ONDC 37

~Chapter 37~

I Hate You

Blair bit her lip to suppress the moan that escaped reflexively.

In truth, she wasn’t in the mood to be held by him right now.

After all, he might be the one who had killed her.

But the letter lying on the table weighed on her mind when she thought about refusing him.

If she didn’t offer her body, it felt as if his attention would turn back to the letter again.

Leaving her body in Herdin’s hands, Blair stared blankly at the sunset light streaming onto the balcony.

At that moment, Herdin turned Blair’s body and seated her facing him.

Then he immediately kissed her and asked,
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

The unfathomable eyes that had come so close seemed to rummage through every corner of her mind.

After hesitating for a moment, Blair opened her mouth.
“It’s about Sir Caligo.”

The moment Caligo’s name came out of her lips, Herdin’s eyes turned cold.

He disliked hearing another man’s name from the lips his own had just touched.

Especially at this very moment.

But Blair, seemingly unaware of his reaction, asked,
“Is he one of the subordinates you trust?”

“He’s a fellow who rolled around with me at the border of life and death.”

Herdin replied casually and swallowed her lips again.

Only then did Blair seem to notice that he didn’t want to continue the conversation, and she quietly surrendered her body.

Even though he had obtained what he wanted, the woman’s obedience displeased him.

That attitude—like feeding milk to a crying child without any emotion.

Yet the problem was that he was a damned beast and had no intention of rejecting it.

Herdin lifted Blair’s pale body into his arms and headed toward the bed.

As they moved, Blair’s clothes fell away one layer at a time behind them.

After laying Blair down on the bed, Herdin immediately embraced her.

Unlike usual, he had no patience to wait today.
“Ah…”

Blair’s body was still somewhat stiff, her tension not fully gone.

Her slender arms wrapped around Herdin’s back.

Even as she breathed heavily from being overwhelmed by him, Blair awkwardly responded to him.

Those movements, those eyes that held only him, were beautiful.

Herdin overlapped his lips with hers as if sharing his breath with her panting breaths.

Though in the end he only stole her breath instead.

Before long, the room was filled with the evening glow and the sound of their breathing.

The one that broke that quiet scene was the grandfather clock.

Dong— Dong—

The clock rang to announce five in the afternoon.

Blair, who had been clinging to him in a half-dazed state, suddenly regained her senses and pushed against his chest.

But Herdin did not stop.

He had no reason left.

Blair struggled and desperately spoke.
“The medicine…

It’s time for my medicine.”

“…Medicine?

Ah.”

Blair took her contraceptive pill at this time every day.

She was often tormented by him until dawn and remained half-asleep until morning, so she feared she might forget if she took it then.

During the day she was busy with her own routine.

And once they began at night, she rarely remained in her right mind until dawn.

So she had chosen this awkward time to take the medicine.

“If I don’t take it now, I might forget…”

Blair reached toward the bedside table.

The bottle of pills she had taken out earlier was resting there.

Seeing it, Herdin’s eyes turned cold.

He disliked the desperate way her hand tried to grasp the bottle.

Did this woman really have nothing in her mind except successfully completing this contract marriage?

Did she never consider any other possibility?

Even while doing this with him right now, did she still have the leisure to think about that?

After driving him this mad.

The fact that there was room in her mind for anything other than him irritated him immensely.
“It seems you have time for other thoughts.”

The moment Blair’s hand touched the pill bottle, Herdin moved.
“Ah!”

The impact shook Blair’s body, and the pill bottle fell to the floor.

Herdin forced Blair’s gaze away from the bedside table and back to him as he whispered,
“You can skip it for just one day.”

“N-no.”

Blair’s face turned pale.

Seeing that expression made sadistic pleasure rise within him, yet irritation surged at the same time.

He sealed Blair’s lips with his before she could resist further.

It wasn’t a moment when he could stop anyway.

Blair swallowed her cries in resistance.

But Herdin was not the type to let that pass.

His voice came out rough, as if scraped from his throat.
“Make a sound.”

As his actions grew more persistent, Blair finally couldn’t endure it and let her breath escape.

From the beginning, it had been a fight she could never win.

Herdin pulled Blair even deeper into his arms.

