Chapter 5 : The Second Date

For a moment, Theron had to wonder if his erogenous zone was his elbow.
Otherwise, there was no way blood could rush to his lower body so quickly.
Of course, it was a crazy thought.
Why was it that only when this woman was near, he acted more sensitively than when he was 17 and everything felt like a stimulus?
Is this some kind of dual attitude, where the mind doesn’t want it, but the body does…
Theron attributed it to Selene’s beautiful face and excellent figure.
‘If I don’t react to that pretty face, I must be impotent.’
Thinking that way made him feel much more at ease.
It meant he wasn’t a dog in heat, nor was she particularly special to him.

“Mr. Cox, could you please walk a little faster? If you walk like a tired old man, the butterfly will fly away.”
As Theron walked slowly, Selene suddenly grabbed his wrist.
‘This woman… please…’
Just as he was trying to calm the heat that was about to consume his body, another skin contact ignited a fire in him again.
This was truly a crisis.
A crisis of showing his aroused state to the woman he had to seduce, in such a bright space.
To make matters worse, Selene, who didn’t seem to have much patience, tried to check his unhurried legs as if there was a problem.
That also meant she might see the unsightly bulge in his pants.
Theron urgently grabbed her face and made her look at him.

“…Miss Selene.”
“…”
“It’s been bothering me for a while, but there’s dust on your eyelash.”
Theron quickly brushed away the non-existent dust.
“Please forgive my rudeness for touching a lady’s body without permission.”

Freed, Selene seemed to not care that Theron had suddenly held her face or what he had said.
She didn’t seem to notice that Theron had inadvertently called her by her first name instead of her last.
She just looked at the empty air with a sense of disappointment.
“The butterfly flew away.”
Theron inwardly cursed at Selene’s attitude, which showed she had zero interest in him.
That damn butterfly.
Facing the fact that his existence meant less to Selene than a common butterfly, Theron’s erection subsided as if it had never been, returning to its original state.

“By the way, Mr. Cox, you’re very considerate.”
It was clearly a compliment, but it felt like an extension of her earlier comment about him being skilled and accustomed, so Theron regained the tension he had let go of.
He wondered if she knew about his casual one-night stands, but seeing as she didn’t even know his name, it was unlikely.
But why did this woman’s remark feel strangely subtle…?

“Mr. Cox.”
Just then, Selene called his name first, and Theron, pushing aside his chaotic thoughts, answered.
“Yes, Miss Selene.”
“You’ve been calling me by my first name for a while now.”
‘So she did know.’
“I did so because I wanted to get a little closer to you, my lady. If you don’t want me to, I’ll go back to calling you by your last name.”
Selene looked off into the distance with an expressionless face.
“It’s fine. In this day and age, calling someone by their first name doesn’t have a great meaning, does it? In a world where parties are held every day and men and women mate like animals as soon as the lights are out.”
“…”
“So, it also means that we don’t have to take any responsibility even if we walk together under this parasol. Isn’t it so convenient, this era where we don’t have to take responsibility for each other?”
For a story coming from the mouth of a duke’s daughter, it was quite shocking, but since it wasn’t wrong, Theron had nothing to say.
He was, after all, the one who enjoyed this liberal era more than anyone.
But it sounded like she was saying, ‘I invited you here today, but it doesn’t mean a thing, not even as much as an ant’s booger,’ which intensified his sense of crisis.
Theron realized that no matter what Selene was thinking, he couldn’t back down here.
“I’m not sure why you’re suddenly saying that to me, Miss Selene, but to be honest, I did not accept this invitation with a light heart. I mustered up the courage because I sincerely… and seriously want to get to know you, Miss Selene.”
“Ah.”
“I can’t forget the first time I saw you, Miss Selene. The deep green silk dress, the black cocktail gloves, and the pearl earrings on your ears…”
Theron, who had been fluently describing, suddenly trailed off.
He was confused.
‘…Were they pearl earrings?’
The banker’s daughter he had drunk with yesterday seemed to have been wearing pearl earrings… damn hangover.
He discreetly checked Selene’s reaction, but there was no particular response from her.
Theron smoothly changed the subject.
“What I mean is… I actually fell in love with you at first sight, Miss Selene.”
“…”
“Whether anyone has casual encounters or not, I mean to say that I want to take responsibility for you.”
Selene said nothing.
Theron had expected as much.
Given her personality, she wouldn’t shyly blush or even give a moderate response.
But that’s how confessions are.
Even if the other person has no interest, hearing such a sincere heart makes them ruminate on it later in the evening.
Then they start to wonder how much that person loves them, what face they make when they kiss, and the desire to see them one more time…

“Are you free next weekend as well?”
Selene then proposed.
Theron had to hold his breath.
He had expected that even an insensitive woman couldn’t ignore this, but this was too immediate.
But since he was in no position to argue, he hurried to answer before she could take it back.
“Of course.”
“Then let’s meet here one more time. At 4 p.m. as well. Today we walked in the rear garden, so that day let’s walk together in the garden with the fountain.”
Theron slowly clenched his hand.
His heart began to beat fast.
Right, what does it matter if the duke’s daughter asks for a second date first, if the reaction is too immediate, or if he’s invited again at the ambiguous time of 4 p.m.?
Theron replied to this welcome invitation with a dazzling smile.
“I will be waiting for that day.”

