Chapter 209: Chapter 209. Confirmation, Part XVITranslator: Khan
Editor Group: Liber Reverie
“But even if I looked back on my old life, including the past, there was not such a man. Of course, there was a person who was similar in color, but I’d never been attracted to him. Even if I looked back on it slowly, there was no man I was attracted to, so don’t worry.”
She was going to say that there was only Asher, but when he heard the answer, his expression was subtle. He didn’t look very happy. ‘Why?’ She called Asher’s name to wonder, and he sighed with a hard face.
“… I thought about it, but I’m not happy to hear it.”
“What…?”
“I think there were other men you met. You said you lived until your mid-twenty and came back to the past. You are so beautiful now, and I cannot imagine how beautiful you were, who was an adult… They wouldn’t have let such a beautiful lady alone.”
Then Aria closed her mouth, realizing that she had made a little mistake.
‘Did I talk about comparing Asher with other men who had gone by myself?’ If Asher had been involved with other women and had brought it out of his mouth, she would have been concerned and would feel bad.
But Aria, who had already lived in the future, knew that he had no more woman but Isis and that he did not have a good relationship with Isis, so she told him about her male bias without paying attention. The atmosphere rapidly cooled down, and Asher hastily excused the apologetic Aria.
“I don’t mean to be accusing you of your past or to be angry with you for it, but I just… I regret that I didn’t meet you at the time.”
“That’s because… I was a very stupid and wicked woman. A vulgar villain who dared not see the Crown Prince… I met someone who was at the right level with me.”
“Don’t express yourself that way. You just didn’t have a good time, a person, and a situation.”
Then he frowned a little and comforted her, even blaming himself for saying that unnecessarily. It was because Aria described herself as stupid or wicked.
“I just told you… I hadn’t given my heart to any of the men I had ever met in the past. Just like other young ladies, those were relationships that had passed by. I only met them at a party and talked to them.”
“You only talked to them… If that was the case, then I guess I might be worrying in vain.”
He was still jealous, but when Aria’s story repeated, his expression relaxed a little as if he were relieved. However, it was not Aria because it had not been over with just a talk.
She had been a little bit of touchy with those men in the past after having several drinks, and sometimes she had had a little bit more than a touch. Of course, she hadn’t had a serious situation, but she remembered that she had acted in a manner that was vulgar. She was guilty of lying and corrected what she said earlier.
“Well… come to think of it, I did not just talk to them.”
“Then?”
“… I can say there was some touch…”
Asher’s expression grew serious again at the word ‘touch’.
“How much touching was it? Did they hold your hands or put their hands around your waist?”
It was kind of an intimate touch if they were close. Aria shook her head when he gave a very light example.
“… A hug, then?”
When she firmly said no, Asher’s words shortened.
He looked uncomfortable. She had experienced more than a hug. When she could not answer, worried that he might be angry, Asher, realizing that she had done a deeper skinship, closed his body to her as if jealous of the unnamed men, and the actions she would have done.
“Have they ever been this close?”
Asher’s face was close. And her heart began to beat a little faster as if it had been surprised to be this close to his face though it was not the first time as he had kissed her forehead. Pretending to be casual, she nodded. It had not been a big deal at the dark light party in the past.
“… Yes.”
“Has someone kissed your forehead like this?”
Asher kissed Aria with a light kiss. It had also happened so many times that she could not answer this time. No, she thought that kissing on her forehead might not have been because it was an act of loving the other person.
“… What about your cheeks?”
Unlike his serious look, soft lips touched her cheeks.
‘Oh my gosh…!’ It was a very common thing, but her heart, which had begun to run a little faster, now began to run out of her mouth. Was it because his lips would touch hers if he changed the distance a little bit? Or was it because he put his lips on her cheek and asked a question?
It might be both. She stopped breathing and did not answer, and his eyes met her weakly trembling gaze. His eyes, which had sunk visibly, contained eyes looking for unspoken permission. So she had to answer no. Otherwise, he would surely move on from the forehead, to the cheeks and then he probably…
Asher’s eyes, facing the eyes of Aria, slowly descended. The place where his gaze stopped was under her soft curved nose which was her lips that were slightly wet. Aria looked at Asher’s face, which no longer had a hint of jealousy in it, and swallowed her saliva.
She thought she always had the advantage of having more years of experience, but when did he become a man who knew how to make a woman flutter like this?…
Asher, who had no more questions, slowly narrowed the distance between him and Aria and looked into her eyes, which were shaking like a ship in a typhoon. He brushed her white, immaculate cheek as if asking for her last permission.
She didn’t do it even though she could make him stop right away if she rejected him, and instead of pushing or turning her head, she slowly closed her trembling eyes. Their lips overlapped in no time. As soon as his soft lips touched hers, her heart suddenly stopped.
She had laughed at women who were discussing romantic kissing with someone who they loved, and at what was so great to face their lips, but now she was so feverish and paralyzed that she could not even think of anything.
The skinship, which had begun with jealousy, had now become a long kiss and snog which bothered her, and his lips, which was gently touching hers, had roughly changed and abused her. She accepted it without resistance, and he put his hand, which was sweeping on her cheek, against the wall of the carriage and kissed her more deeply which made her unable to breathe.
“… Mm”
Unlike the seasoned and mature kisses for pleasure, it was full of obsession to covet and own her, and her hands trembled without knowing it. Her hands, which had been wandering in the air for a long time, only caught his arm, and Asher, who was irritated by this, pushed her deeper as if he could not bear it.
“…Mm”
She felt like she was really out of breath because of his kiss. His desire and obsession to possess her were taking over him. Her whole body seemed to be swallowed up. It seemed that the heat of her eyes would burn away.
His lips, which had sported so long and had been devouring her, fell off, leaving a long afterglow, and her whole body was so hot that it could burst out at the heat of his breath, which could easily reach her.
She moaned a little, and Asher, who had sworn a little, stole her lips again. This time, he kissed her so hard that she became delirious. She felt indescribably suspicious of the fact that she had met many men in the past and took them for pleasure.
“… I’ll walk you to your house.”
Asher, who had been staring at her for a long time, said in a squeezed voice. He seemed to have realized that if he wanted her more than this, he could not stop.
“… Yeah.”
Aria replied, turning away her gaze from him. ‘How can I face you, which eagerly craves for me?’ Nevertheless, she hated and resented herself for the first time for the fact that she was still only seventeen. ‘If this birthday of mine had only been my eighteenth, not seventeenth… I would not have had to go back to the mansion of the Count.’
The carriage turned around the capital for a long time, and it was only after the darkness fell on the world that it arrived at the mansion of Count Roscent. There was no movement or word in the carriage at the driver’s words to tell them of its arrival.