Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I’d transmigrated into an explicit boys’ love novel.
The good news: I was nothing more than a nameless maid serving the receptive male lead, the sort of background character who appeared for exactly three lines.
The bad news: once I’d fulfilled those three lines of the canon plot, I would touch the assertive male lead’s hand, be sentenced to death by the receptive male lead, and promptly meet my end.
I woke because I was unbearably hot.
My mouth was dry, my head spun, and everything before me was blurred. Still half asleep, I tried to get up for a drink, only to discover a head tucked against my neck and an arm locked around my waist.
As my memories gradually returned, I lowered my gaze.
Silky black hair spilled across the thin coverlet. Long, curling lashes framed closed eyes above a finely sculpted nose, and his skin was as smooth and pale as porcelain.
Even with his eyes shut, his breathtaking beauty was impossible to conceal.
I was doomed.
I had somehow slept with Adrian Sterling, the beautiful, venomous receptive lead who never forgave a slight.
In fairness, this wasn’t entirely my fault.
Adrian was renowned as the most beautiful man in the realm, and countless men and women coveted him. Today, one of them had drugged him. Fortunately, I’d discovered it in time and thrown the culprit out.
Unfortunately, I’d also been exposed to the aphrodisiac drug.
And so the two of us had ended up…
I absolutely could not let him find out.
I carefully tried to pry his arm from around my waist. Instead, I woke him.
His eyes opened slowly, black and gleaming like polished glass. Confusion gave way to shock, then blazing fury.
The hand around my waist shot up and closed around my throat.
“You deserve to die.”
Footsteps sounded outside the bedchamber. A moment later, someone knocked.
“Adrian, are you in there?”
The voice was cool and deep, unmistakably belonging to Lucien Vale, the assertive male lead.
Panic flashed across Adrian’s face, and his fingers tightened around my throat.
I thrashed in his grip. As darkness crowded my vision, I raised one hand and struck the side of his neck.
Adrian went limp, unconscious.
I eased the door open a crack.
Lucien Vale stood outside in a moon-white brocade robe. His features were strong and striking, his figure tall and straight, his manner cold and aloof.
He had clearly tried to dress with restraint, yet there was no disguising the air of royalty about him.
So this was the man Adrian Sterling longed to possess.
Chapter 2
Unlike the usual explicit boys’ love novel, where the assertive male lead took what he wanted by force, this story had turned the formula on its head. Adrian, the receptive male lead, was the one who pursued Lucien relentlessly, tempting and manipulating him until he finally bent a straight man to his will.
“Mr. Sterling drank a little too much and became dizzy, so he has gone to sleep,” I said. “Perhaps you could return later.”
“I see.” Lucien’s unblinking gaze remained fixed on me. “But I didn’t come to see him. I came for you, Miss Hart.”
The eyes that usually held nothing but wintry reserve now softened with unmistakable tenderness.
I lowered my gaze.
I knew he was not truly looking at me. He was looking through me at his idealized lost love. My eyes bore an uncanny resemblance to Evelyn Ward’s.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean, my lord.”
“You are the reason I came to the Sterling Estate.”
He spoke without the slightest hesitation. Before I could retreat, he seized my wrist and pulled me out of the room. The sudden movement sent me stumbling into his arms.
I struggled at once and tore myself free.
“Please conduct yourself with propriety, my lord.”
My resistance did not anger him.
“When your master wakes, why don’t I offer to buy out your service contract and take you away from this estate?”
I looked up at him in feigned astonishment, then quickly bowed my head again.
“Thank you for your kindness, but I once swore that I would remain by Mr. Sterling’s side and serve him for the rest of my life.”
“As a servant for the rest of your life?” The corner of Lucien’s mouth curved upward. “If I secure your release, I will give you your freedom. Wouldn’t you prefer that?”
There was a patient, coaxing quality to his voice, as though he were tempting me toward the obvious choice.
I stole a glance at him.
At that exact moment, he looked at me.
Our eyes met.
The faint curve of his lips blossomed into a full smile. “At tonight’s banquet, I’ll find an opportunity to discuss the matter with your master.”
This time, I did not refuse.
Lucien left with that smile still on his face.
As I watched his retreating figure, I smiled as well.
The freedom I wanted was not the sort Lucien had offered me.
But if I was ever going to obtain it, I needed his help.
There was only one problem…
I turned toward the room with a headache building behind my temples. I had been one step away from putting everything into motion. How had things gone so disastrously wrong at the last moment?
A faint murmur came from inside.
Adrian was probably waking up.
I hurried back into the room.
I knelt beside the bed.
The instant Adrian woke, he bolted upright with murder in his eyes and reached for my throat again.
I looked at him in feigned confusion. “Did you have a nightmare, sir? I wonder what terrible thing I did in your dream to make you threaten my life in your sleep.”
Chapter 3
Adrian’s hand froze.
He glanced down at himself. His clothes were perfectly in place, and his body was clean and refreshed. Those shamefully intimate scenes must have seemed like nothing more than a dream.
He studied me suspiciously. His foxlike eyes shimmered with such tenderness that they seemed to hold a world of unspoken affection.
So this was what people meant when they said someone could gaze at a dog as though hopelessly in love.
Fortunately, after five years at his side, I knew better than to be taken in by it.
“Serena, you’ve served me long enough to know what happens to those who entertain thoughts they shouldn’t.”
Of course I knew. The grass over the last maid’s grave was probably waist-high by now, all because she had set her sights on him.
I bowed until my forehead touched the floor. “You know what kind of woman I am, sir. If I truly harbored such shameful intentions, you would never have kept me in your service.”
Seeing how composed I remained, Adrian gave a cold snort. He leaned close to my ear and murmured, “See that you remain so. If I ever discover you’ve developed any filthy ideas…”
He left the threat unfinished and chuckled softly instead.
He was already devastatingly beautiful. When he laughed like that, my heart gave an involuntary tremor.
I leaned away and lowered my eyes. “Mr. Vale came by just now, but when he saw you were resting, he said he would return later.”
“Is that true?”
“I would never lie to you, sir.”
Adrian sprang from the bed. His blue brocade robe brushed across my cheek as he swept past me, leaving the faint scent of sandalwood in his wake.
Only Lucien Vale could make him lose his composure like this.
I watched Adrian hurry away and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The strategist’s trace-erasing remedy really was remarkable. The moment I applied it to Adrian, every mark on his body vanished. Otherwise, I never could have deceived him so easily.
Now I could only hope tonight’s banquet went according to plan.
Adrian Sterling was the wealthiest man in Ashbourne, with more businesses under his name than anyone could count.
Three days ago, while escorting a shipment, he had been ambushed by bandits. Lucien Vale, who happened to be passing by, had intervened and saved him.
That rescue was precisely what had made Adrian fall for Lucien at first sight, setting off his relentless campaign to win the man over.
Tonight’s banquet was ostensibly being held to thank Lucien for saving his life. In truth, every detail had been carefully arranged as part of an elaborate seduction.
Unfortunately, I was destined to ruin it.
And lose my life in the process.
“Pour the wine.”