After Rebirth, I Accept The Arranged Marriage-Chapter 48: Kiss

Jessie Sterling was so embarrassed she wanted to hide. She wasn’t crying!

But her eyes grew misty despite herself.

After Victor Morgan wiped away the shimmer of moisture from the corner of Jessie’s eye, his fingers lingered. He seemed to lose a little control, pressing gently again at the outer corner of her eye.

The skin at the corner of her eye was already a little red, and it seemed he had accidentally made it even redder.

"Miss Sterling, would you like to see the photos?" the photographer asked just then. "If anything needs to be changed, you can let me know."

Jessie sat up on the bed. Without sparing Victor another glance, she scurried away from his side like a sprite making a midnight escape and dashed over to the photographer.

"Let me see."

Victor knew Jessie wasn’t speaking to him, but it was as if he were mesmerized; his gaze couldn’t help but follow her.

His hands, hanging by his sides, twitched as if he wanted to grab onto something.

Now, Victor stood at Jessie’s doorway, listening to his fiancée mutter about how much energy he had. He couldn’t help but want to laugh.

He’d always been a workaholic, it was true. But he wasn’t so far gone that he’d still be consumed by business with his fiancée right beside him.

But if he didn’t use work to numb himself, Victor had no idea what he might end up doing.

The rest of the day’s shoot went smoothly. He and Jessie both seemed to get into the zone.

But when the shoot ended, Victor found it was becoming difficult to pull himself out of that state.

When Jessie noticed that the man in front of her had been silent for a little too long after she spoke, she looked up in confusion.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?" Jessie couldn’t help but ask.

But she hadn’t even finished speaking when suddenly, Victor—who had been standing so discreetly outside—gave a hard push. The door, which she had only opened a crack, swung wide open.

The next moment, Jessie felt herself being pressed against the wall.

At the same time, the same scent she’d experienced earlier that day in the overwater bungalow in Tahiti enveloped her once more.

Something heavy pressed against her lips.

Jessie’s eyes flew open in surprise. Before she could make a sound, she heard Victor’s ragged breath as he whispered, his lips almost touching hers, "I’ve wanted to do this all day."

The moment he spoke, Jessie felt her lips being pried apart. The man’s dominance, his raw desire and ambition, were all laid bare before her.

Victor was a bit clumsy at first. But when he felt no resistance from the woman in his arms, his hand quickly found the soft flesh of Jessie’s waist. He kneaded it gently, a soft caress. He felt her grow softer and softer, melting like water into his embrace.

That was how he so easily parted her lips. His tongue swept through her mouth, plundering it like a conquering army, as devastating as a raging storm.

Her ragged gasps and soft, helpless moans reached Victor’s ears, and he seemed to kiss her even more fiercely.

’It’s all her fault for tempting me,’

he thought.

When it was over, the only sound in the room seemed to be their heavy, ragged breathing.

Jessie had completely collapsed into Victor’s arms. She was now clutching tightly to the fabric of his shirt, not daring to look up.

Victor held her, taking a moment to compose himself until the reaction in his body gradually became less obvious.

"...Pervert."

After a long moment, Jessie, still hiding against Victor’s chest, muttered a single word.

Victor let out a low chuckle. He raised a hand to touch Jessie’s ear; he’d found himself fascinated by it during the photoshoot earlier. Hearing her assessment of him now, Victor’s voice dropped low. "After a kiss like that, it’d be abnormal if I *didn’t* have a reaction."

Jessie looked up in astonishment. "I can’t believe you’re that kind of person!"

She looked as if she’d suffered a massive blow.

’How could Victor possibly say something like that?’

Victor stared at the flush of red at the corner of Jessie’s eye, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.

"And what kind of person is that?" Victor retorted.

Jessie, oblivious to the change in him, said earnestly, "Old, serious... you don’t even go to bars!"

’Basically an old stick-in-the-mud.’

After the shoot, she had even convinced herself that Victor had only kissed her because of the photographer’s earlier instructions.

After all, he didn’t seem like the type to be ruled by his passions.

But after what just happened, Jessie couldn’t convince herself of that anymore.

Victor’s expression darkened.

"Old?" he repeated, his gaze fixed on Jessie’s eyes, pinning her in place and making her want to flee.

Jessie realized she might have been a little too honest. Her expression turned sheepish, and her eyes darted everywhere but at Victor.

"Not that *old*, I mean. It’s all relative, right? You’re just a little older than me?" Jessie stammered, trying to backtrack. "Besides, that’s not the main point! Shouldn’t the focus be on me complimenting you for being a proper gentleman?!"

As she said this, Jessie started to feel like she actually had a point.

’I wasn’t looking down on Victor, I was complimenting him!’

Victor stared at the little mouth that looked ready to keep prattling on. He lowered his head, and the world suddenly went quiet.

’I’m no saint. Does my little fiancée have the wrong idea about me?’

’I’m just a normal man, one who desires his own wife. That’s all.’

Maybe it was to punish her for calling him ’old’, but this time Victor kissed her for a long, long time. He nipped at her lower lip, sucking gently, until the faint sound of wetness seemed to fill the air.

Jessie was mortified. Her hands, balled into fists, pressed against Victor’s shoulders as she made a pitiful, cute "MMMF" sound—part protest, part invitation.

At the last second, Victor forced himself to stop. Before leaving Jessie’s room, he lowered his head and sucked hard on her neck.

"Punishment."

Even after Victor left, Jessie, who now found herself lying on the bed, couldn’t process what had happened for the longest time.

"Don’t think of me as so proper."

Victor’s voice echoed in her mind. He had been shockingly honest just now, laying all his desires bare before her.

Jessie flopped onto the bed and instinctively pulled the covers over herself.

But a moment later, she scrambled back up.

’Forget it. I should take another shower. I’d broken out in a sweat while Victor was holding me, and the sticky feeling was just too uncomfortable.’

「In the room next door」

Victor stood under the shower, letting the icy water pour down over his head.