Chapter 113

Ivelina lurched backward and put distance between them.

“I—actually I don’t really ‘know’ what disreputable ‘means!’ I was just pretending for a minute, and anyway, you’ve probably been hunting and you must be tired, and I was actually just about to slip out quietly, so I think I’d better be on my way now!”

She scrambled off the bed and crawled with great purpose toward the edge.

Her bare legs, kicking and exposed, caught the light. Every movement was inadvertently indecent.

‘She really did plan all of this deliberately.’

The duke smiled, pleasantly, and caught one slim ankle.

“Where are you rushing off to, Ivelina?”

Ivelina turned her head with the motion of a broken toy. Her white face had gone a vivid, startled blue.

“M—my ankle, why are you holding my ankle—”

“…”

The duke narrowed his eyes and curved his mouth upward. He tightened his grip and pulled.

“‘No—!'”

The small, soft rabbit slid toward him across the sheets.

“You were going to show yourself to everyone else dressed like that?”

“I’ll change first! I have a dress! I folded it and hid it under the bed earlier—”

“Too late.”

“…?”

The duke flipped Ivelina over in one smooth motion. The back of her head sank softly into the pillow.

“Since you enjoy the disreputable—I’d be happy to oblige.”

He shrugged his half-removed jacket the rest of the way off as he spoke. He took the handkerchief from the breast pocket and held it between his teeth.

He watched the terrified rabbit as he pulled his shirt buttons loose—one by one, deliberately.

“W—what is that—what’s that for—?!”

The duke removed the cloth from his teeth and held it in his hand.

“A handkerchief.”

Then he wound it efficiently around Ivelina’s wrists.

“What! What is this! What are you ‘doing!'”

“It’s a handkerchief.”

“I ‘know’ it’s a handkerchief, that’s not what I’m asking, untie this right—”

The duke pinned her with one hand and reached with the other to the nightstand. He pulled his black tie from where it lay, and brought it down over Ivelina’s eyes.

The baby rabbit’s lower lip trembled. When she spoke, her voice was on the edge of tears.

“K—Kael… I’m not actually a disreputable woman. I—I don’t really know about that kind of thing…”

She shook her head hard and waved her bound hands in the air.

She had been performing bold confidence not five minutes ago—and now she was near tears over a blindfold.

The duke bit his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud.

“…’Huu’—I mean it. I’m really not. Truly…”

And yet, watching her cry, the duke found himself strangely, keenly stirred.

So he acknowledged his tastes cleanly. He wanted to watch Ivelina cry beneath him.

“Kael…? You’re still there…? You’re listening…?”

The duke said nothing.

He turned the frightened rabbit over gently. She thrashed briefly—and then went limp, lying still on her stomach, and begged:

“…P—please. Have mercy.”

The duke cupped her soft, round cheek in his palm and held it.

“‘Hup—!'”

“You said you don’t know what disreputable means?”

“Yes! Yes! I really ‘don’t’—!”

She answered immediately.

He kneaded her slowly, and then let a low, rough sound escape—deliberately.

“‘Ha.’ Damn…”

At that, Ivelina thrashed and cried out:

“I ‘really don’t know!’ Not at all! I am a complete and total stone wall of a woman!”

The duke shifted his weight and pressed down.

“‘Huu—!’ Oh—’please—!'”

Ivelina flopped like a fish on a hook.

The duke stroked her hair with unhurried tenderness, and brought his lips to her ear.

“Shh. It’s all right. If you don’t know—you’ll learn.”

“P—please—’huu!'”

He took the soft lobe of her ear between his teeth and bit down gently.

“I’ll teach you.”

* * *

‘Six hours later.’

The duke, who had been thoroughly absorbed in the task, drew back with some reluctance.

Ivelina had lost consciousness.

He surveyed her in the moonlight—and only then realized how late the hour had grown.

“Ivelina.”

He pressed small, quiet kisses to her shoulder, her throat, her lips, the curve of her face.

She was deeply under. She didn’t stir.

The duke looked her over and said to himself, mildly:

“I overdid it a little.”

He gathered her against him and carried her to the bathroom. He held her there and washed her as she slept.

“‘Mm’—where am I…”

“You’re awake?”

A moment later, Ivelina splashed to consciousness and flailed.

“Don’t—’touch me!'”

“Why? You’re mine.”

“You’ve ‘lost your mind!'”

