My Beloved, Whom I Desire to Kill - 267

He kept ringing the doorbell, and she was about to ignore it, but she was afraid he might wake up the neighbors. Loddy was already awake and was restlessly pawing at the closed bedroom door. With no other choice, she stumbled out of bed, still half-asleep, and opened the bedroom door.

—My darling Natalia, if you will only wait for me, I’ll be able to return to your side.

A loud singing voice rang through the house. It sounded like he was singing through the mail slot, and an enemy military anthem at that. Was he truly out of his mind?

Before the neighbors could report him to the military, she ran down and opened the door, immediately yelling a curse at him. She turned to go back upstairs, and he, of course, followed her. Giselle didn’t try to kick him out; she just slid back into bed. It was hard to fall back asleep once she was fully awake.

—Just watch me sleep. If you touch me, you get no more dates. I’ll tell Edwin all your secrets, too.

She threw out the threats and closed her eyes. Just as her body was about to melt into the warmth of the blanket, the bed dipped beside her, and her sleepiness vanished. As the blanket was lifted and the warmth began to escape, Giselle’s eyes snapped open and glared at the man who had slid under the covers and was lying next to her.

—I warned you not to touch me.

Giselle turned her back to him and hugged Loddy, who had been pushed to her side by Lorenz. Her warning seemed to have worked; he just lay there, pretending to be asleep, keeping his body close but not touching her. With three living heaters under one blanket, it was warm in no time. Relieved, Giselle fell back to sleep instantly.

…Huh?

But a strange sensation on her foot suddenly woke her up again. One of her socks was slowly being pulled off. The other one, outside the blanket, was already off.

What is that pervert trying to do to a sleeping woman?

Giselle’s head shot up, and at the same time, she kicked her foot toward Lorenz’s chest, where he was sitting at the foot of the bed.

—Oof.

—Gasp!

The moment she saw his eyes change as he was pushed back, Giselle sat up in surprise and hugged the man she had kicked. But Edwin just took the blow silently and disappeared. As soon as Lorenz reappeared, Giselle pushed him away, as if his body were a stranger’s.

I’ve never seen a more shameless person than this guy.

She glared at him and firmly pointed to the bedroom door. Of course, he wasn’t going to leave so easily.

—I didn’t touch you.

He spewed that shameless lie, dangling the sock from his fingertips.

—Why are you taking this off?

—It’s not the sock I gave you.

He took it off because Edwin had knitted it for her and he couldn’t stand the sight of it. She rolled her eyes in disbelief, and Lorenz tossed the sock onto the floor as if it were a dirty rag made by another man. Giselle’s eyes turned icy.

—Pick it up.

—When another man comes, you wear the socks he gave you, and when I come, you wear the socks he gave you. Didn’t you know I’d go crazy?

—They weren’t even socks you knitted for me, so why would I wear them?

—…What?

—You copied Edwin. You tried to steal the heartwarming surprise from your rival and stab him in the back by giving a gift first. You’re a thief.

Even though it wasn’t the first time he had been called a thief, Lorenz stared blankly at Giselle as if he had been greatly shocked.

—Why do you automatically assume I stole it?

—How many times do I have to tell you that you have a record?

—So you didn’t even think once and just called me a thief? You asked me to knit you socks. It’s my memory. So why is he not the thief, but I am?

His eyes began to well up with a sense of injustice.

—If you had spent Christmas Eve with him, I would have been the one to have my chance to impress you stolen and get stabbed in the back. I prepared your gift a month ago, and it was much later that you dumped me in the annoying luggage storage like a piece of baggage. So you think I planned to give the same gift first and stab him in the back?

—Lorenz…

—You’re not stupid enough not to know this. You just didn’t want to know. Because for Edwin Eccleston to always be the good guy, I have to be the bad guy no matter what I do.

Maybe it was true that she had been trapped in her prejudices. Feeling sorry for wrongly calling him a thief, Giselle leaned against Lorenz and put her arms around his waist.

—You were a good guy, too. You didn’t tell Edwin that you gave me the gift first.

