It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 13.2

The garden was noisy for the first time in a while.
Rayan couldn’t concentrate on his aide’s report and kept glancing toward the window.
He could hear Caesar chatting below, mixed with Ines’s occasional replies.

“Be careful, Caesar, if it flips over—”
“It’s shallow, it’s fine!”
“But your clothes might get wet. And you might swallow water… Ah, see?”

There was a splashing sound.
It seemed Caesar, who had been playing in a small wooden boat, had fallen into the lake.
Ines’s startled voice floated up, calling out in confusion.

Ever since the large lake had been added in front of the mansion, Ines and Caesar often came out to the garden to play in the afternoon sunlight. Rayan liked hearing their cheerful voices so much that he’d moved his office to the second floor on purpose.
The problem was, now that he had, he found it impossible to concentrate whenever his wife and son were outside.

“There are three reports delayed from the apprentice priest at La Celia Cathedral, Your Highness. You should review—Your Highness?”
“Leave it there.”

In the end, Rayan gave in to temptation and walked over to the window.
Even though the reports contained important information, his priorities were clear.

“Caesar really likes playing in the water.”
“Yeah! It’s summer now!”

He leaned his arms on the windowsill and tilted his body outside.
Rayan had dreamed of this scene for the past two years.

At some point, Ines had stepped into the lake and was standing in the middle of it.
Her thin summer dress floated on the water’s surface. She tried a few times to gather the hem of her dress but soon gave up and pushed Caesar’s small boat instead. Caesar was already soaked from head to toe.

Caesar was the first to notice someone watching.
“Oh? It’s Dad!”
The boy blinked a few times and then broke into a bright smile. He waved happily.

Ines followed her son’s gaze and looked up toward Rayan.
Rayan was about to wave back at Caesar but ended up completely captivated by her instead.

The lake, sparkling with sunlight as if it had been paved with gold and jewels, shimmered brightly. The wet hem of her dress danced along the rippling surface.
Under her neatly cut black hair, her neck stretched long and smooth, and above the horizontal Krine, her delicate shoulders and collarbones were pale and fair.

Such a beautiful woman was smiling.
It wasn’t a full, beaming smile, but it was more than enough.

Rayan suddenly turned around and rushed out the door.
His aide called out in confusion.
“Your Highness! The report—!”

The report contained all the detailed records of Ines’s recent activities—something Rayan had been regularly reviewing until just two weeks ago.
He paused at the boundary between his office and the hallway, thinking for a moment.

Edgar’s strange behavior today.
The unfamiliar kindness from Ines that felt too different from before.
The things he already knew, and the things he absolutely needed to know in the future.

And, most of all, the thing he had foolishly failed to do in the past—
Going down right now to join the two people he loved, playing in the garden.

Which was more important? The answer came quickly.

“…I’ll do it all later.”

Rayan rushed down and stepped into the scene he had missed for so long.

After playing in the lake with Caesar for a long time, several hours passed quickly.
Completely soaked from head to toe, the three of them had to head straight to the bathroom the moment they got back inside.

Maybe because he was tired from playing so much, Caesar fell asleep before his bath was even finished.
As soon as Ines stepped out of the bathroom and handed the sleeping child to Berry, she was pulled aside by Rayan, who had been waiting just in front.

When he took off the robe he was wearing, the steam in the mirror thickened.
The heat from his recently warmed body radiated toward her.
Water droplets from his silver hair dripped onto her collarbone. His large, warm hands, tracing the line from her navel to her chest, wrapped gently around her waist.

It had already been more than ten days since the night when Ines had suddenly disappeared after they’d spent time together, leaving Rayan in torment through the early morning hours.

After that first time, they had nothing left to hold back.
Rayan seemed to be trying hard to restrain himself from touching her. But sometimes, he’d show an unusual urgency—today seemed to be one of those times.

He couldn’t possibly know everything she was thinking. But could he instinctively sense something uneasy?
Ines didn’t push him away.

