Private Tutoring for the Duke’s First Night - Chapter 8

After those suffocating words, Duke Drexton slowly opened his eyes. The blue eyes that kept stirring old memories, now set in the center of a fully changed face, threw Julia into confusion.

She didn’t want to behave like an innocent maiden. She had come here knowing everything. She had no intention of making a disgraceful scene by crying and carrying on.

“I understand what you mean.”

Julia didn’t pretend not to understand. She drew in a deep breath and closed the book. Duke Drexton cast a sidelong glance at the way her ample chest swelled beneath her clothes.

“I had no intention of making Your Grace waste time. Let us begin the practical lesson.”

All Julia wanted was for her voice to sound composed and professional. That alone was her last shred of pride.

She rose from her chair and stepped closer to Duke Drexton. Perhaps finding her unexpectedly proactive, his gaze narrowed slightly.

Lowering her eyes, Julia turned and sat down in front of Duke Drexton. Then she inclined her head a little.

“It isn’t the same as the bride’s dress that will be removed on the wedding night, but… this is what a woman’s attire is like.”

More than a dozen buttons were neatly arranged along the line of her spine. Duke Drexton watched her slender, straight nape, then raised his hand.

His hand came to rest against Julia’s nape. When the dry, warm touch approached without warning, Julia couldn’t help but shudder.

To keep from stumbling over her words, she closed her eyes and bit her lip. While Julia remained silent, long fingers slowly traced downward as if counting the buttons on her back, then settled at her waist.

“Shall I undo them?”

His breath brushed sharply against her ear. The low voice sent a tremor through her entire body. Taut with tension, Julia nodded stiffly.

“Yes…”

With a touch that was neither too fast nor too slow, Duke Drexton began undoing the buttons of her outermost garment. Before long, Julia was sitting before him with one layer of armor removed.

Thanks to the warm air from the fireplace, she didn’t feel cold. Still, her shoulders trembled despite herself.

Trying to hide that trembling, she acted more proactively instead. Julia took Duke Drexton’s hand and guided it up toward the brooch.

His fingertips hesitated for a moment.

She shouldn’t, but a brief smile flickered at the corner of Julia’s lips. That fleeting hesitation she found in the seemingly perfect Duke. A hint of clumsiness. A trace of ‘Edgar’.

But soon humiliation came rushing in.

Ah, I shouldn’t have thought about our childhood.

Her head and heart wavered without any firm anchor. What did she even want.

While Julia struggled inwardly, Duke Drexton undid the brooch and the buttons of the bodice. It was clear he hadn’t undressed a woman before. Unable to see the buttons properly, his hands fumbled several times.

As he repeated his mistakes, his hands brushed over her chest. Julia tilted her head back slightly and drew in a deep breath. At times, the light, accidental touches stirred a faint ache. She couldn’t bring herself to admit it, but still.

In the silence, only the crackling of burning logs and the sound of their breathing flowed. Julia prayed again and again that Duke Drexton wouldn’t notice her breath growing unsteady.

The garments that had wrapped her so firmly until now slipped down helplessly. Her slender yet stubbornly straight shoulders were revealed.

Duke Drexton pulled the clothes down a little further. Nearly perfect teardrop-shaped b*****s slipped free of the fabric and gave a small, soft bounce. A waist where the outline of her ribs showed from hardship, and the sharp inward curve of her sides, appeared in turn.

For the unskilled Duke of Drexton, removing the multiple layers of skirt was a challenge. Perhaps frustrated with himself, a crease formed between his brows.

Julia was no less flustered. Every time she saw the younger man’s inexperience, she kept thinking of Edgar from long ago. The more she did, the more tangled her thoughts became.

‘No…’

The one undressing her from behind was Duke Drexton. Not Edgar.

To hold on to that thought, Julia made a decision.

She pushed Duke Drexton’s hands away. She had to proceed with the ‘lesson’.

With trembling hands, she flipped up the hem of her skirt. She loosened the ties of the undergarment bound tightly around her hips herself. She did the same with the rest of her underclothes, then removed everything at once, clutching the skirt in her arms.

And she spread her legs before Duke Drexton.