Chapter 5

Despite the earlier talk of divorce, the woman didn’t resist her husband’s touch. No. She didn’t even seem to have the will to stop him. She simply let him do as he pleased.

“Ah… Lucia…”

Ian didn’t care about her lifeless demeanor, like a paper doll in his arms. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, pulling their hips flush together.

“Hah, that’s good…”

What started as a gentle kiss deepened quickly, becoming heavy with heat. He soaked her dry lips with saliva and coaxed her stiff tongue into movement with the heat of his own.

As his tongue grazed her sensitive mouth, her closed eyes quivered with the faintest response.

“Mmph…!”

Even her delicate moan, like a soul shattering into pieces, didn’t make Ian stop. At some point, he’d stopped watching Killian altogether.

“Lucia, Lucia…”

No matter what anyone said, she was his wife.

My wife. My love. My everything.

Even if she rejected him, Lucia would always remain by his side. Ian’s face was gentle, but his eyes brimmed with something far darker.

“You are mine. Utterly mine…”

His large hand moved possessively over the same place Killian’s eyes had roamed moments ago.

“Hff…”

Her pleasure-tinged gasp came out before she could stop it. Ian hastily shrugged off his coat and pushed up her skirt. The quiet hallway filled with the sound of wet friction and their ragged breathing.

Killian had seen the whole thing. As he stepped out of the elevator, he tried to look away. Tried.

He would’ve looked away, if the woman hadn’t done something odd.

“What nonsense is she up to now?”

The red-haired woman stepped into a room without closing the door behind her.

It wasn’t a mistake. Right before she entered, her fingertips had deliberately pushed the door wider.

Through the narrow gap, her eyes met Killian’s for the briefest moment.

Hah… A smile slowly spread across his cold face again.

“Sir?”

“Derrick. It looks like you’ll be the one entertaining the ladies tonight.”

He took a moment to straighten his appearance in the mirror.

“…You mean me, sir?”

“If you’d rather not, send them away.”

“Then what about you, sir…?”

“I’ve got somewhere else to be.”

Killian followed the woman.

“I think I just got myself an invitation.”

Like a child bewitched by the piper’s tune, he followed as if under a spell.

* * *

“Ah…”

A soft moan slipped out of her lips, like it was meant to torment the man.

Was that the third time? Even without wanting to know, Killian had overheard enough to start counting how many times the man came.

Despite the considerable distance between the bedroom and the door, the graphic, wet sounds of their sex were unfiltered and clear.

The woman’s soft cries, the wet, squelching noises, the raw slap of skin against skin.

Killian caught every sound, his senses sharpened to every detail.

“Lucia… ah, Lucia… you feel so good…”

“Hngh… ah…! Aah…!”

Even if they were a couple with a terrible relationship, their sexual chemistry was perfectly matched. The woman’s moans never ceased. And with every dragged-out second, Killian’s patience wore thinner and thinner.

“It sounds like I’m in the middle of an orgy.”

Leaning against the wall, eyes closed, Killian gripped his Zippo lighter tight. He stayed rooted in place, silently enduring, waiting for it to be over.

At one point during their coupling, someone passing down the hallway stopped, curious about the open door. But the moment they saw Killian, they moved on, pretending they’d seen nothing.

“Mmm… ah…! Aaah…!”

Just before Killian’s tolerance gave out entirely, the long, drawn-out act finally came to an end.

Their fevered breaths gradually calmed, and as time passed, silence lingered over the room, suggesting the two on the bed had fallen asleep.

And then, at last, someone stirred. The faint rustle of clothing being pulled back on broke the silence. Rustle— rustle.

Killian opened his eyes. This was the moment he’d been waiting for.

She had left the door open like an invitation. Clearly, she had something she wanted to say to him.

Right. That’s what I thought.

But the woman limped past him without a word, brushing by as if he weren’t there. Killian froze for a moment, then reached out and caught her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

“Didn’t you want me to wait?”

“…No.”

It had been just a fleeting glance. Nothing more. Lucia had never asked him for help. And yet, even when she found a strange man standing outside her room, she didn’t look particularly surprised.

“Then why leave the door open?”

Killian’s question hung in the air. She didn’t answer for a long while. No, she simply chose not to. She hadn’t felt the need to explain.