Hugo carried her in a hug as he entered the bedroom and sat on the couch. Lucia buried her face in his wide chest and burst into tears.
Hugo stroked her head as he rhythmically patted her back. Her sobbing did not stop, rather it grew even louder. The crying was not only because of the garden party. Lucia herself did not even know why she was crying so much.
She was just sad, and in the face of his gentle comfort, her tears refused to stop flowing. She hadn't been able to cry since she entered the palace at the age of 12 and crying so much now was as if she was washing all that away.
Hugo gently stroked her back without saying a word however, he was seething inside. Even though she seemed weak, he knew just how strong of a person she was. What in the world could have happen for her to cry like this?
Those wives with nothing to do with their time must have lost their minds. They dare do this to his woman who was too precious to even touch? He would make them regret it. His deep rage was continuously increasing.
After a long period of time, Lucia's crying began to settle and she leaned into his arms. Hugo simply hugged her, not saying any comforting words or telling her not to cry, however, she felt a lot of comfort from his attitude.
Lucia lifted her head, fixing her gaze on him and he looked down, meeting her eyes.
"No more crying?"
Lucia felt more or less embarrassed as she nodded her head. After crying like that with no restraint, she felt somewhat lighthearted.
"I have to...wash up..."
She felt ashamed to show him her face smeared full of tears. He grabbed her as she tried to get up and held out a wet towel. Lucia didn't know because she had been crying but in the meantime, a maid had come in and tactfully placed towel by the side. Lucia took the towel and meticulously wiped her face then she looked down and found the front of his shirt wet from all her crying.
"It's wet...because of me."
Lucia hesitated for a moment then she reached out and unfastened a button on his shirt.
As she unfastened it one by one, his well-defined chest muscles gradually came into view and her hands began to tremble. When she got to the middle, her heart was pounding too hard and she took her hand off.
"Bring a change of clothes..."
Hugo grabbed her wrists mid-speech. She looked at him in surprise and found his eyes shining dangerously.
"Finish taking it off." (Hugo)
She glared at him with trembling eyes then she swallowed hard, and reached out to unfasten the rest of his buttons with shaky hands.
When the last button was undone, she subconsciously swept her hands across his naked chest. She was impressed by the firmness of his skin and her heart throbbed at the sight of his refined, beautiful muscles.
Suddenly, shame washed over her and she quickly took her hands off. She began to turn around as if to get up but his hands were faster as they moved to catch hers. His lips quickly met hers and his tongue swept over her lips then he smacked his lips as though mulling over the taste.
"Salty."
Lucia's face instantly turned red. There was an obvious spark in his red eyes that were fixed on her. His always passionate and wanting gaze was glued onto her and her body reacted sensitively to this gaze.
It was a cute and innocent reaction, just to the extent of a loudly pounding heart. Her body felt hot, her breathing quickened and the deep part between her legs felt electrified.
As she gazed into his red eyes, she recalled once thinking that the red color was very cold. However, she couldn't remember when she had had that thought. At some point, his gazes on her had become heated all the time.
'Does he...always look at women he's in the bedroom with this way?'
She recalled the scene of Sophia Lawrence desperately clinging to him. 'It's not like the Duke of Taran is the only man left in the world', she had mumbled to herself and clicked her tongue. That's why they say, 'the world is full of things one doesn't know and one shouldn't put their mouth in other people's businesses'.
She didn't think a day would come where she could understand Sofia Lawrence's feelings like this. She wondered if there was any woman who could receive such a gaze and bear it when it suddenly turns cold. As time went on, her love of him gradually grew bigger and bigger.
Her determination to love him and not hope for a requital was strangely shaken the more tenderly he treated her. She was afraid that one day she would become the type of clingy woman that he despised.
'It's fine like this.'
For now, she was happy enough. He was a very tender and passionate husband. To ask for more would be greedy. In this way, she comforted herself.
Lucia placed both hands on his shoulders and pushed down, using it to propel herself upwards. As his eyes were fixated on her, his head naturally went up to meet her eyes. The feeling of looking down on him from above gave her a strange and odd sense of superiority.
She pressed down more on his shoulders and lowered her head to kiss him. She gently bit his lower lips like he always did to her and licked his lips with her tongue. Soon enough, the carefully started kisses became increasingly provocative. Because he stayed still, she acted more lively in rubbing all over his lips.
When their lips separated, the embarrassment from what she just did seemed to flood over her and the heat from her face spread throughout her body.
"You haven't eaten because of me. You must be hungry..."
Before her sentence could finish, he grabbed her neck and greedily devoured her lips. Her lips were swallowed all at once and his tongue dove into her mouth. As his tongue rummaged the inside her mouth without reserve, her hands that were grabbing onto the collars of his shirt trembled.
The kiss was long enough to leave her breathless. When he moved away, she began to gasp for air.
"You're talking about food now?"
After stirring me up like this? He growled, feeling the heat in his body rising.
"...I'm hungry too." (Lucia)
Hugo sighed heavily. Although it didn't matter to him if he didn't eat once or twice...
"...can't have you go hungry." (Hugo)
Hugo carried her like that and went to the receiving room which was connected to the bedroom. There were meals for two people already set out on the table there. The meal was over shortly.
Lucia, the hungry one, couldn't eat any more and lay down the fork. Around the same time, Hugo also finished his meal.
Lucia called the maid and asked for a change of clothes to be brought for him. For a while, she sat on the sofa, completely absorbed in watching him as he changed out of his shirt. Looking at his revealed upper body, she fell into delusions.
Just like how he caresses and licks all over her body, she wanted to lay him down and taste him. When such a thought arose in her mind, she was startled and jumped in surprise.
