Rubica had been so busy calming Edgar down that she failed to notice it till now, but he had been holding her way too long. Her face turned as red as a tomato.

“I don’t know, maybe forever?”

However, he didn’t let go. He rather pulled her even closer and whispered right next to her ear. His breath tickled her ear every time he spoke. He had run all the way from the carriage to the sewing room and had been extremely outraged, and now he smelled so masculine. Rubica could hear her heart beating fast like the rhythm of a cheerful march.

“What do you mean forever?”

Her voice sounded hoarse. Her entire body heated up as if she had a fever. Strangely, she had no strength even at the tip of her fingers. Unlike her, he smiled. His former anger and passion had disappeared after hearing she wasn’t going to leave. She hadn’t promised, but it was all the same. Now he could relax.

Moreover, she had kissed him first to stop him. He didn’t ask for that and didn’t set up the mood and situation, but she had moved first out of her will. That action of hers meant a lot to him. When their lips first met, he had been so surprised that he had forgotten why he was standing there.

He forgot all about the manners he should keep as a nobleman and enjoyed her lips, not even caring about Carl coming in. Really, that moment had been like a dream.

Now he was sure she had at least some feelings toward him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kissed him first. She was the one who taught him that any kind of physical relationship was forbidden unless the two were both in love.

“I want to stay this way forever.”

His red lips spoke slowly but clearly. The Milky Way in his blue eyes exploded into glitters. That startled Rubica a bit. He was acting like he was confessing his love, and he was about to give her another passionate kiss if only she gave the signal. Her heart was about to jump out of her chest. She really couldn’t understand why he was doing this.

‘He’s making fun of me again…’

She knew several women had been heartbroken by Edgar. There were some exaggerations, but the rumors were all true. Although Edgar never played with them, he had broken their heart.

-The daughter of Marquis Leofold has become lovesick because of Duke Claymore.

-I heard the Prima Donna of Giovanni Opera House tried to seduce the duke and ended up falling in love with him. Now she’s chasing him around!

The most beautiful women in the kingdom loved him, so him doing this to Rubica had to be a joke. She was only an ordinary girl. She had tried to be respectful to him as she was his wife and the person closest to him.

Although Edgar pretended it wasn’t, when Rubica looked into his life from a close distance, he was surrounded by overwhelming duties and traditions. Rubica also had to encounter many things she wouldn’t have been able to take care of without Ann and her own experience from her past.

Plus, his relatives were really nasty. They were nastier because the family had excessive wealth, and they demanded money as if it was only right.

He was a lonely man. Although he was constantly surrounded by people, he was lonely. And he knew it himself, so he didn’t easily let others approach him. It was like he had chosen to hurt people with words and getting rid of them as his hobby. Moreover, he always doubted people who approached him with tender words.

Rubica had thought she was lonely before the war broke out and she found shelter in her mind. Although it had been slightly different from Edgar’s loneliness, she thought she had been a bit like him at that time.

Her uncle and aunt had come to her smiling, acting like they would do anything for her, and then changed immediately after they became her official patrons. After that day, she hadn’t believed in other’s kindness before she went to the abbey.

She had been afraid of kind people as they would always stab her back later on. When she encountered Edgar’s way of speaking which he had learned to hurt people, she had thoughts like those.

Oh, he is so lonely.

Moreover, she didn’t like that such a man was opening up only to her, although it happened rarely. She rather wanted to comfort him sometimes.

‘But not if you make fun of me.’

Rubica stepped on his foot hard. She wanted to pierce his shoe with her sharp heel, but she didn’t do that lest he really lost a toe.

He took a step back, mouthing a silent scream. His last bit of pride suppressed the scream that almost came out of his mouth. He hadn’t known the woman who had been thanking him in his arms would attack him so fiercely.

Rubica put her hands on his waist and solemnly announced, “Don’t you dare to pull a joke on me while I’m serious.”

However, he had been serious as well. He really didn’t want to get away from her. Her auburn eyes were so clear as she looked up to him. Her bright brown hair reminded him of late autumn, and her white skin smelled so good. He wished he could tell her all that.

However, Rubica was thinking it was all a joke. It wasn’t fair. How could she tramp on his heart like that?

“I wasn’t joking.”

She narrowed her eyes, trying to find out if he was telling the truth or not. It hurt him, but he squared his shoulders and straightened his back to show he was being honest.

However, his arrogant attitude, that had been his companion for a long time, didn’t leave him even at this moment.

His blue eyes stared at her under the eyelashes raised high, almost piercing into her soul. His raised eyelashes, arrogant lips, and the delicate line of the chin. Oh, they were all…

‘He really looks like the incarnation of a nymph.’

Rubica’s surprising scrutiny for beauty reached the truth without her noticing it. For now, she decided to forgive him. His beauty had melted her anger. Many women must have experienced that.

It isn’t easy to keep a straight mind when there is such a handsome man staring at you.

Even Rubica was defenseless in front of him. Arman had been the closest to her before she met Edgar, but she had only held hands with him, only because he had been blind.

But with this man, she had gotten way beyond that. They had shared hugs and kisses more than once…

‘No, don’t think of that. You’re going to blush.’

Then Edgar would use his proud smile that was almost merciless. Rubica quickly looked away, faking a sigh.

“Okay, I get it.”

“No, you don’t.”

However, Edgar didn’t let her go. He knew Rubica was still thinking he had been joking, and she was forgiving him about a joke he hadn’t pulled. That wasn’t fair.

“You’re the one who shouldn’t toy with me.”

“Toy with you?”

Rubica looked at him innocently. That look snapped a circuit in his head, the one that handled his high ego and proud. He no longer had any control, and his mouth started to speak on its own.

“You kissed me first and backed off. You shouldn’t have done that. Or were you playing with me?”

Rubica’s cheeks turned pink. They looked like fresh roses of the summertime and Edgar had to resist the urge to kiss them.

“Playing with you? Of course not.”

She cutely denied what she had done. Edgar wanted to grab her and accuse her of kissing him and toying with an innocent man.

“Do you remember what you said to me on the day we first met?”

“Do you mean the part about getting divorced after four years of marriage?”

“You said you shouldn’t do it even if the other person wants it as long as both of you are not in love with each other.”

“Oh.”

Rubica put her hands on her cheeks. She had failed to control herself and had slapped Edgar on that day.

When she recalled that, which happened sometimes, she repeatedly kicked the air with her feet hidden inside her dress.

Edgar had never mentioned it again, so she had thought he had forgotten about it but, judging from how he was talking about it with glaring eyes, he hadn’t forgotten about it at all. It rather had been engraved on his mind.

“Can’t you just forget about it?”

“What?”

The room became cold in a second. Edgar had been comforted so much by those words, and now she was asking him to forget it? No, that was impossible.

“Are you saying you’re about to deny what you said then?”

He couldn’t help but speak coldly. It had been a ray of light that reached him while he was standing all alone in the darkness, and if she was about to cancel it… he didn’t even want to think about what would happen after that. She couldn’t do this to him.