Brutal Temptations (1)

Selene paused for a moment.
“Why?”
“Because…!”
Theron looked like he was about to die of frustration.
He opened and closed his mouth several times, then blurted out as if he couldn’t hold back the surging words.
“Because I like you!”
The man confessing his true feelings didn’t seem to care a bit about looking cool right now.
Theron Cox, with a look of utter exasperation, was a far cry from the gentleman who whispered words of love with a serious gaze.
But for some reason, Selene felt that this shout resonated with her more than the confessions she had received at the ducal estate’s fountain or in the back garden, and she felt strange.
Perhaps it was because he was showing his raw, unpretentious face now.
Of course, that didn’t mean she could accept his one-sided rampage.
“So, does that mean I can’t kiss anyone until I have your permission?”
She understood that he didn’t want her to kiss another man because he liked her, but honestly, so what?
Whether he liked her or not, she didn’t need anyone’s permission for her thoughts and actions.
“Hmph.”
Theron roughly ran his hand through his hair again.
“Do it with me.”
“…”
“Because if I don’t, I think this will be the only thing I’ll think about like crazy until the day I die.”
His words didn’t seem like an exaggeration; the veins on the back of his hand were bulging as if he were enduring an unpleasant thought.
Selene’s eyebrows were still arched.
“Honestly, I don’t understand you, Mr. Cox. You’re suddenly acting like this after misunderstanding on your own.”
“It can’t be helped even if you don’t understand, Miss Selene. I just can’t bear to see you make that ridiculous kissing proposal to some other idiot.”
“Your words are getting rougher.”
“Yeah, probably. But that’s how I feel right now.”
Selene narrowed her brows.
‘So his previous demeanor was all an act?’
Just as everyone pretends to be well-behaved to make a good impression.
She did the same in front of her grandmother.
However, even though she had seen him use rough language before, he seemed like a different person now that he had thrown away his pretense.
Nevertheless, Selene still thought this was better.
Because she didn’t particularly like people who were different in front and behind.
“So when are we doing it?”
“You don’t need to ask me. If you say let’s do it, I’m confident I can do it with focus even in front of a square full of thousands of people.”
Selene gazed at Theron.
It didn’t seem like a bluff; Theron didn’t avoid her gaze at all.
Rather, his eyes were blazing like an ill-mannered beast waiting for its leash to be released.
“Follow me.”
Selene suddenly grabbed Theron’s hand and opened a door on the opposite side of the ballroom.
A small, dark space was revealed.
Click.
As the door closed and they were left alone in the smaller, quieter space, Theron’s growling gaze finally died down, and he looked around in bewilderment.
“Why are we here…”
“You said it didn’t matter when, as long as I said let’s do it.”
“But to be so suddenly alone in a dark place like this…”
Theron’s throat bobbed.
The tightly enclosed space seemed to be wrapping around them, preventing them from escaping.
“Is it alright for you to do this in someone else’s house, Miss Selene?”
His ill-mannered tone had returned to his usual one.
“Mr. Rupert is not a stranger.”
‘He had done the same thing in his own house, after all.’
Although Selene had grumbled about it for a while, now that an important matter was at hand, she thought as she pleased.
“Mr. Rupert?”
But Theron suddenly looked displeased.
“It’s the name of  my cousin’s fiancé, whom you punched.”
“I know that… but you call him by his first name?”
“If I called him Mr. Shearsmith, it would be like calling all the men in that family.”
Calling him by his last name wasn’t specific enough.
It was quite troublesome and annoying.
“Am I okay? All the men in my family are Cox.”
“The only Mr. Cox I know is you.”
‘How does she not lose a single word?’
Theron muttered to himself in a low voice, but Selene heard him.
Before she could say anything, Theron Cox lifted his head and spoke with a rather serious tone.
“Selene. Then let’s do this.”
“Do what?”
“In exchange for me willingly complying with your kissing experiment, you will call me by my first name from now on, not Cox.”
