The Duchess and the Devil

A low voice stimulated her eardrums. For just a moment, Judith couldn’t understand her own situation, her cheeks flushed as if she was on fire.

“Your impression of your first kiss with your husband.”

The question that was beyond private, along with his relaxed smile, was so peculiar that she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her heart pounded so rapidly it felt unusual.

Despite the appraisals that went around society of her husband, Judith had not once thought of him as handsome or attractive. It was because her thoughts of his uncivilized behaviour hindered his appearance. But at this moment, his beauty captivated Judith’s senses.

No, rather than his ‘looks’, it was those red eyes that embedded themselves in her mind and unnerved her senses. She seemed to be completely enchanted by his red orbs that were more beautiful than any jewel.

Judith, who was blankly staring at him, was quickly brought back to her senses by the sound of footsteps. Lying on the floor by the door of his office, whoever opened it would witness quite a scene before them.

No servant would dare open the door as they pleased or without permission, but Judith, who had lost her train of thought after what had just occurred, wasn’t thinking that far. She quickly pushed his shoulder away and stood up, raising her upper body.

“What are my thoughts on it?”

Only when she interrupted him with that question was she able to rebut his discreet inquiry. But with her face flushed like a ripe apple, protesting was something she could not do. And Derrick seemed to be very aware of that fact.

“Why, was it not good?”

Judith’s mind went blank with surprise when his large hand crawled into the gap of the width of her skirt.

“Perhaps, it was certainly good…….”

He, who carried a soft grin on his face, softly remarked in a convincing tone. His hidden fingertips rubbed her calf, tickling it while the view was blocked from the inside of her skirt.

It was strange.

Whether it was kissing or whatever he was doing now, all the places he had touched had become, to some extent, sensitive. Despite wanting to get away from him, she had been taken ahold by the feeling of wanting to be imprisoned by him forever, as if she was in an ecstatic dream she didn’t want to escape from.

And with those eyes, which looked like clear red orbs with no trace of violet, she couldn’t make any rational decision; as if her mind had been caught and taken away by this large man in front of her.

“Should we do it one more time?”

His lips were already getting closer for someone who was asking for another’s permission.

Being reminded of the exhilarating movement of his tongue sweeping inside her mouth, Judith’s chest completely tightened. This thumping heart of hers couldn’t come to the conclusion that this was not what she was expecting.

Soon after, she felt its touch softly lingering above her lips as he bit it. Judith let out a groan, ‘Nng…’, which reverberated from her throat. The sound that came out of her was unfamiliar, but even more than that, the pleasure that he gave dominated her senses more intensely.

She couldn’t even think about the fact that she had come to do this act with her husband. Frankly speaking, after he had lost his memories, Derrick didn’t feel like the husband she had known and was a different person to her.

If Derrick, before his death, had been busy with turning her insides all over with his constant cheating; Now, after dying and reviving, he stood before her with a different talent of making her insides churn with embarrassment. But it wasn’t to the point that he had upset her.

And more than anything, the biggest contrast was that the past Derrick Vaisil was one that deliberately made her furious, and the present Derrick Vaisil was one who made her embarrassed while having no such intentions. The difference made her accept him who was acting like a different person.

Was that really the reason she had no repulsions against him? Or was it because she was being deceived by his sly behavior that was almost like magic?

There was no room to discreetly agonize all that. The pleasure of their first kiss instantly captivated her. Was kissing someone this good? Their tongues continuously entangled and his saliva, which tasted like sweet-flavoured water, mixed with hers.

The sounds of their kisses echoed inside the quiet office.

In the middle of their kiss, her eyes met with Derrick’s at least a few times. And each time, she had an illusion that his red eyes seemed to be coloured with an even deeper shade of red. The change she witnessed amplified her doubts and she couldn’t help but ask about it.

“Huhh, you know.”

When she tried to pull away, intending to break their lips which had been clinging to each other as though they were one, his large hand quickly placed itself on the back of her head. Then, he licked her swollen lips and repeatedly sucked on it as though he couldn’t restrain himself from doing so. While their lips were glued to each other, wet sounds could be heard every time their lips separated.

“Your eye color… Why did it change?”

His devious hand, which had swept past her calf, and in no time, had been fondling her inner thighs, stopped. Only after his hand halted did she realize that his hand was on her thigh.

“What color do my eyes look like?”

His hand, which lingered on her skin as if stroking it, unexpectedly grabbed her thigh tightly. Her body, which had heated up from the tingling hand on her body, completely accepted the stimulation.

He stood still, putting his face close to hers as though he was showing them. Judith unconsciously lifted her hand and stroked the eye rim. Somehow, the more time they spent in contact with each other, the more her mind became unfocused, as if she was being submerged in water.

“Colour…… red.”

She caressed the corner of those delicate eyes that seemed as if they were painted with a brush, and as she muttered, his smile deepened. It was a meaningful smile in which she did not know what it probably meant.

He removed her hand that touched around his eyes and pressed his lips against her palm.