She had good instincts, his baby rabbit. And quick reflexes.

The duke smiled drowsily and pressed his hands more firmly against her, kneading without hurry. His intentions continued.

“‘Ahh—!’ What do you think you’re ‘doing!’ To a sleeping person—”

“I was washing you. You were in a terrible state.”

He crushed her against him. He pressed his lips to the curve of her ear and murmured something into it.

Ivelina went rigid—and then immediately started fighting him.

“N—nothing of the kind! I sleep very ‘tidily!’ I don’t even drool!”

“That’s not what I meant. My—”

“Stop! ‘Stop!'”

She screamed and covered her own face.

The duke laughed—and received an elbow to the ribs for it.

“Let me ‘go!’ Or I’ll drown myself in the bathwater!”

She was growling at him with her teeth bared, very much like an angry small dog.

The duke yielded. That rabbit was quite unpredictable enough to actually do it.

* * *

When they arrived at the Florence manor.

Ivelina forgot to say goodbye and bolted like a flying squirrel.

He watched her scamper away, small and rapid, and was turning to leave—when something nagged at the back of his neck. So he followed.

“Are you out of your ‘mind’?! Do you have any idea what time it is?!”

“Ivelina, what is the meaning of this! Disgraceful!”

The shouting reached him through the open front door.

Listening with half an ear, it became clear that Ivelina was being berated quite harshly in the Florence household.

“You’ve shamed this family enough as it is. How long has it been since the broken engagement? And you come home at this hour—where have you ‘been’?!”

“…”

“Stop that ‘crying!’ What do you have to cry about?! Where have you been until now?!”

The baby rabbit was crying.

The duke stepped forward.

“She was with me.”

He said it quietly, and wiped Ivelina’s tears with his own hand. He removed his outer coat and draped it over her shoulders.

They were subsequently invited in for a meal, and the duke said several pointed things to each member of her family in turn.

He was particularly thorough with Jacqueline—who had been treating her older sister carelessly despite being the younger one.

‘I can’t leave the baby rabbit here.’

Between Ivelina’s constant plots to escape, and a family that treated her without due care—

Since he was here already, he decided to settle the matter of the wedding.

“You will have seen the announcement.”

“A—ahem.”

“I have no intention of reversing this decision.”

The marriage was coming regardless. He was not concerned about that.

What concerned him was Ivelina.

‘She’ll start shaking and throwing up excuses again about not wanting—’

And then.

Ivelina grabbed his hand. She rolled her eyes back into her head, quivered visibly, and announced at the top of her voice:

“If you don’t let me marry him, I’ll die. I can’t live without this man anymore!”

The duke stared at her whites for a moment, mildly taken aback.

Count and Countess Florence were staring at their daughter as though watching a very small, deranged insect.

He was, briefly, at a loss.

‘This is… going to be that simple?’

Bewildered, but quick to recover, the duke laced his fingers through hers. This was an opportunity.

“I believe our intentions have been made sufficiently clear.”

At which point Ivelina immediately tried to walk it back.

But the duke had made up his mind. He was leaving with his baby rabbit today.

“For the coming month, I’d like to conduct what I’ll call ‘groom preparation.’ During that time, Ivelina would naturally be residing at Hardeion manor.”

The count objected weakly.

“Par—pardon? ‘Groom’ preparation?”

“That’s correct.”

“Surely you mean ‘bride’ preparation?”

“No. Bride preparation isn’t necessary.”

“I—excuse me?”

“As a husband, I ought to learn my future wife’s preferences and habits in advance—even the smallest details, wouldn’t you agree?”

Behind him, Ivelina was frantically making an X with her fingers—but the duke took no notice.

“B—but, Your Grace—even granting that a marriage has been agreed upon, for an unmarried young woman to lodge with a bachelor in his—”

“I’ll allow it.”

The countess stepped forward.

She was a woman of progressive views. And her eye for a son-in-law was excellent.

“M—Mom, I don’t think that’s—I mean, Dad has a point, she’s not even married yet, staying at a bachelor’s—”

“Please take good care of our Ivelina, Your Grace. I look forward to what the next month brings. Do mind all her little preferences.”

A successful abduction.

* * *

The following day.

Janes sent word that Ivelina had been crying all day—but the duke found he didn’t particularly mind. He was too occupied with looking forward to having his baby rabbit with him for an entire day, from morning to night.