My Beloved, Whom I Desire to Kill - 273

—You get it now, don’t you? I’m not trying to kiss you.

To think he would convey it like this—that he felt the same, that he had been struggling with the same things, and that he had already made up his mind.

How pathetic must a person look, going from being so cold to beaming with a smile? She knew it, but she couldn’t help it.

Giselle laughed, covering her flushed face with one hand. A woman who was purely delighted to be told that a man wanted to do impure things with her. In Edwin’s eyes, her expression was both pitiable and adorable.

After being held in his arms for a long time, she lifted her head. Biting her lower lip as if to suppress her lingering laughter, Giselle began to move the hand she still had inside his jacket pocket. Her eyes grew serious.

Like a person about to gamble with 50/50 odds.

Would she try to differentiate the cans by feel? The brand name was embossed on the can lids, so it wasn’t a gamble based purely on luck.

However, she didn’t even try to distinguish them; she just pulled her hand out without a moment’s hesitation. The two tin cans that came into Edwin’s surprised view were a pair.

As he burst into laughter, Giselle gave him a seductive smile he had never seen before.

—You never said I could only take out one, did you?

He had raised a puppy, but it turned out to be a fox. His adorable fox.

Edwin nodded in acknowledgement and opened one of the cans. He picked out a mint and put it in his mouth only. Since they wouldn’t just be kissing once that was gone, Giselle suddenly felt too shy to look at him while the mint was dissolving. It was then that she turned away, pretending to hang up her coat.

Crunch.

She heard the sound of the candy breaking. Edwin never chewed his mints.

‘Lorenz?’

A sinister premonition hardened her face, and she turned around, her eyes meeting Edwin’s. He grabbed the stunned Giselle and covered her lips with his own.

The man who had always patiently waited for the mint to dissolve during a kiss—no, who even seemed to enjoy the wait—couldn’t wait now. Her heart pounded at the meaning of it.

Giselle wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, kissing him passionately. However, this time, Edwin didn’t lift her up and ended the kiss quickly.

His lips, slick with both their salivas, trailed down her slender neck. He was much more starved and ravenous than he had been in the afternoon, like a man who was starving. When his lips touched her collar, he lifted his head again. The disappointment was fleeting.

Ziiiip.

Tossing off his suit jacket, he came up behind Giselle and unzipped her dress. Slowly. Leaving a trail of dotted kisses as if welcoming the skin exposed by the parting fabric. The trajectory of his lips, heading downward, was blocked by the band of her bra.

Tuck.

Giselle, who had thought he would skip over it, was surprised and turned to him when Edwin pulled the band and undid the hook. The man she had expected to hesitate dozens of times or feel a sense of repulsion before taking off her underwear was now looking at her with a calm, passionate gaze, tilting his head.

Giselle blushed and shook her head, turning back around. He had planned for contraception, so he shouldn’t be hesitating, yet why couldn’t she still believe it?

Edwin repeatedly traced the spot where the bra band had been with his fingertips, as if to commemorate the first time he had unhooked Giselle’s bra. Perhaps he was savoring the thumping heartbeat against her back.

His lips began to follow the zipper back down her spine. When he reached her waist where the zipper ended, Giselle unconsciously held her breath.

But his lips returned to her neck. He gently held her shoulders and peeled back her dress. Edwin Eccelston was taking off her clothes. Her whole body trembled so much that even her exhaled breath shivered.

Edwin kissed her bare shoulder as if to soothe her. His gaze slid down below. She wanted to know what he was thinking as he looked at her breasts. And yet, the moment her sleeves came off, Giselle hugged her arms around herself, covering her chest with the bra that was threatening to fall with the dress.

He didn’t try to take off the rest and stepped away. She sensed a strange movement behind her and froze just as she was about to turn around. Just as his hands grabbed her thighs, his lips touched her buttocks. Giselle could feel Edwin’s smile on her goosebump-covered skin.

He let out a small sigh and flicked the garter belt with his fingers. As if he was annoyed that there was so much to take off.

Meanwhile, Giselle wished she had worn more layers. She wanted to savor the moment of Edwin undressing her so boldly for a longer time. The more he did, the more she would have been able to see the man who was always so composed and indifferent to the female body grow more and more impatient to see her naked.

He knelt on one knee and began to unhook the garter straps that held her stockings in place, one by one. Tuck. Tuck. It sounded like her heart sinking.

The garter belt fell onto the pile of the dress around her high heels. Now, all that remained were a pair of black stockings and her underwear.

Edwin stood up and hugged Giselle from behind. Her body instinctively recoiled as his hot hands touched the bare skin she always kept hidden under her clothes. Her eyes met the man’s in the mirror as he held the half-naked woman. A strange look, whose thoughts she couldn’t decipher as he looked at her, began to show concern.

—Have you changed your mind? Then we can stop here for tonight.

When Giselle shook her head, he kissed her shoulders in small kisses and then slid the hand that was wrapped around her arm down, grabbing the bra strap that was caught on her elbow.

—Should I take this off, too?

Giselle neither nodded nor shook her head. Even when Edwin pulled gently, she wouldn’t let go; instead, she held onto her chest, bra and all, with a firm grip. The man, who had been having a light tug-of-war with her bra, laughed and whispered in her ear as if to spite her.

—When were you so confident about taking out both, and now you’re shy?