Chapter 23

Seo-ha was so startled that a scream very nearly tore out between her teeth.

Surely Granny Ok-i hasn’t… come to fetch me?

With her wits scattered, even a thought that absurd found its way in. In that same instant the shape, like some reaper come for the dead, hauled her bodily in. The grip was strong enough to convince her she really was dying, and her whole body shook with it.

“Scream and someone might come running in from outside. Do-hee’s here.”
“…Wh-what. What is this?”

Buried snugly against a huge chest, Seo-ha was flustered enough to stammer.

“You. Can you see me?”

Inside Jun-hyeok’s arms, Seo-ha shook her head wildly. She was certain she had fallen asleep alone, and why Han Jun-hyeok should be in her room was beyond her. The bed was so damnably big that she had never once sensed another person in it.

“Wh… why are you here?”
“You were wailing away like a ghost — how was I supposed to sleep?”

She had thought she’d only gotten a little teary. She could not believe she had actually cried out loud as well.

“Anyway. That’s a very sweet morning routine you’ve got.”

Every time Jun-hyeok spoke, the broad chest hummed and resonated. Somehow she had ended up gathered snugly into his arms with her face pressed flat to that chest, and she was on the verge of suffocating. Now that she thought of it, the perfume that always followed him was faint today, probably because he hadn’t gone out yet and so hadn’t put any on. Without the familiar scent, she’d had no way of noticing him beforehand.

“You startled me. What morning routine?”
“Clinging to each other, hugging, licking, kissing — what a scene.”

Good grief. That was as good as saying Han Jun-hyeok had been watching from the moment she woke. Seo-ha’s body, soft until then, went rigid.

What did I say to Dodam? I can’t remember one word of what I said.

Inwardly, Seo-ha scolded herself for being so careless. All she could do was hope she hadn’t let anything important slip. Once she had more or less gotten her startled heart under control, she spoke, hoping she looked unbothered.

“He’s my own precious dog. Biting and kissing him all over still isn’t enough. It must be the same for you, Jun-hyeok-ssi.”
“Are you out of your mind? Guys don’t do that with each other.”

Her fine brows drew together. So he was saying she and Dodam did it because they were a female and a male? Dumbfounded, she shot back a sulky retort. His ridiculous attitude had made her forget, for a moment, that she was lying in his arms.

“Before he’s a male, he’s my baby.”
“If he’s your baby, then why do you call yourself his noona and not Mom?”

The point left Seo-ha with nothing to say, and her shoulders sagged. They hadn’t been together long, but she had yet to win a single argument against Han Jun-hyeok. She had already learned several times over that reason was useless against a man who dealt in sheer unreason.

Only as she lay there quietly did she realize just how the two of them were tangled together on the bed. Now heat rose through her for quite another reason.

“Um. I won’t scream now. That was only because you startled me, so would you let go of me?”

Seo-ha carefully twisted her trapped arm, but instead of working it free, all she got was heavy muscle under her hand wherever it landed. She had never felt a man’s body like this, and the more she moved against it, the more her breath caught. His shirt was some soft, sweat-wicking fabric, which was perhaps why every line of his body came through at the smallest movement. The taut muscle running down to a hard abdomen, the broad spread of his chest rising and falling faintly with each breath, all of it pressed flush against her face. It had been no more than a brush, yet she caught herself wanting to snatch her hand away.

Whether or not he knew how badly she wanted out of his arms, Jun-hyeok muttered on, unconcerned.

“Do you remember what I said, that a routine I’ve set once, I never break?”

It had barely been any time since he’d said it. Of course she remembered.

“It was a sort of superstition, wasn’t it?”

She had heard that fastidious, perfectionist types, athletes and the like, were like that. Judging by the Han Jun-hyeok she had come to know so far, it was more than plausible.

“I didn’t sleep properly all night, thanks to you.”

She remembered only a small part of it, the stretch with Granny Ok-i, but she must have dreamed all sorts of things through the night. Otherwise she would never have wailed out loud like that.

