Garden of May - Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Theodore chuckled softly. “What if, after the summer, you’re not tired of my body?”
“Don’t be absurd.” Vanessa frowned, as if the mere suggestion was preposterous. “That won’t happen. And even if, by some miracle, it did, you won’t have to worry about anything unpleasant. In fact, by then, even if you beg and plead….”
“Shall we make a wager, then?” Theodore gently interrupted her rambling. “On who will be begging and pleading at summer’s end?”
“I’m confident.” Vanessa’s eyes sparkled, her cheeks flushed. Watching her, Theodore chuckled again. He briefly wondered if he’d gotten himself into something ridiculous, but for some reason, he felt confident that with this woman, it would be alright. Perhaps it was a result of respecting Lady Vanessa’s admirable views on marriage.
“I swear to God, I’ll die before I’m the first to say I love you.”
“I look forward to it. Though I don’t believe in God.” At his answer, delivered with a smirk, Vanessa’s eyes widened again, as if he’d uttered some unspeakable blasphemy.
It amused him that she, who couldn’t even recognize an insult when it was directed at her, would defend the honor of a non-existent deity. To prevent her tedious protest, Theodore pulled her slender waist against him, silencing her lecturing lips.
Contented by the restored quiet, Theodore let out a relaxed laugh. Her body was soft and pliant, her skin fragrant and yielding to his touch, like a summer peach. He slowly lowered his lips to her eyelids.
“W-wait.” Vanessa wriggled out of his grasp, pushing him away. Theodore raised an eyebrow.
“Look, I’m not trying to be difficult, but r-right here, right now… is a little….” Her pleading eyes darted towards the shed. It was clear she wanted them to go somewhere more private. She seemed to think he was about to take her right there.
‘Does she think I’m some rutting animal?’
His slight irritation faded when he saw her pale, frightened face. Her hand, clutching his coat, trembled. Lady Vanessa was clearly overwhelmed with anxiety.
“Of course, I’m not refusing, and right now is… of course, of course, good, but….”
Even in her panic, her excuses tumbled out, desperate to assure him she hadn’t changed her mind. She said she was willing, yet she looked like she was about to be assaulted. Theodore smirked, gently tracing the shell of her ear.
She flinched at his touch, adorable like a small animal. He slowly trailed his thumb from her lips, across her soft cheek, to her earlobe, until her face was flushed a deep crimson.
“R-River. I….”
He cut off her stammering, her annoying habit of uttering another man’s name, by covering her lips with his own. He pushed his tongue into her surprised gasp, taking advantage of her parted lips. Everything about her was so small: her wide-open mouth, her tiny tongue, her pearl-like teeth.
He plundered her breath, kissing her deeply and insistently. Her trapped tongue fluttered against his in a panting rhythm. Theodore’s large hand tightened around her slender neck, as if to punish her for even thinking of escaping with a slight twist of her body. Her bre*st, caught between their bodies, were softly crushed.
It was at that point that Vanessa’s response to his kiss shifted. Her hand, crumpled around his lapel, tightened.
“Ah….”
A delicate string of saliva connected and broke as their lips parted. He licked Vanessa’s sweetly panting lips and nipped them lightly. The irritation he’d felt moments before had vanished completely in the kiss, leaving only the breathtaking summer garden and the woman before him. He rather liked this clear, simple state of affairs.
“You suggested we act like lovers, but isn’t jumping straight to the physical a bit… barbaric?”
“What?”
Vanessa had claimed summer was short, but in his opinion, the southern summer was agonizingly long—long enough to coax roses from bud to full, glorious bloom and then bloom again. Theodore gently bit Vanessa’s pale neck.
“No matter how eager you are, Vanessa, you mustn’t abandon your ladylike composure.”
“When did I…?” Her protesting gaze clouded over. It seemed she realized her words had sounded as though she’d been the one begging. Her expression became as bewildered as a cat that had just spilled milk on the floor.
Vanessa, regaining her senses, flung his hand away as if it were something repulsive. As she turned and fled, Theodore burst into amused laughter. He took out a cigarette with an unhurried air.
‘That’s right, Vanessa. You shouldn’t have made that wager.’
***
‘Oh my.’
Back in her room, Vanessa locked the door and slowly sank to the floor, her hands cupping her cheeks. Her heart hammered loudly, as if powered by a steam engine. How had River Ross become such a man?
The joy of persuading him was strangely overshadowed by the bewilderment that he truly desired her, even though it was precisely what she had longed for.
From the beginning, River Ross had been too much for her. His towering figure that seemed to eclipse even shadows, his veined hands, his broad, strong shoulders, and even…
