance to his possessiveness, but clearing up the misunderstanding was more important than arguing about it right now. I looked straight into his golden eyes and opened my mouth.

"What do you mean, a broken engagement?" 

"Didn't you do this because you wanted to break off the engagement?"

"Am I crazy? To go to such lengths just to break off the engagement?"

The heat drained from his eyes in an instant. He narrowed his eyes and stared at me as if gauging the truth of my words. I twisted the wrist he was holding.

"Please let go of this first. It hurts."

"Ah!"

He released the tight grip he had been holding. He had grabbed so roughly that a clear red mark in the shape of a finger was imprinted on my white wrist.

"Th-this is... I'm sorry." 

He fidgeted nervously while looking at my wrist, then bowed his head low and apologized.

"I guess I got too worked up. That Marquis broke off the engagement... Haa. He seems to be seriously injured; should I call a court physician?"

He tried to make an excuse but eventually gave up and slumped his shoulders. I could tell without even hearing it what he had stopped himself from saying. It must have been that he had run wild at my father's notification of the broken engagement and rushed over in a single breath.

If it were discovered that the Crown Prince, who should have been hovering between life and death in the palace, was walking around in such good health, everything he had done so far could be in vain. It meant that he had come here even at the risk of that danger.

"This is not a palace." 

He fell silent at my cold response.

"Sorry."

His expression darkened as he apologized again. Seeing him after such a long time, I felt uneasy because he had lost so much weight. His once sharp jawline had become even more defined, and his skin, once as smooth as porcelain, had turned rough.

It was proof that he had gone through a lot of hardship in many ways during that time.

The anger that had risen at his haggard appearance, when he was always so radiant, subsided. I could no longer treat him harshly, as he whined like an abandoned puppy, unable to take his eyes off my wrist.

Perhaps taking my silence negatively, he tried to approach me with an anxious look on his face. When I reflexively stepped back at his behavior, his face contorted again, as if he were hurt.

"You might not believe it, but I had absolutely no intention of hurting you." 

I know. He was never the kind of person to hurt me. He was looking at my wrist right now with a pained expression, even more so than mine, so there was no way I wouldn't know.

"Ha. These weren't hands trained to hurt you..."

He muttered as he looked at his calloused hands. He was extremely shocked

It was a habit. I took a step closer to him.

He took his eyes off his hand and looked at me. He had the face of a child abandoned by his mother.

"Bee, don't abandon me."

He reached out his hand toward me. His eyes, looking at me, trembled pitifully.

"If you leave me, I don't even know how I will change."

“Is that a threat?”

"If I said I wanted to keep you by my side, even if it meant threatening you, would you grant my wish?"

"I don't like being threatened."

He lowered the hand he had been reaching out toward me.

"What should I do? How can I keep you by my side?"

“I am very greedy.”

I approached him slowly.

"That is why when I want something, I stop at nothing to get it."

I was about a step away from him. I stopped walking and looked up at him.

"Even if it is the Crown Prince of the Empire." 

His golden eyes widened. I raised my arms and slowly wrapped them around his neck. Even in his bewilderment, he obediently followed my pull and bowed his head.

It wasn't moist, but I felt a soft sensation on my lips. His eyes widened to the point where they couldn't get any bigger. I pulled my lips away and whispered to him.

"Don't even think about escaping my grasp. The moment you break free, I will kill you, Sis."

A rough, urgent breath covered my lips.

Our tongues intertwined and hot saliva exchanged. He pressed on without allowing even the slightest gap, as if afraid of missing a single breath of mine.

As my body was pushed back by the force of his rough kissing, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. Unlike his lips, which acted aggressively as if to devour me, the touch of his hands supporting my waist was cautious, as if touching a fragile self.

"Ha."

As it dug in roughly like a starving beast greedily devouring its prey, his grip softened and slipped away.

Taking advantage of the moment he stepped out, I took a deep breath to catch up on what I needed. As I caught my breath, he pressed his lips against mine again. It was a bird kiss, light as a feather and playful like a child's, as if to soothe my swollen lips.

"If this is a dream, I wish I wouldn't wake up." 

At his words, which were like a whisper filled with a desperate wish, a mischievous playfulness reared its head. I tapped his shin with the tip of my shoe.

"I can make it realistic for you, though." 

"...I feel like I've been thrown back into reality in an instant."

He sighed and rested his head on my shoulder. His fine hair tickled the nape of my neck.

"Don't laugh. It makes me want to devour you right now."

As I chuckled softly at the tickling sensation, he growled as if whining. My laughter grew louder at the distinctly different feeling from when he used to be furious.

"Laugh!"

A sensation different from his hair ran down my nape. At that strange feeling, a moan escaped my lips involuntarily. A warm, soft lump traveled up my neck and lingered near my ears.

“Heh, Sis!”

As I called his name, a sharp, hard object nibbled at my earlobe. I arched my back at the thrilling sensation.

Sis, finding my reaction amusing, let out a laugh full of satisfaction and dug even more persistently into the nape of my neck.

I tried pushing him with both hands, but his hard chest wouldn't budge. Instead, a moist and soft sensation lingered around my earlobe, playfully lingering as if marking territory.

"Ha."

As a breath that was indistinguishable from a sigh or a moan escaped my lips, a satisfied vibration rose again from his Adam's apple.

The initiative, which I had clearly turned in my favor, went back to him in an instant. Seeing how he swooped in the moment a slight opening appeared, he was certainly much closer to a haughty and cunning cat than a loyal puppy.

My pride was hurt at the thought of losing the initiative to him like this. A spoiled cat must be tamed from the start.

I raised my hand and grabbed his waist. Using my fingers, I stroked his waist with a pace that was neither fast nor slow. I could feel his body stiffen at my touch.

He stopped his teasing and lifted his head. His eyes, looking down at me, blazed with passion.

I raised one hand and wrapped it around the nape of his neck. His soft hair wrapped around my fingers. Smiling at him, I brought my other hand behind his back.

"Ugh! B..." 

Through the thin clothing, I could feel the joints of his spine at my fingertips. I slowly traced my fingers up, as if counting each vertebra one by one. His composed face contorted not from pain, but from a different kind of stimulation.

I was satisfied with how immediately he responded to my gestures. I stood on tiptoe and brought my lips to his ear.

"If you don't quit now..."

Just as he had done to me, I bit his earlobe lightly with my teeth and let go. His body twitched slightly.

"I will bite you." 

He stopped moving as if he had turned to stone. I pulled away from him without hesitation and took a step back. Then, I smiled broadly at him, who was standing there with a look of utter devastation.

"It is because I'm such a modest lady." 

"...Sigh." 

After standing there stupidly for a long time, he let out a deep sigh and slumped onto the ground. As he muttered curses under his breath, he looked like a street ruffian. I crouched down in front of him, rested my chin on my hand, and watched him.

"You swear quite vividly, which is uncharacteristic of you." 

"You really know how to toy with people's hearts." 

“So you don’t like it?”

He stared intently at my face as I asked. I looked back at him and smiled confidently.

"Damn it. It's a problem that I like it too much."

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