“Too dangerous? Then how about showing me your room instead?”
The roles between man and woman had completely flipped.
Wasn’t it usually the man desperately trying to get someone into bed, and the woman doing everything to avoid it?
Because the woman always ended up losing.
Even an aristocratic lady living a life of privilege should know to protect herself. So why didn’t Eve hesitate? Perhaps it was simply her nature.
Was promiscuity a family trait?
Doubt consumed him again.
“Are you sure you love me? Or do you just want to scratch an itch and throw me away?”
A thought worthy of a woman. After all, in this relationship, Ethan was the one with everything to lose.
“What? Who do you take me for?”
Eve shot up, furious. Ethan caught her wrist and held on.
She looked down at him in silence, her stern gaze slowly softening.
“Are you provoking me right now? Want me to prove how serious I am by proposing?”
The word marriage left Eve’s lips for the first time. Only so she could dismiss his sincere feelings as a cheap ploy. Rage curdled inside him, but what came out instead was—
“That wouldn’t be so bad.”
“Ha. So you’re an ambitious man after all?”
She treated him like a social climber angling for a duke’s name and fortune. Anger wouldn’t help a weak man defend his pride. Ethan swallowed his fury and fired back:
“If ambition means wanting a wife who’s still a student and needs me to support her, then yeah — I’m ambitious.”
They’d already planned it all. Once Ethan returned to Richmond and found a house, Eve would secretly slip away from the duke’s estate.
He just wanted to possess his first love to the very end, even if it cost him his last penny.
“You’re the one who doubted my love first.”
The misunderstanding seemed to clear up, and Eve sat back down beside him. But Ethan’s mood didn’t improve. He sighed and pulled a cigarette from the pack.
“When you want to marry the girl you’re dating, that’s love. But when she’s a princess? That’s ambition.”
“So every woman you’ve been with — you wanted to marry them?”
“No.” He exhaled. “I was trying to forget you.”
He wasn’t saying it to move her. Even if he knew Eve had terrible taste — she loved hearing about his agonizing, unrequited longing.
Eve snatched the cigarette from his lips and tossed it aside. The moment his lips went empty, hers replaced it.
Fire danced in the woman’s eyes as she kissed Ethan deep and slow. Her hot, damp whisper clung to his mouth.
“You don’t need to forget me anymore. And you don’t need to wait either.”
As if offering him the fruit he’d earned after years of torment, she placed his hand on her thigh.
Beneath her skirt.
Ethan didn’t pull away. He traced the soft skin with his fingertips, moving higher — but that didn’t mean he’d surrendered.
“I’ll wait until our wedding night. If you want to sleep with me — marry me first.”
“Ha.” Eve snorted. For a moment, he thought it was a ‘know your place’ kind of laugh.
“Without a ring?”
But what she meant was — she’d accept his proposal as soon as he had one. Only then did Ethan feel the thrill of victory, even if how he’d suddenly won remained a mystery.
So why are you so in love with me?
Still, he wasn’t going to sleep with her. Not until he was sure Eve loved him back. At least until he put shackles — no, a ring — on that finger.
His resolve wavered as his hand reached the top of her thigh.
“Looks like the Kentrells are in such bad shape they can’t afford underwear for their only filly.”
The soft, damp bare skin felt like a freshly picked peach. He parted her flesh and pushed deeper—
“Ah—hn!”
Like plunging his hand into overripe fruit, juice running down his fingers. In that moment, Ethan’s resolve became as shapeless as that crushed peach.
“My room or yours? Where’s the bigger thrill?”
Ethan had read Eve’s desire and asked. They could go to a safe, comfortable hotel — but wanting to do it in their own rooms, that was about the thrill of almost getting caught.
If they were caught, today’s comedy would turn into a tragedy. But that was a problem for when it happened.
“There’s a small party starting soon at White Cliff Hall. My father and Harry will be there, of course, and those three snobs from Kingsbridge too. Right above the banquet hall is Harry’s game room. What about there?”
Eve — are you a genius or a devil?
Just the thought of joining his low body with a noble lady’s, right above the heads of the powerful people who’d looked down on them — it made his cock ache. He’d never feel pleasure like this after marriage. The moment he hatched this filthy conspiracy with his beloved, Ethan locked eyes with a man standing on the cliff.
