DH ✦ Ch 35

✦ Chapter 35 ✦

Hyun-jae silently looked down at Ga-young for a moment before moving to the side. The head seat of the sofa, positioned at a ninety-degree angle from where Ga-young was sitting, became his place.

“Keep doing what you were doing.”

Ga-young hesitantly sat back down.

She felt uncomfortable. She should have simply said, I missed you too. It had probably been nothing more than a customary greeting, yet she regretted overreacting as though she had just received a confession of love.

Picking up a flower from the table, Ga-young moved her lips a few times before speaking.

“You must be tired. Shouldn’t you wash up and get some rest?”

“I will. Later.”

Still seated on the sofa, Hyun-jae removed his jacket and casually tossed it onto the empty seat.

Ga-young felt as though her back was becoming damp. Despite the annex always being kept at a comfortable temperature by the central air-conditioning, she felt hot.

Feeling the need to change the atmosphere, Ga-young plucked the leaves from the stem with her fingers and brought up another subject.

“Chairman Kwon gave me these flowers.”

“I heard.”

So he knows. Then does he also know that I was able to help Chairman Kwon, even if only a little? Chairman Kwon thought highly of me and even gave me this reward.

Ga-young suppressed the urge to boast. After making the atmosphere so awkward, she had no shame to start rambling about something like that.

“You did well.”

She didn’t even need to say anything. Hyun-jae praised her on his own.

Ga-young turned her eyes toward him. His hand rested on the knot of his tie, and the corner of his lips lifted slightly. It was a smile that looked genuinely pleased.

“Chairman Kwon had quite a lot of praise for you.”

Childishly enough, she felt proud. Thanks to that, some of the tension from moments ago subsided.

Hyun-jae placed his tie and tie clip on top of the jacket he had taken off, followed shortly by his wristwatch.

Should I take those to the dressing room for him?

She dismissed the thought. It would make her look as though she were already acting like his wife after sleeping with him just once.

Hyun-jae leaned deeply against the sofa and crossed his legs. His elegant yet arrogant silhouette appeared blurred in the corner of Ga-young’s vision. Then his languid voice drifted into her ears.

“When did you learn flower arranging?”

“I never learned it. I watched videos online and taught myself. This is my first time actually trying it.”

“Your first experience.”

The thorn remover she had just picked up slipped from her hand.

His choice of words sounded suspiciously suggestive. He was probably only complimenting the results of her flower arranging, but perhaps, just as he had pointed out before, her imagination really was too indecent.

Ga-young unclenched her automatically curled fist, picked up the thorn remover, and ran it down the flower stem.

Hyun-jae resumed the conversation.

“You’re doing well for your first time. Is it fun?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll do even better the second time.”

Her ears must have malfunctioned.

Because it sounded as though he were saying they would spend a second night together tonight.

Gulp.

Ga-young swallowed the saliva that had gathered in her mouth and responded stiffly, albeit a moment late.

“Thank you for thinking so highly of me.”

He really is impossible.

Hyun-jae muttered to himself as he touched his temple with his fingertips. He seemed dissatisfied yet amused by Ga-young’s continued attitude of drawing a line between them and keeping her guard up.

Ga-young concentrated on preparing the flowers, doing her best not to let him see how unsettled she was.

Hyun-jae settled himself comfortably in the living room and did not move. His languid gaze wandered between Ga-young’s profile and the hands working with the flowers.

Even when she tried not to be conscious of him, the tips of Ga-young’s fingers kept missing their mark.

“Shall I help?”

“No.”

Even though she refused, Hyun-jae suddenly moved closer beside her.

Ga-young’s shoulders shrank as they came close enough to touch. Completely unconcerned by her reaction, Hyun-jae picked up an untrimmed rose.

“What is the name of this flower?”

“The florist who delivered the flowers earlier told me it’s called a Royal Princess.”

“Royal Princess?”

It was a white rose with an unusually large blossom and particularly prominent thorns. Hyun-jae ran his fingertips up the stem and gave a meaningful smile.

“A thorny princess. Just like someone I know.”

Who does he mean? Me? I’ve never acted like a princess.

Ga-young was about to protest, but she stopped because of Hyun-jae’s strange behavior.

He pressed his index finger firmly against one of the large thorns.

A red bead of blood slowly formed where the sharp thorn had pierced his fingertip.

When the droplet grew larger, Hyun-jae turned the flower downward. The blood ran along the stem and stained the petals, looking even more dangerous against the white flowers.

Why would he do that?

As Ga-young stared at him in bewilderment, Hyun-jae raised his index finger before her.

“I’m hurt. What should I do? You’ll treat me, right?”