Back to his daily life, Theron was in a good mood.
He found himself constantly checking the calendar, counting the days until the weekend.
Not only that, but Selene’s voice asking if he had plans next weekend kept echoing in his ears, and her expressionless face was distorted in his mind’s eye with a faint blush.
Theron chuckled.
‘No matter how aloof she acts, she’s just an ordinary woman inside.’
A woman who, even if she acts indifferent at first, gets fluttery when a man seriously confesses his love.
It just felt difficult because her reactions were minimal, but in the end, everything was flowing steadily according to the process he had planned.
So, he could even dare to predict the future.
A future where, within a month, he would not only find out if that red lip color was her natural color, but also learn about her sleeping habits.
At the sudden lewd fantasy, Theron felt a heat inside and downed the water next to him in one gulp.
He didn’t know why he felt so anxious whenever he imagined that moment.
If it were just anxiety, he would have considered it similar to waiting to drink a delectable brandy, but the virile erection that grew in size just from a sudden lewd fantasy was quite embarrassing.
This was starting to interfere with his daily life.
Like an alcoholic.
‘An addict…?’
One of Theron’s eyebrows tilted mercilessly.
‘So, am I a s*x addict? No. That doesn’t make sense. If that were the case, I could just enjoy myself with any woman, but I don’t feel like it.’
These days, the only one who made him so thirsty was Selene Ashcombe.
But Theron’s deep contemplation about whether he was a s*x addict didn’t last long.
Because to get married, he had to sleep with her anyway, and then all this thirst would be quenched.
And that day was coming soon.
The day he would find out the truth about her lip color.

And so, the long-awaited weekend arrived.
The sky this weekend was particularly clear.
It might have seemed so because his mood was particularly buoyant today, but in reality, the weather didn’t matter to him at all.
No, if anything, this clear weather was on the unwelcome side.
If it had been cloudy all day and then rained, he might have been able to sneak into the bedroom under the pretext of washing his wet body.
It would be even better if Selene, worried about him, told him to wash up and go.
Theron, who was enjoying the wind while driving with the car’s roof open, felt a tickle in his heart and stuck his hand out the window and whistled.
But when he stopped the car at the huge main gate, he didn’t forget to transform himself into a gentleman about to meet the woman he loved.
“Have you been well, Miss Selene?”
Theron, who lightly pressed his lips to the back of Selene’s hand as she came out to greet him, asked with a charming smile.
Selene stared at Theron’s face for a moment before turning away rather coldly.
“My daily life is always the same. I spend most of it in the piano room.”
The piano was not a subject he particularly liked, but on a good day like today, he could reply nonchalantly.
“It’s a happy thing to spend the day doing what you love.”
“Is there anything you like to do, Mr. Cox?”
As she had planned before, Selene naturally led Theron to the fountain.
The sound of the water, which he thought would be noisy, was ringing quite pleasantly.
“Something I like… I think I had something when I was young, but after becoming an adult, I don’t think I’ve had the time to find such a thing.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. If you spend most of your time in the piano room, Miss Selene, I’ve spent most of my life repeating between home and work. To the point where I haven’t even had a proper relationship that others enjoy casually, or even met a woman seriously.”
It wasn’t intentional, but a good opportunity to make an excuse presented itself.
“You said I seem accustomed to handling women, Miss Selene, but I acted aggressively because I thought it would hide my inexperience. It was a foolish thought, as it only caused misunderstanding.”
The lie continued naturally.
The angel statue spouting water, as if to prove it was a fountain from a historic ducal family, looked down on him with a particularly holy face.
But Theron didn’t believe in God, so he decided not to feel any guilt.
“So, you mean you’ve never met a woman before?”
“Embarrassingly, yes.”
‘I’ve never met anyone seriously, so isn’t this not a lie?’
“The reason you fell for me?”
“As I said, I fell in love at first sight…”
“You mean you fell for me because my face is pretty?”
At Selene’s question, Theron suddenly felt like he had been hit hard in the solar plexus.
‘I thought it was going too easily.’
This woman knew how to wield her tongue like a fist.
But Theron knew this was the last hurdle he had to overcome.
Theron, with his back to the fountain, faced Selene with a serious look.
“Well… how can I dare to express that moment? That day, you yourself, Miss Selene, were engraved in my eyes. Not just your face, but your entire appearance standing under the chandelier, and the rich scent of roses…”
But Theron couldn’t continue his words.
Splash!
His body tilted back from a strong force suddenly applied to his chest, and he fell into the fountain.
Theron sat down in the fountain and looked up at Selene with a bewildered face.
If it wasn’t his delusion, the person who had pushed his chest and made him fall was Selene.
“Miss Selene…?”
“Ah.”
Selene’s eyes, when he looked at her, had turned as cold as a different person’s.
“I really can’t listen to this anymore.”