I mean, it’s not even about you softening your blows or whatever—it’s that I knew for a fact they’d be fine... But, no, who cares about that right now?
“This is sophistry. You’re just twisting the evidence to support your own perspective!”
But, wait—why would he even need to twist it in the first place?
As question marks floated through my mind, Craig stared down at me with a look of deep exasperation.
“We can continue this back-and-forth for as long as we wish and get nowhere. If you still insist on denying the truth, then I shall prove it to you right this second.”
Prove it?
“What are you—?”
Before I could finish my question, Craig made his move. With his body still weighing heavy on me, he pressed his face in closer...and the next thing I knew, his lips were on top of mine.
“Mmph—nh?!”
For a brief moment, my mouth parted slightly in dazed shock, and his tongue immediately dove straight in. It slid between my lips without the slightest hesitation—tracing along my teeth, tickling my palate, and dragging my tongue to draw it out. As sticky, slick slurping noises filled my ears, my mind finally caught up to what was happening. I tried to push him away, but my pinned-down arms wouldn’t budge an inch.
He’s too damn strong!
Because he was on top of me, his saliva was flowing into my mouth. Most of it dribbled messily from the corners of my lips, but some ran down my throat—I wasn’t about to swallow it, so it caught in my windpipe. I made an unpleasant gagging noise, and Craig finally pulled back.
The moment his lips released mine, I started coughing violently. Globs of spit spattered onto the black sheets, leaving even darker stains.
“Khh— Haagh—! Craig, what...?”
Once my coughing fit had subsided, I stared up at Craig. The man who’d just manhandled me looked utterly nonchalant, without the slightest hint of shame.
“What’s the matter, Your Grace? If anyone were to do such a thing to the old duke, he would waste not a second before biting out their tongue and killing them.”
“Nobody would ever do anything like that in the first place! You’re the one who caught me by surprise—”
“Understood. Then so long as I provide advance notice, there should be no issue.”
No, you don’t understand at all! Stop twisting my words around, dammit!
But before I could argue back, Craig pulled my hands toward him and forcefully wrapped them around his throat. I flinched involuntarily as my thumbs touched his Adam’s apple.
“I am now going to kiss you, Your Grace. If you object, you may kill me and flee.”
“Wait! Hold o— Mn, mmnph!”
My demands rang out uselessly as his lips crashed against mine. His tongue invaded my mouth, pressing inside, toying with me as it pleased. My own moans mingled with the wet, obscene sounds in the air, filling me with an overwhelming sense of humiliation.
Craig wasn’t restraining me at all. In fact, my hands were around his throat. Just as he’d said, the old Heinreid would have strangled him or bitten off his tongue without the slightest hesitation. Even the old me—before I’d become Heinreid, before I’d killed myself—probably would’ve resisted more. If anything like this had happened in my past life, I would’ve been able to fight back with all my might.
But not anymore. Heinreid’s memories of murder and brutality had a reverse effect, and the thought of those sorts of violent acts now repulsed me. Maybe it was a form of trauma. What if I fought back and Craig got hurt? What if I made him bleed? No more, my mind screamed at me—I never wanted to see those revolting sights ever again. My strength left me. My will to refuse crumbled away.
“Nff— Aauh!”
As my lips surrendered to him, as I let him do as he pleased without any real resistance, a new sensation suddenly shot through me. Releasing his hold on me had freed up Craig’s hands as well. His fingers traced along the side of my head, from behind my ear to beneath my jaw. While I was shivering at the delicate stimulation, he unfastened my collar, followed by the buttons below, before his large, slightly calloused hand forced its way into my shirt. His fingers played across my chest, stroking, feeling, until he finally discovered the sensitive spot he was looking for. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pinched my nipple and squeezed.
I moaned wordlessly, and my body jolted. My eyes widened to see Craig looking down at me. He’d nimbly pulled back the instant before I’d flinched, preventing our teeth from clacking together. His eyes were narrowed in smug satisfaction, like he’d gotten one over on me.
A hot flush spread across my face—I wasn’t sure whether it was embarrassment or anger.
Don’t get so damn cocky, you little shit!
I moved my hands from Craig’s neck up to his head and immediately yanked him back down to me, taking him deeper into my mouth. He froze, caught by surprise, and this time, I seized the initiative. I curled my tongue around his, caught it between my lips, and finally licked slowly along the underside from base to tip.
Craig wasn’t having it. Realizing that he was starting to lose control of the situation, he sprang back up with a grunt. I seized the opportunity to pull my shirt closed with one hand and cover my mouth with the other.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting that,” he said. “Well played.”
“You— Get off me, dammit!”
I definitely couldn’t move either of my hands, so my orders came out muffled with my mouth still covered.
But Craig’s lips finally arced into a smile, and the words that spilled from them sent a shiver down my back.
“Oh? But is that truly what you want? It seems to me that you’ve gotten into the mood as well...”
“Sh-Shut the hell up! Don’t you dare try anything more, or else...”
“Or else?”
He made to lean in closer once again—I stuck out my elbows to fend him off while I racked my brain for ideas, but I didn’t have anything left I could use for a bluff. Eberhart had already forsaken me, and I’d freed every last hostage I’d had against Craig. At this point, the only thing I had left was...
“I... I’ll kill myself! Right here! I’ll bite out my tongue and bleed to death!”
Craig froze instantly.
It had been an all-or-nothing gamble, but it had paid off perfectly. As he stood stock-still right above me, I retreated farther up onto the bed, slipping out of the cage his arms had formed around me. I started fixing up my disheveled clothes, determined to keep him from making any more moves on me.
He stared at me, then sighed deeply and spoke in a voice tinged with resentment. “You may not be a villain, but you certainly are a despicable man. You’re utterly ruthless in exploiting others’ weaknesses.”
“You must be the only guy who’d be moved by holding me as a hostage, now or ever. What’s with you?”
I was totally confused. If he’d just been trying to test my character, there were plenty of other approaches he could’ve taken, but he’d gone out of his way to do what he did... It had to be that sort of thing, right?
Had there ever been anything that could’ve brought this on?
“Well...” he said. “Frankly, it’s a rather unexpected development for me as well. We’ll simply have to take our time talking things through.”
What the hell does that mean?
I didn’t even have the energy to properly snipe back at the incomprehensible younger man in front of me, and my voice came out as a weary, exasperated groan.