[TIDK] 139 – A Night With Her Ex

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Scarlett pushed herself up from the bed and looked at her wrists. Viktor’s handprints were still visible as light bruises.

“…I must be crazy.”

His expression had been as dry as ever, but for some reason, he hadn’t been able to control his strength last night.

She rolled up her nightgown and found the same marks on her thighs. He probably didn't mean to leave any bruises on her. She would have usually stopped him when she felt the pain, but Scarlett had lost all reason last night.

It was as though he had been starving for a long time and then finally had a taste of the sweetest dessert imaginable. So he didn’t know what to do. 

When they slept together while they were married, Scarlett thought it inappropriate to describe the act as “making love.”

Back then, she thought it probably didn’t matter if it wasn’t her in bed with him.

His behaviour always made her think that way. He acted like he didn’t have any sexual desire for her at all She was just his wife. A woman he needed to get back his honour. Scarlett thought that was how dispensable she was. That was how silly her love was.

If you were to call what they did back then making love, then Viktor should have had at least one-tenth of her expression of joy in the moment. He didn’t, so Scarlett thought that it couldn’t be described as making love.

But last night was completely different. Viktor’s intense gaze never left Scarlett’s face, as if he were trying to seduce her over and over again.

He was persistent in making her look at him. His breath, his heat enveloping her, his lips…Last night, he seemed to really want her.

The glow and want in his eyes were more persuasive than thousands of whispered words. Scarlett thought that she would have given him anything he said he wanted on the bed if she had the power to do so.

After Viktor’s breathing finally became even, Scarlett lay awake for a long time, feeling upset that everything she had known about sleeping with a man before then was a lie.

However, it was tiring to just be still and pretend to sleep. She lay on the bed with her back pressed against Viktor’s side for a long time, but around three in the morning. she couldn’t stand it anymore and slowly raised herself.

Viktor was sound asleep, lying on his back in a straight line as if dividing the bed perfectly in half. His appearance was like a masterpiece, but his sleeping posture was too chaste to provoke any painter.

Last night, he was like a different person from the Viktor she knew, and he had engulfed her with his heat. It was as if the ghosts of the Dumfelt family had possessed him.

“…You don’t have any ancestors, anyway,” Scarlett murmured what Viktor hated hearing the most.

She didn’t know what the true significance of this place was. This was because Princess Marina and Viktor kept that information well hidden. She only knew that it was originally a wasteland.

Scarlett often climbed up the hill and wondered if it had been a place where royalty was exiled before. Standing in front of the endless sea, this place made people shudder with a sense of immense loneliness. When she was at 7th Avenue, she felt lonely, alone in her room in the watch store. In the Dumfelt mansion, she felt lonely even when she was surrounded by many different servants.

Scarlett looked down at the sleeping Viktor for a while. Then she decided to do whatever she wanted.

‘Because you’ll think I’m crazy anyway.’

With that thought in mind, Scarlett pulled Viktor’s arm and lay down at his side again. She repeatedly told herself that she was being unreasonable. But it was as if she were drunk, and she could not control her behaviour.

The loneliness that she felt when they were far apart seemed to overwhelm her even though her ex-husband was right by her side. Lying with her head on his arm for a while, she soon calmed down and snuggled her back against him. She could feel his warmth against her back.

Strangely, tears began to come out. She hated herself for crawling into his arms. She was like a child who acted strangely because she lacked affection from her parents when she was young. She covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes tightly because she felt like she was about to sob. Just for this night, she would let herself. 

It was a long and sleepless night.

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