Chapter 22 (1/2)

Rafael put down the glass filled with liquor. He couldn’t drink today unlike usual. It had become a habit before going to bed, but today he found that he was strangely reluctant. He thought it would be better to drink it slowly than chug it down like usual.

The sparkling golden liquor slowly flowed from the glass to his red lips. As he was savoring the taste and aroma of the liquor in his mouth, Rafael’s gaze soon turned to his side. There, an exhausted Annette had fallen into a deep sleep.

Annette’s pale eyelids were closed without making any movement. She was sleeping with her mouth slightly open and shallow breaths were coming out of it. The inside of her mouth was a very pale pink. Just by looking at this innocent appearance, no one would ever think she had just had a damn hot sex.

Annette was clinging to his side just like a puppy looking for its mother. Her little hands on his body were so light that he could barely even feel their weight. Strangely, a tickling feeling seemed to be transmitted from her white hand to his body. Rafael shoved her hand away heartlessly.

‘Strange woman.’

Still, her face was stunningly pretty. He could finally understand why the Bavarians took so much pride in themselves, as if they were a special race. Even though the damn Duke of Bavaria was an elegant middle-aged man with platinum-coloured hair, he still looked amazing. He could prove the fact that they were the wealthiest lineage with his face alone.

Rafael reached out for no reason and touched Annette’s cheeks. On the soft, round cheeks, a faint redness from their recent affair remained. As he looked at those reddened eyes, he felt all his blood flow down to his nether regions. But if he did give in to his desire, Annette would really become sick.

‘Anyway, she’s uselessly weak.’

Rafael clicked his tongue. He didn’t expect to have such a relationship with this woman. Rafael’s hostility towards the Duke of Bavaria was that great.

Rafael really hated the Duke Allamand Bavaria. He had opposed Rafael’s Marquis title until the last minute. Rafael still remembered the eyes of Allamand Bavaria, as he looked down at him with contempt. He considered himself superior and hated to even breathe the same air as an illegitimate child like Rafael.

So Rafael had accepted this wedding. Even if Annette was a vicious woman and her relationship with the Crown Prince was broken, he didn’t care much about it.

All Rafael needed was Annette’s lineage to compensate for his muddled blood. On top of that, it was not only fun to see the distorted expression of Duke Allamand Bavaria who became his father-in-law, but was also quite profitable to be able to see his work. Annette was only valuable to him in that aspect.

‘How many couples in the world love each other and get married?’

Rafael didn’t even believe in love. The only thing in this damn world he could believe in, was himself. He wanted to make his way up to the nobles, who laughed at him, and he needed Annette for that. Other than that, it didn’t matter to him what Annette did behind his back.

‘She’s from the noble Bavarian family anyway, so she’ll soon be fed up with her disgusting lowly husband.’ Rafael thought.

However, Annette turned out to be slightly different from his expectations. She acted as if she respected Rafael, and every time they quarreled, she tried to explain herself with sincerity. He couldn’t grasp yet whether she was pretending or being actually serious.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.’

There was nothing wrong with Annette pretending to respect him. Rather, it was advantageous for both of them. Rafael languidly swallowed down the hard liquor in his mouth. The leather choker still wrapped around her elegant neck caught his eyes. He left it on her because he was grumpy. But it wasn’t bad because Annette seemed to somehow belong to him.

Rafael snickered, while recalling Annette’s white naked body. At least she didn’t seem to have given herself up to Ludwig. Still, he felt strangely upset, when he imagined them affectionately crying and saying goodbye to each other.

He couldn’t bear the sight of Annette with another man. When he thought it didn’t matter what she did behind his back, he could not help but be angry and change his thoughts.

Still, it didn’t matter. Because he was an unsophisticated villain who crawled up from the bottom anyway, and Annette was a poor prisoner under his grasp.

“Um.”

Perhaps she felt a sense of crisis, Annette whimpered in pain. Looking at the woman, who was sleeping like a log, Rafael slowly brushed her luscious bottom lip with indifferent eyes. The flesh, which was slightly pushed under his fingertips, was very soft.

Annette mumbled something in her sleep and puckered her lips, making it look like she was kissing the tip of his finger. She looked quite cute. Seeing this, Rafael smiled and whispered in her ear.

“It would be better for you to forget everything about the Crown Prince, Annette. There’s nowhere for you to run now anyway.”

Rafael whispered in a low, harsh voice and bit her ears. The small white ears with his teeth marks were nice to see. Just like the choker wrapped around her slender neck.

* * *

Annette woke up and was devastated when she saw the afternoon sun coming through the window. She always used to wake up early in the morning because of the strict education she received from her family. But she overslept yesterday because of the intense love affair she had with Rafael.

Annette sighed and as she tried to get out of the bed, she suddenly found the choker on her neck. Annette blushed remembering what had happened last night.