'You really are crazy.'
It was fortunate that no one could look into her head. While she was adjusting her breath to calm her pounding heart down, Hugo came up and sat beside her on the sofa.
"Still not feeling well?"
"No, I'm fine."
Lucia leaned her head on his shoulder. His arms went across, lightly grabbing her shoulders and wrapping his arms around her.
"Thanks to you, it's okay now. After crying so much, I feel quite refreshed. Have you ever had such an experience?"
"I don't know. I've never cried before."
When his brother died, he felt like his heart was being ripped out so he ran away from his horse to be alone and screamed, however no tears fell from his eyes.
Lucia was not surprised to hear that he had never cried. Since it was him, it was quite reasonable.
"Now, tell me. What happened?" (Hugo)
"...Just as you heard earlier. The garden party was a mess due to the party-break. The guests were displeased at my introduction of Damian, but I did not want to concede, so I simply dismissed the party. It's something that often happens in high society."
"If it's a common thing, why did you cry your eyes out?"
"That...wasn't just because of the party. I was a little upset because I felt that Damian was hurt by my wrong judgement of the situation."
Does one cry till they're exhausted because they feel a little upset? Hugo could not understand her psychology behind bursting into tears so even though he wasn't convinced, he let it pass.
"The boy is not that weak."
"Yes. He is your son, after all. But he's still only eight years old. He's young."
"Who was the initiator?"
Ferocity lay hidden beneath his soft and calm tone. From deep within his red eyes, brutality overflowed as if he would pounce and rip someone's throat out in an instant. The normally hidden nature of Hugh was awakened. He felt the desire to find the person who gave her pain and make them taste blood.
The savage beast in his eyes hid itself the moment Lucia lifted her head.
"Don't do anything." (Lucia)
"...Don't do what?"
"High society is a woman's matter. You shouldn't interfere."
If he interfered, it would be utter chaos. The very foundation of the northern high society would be shaken. If such a situation occurred, not only Madam Michelle, even Kate could turn their backs on her.
"..."
When he became sullen and did not reply, Lucia appealed to him.
"Please promise me. Promise me that you won't interfere with this."
"I'll take care of it."
"Hugh! No, don't do this for me. I won't blame you nor will fingers be pointed at me."
"Who dares?"
"Hugh!"
He couldn't resist the sight of her quivering eyes as she implored him.
"...Okay."
"You promise?"
"I said okay."
Inwardly, he was grumbling. He didn't want to idle around and do nothing. She didn't have the heart to completely step on them till they couldn't make a sound.
Hugo didn't know about other things but he was very confident in crushing people under his feet. However, he couldn't even show that off to her and prove his skill.
"What are you going to do?" (Hugo)
"I'm still thinking. I don't plan on having a hasty retaliation." (Lucia)
"You don't plan on letting it cool down and blow over, right?"
"I'm not a fool to overcome this by remaining silent. I'll deal with it nicely, don't worry."
"What's so complicated? Bring a few instigated..."
Lucia's head abruptly shot up, revealing narrowed eyes, and Hugo closed his mouth.
"I'm saying this again, but don't ever do something like that. This is different from the men's. The world of women is not that simple."
Whether man or a woman, they both die when they lose their neck so Hugo couldn't understand why it was so complicated. However, he obediently replied that he understood. It was somehow terrifying to see his docile wife look so aggressive.
"So you really don't need my help." (Hugo)
She looked really energetic. Even if he didn't want it to the extent of clinging and whimpering about it, he would like it if she complained to him.
"I will tell you if I need it." (Lucia)
Hugo couldn't help but wonder if such a day would come. He felt bitter as he seemingly confirmed once again that she would be completely fine, living without him.
"Why didn't you ever ask about Damian before he came?"(Hugo)
Argumentatively, the cause of the garden party situation was Damian. Hugo had known that she thought the child to be cute but it seemed that her feelings towards the child were much deeper than he thought. That's why it was surprising. Until recently, he thought she held no interest in Damian because she had never asked him anything about the kid.
"You never mentioned the child to me first so I didn't think I should talk about him." (Lucia)
"Why?"
"The day I went to find you in the Capital, you warned me when I mentioned Damian."
"...Did I?"
"And I knew that even if I asked out of pure curiosity, it would be hard to see my intentions as pure. It is likely that if I had asked about details on Damian, you would have wondered what my intentions were."
"..."
Hugo was thrown off guard and couldn't say anything. She was right. If she had shown interest in Damian shortly after they married, he wouldn't have taken it as a natural interest. Even though her personality wasn't one to keep everything locked inside, her considerations were deeper that he thought.
"I called Damian back because of the status elevation process." (Hugo)
"That hasn't been processed yet? Is there perhaps, something else I need to do?" (Lucia)
"There is no such problem but since he's becoming your legal son, I thought you should at least know the boy's face. And no matter how long ago I was provided the documents, I won't process it without talking to you."
Lucia's eyes grew round as she stared at him. He looked somewhat disgruntled.
"I know what you're going to say. You're going to say you thought I would handle it without asking you, right?"
Lucia gave a slightly bashful smile. Hugo sighed.
"That's right. I am a rogue. I know you think so."
Lucia felt somewhat sorry as she looked at his slightly crestfallen appearance.
"...I don't think of you like that. Really."
"...Then what do you think of me?"
"You are a very competent lord. Before I came here, I didn't know the north was such a comfortable and steady place to live in."
"Is that so."
He replied dryly. Her praise wasn't very pleasing. A competent lord? Those words weren't the ones he wanted to hear from her.