Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Blanket of Smoke

Chapter 36 – Blanket of Smoke

Dinner passed quickly and Cassius decided to take a bath without much worry about Isolde walking in.

In fact, he wanted her to. But the villainess didn’t even think about it, her mind too busy with the fact that a man was currently naked in her own bathroom, her face flushed in an embarrassment she hadn’t expected.

’Mother arranged all of this...’ Isolde sighed as she walked barefoot toward her shelf, her soles slapping the floor softly.

She had already bathed, wearing now her usual black shorts tight against her thighs, with a matching sleeved shirt.

Her body was a sight to behold, clearly shaped by countless hours in the training room. Her figure was lean, strong, and well-formed.

With her hair in a bun, her purple eyes and long lashes fully visible, and a natural air of someone older than she was...Isolde was a beauty of her own. Something few could resist.

’Mother wants me to use my body to seduce Cassius.’ Her thoughts continued as she opened a drawer with a faint creak. ’But is there even a need? He... wants me.’

She bit her lip at that thought. Almost instinctively she wanted to add ’for now’, but she stopped herself there.

Instead she shook her head and looked inside the drawer, seeing dozens of cigarette packets scattered within. She exhaled, took one, and straightened back up.

She looked at it, hesitating in a way she hadn’t in a long time.

’Why am I even hesitating?’ She groaned, irritated at herself, and then her body tensed at the sudden sound of his voice.

”What are you doing?” Cassius asked.

Isolde turned. He was standing in the bathroom doorway, already dressed in a purple pyjama set, a towel wrapped around his head.

Her lips twitched.

It was oddly cute on him, especially with the wet strands of white hair slowly falling over his face.

The distraction cost her. She didn’t even manage to answer before Cassius’s eyes landed on the cigarette packet in her hand.

Isolde tensed, instinctively moving to hide it behind her back.

”Oh.” Cassius said, walking straight toward her. ”A cigarette? Give me one?”

”What?” Isolde blinked, surprised and confused at once.

”Can I have one?”

”Do... do you smoke?” She asked carefully as he arrived in front of her and extended his hand.

”Hm?” He tilted his head, then shook it. ”No, never have. But I’m curious. So I don’t mind trying.”

He smiled and made a small beckoning gesture.

Isolde had already handed him a cigarette before she even registered doing so.

She was completely dazed.

It was the first time she had ever seen a noble who smoked like her.

They never did. Not because it harmed their health, their power easily neutralised that. But appearance and perception sat just below bloodline in importance for nobles.

And smoking was seen as something belonging only to the lower class, the commoners, the beggars and the outcasts.

It had been made for them, after all.

Yet Isolde — a noble — did it. The reason was not something she personally cared to recall. But that habit of hers had made her father completely snap, loathing the sight of her after.

Her mother had looked at her the way an investor regards a catastrophic mistake. Still, she continued speaking to Isolde, only because she had no choice.

Isolde had considered stopping many times since then. Yet she never did. Because at least this was something her sister could never replicate. Could never steal from her.

So without knowing it, smoking had become her refuge when life grew unbearable. And Vorn knew how many times that had been.

With that, she had long stopped caring about others’ eyes on her for it. Yet she had found herself strangely reluctant to show this side to the man she had just met.

The man who was now smoking in front of her like it was nothing.

”Not bad.” Cassius said, exhaling a thick plume of white smoke, cigarette between his lips, completely at ease.

”You’re allowed?” Isolde asked, perplexed. ”I thought noble families forbade it.”

”That’s true.”

”Then why...?”

”First, my family is different.” Cassius said, sitting down on the bed and facing her. ”They won’t say anything if I want to smoke. It doesn’t affect my health.”

Isolde’s lips twisted with jealousy. Cassius continued.

”Second, I have the right to do whatever I want with my body, as long as I take responsibility for it later, don’t I?”

He smiled. ’Third, I can adapt to it and become immune even if there are hidden effects.’ He added inwardly.

Isolde looked at him, unable to find anything to say. Anything that came to mind would sound like jealousy for having a family that comprehensive.

’Maybe that’s why the Twins are so strong.’

She sighed, then watched Cassius raise one finger, a small flicker of crimson fire curling around its tip like a tiny whirlwind.

He looked at her with the cigarette still in his mouth, eyes easy.

”Need a light, darling?”

Isolde’s heart skipped a dangerous beat, her mind producing a thought she immediately tried to shut out.

’Fuck! Focus, Isolde!’ She berated herself, biting her lip softly.

She accepted his light anyway.

Cassius stood, stretched his finger toward her. Isolde put the cigarette to her lips and leaned toward the flame.

Seconds later they were both sitting on the bed, backs against the headboard, doing something no noble would ever dare.

The room filled slowly with grey-white smoke, coating the air in a strange, almost beautiful haze.

Isolde still felt like she was dreaming. She had never imagined a day when someone would sit and smoke beside her.

Someone who claimed to want her. Her and only her.

’Maybe... maybe he is not lying.’ She drew a slow breath. ’Maybe I could keep him, if I let it happen. My sister hates the smell of smoke, doesn’t she?’

Yes. She hated it. Then maybe this was something she couldn’t take.

A strange surge of something warm moved through Isolde’s blood, and she smiled without meaning to.

Cassius noticed and said nothing.

They stayed like that for nearly an hour, the silence between them comfortable, unhurried. No words needed.

After a couple of cigarettes, the room thick with smoke, they finally decided to sleep.

”I warned you.” Isolde hissed, then lay down on her side of the bed, back firmly turned toward Cassius.

He looked at her, smiled, and lay down on his back, eyes on the ceiling.

Silence blanketed the room the same way the smoke did.

Cassius should have been thinking about the last attempt on his life. Yet none of that came. The long day was already pulling him toward sleep.

But just before it took him entirely, Isolde spoke. Her voice was low, almost afraid to be heard.

”Why me?” She asked from beneath her bedsheet.

Cassius smiled, already halfway gone.

”Why not you?”

Isolde’s body trembled at his soft voice. Her eyes closed tightly, holding back something she had thought she no longer had in her.

Minutes later sleep came for her too, his words repeating inside her mind on a quiet, continuous loop.

And the first day ended.

—End of Chapter 36—