“…Damn it. Should I just completely devour you?”

He spoke roughly as though he couldn’t hold himself back any longer. She could liken it to the growling of a beast as his voice touched the rim of her ears.

Derrick took a deep breath and took a hold of her thigh, keeping it in place. The more Judith stared into his ruby-like, deep crimson eyes, the more she felt the rationality in her mind collapsing like a weak sand castle. It was clear that her thigh was grasped by his hand, but her pounding heart seemed to have been caught by it as well.

Derrick gently looked at her and licked her palm with his tongue. Judith couldn’t contain the ticklish sensation coming from the tip of her toes and her eyes flinched. The kiss had already stopped, but strangely enough, her panting grew harsher.

At that moment, the sound of knocking was heard.

Knock, knock.

“Madame, are you there?”

It felt like cold water was poured over her head and the heat vanished as soon as the voice reached her ears. With her mind coming back to her, Judith realized what she was doing with him at the moment.

Before anyone could see them, she quickly pushed him away and abruptly stood up from her place. She swiftly straightened her disheveled state and hastily went outside the office. She didn’t have the courage to look back at Derrick, so she stubbornly looked forward.

“Wh— What’s the matter?”

It was Judith’s maid who happened to visit the office. When the maid saw Judith, she tilted her head.

“By any chance, is it hot inside the office? Your face is extremely red.”

At the maid’s words, Judith lifted her hands and felt her cheeks. She felt the back of her hand was hotter than usual. It wasn’t because of her body temperature. Her heart beated frantically as if she was a child who was caught committing bad behaviour.

Judith, who was standing blankly with an unsteady heart rate, became aware of the maid’s gaze on her and she quickly shook her head.

“It’s nothing. Rather, what is your business with me?”

“Ah, Marquis Lipis has come for a visit.”

“My older brother?”

“Yes. I have ushered him to the annex part of the living room for you.”

Despite following her maid, who was leading her to the living room where the guests would wait, she couldn’t escape the burning sensations inside her.

She didn’t know why in the world she had acted like that. She didn’t think of ever wanting to kiss him again. But when she had closed her eyes and opened them, she was already silently accepting his hand as their lips overlapped with each other.

Perhaps she had been possessed by something for a moment by him; it was a really mysterious matter.

More than anything else, the strangest part was whenever she thought of his jewel-like, splendid, and piercing red eyes, her body would shudder. Why in the world was she being like this? Judith moved her feet, trying her best to erase Derrick’s scarlet eyes that floated aimlessly in her mind.

“Older brother.”

A man who looked exactly like her stood in the annex of the living room where a window completely occupied one side of the wall, overlooking the gardens outside.

Vinsen Lipis.

The Head of the Marquis of Lipis Family, and Judith’s sole older brother.

“What has brought you here?”

“I heard the news. The Duke has regained his consciousness.”

When she asked as she sat opposite to him, Vinsen answered immediately as though he had been waiting for this.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this important matter?”

“My apologies. Derrick has been brought back to life and his mind isn’t, in many ways, well.”

Judith had had no time to write to him as she had been handling the letters that flooded due to the rumours spreading in the capital before she had the opportunity to tell her relatives. And since she didn’t try to hide it, even if she didn’t inform them, any story concerning the ducal family would be found out from any connected families by their social networks.

That was a clear fact, regardless if she was just seeing Vinsen who had come to see her and asked about it.

“How’s the Duke’s condition? Has he completely recovered from his illness?”

“His body is in good condition, however…….”

She was going to explain it to him, but the memory of Derrick coming back to life from the grave a week ago came across her mind once again.

The coffin that rattled endlessly, the servants who had deathly pale complexions, and Judith, who was standing absent-mindedly between them. Come to think of it, it was so bizarre that it was incomparable to others.

“However?”

Vinsen frowned at her unfinished words and urged her to continue her answer.

“He does not have his memories.”

“What?”

“According to the family doctor’s diagnosis, he believes that it is amnesia.”

Vinsen was completely at a loss for words. Judith guessed that when she had first heard of the family doctor’s diagnosis, her expression, too, wouldn’t have been different from his in particular.

“Ha, losing his memories…….. How serious is it?”

Only

“He does not know my name, and he could not even remember who he was.”

At her response, Vinsen calmly looked around his surroundings. Confirming that there was no one around them, he asked in a low voice.

“What’s the possibility of this being an act that he created?”

His thinly-opened eyes were as sharp as a needle. Derrick’s memory loss might not be an act to deceive everyone, but Vinsen harboured his doubts as she did hers.

“I was also hoping that perhaps, it was something like that…… but it seems to be true.”

Derrick, who had once hated to touch her, now demanded for them to sleep together and had even kissed her today. Being so lewd that he couldn’t show a single gaze of contempt…… This was a change that could not happen unless the person had.

As Judith caressed her lips, Vinsen gulped down his tea with a lost face, submerged in his own thoughts.

“It’s an unimaginable circumstance, but anyway, I really think this has become a good opportunity for you.”