Chapter 25
“Can’t answer?”
“You wouldn’t believe me when I said I couldn’t sleep and came out for a walk, so—”
Before Irene could finish, Dominic reached out and jabbed a finger squarely between her brows. Startled, she squeezed her eyes shut.
A calm, almost leisurely voice brushed against her ear.
“That’s called the glabellar reflex. An involuntary reaction you can’t consciously control.”
Irene slowly opened her eyes. The instant she met those piercing sapphire-blue eyes, she froze. The certainty in his gaze, that absolute conviction that she was lying, filled her with despair.
“It’s the same when someone’s hiding something. Ordinary people can’t control the movement of their eyes. Just like you. So stop feeding me that nonsense about taking a walk and tell me the truth, Irene Vanderberg.”
Then why didn’t you figure out the truth about the dime novels with your miraculous lie detector?! I’m not the pervert here!
“I took a long nap after lunch today. Starting tomorrow I’ll be spending time with Miss Chloe again, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, so I went out for a walk. That really is all there is to it.”
Wrongly accused though she was, Irene explained as calmly as she could. The man studying her with sharp eyes slowly curled one corner of his mouth upward.
“And the other night?”
Thump. It felt as though her heart had dropped straight to the floor.
The moment she looked at him with trembling eyes, he smiled leisurely, like someone who knew he’d already won. That beautiful face softened into a graceful smile.
Under different circumstances, Irene might have admired how handsome he was. Right now, however, he looked like nothing less than a devil with a beautiful face.
“Since you don’t seem capable of explaining yourself, we’ll continue this in the interrogation room—”
“I was afraid I’d have another dream.”
Before he could finish, Irene answered weakly. Well… Once she’d already accepted being branded a pervert, her pride and dignity had long since been trampled.
“I spent two days reading that coverless novel… and after reading it the first day, I had a wet dream. So the following night, after I finished it, I went out for a walk to clear my head. That’s honestly all it was. How could a woman possibly admit something so embarrassing…?”
An awkward silence followed her absurd confession. The look in the duke’s eyes turned from suspicion to utter disbelief. Unable to bear seeing it, Irene lowered her head.
Her gaze fell to the long legs beneath his neatly tailored trousers. Unlike the stiff fabric of his formal attire, the soft lounge trousers draped naturally over his solid thighs and long calves.
A hollow laugh almost escaped her. What am I even looking at in a situation like this?
What was the point of admiring them? Right now, she was a depraved pervert on the verge of being marched to the gallows.
“…What does that have to do with anything?”
“Huh?”
“Irene Vanderberg. What does you taking a walk to avoid having erxtic dreams have to do with feeling uncomfortable around me? If anything, it’s even more suspicious that you’re trying to explain away everything by claiming you’re some kind of pervert. Using your libido as an excuse to hide the truth…”
“B-Because it was you, Your Grace!”
Irene finally snapped, shouting over the man who had begun doubting even her confession of being a pervert. She jerked her head up and looked straight at him, her eyes filled with desperation, resentment, humiliation, and resignation all at once.
“I’m truly sorry, but I want to make one thing absolutely clear first. None of this was intentional. And I’m not trying to insult you or harass you. If Your Grace hadn’t cornered me like this, I would have taken this to my grave. I never would have spoken about… what happened in my dream.”
The softer her voice became, the more the look of exasperation in his eyes gave way to outright contempt.
Being looked down on by the Duke of Whitmore… At this point, it might not be much different from living as an anarchist.
“If there’s anything else you find suspicious, then go ahead and ask. I’ll explain everything.”
As Irene added those words in a tone of utter resignation, the arms braced against the wall slowly fell away. Taking a step back, Dominic looked down at her with an expression of uncomfortable disbelief.
Her cheeks, flushed with shame, and her lower lip, bitten so hard it had swollen red, spoke to her sincerity.
So this woman actually got aroused by me?
More than disgust or offense, he was simply dumbfounded.
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