The woman was warm and soft.

She smelled sweet when held and tasted sweet when bitten.

When he buried himself in her embrace like an inescapable swamp, everything became distant.

Yet along with that satisfaction came the anxiety that she might disappear even while in his arms.

Like grains of sand slipping through his fingers.

And so he tormented Blair even more persistently.

The more she cried and reacted to him, the more real it felt that she was in his arms.

Eventually the breaths they had been holding burst out of both their mouths.

Herdin restrained his own heat while waiting for Blair’s trembling body to calm down before slowly withdrawing.

As her panting breath gradually settled, focus returned to Blair’s hazy eyes.

Her tearful eyes were filled with resentment toward him.

Blair pushed against his chest when he tried to embrace her again.

Though such a small push couldn’t possibly move him, Herdin surprisingly stepped back.

Blair tried to get up to pick up the pill bottle that had fallen onto the carpet beneath the bed.

But at that moment her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor.

Still, as if it didn’t matter, Blair took a pill from the bottle and swallowed it.

Because she was in such a hurry, the pill went down even without water, though she normally couldn’t swallow it that way.

Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.

She couldn’t get pregnant at this time.

There was a high chance the child wouldn’t be Asiel.
‘Asiel…’

Asiel was her driving force.

If she couldn’t meet that lovely child again, then the miraculous second life she had gained would mean nothing to her.

Thinking that she had almost lost that child because of him made her blood run cold.

Watching Blair sit on the carpet without even standing up again, Herdin quietly lifted her into his arms.

Blair did not push away his touch, but the resentment in her eyes was impossible to hide.

With a sigh, Herdin spoke.
“In the unlikely event that you become pregnant, I will take responsibility—”

“…No, that won’t happen.”

Blair cut off his words.

Her voice trembled slightly.

But when she continued after gathering herself, her tone was firm without the slightest hesitation.
“We’re going to divorce.

Just like the contract says.”

* * *

After finishing his bath, Herdin entered the bedroom carrying a simple breakfast a maid had handed him.

Blair lay with her back turned to him.

Her already small figure looked even smaller buried beneath the blanket.

She seemed to be pretending to sleep, but Herdin wasn’t someone who would fail to notice something like that.

He stared at her with cold, sunken eyes.

She had been like that ever since last night.

When he embraced her, she obediently gave him her body, but that was all.

Blair did not resist, but Herdin noticed.

She was simply enduring the night silently, waiting for it to end.

She knew that was the most resistance she could offer.

Herdin placed the tray on the bedside table and lifted Blair up.

But Blair slipped quietly out of his arms.
“…I’ll eat later.”

“Why?”

“My stomach feels bad.

I want to rest.”

Blair didn’t even look him in the eye.

Herdin’s lips twisted at the sight.

Now she was even going on a hunger strike.

Herdin placed the tray in front of Blair.

Blair’s beautiful brows furrowed when she saw it.
“I don’t want to eat right—”

At that moment, Herdin grabbed her cheek and pressed his lips against hers.

Sweet juice flowed between their overlapping lips.

It was a strawberry from the pancakes on the tray.

Startled by the sudden kiss, Blair swallowed the strawberry without realizing it.

Only then did Herdin pull away.

He wiped the strawberry juice from Blair’s lips with his thumb and looked at her.

The eyes that had widened in shock were already twisting as if about to cry.

Those large eyes were filled entirely with resentment toward him.

Yet even that expression looked beautiful.

Probably because this woman was cursed with such a beautiful face.

Herdin placed a fork in Blair’s hand.
“Eat.

Before I feed it to you myself.”

Though it sounded like encouragement, Blair knew it was closer to a threat.

And that the “feeding” he spoke of would resemble what he had just done rather than its usual meaning.

Blair looked between the food in front of her and him, then set the fork down.

A suffocating silence fell between them.

Blair looked straight into his eyes and spoke.
“…I hate it.”

“….”

“I really hate you…”

The emotions she had been pressing down flowed out as they were.

Her eyes, which looked ready to cry at any moment, ultimately shed no tears.

But the hand clutching the blanket instead of the fork trembled violently.

Herdin stared at her with piercing blue eyes for a long moment before turning and leaving the room.