Being with him brought fresh pleasure, and the drowsiness that came afterward was addictive.
Unlike before, he now held back his strength and movements. That made him quite compatible with her.

‘So this is what it felt like. I used to wonder why someone who dislikes me so much still couldn’t give up sleeping with me.’

A relationship with no special meaning—just a fleeting moment of enjoyment. It wasn’t bad.
Of course, the meaning Rayan attached to it seemed far heavier than hers. But that wasn’t her concern.

His lips traveled down her straight calf beneath the raised robe. Her body trembled involuntarily.
“…Ah!”

A sharp pain from an unfamiliar spot made Ines stiffen.
‘Just now… where…?’
The place Rayan bit was where the tendon passed behind her ankle.

But he didn’t stop with the bite. He clearly pressed a red mark onto the thin skin over her delicate bone.

Barely hiding her confusion, Ines asked,
“What… are you doing?”

Rayan didn’t answer. He marked the same spot on her left ankle too, not caring that her body tensed from anxiety.

“Why would you do that… in that spot…?”

He looked down at the marks he’d made with satisfaction, then leaned in to press his forehead against hers.

“Say you love me, Ines.”
“…I love you.”
“You’re going to stay here, right?”

Was he asking because he knew something?
Ines took a slow breath and studied his face.

His green eyes held two conflicting things: a cruel desire to shake her completely, and a patient gentleness so he wouldn’t overwhelm her.

“Of course.”
“Thank you.”

Rayan smiled faintly at her soft reply.
He didn’t seem to plan on going further just then.
The shadow over her lifted as he pulled back and scooped her up.

Ever since he kissed her ankle, a strange tension had made it hard to breathe.
She knew she shouldn’t look at him with wary eyes, but once she started thinking about it, every reaction felt unnatural.

As soon as her back touched the soft sheets, Rayan kissed her deeply.
Ines closed her eyes to hide her confusion.
She emptied her mind and surrendered to the wave of heat.

It wasn’t until the sun tilted far toward the west that Ines could finally speak properly.
Despite the bath, her body was a mess again. In the end, she had to return to the bathroom in Rayan’s arms.

Even then, they stayed in the bathroom for a long time.
By the time Rayan carried her back and sat her properly on the bed, all her strength was gone.

“You don’t need to dry it. It’ll dry on its own. It’s hot these days…”
“No way. You can still catch a cold in the summer.”

Ignoring her weak protest, he placed a thick towel on her head.
Rayan gently patted the water from her hair with barely any strength in his hands.

These days, he was always with her.
Even when she ate a light breakfast in bed, or took a nap to catch up on sleep, or got up late to play with Caesar using picture books and wooden blocks—he was there.
He must have had work to do, but he didn’t seem to care.

Once most of the moisture was gone from her hair, Rayan tossed the towel aside and gently massaged her thighs. With his other hand, he pressed lightly on her waist.

He was so careful, as if she’d break if he pushed even a little.

“If it stings, aches… or even slightly bothers you, just say so.”
“…It doesn’t.”

There was no strong emotion left now, even if he suddenly started being considerate after doing everything he wanted.
But still, compared to the past, it was true that he had become much gentler.

When Rayan used to treat her roughly, it was normal for her not to sleep at all, and she would suffer from muscle pain for days.
Also, the places his lips and tongue had touched would sting every time her clothes brushed against them, making her frown without realizing it.

Back then and now were completely different.
He didn’t bite her hard anywhere, nor did he suck so hard that it left painful marks.
And he didn’t push in so harshly that she couldn’t breathe either.

As Ines remembered the past, a small sneer crossed her face.
But as Rayan lightly lifted her and turned her to face him, the smile quickly disappeared.

“You didn’t cry today.”

“There was no reason to cry.”

“You haven’t cried even once since that day. That means… there was a reason you cried that day.”

Here we go again.
Ines, feeling tired, simply closed her eyes.

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