“…I’ll get the first-aid kit.”

She hurriedly tried to stand, but Hyun-jae caught her by the forearm.

“Forget the medicine.”

His gaze turned stern and provocative.

“Kiss it better.”

“……”

The bloodied fingertip lightly pressed against Ga-young’s frozen lips.

He smeared the blood over her lips and then slipped his finger between them without hesitation, further pushing aside what little composure she had left.

His thick finger gently parted her teeth, brushing against her tongue.

The taste of blood was strangely stimulating, enough to awaken every dormant nerve and stir desires she had been trying so hard to keep under control.

As if under a spell, Ga-young tasted the blood on his finger. Hyun-jae’s eyes curved suggestively as her breathing grew increasingly unsteady.

When the taste of blood had nearly disappeared, Hyun-jae slowly withdrew his hand.

He looked at her flushed face and smiled faintly.

“Thanks to you, I’m all better. Completely healed.”

Ga-young let out a breathless sigh, and his gaze shifted toward her. His voice that reached her flushed ears was absurdly calm.

“You worked hard enough to deserve a reward. Chairman Kwon gave you flowers, so what should I give you?”

After getting me this worked up.

Ga-young lifted her eyes, shimmering with moisture.

The man who had deliberately thrown her composure into disarray smiled like a perfect gentleman as he gave her a wicked command.

I’ll give it to you, so take it, Yoon Ga-young.

Her thoroughly shaken instincts obediently followed his wishes.

“Please kiss me.”

Hyun-jae lowered his head and kissed her lips once.

When he drew back, he held her chin and brushed his thumb across her lower lip. His touch was gentle, yet it also concealed a greater desire.

“Will this be enough?”

“……”

“That’s not enough for a reward.”

“……”

“Should I hold you?”

His final words dropped into a deliberately sensual whisper.

Ga-young’s chest ached with an inexplicable sense of defeat. Hadn’t she decided she would never sleep with this man again?

Not really.

The woman who had been so easily defeated answered by sucking lightly on the finger teasing her lips. A satisfied smile appeared at the corner of Hyun-jae’s mouth.

Soon, Hyun-jae gathered her slender body into his broad embrace.

The softness of their lips meeting did not last long. The kiss became more passionate, as though he were playing with something he considered his own. Ga-young’s body naturally tipped backward under the pressure of his lips.

The man covering Ga-young as she lay on the sofa was relentless.

His kisses traveled fluidly over her eyes, ears, and the nape of her neck, lingering over her delicate skin. His hands were no less active, moving slowly from her chest to her abdomen and hips, leaving her completely disheveled.

Ga-young writhed beneath the frightening pleasure, gradually losing the layers of restraint she had tried to maintain. When she was beneath this man’s body, there was little she could do except tremble and moan as though consumed by a fever.

“Hoo…”

The breath she released after reaching her climax felt wonderfully relieving.

Hyun-jae stroked her endearingly before settling back.

Her snow-white skin had lost its original color from the heat that had continued for so long, turning a flushed pink.

Ga-young collapsed face-down onto the bedsheets, like a doll without joints. Her ragged breathing was as pitiful as the reddened skin rubbed raw by their movements.

Was twice too much?

When they had first been together in the living room, she had handled it more easily than on their first night, so he had thought it would be fine to continue.

And watching Ga-young repeatedly react with shock afterward had been an unexpected pleasure in itself.

When he had lifted her effortlessly and carried her to the bedroom, when he had laid her on the bed and joined their bodies again, when he had soothed her reddened skin with gentle touches, when he had turned her over—every moment had been enjoyable.

It was an entirely ordinary process, yet Ga-young had treated him like some kind of pervert and dug her fingernails into his skin.

That aggression had been exhilarating.

He had almost wondered whether he had some peculiar tendency he had never noticed before. His energy seemed endless.

He had poured the energy she had stirred up into a long, exhausting night.

The state Ga-young was in now was, in a sense, a disaster she had brought upon herself.

She’ll get used to it soon. She has to.

Thinking calmly, Hyun-jae kissed her neatly angled shoulder.

“You did well.”

Ga-young did not move at all. He pulled her into his arms from behind and rubbed his nose against the nape of her neck. Only then did she finally respond with a faint whimper.

“Are you angry?”

A sniffing sound answered him.

“Are you crying?”

“Mm.”

This time, it sounded almost like a sulky complaint.

Hyun-jae lay on his side beside her and reached toward Ga-young’s head, which was buried deep in the sheets. Despite her weak attempt to push him away with an ah, he pulled her face around until he could see it.

He had discovered the weakness of the position they had just been in.

He couldn’t see her beautiful face when she cried like this.