Dirty Heart - Chapter 48

After a brief silence, Courtney carefully opened her mouth. She wanted to ease the heavy atmosphere.

“By the way. Is Liam doing well? I wonder if he’s handling the work okay.”

“I don’t know. He’ll manage on his own.”

But instead, the atmosphere only sank further. The moment Liam’s name came out of Courtney’s mouth, Lionel’s brows immediately furrowed.

Liam Howard. From their very first meeting, that brat who had insulted him was nothing but an eyesore.

Even on the way to the capital, he cried so much that it felt like his ears would bleed. He had even considered abandoning him somewhere along the way, but since Courtney would definitely look for Liam when she woke up, he had no choice but to keep him at the ducal house. He even went as far as granting him a job.

“So when are you going to let Liam come visit?”

As expected. From the moment she woke up, she had asked about Liam’s well-being first, and now she was openly asking to see him.

Lionel looked at her with displeasure, but then suddenly, the corner of his lips slowly lifted. He wanted to respond with an equally mischievous demand.

“Then say you love me.”

“W-What are you suddenly saying…!”

Courtney blinked in confusion. That damn “I love you.” No matter then or now, it never changed.

“Say you love me. Then I’ll let that brat come visit as much as you want.”

Lifting Courtney’s chin carefully, he whispered playfully.

“…Young Duke. You know this well, but I’m good at lying. Haven’t you noticed from how I’ve been pretending to love you all this time?”

Suppressing her flustered feelings, she spoke in a mocking tone. He, of all people, should know better than anyone that it wasn’t sincere, so she couldn’t understand why he insisted on hearing those words.

“Lies. You love me, Courtney.”

“What kind of self-obsession is this now?”

“That’s why you threw yourself in for me.”

Lionel lightly pointed at the stab wound on Courtney’s side. Only then did she fall silent.

“No, that’s not because I wanted to save you. It’s just… ha….”

She tried to make an excuse, but nothing convincing came to mind. She couldn’t exactly start talking about character settings or the original body’s personality, so she ended up fumbling her words.

“Anyway! I just lost my mind for a moment back then. And you seem to have forgotten, but I was originally trying to kill you! Don’t you remember?”

“Even so, I want to hear it. Even if it’s a lie.”

“….”

Those clear blue eyes looking at her shimmered beautifully. It was the kind of gaze that could make her unknowingly say what he wanted if she wasn’t careful.

“Courtney. If I end up being able to live, will you get engaged to me?”

“Hiccup-!”

The sudden proposal made a hiccup escape her. It was absurd. An engagement between a high-ranking noble and a lowly maid.

“…Don’t say ridiculous things. How could someone like you and me get engaged?”

“What’s stopping it?”

“If the real female lead shows up later, you’ll definitely regret what you said today. So don’t say things like that carelessly.”

“The female lead?”

Lionel asked back with a confused expression. Realizing her mistake, she quickly waved her hands.

“I-Is this some kind of insurance? In case something goes wrong after you get the pig heart, you’ll need me or something?”

If the surgery failed, no one knew when or how Lionel might suddenly change and demand her heart.

‘Engagement, my ass.’

In the end, the conclusion for survival was simple. Get as far away from Lionel as possible.

Watching Courtney’s uneasy eyes dart around, he looked at her as if she were cute, then took her hand and placed it on his chest. The sound of his irregularly pounding heart transmitted vividly through her palm.

“Does this feel like a lie?”

As if proving his sincerity, Lionel’s fragile heart was beating like crazy.

“W-Why are you doing this, it’s embarrassing.”

She hurriedly tried to pull her hand away, but the more she resisted, the tighter Lionel held it.

“Then give me a birthday present.”

“What present? It’s not even your birthday yet!”

“If I get the surgery that day, who knows when I’ll wake up. So just give it to me now.”

The man who said they’d just hold hands and sleep suddenly pressed several light kisses against her lips. It happened so quickly she couldn’t even avoid it, and Courtney snapped in protest.

“I-I’m still a patient!”

“I’ll just touch you lightly.”

“What do you mean touch, wh-!”

He gently pushed Courtney down and swiftly untied the straps of her dress. At the same time, it felt like the tightly locked door in her heart was also being undone without resistance. She wondered if she had always been this easy, but her mind was already going blank.

“Should I stop?”

He had already buried his face in Courtney’s chest as he asked that, sucking on her breasts with wet sounds. Each time her hardened nipple was drawn into his mouth, her whole body heated more than it should.

“Mm….”

“Hm? Should I not?”

“Ah, you pervert, seriously.”

He licked back and forth over her right and left breasts, then pulled her hips closer. At the exact center of her helplessly parted thighs, his cock, throbbing as fiercely as his heart, pressed against her.

“Ah, ah!”

Gripping the base of his erect cock lightly, he rubbed in circles over the thin underwear covering her mound, pressing and prodding again and again. Each time he touched her, ragged breaths slipped from Courtney’s lips. As if her body remembered the countless times they had shared sex before, her entire body grew wet without resistance.

“Ah!”

At last, when he stripped away even her underwear, a striking sight was revealed. Gazing as if entranced at her damp, curling hair, Lionel reached out, parted the soft curls, and found her clit, swollen firm like her nipple.

“Ah, ah…!”

“Shh. They’ll hear outside.”

Of course she knew she shouldn’t make too much noise. But the pleasure he gave was so intense that she couldn’t come to her senses at all.

“Th-then stop touching me, mm, ah…!”

Ignoring her weak resistance, he quickly removed what remained and pressed the rounded head of his cock closer. Each time the hot flesh brushed her swollen clit, she felt extreme pleasure and her fluids spilled endlessly.

“Ah… I, I think I’m going to come, mm. This is strange…!”

In that instant, a fierce pleasure hit her so hard her whole body trembled. Her chin lifted sharply and her lower hole clenched on its own.

“My name. Call my name.”

“Yo-Young Duke… mm.”

“Call me by my name, hm? I want to hear it one last time.”

One last time? Her gaze wavered for a moment as she looked up at Lionel, but she didn’t have the clarity to grasp the meaning. She simply did as he asked and spoke his name.

“…Lionel.”

With a satisfied smile, Lionel bent down and devoured her lips. Lips met, tongues tangled messily.

“Ah!”

While she was dazed from the suffocating kiss, his cock slowly pushed inside her. As it kept driving in deeper without end, tears of arousal rolled down from the corners of her reddened eyes.

“If it hurts, tell me.”

“It, it hurts, mm!”

“Bear with it a little.”

“Ah, what am I supposed to do, ah…!”

Each time his cock pushed through her entrance, her supple breasts bounced in a pretty arc. Perhaps because he knew she was a patient, his thrusts were twice as careful as usual, yet for some reason the excitement only doubled.

“Ha, Courtney. It’s bulging here.”

He stroked her lower belly, swollen with his length inside her, and smiled teasingly. Then once more he brought her hand to his chest. The heartbeat, far stronger than before, pulsed clearly against her palm.

“My heart feels like it’s going to burst, Courtney.”

“Ah…!”

“I love you.”

The heavy flesh churned mercilessly through her tender inner walls, plunging deep and pulling out again. Feeling his cock burrow along her inner walls, she broke apart once more.