CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Favour

 Fifty-Three Years Ago

Sweet, sweet blood flooded into his full mouth, easing down his throat like liquid silk. Stretching his lips wider, he harder so that there was a sudden rush of it spilling into his system and sending him high into cloud nine. He moaned as pleasure coursed through his veins and just as he tasted victory, a knock erupted at the door.

With his hands still fisted in her tangled wiry hair, he her neck before his tongue rolled over his supple lips, cleaning up any bloody residue.

“Mmm…” She moaned in his lap, weak from lack of blood but sufficiently delirious on his venom. Her head fell limp in his shoulders and just when he was about to push her away in disgust, the door to his study eased open very slowly.

Three beats. A proper lady should take exactly three beats to enter through the door before addressing members of royalty – no more, no less. He counted them in his head.

One. She was wearing black suede Mary Janes with sheer stockings.

Two. Black and white tweed under a matching jacket and he guessed that she was wearing a sheet white blouse.

Three. Sheer white blouse with a face that matched the exact shade of her shirt. Like clockwork, Jaehwa had yet again managed to adhere to the petty customs of the palace. She was exactly three beats. Song Jaehwa was always so predictable to Oh Sehun.

He caught the flash of fear that coursed through her – the tensing of her muscles and the gentle twitch of her neck so that she turned away from him but her eyes were calm.

“My prince.” She curtsied perfectly for him and Sehun wondered if there was ever a time when his wife lost that iron grip she had on her manners. To the world, she was the perfect spouse but what use was a woman with no hopes and dreams and passions?

Sehun sighed in irritation as he ran a thumb over his lips, eyeing her from head to toe. He couldn’t remember the last time she had set foot in his study and nor could he remember the last time he had taken a good look at her. She was growing. Her facial features were holding a little more charisma and her facial structure was becoming more defined – sharper, stronger and clearer.

Catching himself in his thoughts, he shoved the woman off his lap so that her body fell right before Jaehwa’s shoes. She flinched and stumbled back, listening to him brush himself off. That was all she could do because she didn’t dare to keep her gaze fixed on him. She knew he hated that.

It was why she always remembered to etch his image into her mind when she was greeting him – it was the only chance she had to face him directly. Today he was magnificent – just like every other day. From head to toe she remembered exactly what he wore with one swift glance – fresh white shirt, rolled up at the sleeves and the top two buttons ed, paired with crisply ironed black pants. He wore polished leather lace up shoes and decided to go for his Burberry cologne.

“She’s just a blood. There’s no need to worry.” Sehun cracked a mean smile as he studied her from the corner of his eye.

She wasn’t sure if he was purposely rubbing salt in her wounds or if he was simply being a jerk but either way, it hurt. He knew she knew about his extramarital affairs and yet here he was painting her out to be a paranoid lover in the face of a blood. She should be insulted but Jaehwa was never one to make a scene – never one to ever let a single hair fall out of place.

“Well?” Sehun walked over to his drinks cabinet on the other side of the room to pour himself a glass of whiskey from his crystal decanter. “How are you, wife?” She winced at the stress he placed on her title and swallowed what little pride he left for her behind closed doors.

“I’m well, my prince.” She paused before she returned his politeness, “And you?”

He placed the decanter back in its place amongst his collection of hard liqueur and turned around to face her with two glasses in his hands. He took a sip from one before he approached her with the other.

“Oh isn't that nice of you? Keeping up the formalities. You and I both know you know everything