Try Begging

Episode 247

When Grace, who was lying on her side next to him, stopped chewing, Leon held out a piece of apple, cut into a bite-sized piece. But she put the last piece into his mouth. Was an apple this sweet? He found it ridiculous to be indulging in such childish sentiments. Even after eating an apple, Grace still looked exhausted. 

As he glanced at the fruit basket on the bedside table, the chocolate box given as a welcome gift from the hotel caught his eye. As he turned to reach for the table, the sheet covering his lower body slipped down. He felt a touch on the outside of his left thigh as he picked up the box.

He looked down and saw Grace tracing the scar left by the gunshot with her fingertips. Her eyes were filled with guilt and worry. Leon remembered the moment when she had hugged him and looked down at him, smiling like a fool. Leon had longed for those turquoise eyes filled with contempt for him. He had not known that those turquoise eyes filled with worry were what he truly longed for.

He was a foolish man, so he thought that just as he had done everything to gain contempt, he might now do everything to gain worry.

Maybe even affection.

He put his thoughts into action without hesitation.

He shook his waist violently and stopped just before Grace reached her climax. Then he apologized, pretending that his left thigh, where he had been shot, was sore. Concern spread across the woman's face in an instant.

"You should have said something." Grace felt sorry, laid him down, climbed on top of him, and shook her waist. If this was a sin, even the punishment would be sweet.

Leon looked down at the woman who was caressing his scar with an apologetic face again and rolled his head for a moment.

If he did more, the quick-witted woman would know that he was babbling. So he covered up the real babbling he was going to do with a smokescreen that looked like babbling.

"If I asked you to suck it while shedding tears, you'd put it in your mouth."

He pointed to the center that had stood up again because of Grace's touch with dry eyes and sneered. When Grace glared at him, Leon pulled up the sheet to cover the scar.

Now, the image of that scar would be stuck in her head. She must think he's pretending to be strong because he's hurt. It was a trick to make him look weak in Grace's eyes.

I'm really screwed.

It just goes to show that human nature never changes. Leon Winston was a rotten person from the start, all the way to the end. It was just a matter of how he showed his rottenness.

Leon took a praline from a chocolate box and placed it in Grace's mouth, asking,

"Remember the chocolate you gave me at Abington Beach?"

She chewed slowly. "I don't remember what it tasted like."

Between the police investigation, the funeral, and everything else, it had vanished without a trace. This wasn't a lie to manipulate her; it was the truth.

"Maybe a maid took it or threw it away."

"They still sell it at the train station near Blackburn..." Grace murmured wistfully.

Then, as if thinking about something, she put her hand under the sheet, touched the scar again, and spoke. "I ate the one you gave me."

"What do you mean?" he asked. She was referring to the day he'd used her as bait to find their base, the day he'd given her the chocolate through the nurse.