“Asking ‘why’ when you already know is a bad habit. Rashanin-ssi.”
“How about calling me Ilya?”
“…?”
“Now that we’ve become like this, it’s stiff to call me by my surname.”
My eyes widened involuntarily at the completely unexpected request. I might not know for sure, but there would definitely be a difference between calling him by his surname versus his given name.
From Rashanin’s standpoint, this must be a groundbreaking proposal. But I shook my head.
“I must respectfully decline.”
“You don’t want to?”
“Once it becomes familiar in my mouth, it’s hard to change how I address you. And I’m not confident I could casually call Rashanin-ssi’s given name in front of other people.”
“You always have excuses ready.”
“Because it’s true.”
When I answered seriously, Rashanin made a rather ambiguous expression before letting out a short laugh. It seemed he’d given up.
“Rather than doing this here, if you’re not feeling well, getting a massage would be much more effective.”
“Looking like this?”
I thrust out my arm toward Rashanin, where bite marks were clearly visible. Just looking at it, my whole body was full of traces of being bitten and sucked. Bite marks, kiss marks, and even handprints. The red and blue bruises were so mottled that if you looked wrong, it seemed like I had some skin disease. It didn’t look like I’d been beaten up. If a perceptive person saw it, they’d think I’d been taken by an incredibly aggressive woman. Deliberately leaving marks was marking territory, claiming ownership. Territory marking. Marking. Possessiveness. Each word was like a beast. We did have sex like beasts.
To prevent my face from heating up again, I pressed my temple and sighed silently. I couldn’t imagine what I’d hear if I received a massage naked, clearly showing that my sex partner had a possessive and persistent personality. Moreover, we weren’t leaving today, and I didn’t know how long we’d be staying at the hotel, which made it even worse.
“If I tell you to be shameless… I feel like I’d get bitten.”
Rashanin trailed off ambiguously, then tugged lightly at my hair again and bent his waist to whisper in my ear.
“Still though. Being docile on the bed isn’t a gentleman’s virtue.”
Saying that, he licked my ear lightly. My ears were an erogenous zone. As I trembled and pulled my body back, the hard bathtub touched my back.
“This won’t leave a mark.”
I’d already experienced how terrifyingly sweet this man’s voice could become. Really, it felt like my brain was melting from just his voice. Whether he knew that fact or not, Rashanin placed his lips on my cheek. Goosebumps rose at the feeling of moist, hot tongue following the soft lips. Instead of pushing his shoulder away to make him stop, I splashed water.
Rashanin stood up from the bathtub at a speed faster than the wind and stepped back. I yelled at him.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
“Me? No way.”
“Then what is this?”
“You just have to not fall for the temptation.”
How could he call that a proper response? Heat flared up instantly and I splashed water again. I didn’t care whether his expensive clothes got wet or not.
Wet from the water, Rashanin quickly moved away. Feeling satisfied at his movement like his tail was on fire, I splashed water once more. Rashanin stepped back one more step while shaking his head. The handsome man who made even that scene look like a page from a fashion magazine grumbled.
“You’re spiteful.”
“Where did your broad and deep consideration go?”
“You have a good memory too.”
Rashanin found a towel and wiped his face. Then he brought a new towel, approached, and held it open.
“How about getting out now?”
“How about Rashanin-ssi leaving first before that?”
I turned on the shower faucet at my feet, making hot water pour down.
“You’re stubborn too.”
Rashanin frowned deeply, then turned off the hot water and turned on the cold. He urged me to come out again, saying my body would cook completely, but I was fine with this much. However, Rashanin was a man who didn’t know how to give up. With his characteristic take-charge attitude, he grabbed my forearm and lifted me straight up. Pulled out of the bathtub by tremendous strength, I ended up sitting on the towel where Rashanin had just been sitting.
I didn’t care about being naked or being surprised. A groan escaped my mouth involuntarily at the sudden change in posture. I grabbed my aching lower back and curled up my body.
“Owww…”
“Does it hurt?”
“Of course it hurts, how could it not hurt?”
“I don’t know about the pain in that place.”
“I’m not joking!”
It hurt so much I was determined never to do it again. Angry, I splashed water again. This time Rashanin only turned his head without dodging. Instead, he placed the new towel he’d been holding over my head and held out his hand.
“Come out now.”
“I’m only soaking my feet.”
“I don’t understand how you can say it’s good when it’s hot enough to give you burns.”
“You don’t like hot water?”
“What hot water? It’s practically boiling water.”
“You know you’re being excessive, right?”
Honestly, it might be hot by foreigner standards, but Rashanin’s reaction was a bit excessive. Both urging me to come out and forcibly making me get out of the bathtub weren’t normal reactions. At my point, Rashanin stopped the hand that had been drying my hair and gently frowned his handsome brow.
“I don’t like water hot enough to cook flesh.”
“Why? Do you have some bad memory?”
“You really only learn the bad things well.”
“Is it true?”
“It was when I was young.”
“When you were young?”
I ended up asking back at the unexpected answer. Then Rashanin narrowed his eyes.
“Why? Did you think I had no childhood?”
“No, that’s not it…”
It was because I’d imagined Rashanin’s childhood. A boy with blonde hair and purple eyes, cute and beautiful like an angel.
“Hmm? Your face really turned red. What are you thinking that you’re avoiding eye contact?”
“What happened when you were young?”
“Answering a question with a question is a bad habit. If you answer what I asked first, I’ll respond.”
“I was just thinking about what your childhood must have been like.”
“And that made you blush?”
“Because you must have been… pretty like an angel.”
Even saying it with my own mouth, it was quite an embarrassing thing to say. Unable to look directly at Rashanin’s surprised eyes, I slightly shifted my gaze toward his necktie knot.
“That’s not your preference, is it?”
“So, what made you dislike hot water?”
Rashanin was showing too obviously that he liked it, so I pretended not to know and changed the subject.
“When I was five, I fainted because the steam made me unable to breathe. While I was unconscious, I fell into the water and nearly drowned, and I would have died if Marta hadn’t saved me.”
Rashanin’s handsome face that had been explaining lightly gradually became blank. Even though he said he was over 300 years old, it seemed the memory of that day was vivid. Well, childhood trauma doesn’t easily disappear even as you age. Just like how I dislike rainy days.
I was accepting that when suddenly my body floated. It was because Rashanin had picked me up, towel and all.
“Rashanin-ssi?”
“Don’t struggle.”
“Put me down.”
“The bathroom is a dangerous place.”
Just as Rashanin pointed out, the bathroom was a dangerous place. The location with the highest rate of accidental deaths. I had no choice but to be held obediently and leave the bathroom.
Rashanin, who had put me down on the bed, dried me with the towel.
“I-I’ll do it myself.”
Rashanin seemed nonchalant, but honestly this kind of thing was not just ticklish but embarrassing. This kind of behavior didn’t suit me constitutionally. No matter how much I searched my memory, this was the first time anyone had wiped my body with such gentle touch.
Once I thought that, it felt like something sharp had lodged in my chest. Ticklish, startling, and confusing. To erase the thoughts in my head, I avoided Rashanin’s hands and wiped my body with the towel myself. Then Rashanin brought a bathrobe from the bathroom.
“I can’t promise I won’t do it next time.”
“…?!”
