Chapter 35
Unable to resist my pressure, Claude gathered his clothes and stood up, and right up until he left the room, he kept looking back at me with a face full of lingering regret.
Self-conscious about my bare shoulders and the dampness still between my legs, I pulled the worn sheet up to my neck.
“I’ll be staying at the estate for a while starting tomorrow.”
“Ah, okay.”
Even to words I would have normally welcomed and been happy about, I responded indifferently.
“If you feel better, come see me. Anytime is fine…”
“Haahm— Then can I just get some sleep now?”
“I’ll have your favorite snacks ready too, alright?”
His tone, gradually turning to pleading, made something ache in my chest.
For a moment, I wondered if I should finally loosen the leash I’d pulled so tight.
Claude was becoming extremely anxious about my changed attitude.
I couldn’t be sure how much more patience he had left.
If I pushed any further, I worried he might lose his composure and overturn everything I’d planned.
But soon I steeled myself again. If I let up too easily, there was a good chance he wouldn’t move the way I wanted.
I wanted him to crave and yearn for me even more desperately. Until he was flat on his stomach at a single word from me. Repeating both reward and punishment.
“We’ll see.”
At my cold reply, Claude looked briefly upset, but then, as if lost in thought, he obediently backed away.
His lonely figure disappearing into the darkness made my heart uneasy once again, but remembering that it was his father’s hand around my throat made those feelings vanish instantly.
In truth, a corner of my heart held a fair amount of resentment toward Claude as well.
Even after our relationship reached this point, I was disappointed that he never brought up the engagement, not even once.
No matter how well things went from here on out, Claude and I would never be able to return to how we used to be.
The moment he left, I felt like I might burst into tears, but it wasn’t time to cry yet.
I pulled myself together, both body and heart, which Claude had left a mess, and buried my face in the pillow.
* * *
There is never a shortage of things to do in a noble household. Which means that, if I put my mind to it, I could bury myself in work and pay no attention to anything else.
Maybe because I got too absorbed in my main duties, the period of making Claude wait for me unintentionally ended up lasting longer than I’d planned.
For roughly ten days, I dodged him and ignored his requests to come to his room. At last, I started to hear reports that the young master had gone completely mad and was rampaging around.
That he’d overturned a carefully set table, or that he was stalking the halls of the estate with a murderous glare. The rumors sounded quite disturbing.
For the sake of my innocent colleagues, I decided it would be best to finally loosen his leash.
Having made up my mind, I visited Claude’s room for the first time in a long while when he wasn’t there.
He’d said he wouldn’t be going out for a while, and yet, for some reason, he was gone from the estate today as well.
I waited for him in his bedroom, knowing full well that the time when the young master’s heart would be at its weakest was right after he’d come back from doing something he didn’t want to do.
As midnight passed and he still hadn’t returned, I dozed off waiting for him, only to be startled awake by the silent arrival of a dark shadow at the window.
Whoa, that scared me. I was so startled that the fog in my head cleared in an instant, as if I’d been splashed with cold water.
My composure only slipped for a moment. I quickly pulled myself together.
Maybe what was to come would be even harder than everything so far.
From now on, I planned to melt down the man in front of me as sweetly as a piece of candy.
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