A stranger’s face. The woman beside him was a stranger too.
“Lady Evelyn?”
But unluckily, they both recognized Eve. At the very moment Ethan’s hand was still under her skirt.
What exactly did they see?
Climbing up to the cliff, Eve bit her lip.
Of all people — it had to be that fox.
That scheming nurse still hadn’t been fired. Rumor had it young Callas came and convinced her father. So they really were a couple.
Defending a mistress who cheats with other men — that guy’s brainless too.
Neither the medical profession nor glasses could hide that man’s stupidity.
“Owen Callas, the duke’s attending physician.”
When they met on the cliff, the man extended his hand to Eve for a handshake. Eve’s heart skipped as she pulled her hand out from under her skirt and shook Callas’s hand.
Of all the moments — why now?
She greeted him, looking decent on the outside but bare underneath. An awkward first meeting.
“Didn’t expect to meet you, my lady… like this.”
The man smiled awkwardly and threw out a loaded remark. Judging by how he blushed and couldn’t meet her eyes — he’d seen enough.
“Pleasure to meet you.”
Then Owen Callas extended his hand to Ethan. Ethan didn’t take his hand out of his pocket.
Because that’s the hand that touched Eve.
He wasn’t about to be polite to this guy. The thought of shaking hands with someone who’d touch what touched Eve disgusted him.
That doctor — looking like a weak-willed bookworm — froze, unable to meet the eyes of his employer’s daughter, five or six years younger than him. Every male instinct in Ethan screamed.
Seeing her let another man feel under her skirt and still falling for her? Is this doctor some kind of pervert?
He shot him a look that said: Touch my woman and I’ll make you a paraplegic. Callas lowered his hand awkwardly.
“We didn’t mean to interrupt. Chantal said there’s a beach below the cliff…”
“I’ve never seen you before, but your face looks familiar.”
The woman named Chantal seemed foreign. She stared at Ethan intently, speaking with a lilting accent.
“Ah! You look like the lady’s daytime maid. Are you by any chance the brother of that Miss Fairchild — the one who studies at Kingsbridge and works as the lady’s driver this summer?”
So much for keeping the identity of Eve’s lover a secret.
“So you are lovers. You figured out how to meet in secret.”
And there it is. The start of blackmail. Just as Eve expected.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it a secret.”
“In exchange for what?”
It was obvious what she’d demand for silence, but Eve asked out of politeness. Chantal blinked, pretending not to understand.
“Don’t pretend. You want something from me, don’t you?”
The woman flinched and whimpered, as if accused of being a swindler.
“I’m not asking for anything in return.”
“Lady Evelyn, forgive my rudeness — but my fiancée is not some contemptible social climber.”
Owen defended Chantal.
“To be honest, we’re also meeting against our families’ wishes and are secretly engaged. So we understand exactly how you feel.”
“I sensed kindred spirits in you.”
Chantal pouted indignantly, then as if showing off her beloved, she took his arm and smiled radiantly. The looks they exchanged clearly held pure affection. Eve felt like she’d been struck on the head.
Did I misjudge them?
That day, the revenge of losing her virginity right above her father’s head never happened. The impulse died as quickly as it flared.
Instead, that same hour, Eve went to find Chantal.
“I was in the grip of prejudice and acted rashly, insulting you, Mademoiselle Garnier, by calling you a woman of loose morals. I sincerely regret it.”
Chantal looked stunned — like an uninvited guest had shown up, not someone there to apologize. She must not have expected Eve to apologize voluntarily. Eve hadn’t expected it from herself either.
“You don’t have to do things you hate just to win my father’s or Harry’s favor. He’ll never fire Mr. Callas — if only out of respect for his father, who served our family so long. Nor will he fire you.”
“My lady…”
Chantal’s eyes filled with tears.
“Thank you for forgiving me. I will remember your words deeply, my lady, and I’ll try never to give anyone cause for complaint again.”
“And I’ll try never to act rashly again.”
This wasn’t payment for silence.
This was the price paid by someone who, knowing nothing of another person, condemned them out of prejudice.
Because Evelyn Sherwood — at the very least — still had a human heart.
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