“…”
“It’s not a difficult thing to do, is it? Between people who are about to kiss.”
There was some validity to his argument.
Not because they were about to kiss, but from the perspective that if Theron Cox accepted her proposal, he should get something in return.
“Alright.”
“Then try calling me.”
“…”
“Like before.”
“Before?”
“Like when you inadvertently said my name while trying to stop the fight.”
‘To think he remembered that in the midst of the chaos.’
Even Selene had forgotten.
“Go on.”
Theron gently held Selene’s chin and lifted it to meet his gaze.
In the faint moonlight coming through the small window, Theron’s deep blue eyes shone gently.
His face was endlessly serious, as if waiting for something great.
Selene belatedly uttered his name.
“Theron.”
“One more time.”
“Theron Co…”
The voice calling his name disappeared as Theron’s lips met hers.
Theron couldn’t resist and kissed her the moment his name was completed on her red lips, which had parted as if in temptation.
As soon as the soft flesh touched, Theron sucked and licked Selene’s lips as if stealing something sweet.
Like a dog frantically tasting the heartfelt treat its master had prepared.
Theron’s eyes and breath deepened, as if he were touching every part of her body with just his lips.
But as if that wasn’t enough, he tried to push the tip of his tongue through the gap between her lips.
A surprised Selene momentarily tried to push Theron away, but it was a futile gesture to push away a man who was as aroused as he was.
Rather, the more Selene pushed him away, the more Theron clung to her.
He held the back of her head firmly with his large hand so she wouldn’t move away, and with the other hand, he wrapped it around her waist and pressed her body close.
Soon, Theron’s tongue, having passed her lips and occupied the inside of her mouth, explored and touched every corner like a rogue, and Selene paused her actions for a moment.
Because the lewd act of tangling and pulling her tongue was exquisitely perfect.
A very appropriate stimulation that made her feel lewd but not repulsed.
‘Is this what a kiss is…?’
Selene thought this act was not as unpleasant and bad as she had expected.
To the point where she thought she might understand why people stuck their lips out like goldfish and rubbed against each other as if to eat each other whenever they had a chance.
Suddenly, Evelyn came to mind.
Evelyn must have wanted to do this act of tangling tongues as if breathing through each other’s mouths with her fiancé, unable to resist.
Because the warmth and breath felt through another person made one feel not alone.
So even the rather gentlemanly Mr. Rupert was groping his fiancée’s thigh in someone else’s house…
“Selene.”
Just as her thoughts were spiraling, Theron, who had lightly licked Selene’s wet lips, let out a husky voice.
“Are you bored?”
“…”
“I’m going crazy.”
As Theron whispered with his lips still attached, his moist breath lightly brushed against Selene’s sensitized lips.
“I…”
“I’m not asking for an answer.”
Before Selene could reply, Theron bit her lips again.
The words that couldn’t come out scattered with his tongue’s movement.
With a kiss that was even more sensual and rough, the thoughts that had been wandering in Selene’s mind disappeared along with the words that had been lingering in her mouth.
The man who had been like someone frantically eating something delicious gradually transformed into a wolf about to bite her neck.
Theron, who had pretended to be a gentleman in front of her, or who had hit another person’s face without hesitation like a gangster from some back alley, had become another person.
The face of the man who clung to the kiss as if he had lost his reason was sensually unprecedented.
The blurred eyes visible between his lowered eyelids, the large hand pressing her head firmly so she wouldn’t move away, and the broad chest that rose and fell quickly with his fierce breath.
Theron was engrossed as if he could do this for the rest of his life.
The more engrossed he became, the more the slick sound from the moist cave inside his mouth was heard incessantly.
Selene, who had been observing Theron and quietly gauging the lewd feeling spreading throughout her body, slowly decided to stop this act.
If she stayed still like this, Theron Cox might continue kissing her until her lips were swollen, and besides, a strange heat was gathering in her lower abdomen, and she felt strange.
“St…op. St, op. Theron.”
But Theron wouldn’t let go easily, and Selene had to frown.