Revenge Of The Reborn Northern Duke

5.

Theodore’s mouth parted slightly in disbelief. He hadn't expected this woman would still dare to demand things from him now.

Lily deliberately bit her lower lip gently, allowing a single tear to roll down her smooth cheek. She deliberately let her bare shoulders tremble slightly, displaying a fragile, feeble and heart-rending resignation.

“Theodore… if this can appease your anger,” Lily whispered through her sobs, adopting the expression of a helpless woman that had always succeeded in melting the heart of the Cordova clan’s heir in the past. 

“Then touch me as you please. Make me yours tonight… as long as you let Gerald live!”

Theodore  grinned cynically, stepped forward with an intimidating stride, then said coldly.

“My princess, have you forgotten? We are husband and wife; you already belong to me. So I have no  need for bargaining chips or any conditions whatsoever to touch you.”

Lily was utterly shocked by Theodore’s words, but before she could react in any way, Theodore pulled her towards him and threw her onto the bed, her back slamming into the soft mattress.

Before she could get up, Theodore was already on top of her, trapping her beneath the shadow of his burly frame, kissing her roughly on the lips and squeezing her breasts hard.

Beneath his crushing weight, Lily closed her eyes. Behind her tear-filled lids, a satisfied smirk flickered faintly. 

The truth was, she had stomached her disgust to seduce Theodore not only to save Gerald, but for another, far more sinister purpose.

Now it seemed Theodore had taken the bait. Excellent. Today would be his last!

She began to moan even more softly, sighing with such convincing acting to provoke Theodore’s wild passion into an uncontrollable outburst.

“Ah… Theodore… gently, darling…” Lily whispered, sighing coquettishly, wrapping her trembling fingers around the broad shoulders of the man on top of her.  “I’m yours… entirely yours now…”

Just as Lily thought her trick had worked and was about to touch Theodore’s cheek, suddenly… SMACK!

A hard slap landed squarely on Lily’s left cheek, sending her head flying to one side.

"Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to, you bitch."

Lily’s eyes widened in horror. She quickly averted her gaze and put on a face as if she knew nothing about it.

“W-what are you on about, Theodore?! I’ve already humbled myself! I’ve cast aside my pride and surrendered myself to you! What more do you want from a woman as submissive as this?!”

“Surrendered yourself?” Theodore grinned cruelly, his gaze flashing with terror. “You call this submission? Do you think I don’t know that you and Gerald have been feeding me slow-acting poison for months? That ‘ghost’s breath’ poison mixed into my evening wine every day by that wretched servant! It’s true, isn’t it?”

“That poison must now have settled perfectly in my blood vessels, heart and lungs,” continued Theodore, leaning in until his hot breath brushed against Lily’s pale face. 

"While it might not kill me right this second, if I exert myself—such as having intense sex with you—it would likely trigger the toxin prematurely. Then, you could easily finish me off!"

Theodore curled the corners of his lips into a wicked smile.

 “And once I’m dead, you’ll simply weep in public and swear that the heir to Corvoda died from being too passionate on his wedding night. Then you and Gerald will take everything without being seen as murderers. That was your plan when you were trying to seduce me earlier, wasn’t it?”

Lily’s face went pale instantly.

“H-how… how could you possibly know?!” Lily asked, her voice catching in her throat. 

“I know everything, Lily,” Theodore interrupted in an icy tone. “I even know you’ve been hiding the antidote in this bed just in case you accidentally poisoned yourself.”

Lily’s breath caught in her throat as if all the air in the room had been sucked out. “T-Theodore… you…”

Ever since he had been reborn at the cathedral altar a short while ago, Theodore had realised that an extraordinary strangeness was stirring within his consciousness. 

An extremely sharp medical instinct and anatomical intuition had suddenly taken firm root in his mind. He could feel the flow of his own blood, detect the faint scent of a foreign substance.

Even the faint herbal scent of the antidote’s sap had been detected by his sense of smell from the very moment he first set foot near this bed.

Without wasting a single second, Theodore reached out with his right hand, reaching straight beneath the lace-trimmed silk pillow at the head of the bed. His fingers slipped between the folds of the fabric, and with one decisive pull, he drew out a small, long-necked glass bottle containing a silvery-clear liquid.

Seeing the bottle in Theodore’s hand, Lily’s eyes widened in horror; the entire charade she had been playing out crumbled in an instant.

“N-no! Don’t touch that! Give it back to me!” Lily screamed in panic as she leapt forward, trying to snatch the glass bottle.

THUD!

Theodore casually swung his left arm, fending off Lily’s body until she fell back onto the silk mattress. With a calm movement, his thumb popped the cork from the bottle.

Without the slightest hesitation, Theodore lifted the bottle and drained its entire contents in a single gulp.

GLUG.

The antidote slid smoothly down Theodore’s throat. In that very instant, an intense warmth surged wildly from his chest, spreading like a tongue of flame throughout his muscles, blood vessels and nerve endings. 

The piercing chill and shortness of breath that had lingered in his lungs for months were obliterated without a trace.

Pure mana within the core of his body raged violently, boiling like lava demanding release. The muscles in his arms and chest tensed tightly, radiating an aura of mighty, unstoppable masculinity.

Theodore lowered the empty bottle, then flung it onto the floor.

CRASH!

Shards of glass scattered across the marble. Theodore lowered his gaze, gripping Lily’s chin once more, forcing her to look into his pair of black eyes.

“Now the antidote is working perfectly in my blood,” whispered Theodore.

“N-no, get away, get away from me, Theodore!”

Lily’s body shuddered uncontrollably beneath the grip of Theodore’s scorching hands. The gaze of the man before her no longer belonged to the foolish young man she could once deceive with false tears. This man was a true monster.

“T-Theodore… please…” Lily whispered haltingly, the suffocating fear now erasing every last trace of her pride. “W-what are you going to do…?”

Theodore grinned cruelly. “Didn’t you just ask me to sleep with you, Princess?” 

“T-Theodore, get away from me right now!”

Lily was about to run away, but Theodore quickly grabbed her by the waist and whispered in a low voice.

“Why should I leave? I really want to sleep with you, Princess. Not just sleep—I intend to make our first night together so passionate that your lover, Gerald, will hear all our moans of pleasure from out there!”

Before Lily could answer, Theodore’s hand slid upward. With a forceful yank, he ripped away the last scrap of sheer silk clinging to her body.