“…I didn’t know it was that bad. You could have just left me be. I’m sorry.”

The thought that she had made an unseemly scene in someone else’s house left her face burning with shame.

“So I’m thinking of making one more routine. Any intention of cooperating?”

Jun-hyeok suddenly pushed himself up, and his great bulk filled the whole of her field of view. She was free of his arms, but that only made things worse: there was nothing left in her world but Han Jun-hyeok.

“Well — not that I particularly need your cooperation.”

She had never been held so wholly in a man’s gaze before, and her chest tightened with nerves. Her full breasts stirred with her uneven breathing.

Only then did she realize that, for want of a nightdress the night before, all she had on was one of his huge T-shirts, pulled on over her head.

“Because right now instinct is running ahead of reason.”

Her focus was still blurred, but she could make out the three-dimensional contours of Han Jun-hyeok right in front of her. Even from that rough silhouette, there was no denying he was a handsome man. Arranged marriage or no, she could not understand why a man like this had chosen her. Seen that way, it was only natural that Do-hee and Jun-hee had both been so sharp with her.

Without meaning to, Seo-ha lifted her hand and laid it against the high bridge of his nose. She couldn’t be sure she had seen it right, but she had the feeling the corner of his mouth had lifted slightly.

“What I said about beating that fellow — you didn’t think I was joking, surely?”

Before she could even chew over what he meant, his lips gave her cheek a light bite. Startled, Seo-ha jerked her head back on reflex. The brief shock that had grazed her cheek lingered there, still hot. It had been light, but even Seo-ha could not mistake the intent behind it.

“…Don’t play games.”
“Exactly. I told you not to make me jealous.”

The low, restrained voice set her ear ringing. Her lips gone dry, Seo-ha could say nothing.

She had thought it would end there. Instead, that was where it began.

Jun-hyeok tipped her chin straight up and angled his head. Above that firmly fixed gaze, she heard him draw a short breath. Instinctively, Seo-ha went stiff. Her feeble resistance counted for nothing, and damp lips came down on hers at once.

“Mm-hngh…”

That first contact was less heat than a pressure that stopped her breath. It lingered as a bare brush until his tongue pressed down and burrowed inside, and Seo-ha caught hold of him without knowing she had. A feverish breath leaked out between her lips. Jun-hyeok didn’t miss the gap, driving his tongue in deeper, and as their tongue-tips tangled amid the strangeness of it, a tingle ran through her whole body.

“…Hnn.”

The short moan that escaped her was swallowed whole.

Seo-ha tried to pull her head free, but the harder she pulled away, the harder his hand gripped the back of her neck. If anything, her feeble attempt at escape seemed to provoke him further. He drew her waist firmly in and closed the space between them entirely. The hard press of his chest and abdomen, through the thin T-shirt, sank deep into her soft skin. Her breathing grew shorter and shorter, and still there was no way out.

His swollen lips moved roughly, then slowed. A bite, a moment when he seemed to release her, and then he was back, pulling her deeper.

“Haa…”

In that rhythm of push and pull, Seo-ha steadily lost her breath. Each time she let a held breath escape, Jun-hyeok dug into the opening and locked their lips deeper. Their mouths slid together with a wet, sticky sound, and her head swam with heat.

Unable to hold out any longer, she reached out a hand. It felt as though her mind was about to come undone. But all her hand found was his broad shoulder, and the harder she tried to push him off, the more her fingertips met nothing but firmer muscle. When she instinctively threw her arms around his neck, his shoulders tensed.

Jun-hyeok spoke low.

“It isn’t over yet.”

The voice grazing her ear squeezed Seo-ha’s heart. With the words came another short kiss, this one a good deal sharper and more persistent. It gave her lips no chance to part from his; his tongue chased hers and held on until the moment he finally drew back.

Seo-ha squeezed her eyes shut. Trembling all over, both arms gone weak, she felt as if every part of her were caught in his hold and being shaken. Each time their tongues tangled and slid hot against each other, her whole body burned.

The relentless pressure crept over her thoughts until nothing else was left.