Chapter 27

The moment he whispered the wicked warning gallantly and nipped Sally’s ear, the study door burst open. Sally, who had raised her head abruptly, met the eyes of the woman trying to enter the study. The woman, who had witnessed her son about to ravish a maid on the billiard table, screamed.

Thud.

Mrs. Winston immediately fainted and fell to the floor.

“Damn it…”

A low curse fell on the back of Sally’s head.

***

As the sharp needle pierced his scalp, Leon squinted one eye. The spot where he had been hit by a billiard ball from the maid had torn open. He had only tried to wipe away the blood, but his mother had made a fuss and called a doctor well past midnight.

It seemed the one who needed a doctor was not him.

Mother, sitting across from Leon with the coffee table between them, lay sprawled in the wing chair like a corpse. It was absurd to see her being attended to by three maids, with an ice pack on her head.

“Alright, that’s enough. You can go now.”

After Leon sent away the doctor, who was annoyingly talking about the risk of concussion and the possibility of fractures, his mother also dismissed the maids. The way she glared at him straight on indicated that she was about to have a hysterical fit.

“Oh my… Lord…”

Sure enough, she started her hysterics by invoking God.

“Leon, are you in your right mind?”

Leon, sitting in the wing chair with his legs crossed, lightly tapped his fingers on his knee.

“You’ve been handling things well so far. But why are you doing this now, just before the engagement? Are you trying to drive me to the edge and make me die of a nervous breakdown?”

A woman who always put herself at the center of everything. She insisted that her grown son’s interest in women was a rebellion to gain her attention and affection.

Unfortunately, Leon did not have that much affection for his mother.

As a sneer escaped Leon’s lips, Elizabeth picked up the ice pack she had placed on the table and put it back on her forehead.

“Laugh at your own funeral, why don’t you.”

“The engagement is nothing to worry about.”

“The heiress saw you with another woman, and you say there’s nothing to worry about!”

“It’s not about love; it’s a transaction. Whether I do something with another woman or not, it won’t harm the heiress or the duke.”

Elizabeth let out a long sigh and closed her eyes.

“Yes, you’re always right.”

A stubborn son. She had let him do as he pleased because he had never been wrong.

She had always been proud of the infamous reputation of being a vampire in Camden, which her son had earned due to his loyalty to the royal family. She had endured everything, from the torture chamber in the mansion to the grotesque uniforms of the soldiers who always came and went.

But to be infatuated with a woman, a lowly maid, of all people. This was something she could not tolerate.

“Leon, I’ve told you time and time again since you were a child. Don’t forget what happened to your father. How hard it has been for our family since then? I don’t want to lose you too.”

You don’t want to lose the opportunity to receive a title, do you?

Leon twisted the corner of his mouth and winced. The pain from the wound pulling sharply was the reason.

“To be honest, I was worried about you. I was concerned that you treated women like insects, whether it was my fault or your father’s. It would be problematic if you continued to do so after marriage.”

Thinking that ‘not being able to have a child’ was omitted between ‘if you continue to do so’ and ‘it would be problematic,’ Leon used a military dagger to scrape the blood from under his fingernails.

“But suddenly, you’ve become a different person, interested in a woman, a maid! I’d rather you treated them like insects again, please!”

Leon, who had been admiring the wound on his hand, chuckled softly.

“What cunning trick did that maid pull?”

Only then did Leon raise his head. He looked at his mother, but his focus was on the empty space behind her.

‘I want to know too. What did that maid do to me?’

Unconsciously, his hand slipped into his officer’s jacket. Leon took out a cigar, lit it, and inhaled deeply, lost in thought.

He had never found lust annoying. He had lived almost without feeling it, so it was impossible for him to suddenly start feeling it annoyingly.

But about a month ago, after the maid was assigned to the torture chamber alone, it became annoying. The scent of blood from her skin began to intensify, and the smell permeated his mind, refusing to fade.

It was as if the woman was subtly controlling his thoughts and manipulating his body.

It got worse from the day he first noticed the color of her eyes. It felt like a ship that was slowly sinking suddenly split in two and plunged into the depths. Unaware that the ship was sinking, he found himself floundering in the sea of impulse without any preparation.

Looking back, he had been insane for the past month.

He often lost himself in lust, forgetting his duties. Even today, despite clearly remembering that the heiress was coming in the evening, he forgot everything the moment the maid suggested a date. For someone who rarely forgot anything, it was a shock.

Moreover, in the past month, he had forgotten his dignity as a noble and chased after the woman like a thug in the back alleys. Despite vowing to himself to be a good boy and endure, he lost his mind the moment he saw her. The loss of control over his body and mind was deeply unpleasant.

“That maid needs to be fired immediately.”

Elizabeth looked at her son with a face that showed no room for compromise, expecting him to object.

But he crossed his arms, fell into deep thought, and muttered something incomprehensible.

“If she’s a nuisance, she should be removed.”

“What?”

Leon, leaving his bewildered mother behind, stood up and headed for the door.

“Leon!”

“I told you to fire her immediately.”

“What?”

Was he really going to fire a woman he had been deeply involved with? Elizabeth was speechless at his unexpected action.

Even though he was her son, she sometimes found his cold-blooded side terrifying. She stared at the door where he had disappeared with a look of disgust.

Sally paced restlessly in the maid’s room.

‘The head butler will come soon to fire me.’

She wanted to pack her bags in advance so she could leave tomorrow morning, but for some reason, her mind was in turmoil, and she couldn’t even change her clothes.

Her shoulder still burned, and the back of her head, which had hit the billiard table, was numb.

If Mrs. Winston hadn’t come in at the right time, she would have been taken by that bastard. She had never thought highly of the materialistic noblewoman, but at that moment, Elizabeth Winston seemed like an angel.

“Ouch!”

She let out a short scream involuntarily when her lips brushed her face as she wiped it with her hands. Looking in the mirror, she saw her lower lip, swollen from Mrs. Winston’s bite.

Damn bastard.

But soon, she shifted the blame to herself.

Damn me.

She should have drawn her gun earlier. For quite a while, Winston had been distracted by the kiss, but the problem was that Sally had also been distracted.

To think I would get lost in the kiss I was trying to distract him with. I must be crazy.

“This is a kiss. My first kiss….”

“So, do you hate it…?”

“…No, I don’t.”

“Do you want to… do it again?”

With her face buried in her hands, two immature voices exchanged faded dialogue in her head.

‘I must be crazy.’

Her mother in heaven would probably tut at her pitiful daughter.

As Sally roughly wiped her face, the door knocked. Finally, the head butler had come.

The moment Sally opened the door, she caught sight of Winston through the narrow gap and slammed it shut with a bang. She pressed her shoulder against the door to prevent him from forcing it open, locked it with a key, and even put the chain on, while he called out to her.

“Sally.”

“Are you here to do something that will make Mrs. Winston faint again?”

A hollow laugh came from outside.

“No, that’s not it. Actually, this might be better.”

Then, to her surprise, Winston made an unexpected offer.

“I’ll find you a better job. It would be better for you too. With a recommendation letter signed by me, you can easily get into any place. The duchess said she will find someone else soon, so you only need to stay until then. That’s all.”

Winston, like a student reciting a poem they had memorized, quickly said his piece and left.

She didn’t expect him to tell her to leave. Sally stood there, dumbfounded. The hand that had been gripping her tightly suddenly lost its strength, making her feel unsteady.

“Crazy fool.”

It was absurd, but things had gone according to plan. Sally shook off the inexplicable discomfort and buried her tired body in the bed.