As she patted his back, he wrapped his arms around her as if to hug her back.

—Then give me a kiss as a compliment.

The moment she sensed his mood had improved, Giselle immediately pulled away. The request for a kiss wasn’t worth responding to, so she ignored it and held out a bare foot.

—My foot’s cold, so give me my socks back.

—I told you to wear mine.

As the man rose as if to go get them, Giselle glared and gestured sharply toward the floor.

—Pick it up. Don’t throw it away. If you throw it away, I’ll throw yours away, too.

He pouted as if he hated to do it, but he obediently picked up both socks and went into the dressing room. Giselle flopped back down, but the noisy rattling of the drawers opening and closing made it impossible for her to sleep.

—Where is it? Where did you stuff it away?

—The second drawer from the left, top compartment, way in the back.

It became quiet, and then Lorenz came back into the bedroom. He was holding a pair of red socks with a white heart pattern—the opposite color of Edwin’s—in his hand. It was impossible to know who thought of the design first.

She held out her foot for him to put on the socks, and closed her eyes. But instead of grabbing her foot, he unexpectedly lifted the edge of the blanket.

—Didn’t you used to sleep in a negligee?

—That was summer, remember?

You’re saying it’s a shame that she can’t peek under her skirt because she’s wearing pajamas. He finally confessed his true feelings.

—If it were me, when you signaled that you wanted to have sex, I would have sacrificed my body to serve you all day. That bastard Edwin Eccleston is impotent.

—I didn’t want to have sex, though?

The man who was putting on her socks laughed loudly for her to hear.

—Then why show a man your underwear? To show off your new panties?

—They’re silk panties I splurged on with my Christmas bonus.

Lorenz giggled as if he was enjoying her turning his words into a joke, but he didn’t just laugh it off.

—You’re begging to sleep with a man who doesn’t even want you. Your pathetic situation hasn’t changed at all, then or now.

—When did I beg?

Giselle flared up, pulled her blanket down to glare at him, and when he smirked as if she had fallen for his provocation just as he intended, she quickly pulled the blanket back over her head.

—If you want to do it, do it with me.

—Why would I want to do it with you?

—Then you should do it with me even more.

What kind of sophistry was this?

—Let me atone for my sins myself.

—Wow, how touching! It’s so touching that I feel bad for thinking you meant you wanted to have sex first, after I stole the chance to kiss you first.

—Natalia, I sincerely want to atone.

—Kid, sincere atonement begins with genuine reflection and an apology.

He continued to knead one of her feet without putting the sock on. He should have been kicked, but the way he pressed his thumb on her arch was so strangely relaxing that she let him.

—I’m good at making your body happy.

—I don’t remember ever enjoying sleeping with you. Maybe you’re confusing me with another woman? Tsk, tsk, so young and already a bad memory. How pathetic.

He giggled again, as if finding it so amusing to be treated like a child and an idiot.

—I know exactly where and how to make you feel good.

He pressed his thumb on the arch of her foot and pushed up. It should have hurt, but a refreshing pleasure surged through her, and a moan was crushed in her throat. He chuckled as if Giselle had just proved his point with her body.

—That bastard has no experience and doesn’t know a woman’s body, so he can’t satisfy you. And as you’ve already felt, he finds sex so uncomfortable that he doesn’t even want to. Look at him, a lady gives him a chance, and he runs away. He’s a coward. He hasn’t changed at all.

He should have just shut up and kept his hands moving. Lorenz finished putting on her other sock and got back under the covers.

But instead of lying next to her, he got on top of Giselle. His head stopped at her chest. He wasn’t touching her, but he was staring so intently that the tips of her breasts under her pajamas felt itchy.

—Why aren’t you wearing a bra?

Giselle pushed his head away, turned over, and replied as if she were annoyed.

—Because I just woke up. And I’m going back to sleep. So please just shut up.

—You wouldn’t show that to him.

Giselle rolled her eyes and closed them again.

—Are you saying I’m showing it on purpose to seduce you? You have a big imagination.

—My dick is getting big, too.

—Ugh, seriously!