A few moments ago…
Lady Lily slid the luxurious red dress from her shoulders, revealing her bare skin.
Yet the man did not even bother to glance at the beautiful woman lying next to him.
"My Lord?" She tried to get his attention by caressing his chest, but to no avail. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
Lord Edmund wasn't a womanizer, and never asked for her body, unlike other men she met.
His eyes were always absent of passion and filled with boredom. The only time he would show anything akin to emotions was when he was in the presence of his sister.
Many thought it was because he had to shoulder the burden of being the heir of the Rochefort house, while his sister was free to do whatever she wanted, but Lady Lily knew better.
"My Lord, what's wrong? Don't you want me anymore?"
'I checked three times to make sure,' Edmund raised his right hand, rubbing his pointer and middle finger against his thumb as if testing their sensitivity, 'How is he still alive?'
Lady Lily hissed when her hair was pulled hard, "My Lord, I don't like this."
Her collarbone was present to him, but Edmund couldn't bring himself to feel desire.
"The most beautiful woman in the capital couldn't sway a mere merchant to bend his knees for her?" he mocked quietly, making Lady Lily frown.
Playing with people's fates was Lady Lily's favorite pastime, and the one, who granted her that privilege, was Lord Edmund.
She thought the new business sensation, Lucian Arclight, would be a nice addition to her collection. She didn't expect to fail and lose the bet she made.
Lord Edmund had lost a lot of money betting against her in the past. She never failed before. Until now. The cost of a lost bet was too high for her to afford.
Edmund pushed Lady Lily to the side and got off the bed, buttoning his shirt that she painstakingly unbuttoned moments before.
'When you try to spend money, only for it to grow back tenfold, and when you try to kill a guy, only to find him alive and well... Do you cry or laugh?'
Lady Lily clutched the sheets with her fingers, holding back from gritting her teeth in frustration. "If Lord Edmund could help me save him from Lady Celine's torment, he'll have no choice but to fall for my charms," she said, trying to coax him back to bed.
Lucian's painful groans coming from the cave had subsided, and now it was only silence surrounding the camp.
"You lost the bet and dragged me into your mess, implicating my name in the process," Edmund straightened his clothes, "Why would I help you?"
"I know that I can't afford the price of losing the bet," Lady Lily said, sitting up on the bed. She wrapped a blanket around her body, covering herself.
"And I could afford losing it, yet here I am," Edmund walked to the entrance, pushing the curtain aside and letting the sun's rays in, 'If you succeeded in seducing him, I would have spared him, and wouldn't have to go through the trouble to kill him myself.'
Edmund remembered the day Celine first introduced Lucian to him. The poor guy thought she was being overbearing, not knowing she was forcing her own twin into the corner.
'If something ever happened to Lucian Arclight, I'm the first suspect she would come after.'
Celine had interrogated the people in the camp, and before long, she was going to start with the two knights who had helped Edmund.
Fortunately, they were attacked by the shackled, which made Celine believe it was the main culprit behind Lucian's injuries, until the time he woke up and told her the truth himself.
No matter what, Edmund wasn't able to make her leave Lucian's side for even a moment.
She continued to act like a guard dog before a juicy bone.
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Edmund passed by the two guards, the cat's meow announcing his entrance to the cave.
Lucian and Celine would become a force to be reckoned with in the future, no doubt about it.
So why was it so difficult for Edmund to accept that?
Edmund wouldn't have interfered in their relationship if Celine were still in control of the situation, but she wasn't.
She was losing the upper hand the moment she began to rely on Lucian for comfort.
His sister was too blinded by Lucian's charms to see the truth. That Lucian was nothing but a deceiver, who was trying to separate her from her own family.
Edmund wasn't sure if he could trust his sister anymore, and that fact frightened him.
When had they become so distant from each other? Edmund knew too well. It was since the day Lucian Arclight entered their lives.
"...or will you let Lucian leave you in peace before he gets dragged into the investigation?"
"I can always defend myself by saying that Lucian could be a shackled, and I was only acting in the kingdom's best interest, to protect us from his potential crimes. What do you think, Lucian?"
"It's a good excuse," Lucian agreed, his voice muffled by her hand.
Lucian was only supposed to be Celine's pawn, and yet, he had become much more than that. He held Celine in his arms as if she were a pawn in his game of chess instead. And she didn't even realize it.
Lucian took his time sitting up, his lips were close to her ear, whispering, "You should be careful, though. You're a lady, after all, and your reputation might suffer from it. Why not let Edmund shoulder some of the blame? A man is supposed to take care of his family, not the other way around."
Edmund almost fell into his hole, but he was quick to react and pull himself out of it, "Says the man, who is currently enjoying the comfort of the woman, whom he is using to shield himself."
"You tried to kill me," Lucian reminded him, not sparing Edmund a single glance, "And failed. So here I am, enjoying the comfort of my Celine. What are you going to do about it? Try to kill me again?"
Edmund smiled, drawing his sword, "Do you think you would have survived if I wanted you dead?"
Whatever Lucian did to survive, it helped Edmund to justify to himself that he wasn't serious about killing him, and thus was not a murderer in Celine's eyes. It was just a fight that went out of control, a mistake.
Celine turned around, already standing between the two men, "What is the meaning of this?"