Define The Relationship Novel - Chapter 52

Ignoring the man’s attempt to say more, Ash walked past him. He chuckled softly, needlessly loosening the collar of his already unbuttoned blue shirt.

Ah…

This is troublesome.

On his way home, Ash thought about something. Unlike in the conference room, this time his thoughts had a specific subject.

The first thing that came to mind was the quiet eyes. The man was the most taciturn person Ash knew. He couldn’t recall ever hearing him talk about trivial daily matters that anyone might discuss. He didn’t even complain about work. Yet, he always answered Ash’s words.

Very diligently.

With an elegant accent and pleasant voice he’d never heard from anyone else, the man answered each question seriously. His brief replies gradually changed at some point. The number of words, the content, the words returned to his questions, increased one by one. Soon, they became beautiful sentences.

Even after hearing those increased words, he realized he still knew nothing. What the man did, how he did it, how he felt today, what he thought behind that expressionless face. He knew none of the answers.

The man was quiet, like snow that had fallen silently. Like subtly settled ash, he simply looked at Ash with calm, gray eyes.

He thought he had learned a lot about what the man liked, but when he actually thought about it, nothing came to mind. He genuinely hadn’t heard what the man truly wanted. Then a thought occurred to him.

I should have asked… more.

Next, his lips came to mind. Thin lips that turned sensually red when kissed. It was hard to believe that this was the same person who had calmly spoken the word “intercourse” and discussed frequency and positions; the man was clumsy. And unbelievably sensual.

He hadn’t expected him to make such expressions. How sensual that cold face would become when melted by heat… If he hadn’t held the man, he wouldn’t have dared to imagine it.

When their tongues intertwined deeply, his lips trembled faintly. Sometimes, seeing his tongue hesitate and then follow, he seemed skilled at kissing, but then when Ash delved deep, touching his palate, his lips twitched like someone kissing for the first time.

When Ash sucked at the sweet flesh as if teasing it, a small moan escaped. It began as a suppressed groan, then became a hot, prolonged breath, and then, sounds of a sensuality he had never heard before.

Even after meeting countless people, it felt that way. It was the first time he’d heard sounds that made him so desperate.

Cute.

Ash smiled, rubbing his lips, stepping back, then turning and disappearing. If they had met normally, dating without any complicated entanglements, he might have quickly fallen for him… he was that cute.

However, something always caught his ankle whenever his feelings started to lean. The man had clearly drawn a line before the relationship began.

‘I hope unnecessary feelings do not arise.’

The man’s heartless words were arrogant yet true. Getting entangled with someone who held unwanted feelings was not easy. It exhausted people. But even if Ash could understand the man’s words, it still bothered him.

Was knowing one’s own excellence also a noble’s refinement? The memory of the man quietly looking at him, then turning his expressionless face to Nick that day, overlapped. Then Ash couldn’t understand why the man had singled him out in the first place. Things had been awkward with the man from the start. That itself was an exception for Ash.

He didn’t remember getting angry often. Even after having several lovers, Ash was always the one who adjusted beforehand to prevent arguments. He was very patient. When he really needed to talk, he calmly discussed the conflict. He didn’t necessarily get angry in that process.

He had only truly been angry once, when he was young. Even then, Ash didn’t reveal his raw emotions. It was already over.

But Karlyle kept bothering him. Including the rude words he’d said to someone he’d only met twice, Karlyle was the first person he’d shown an unsmiling face to. It was difficult to maintain the balance of their relationship.

They weren’t dating, but they had sex. Ash had no idea how to treat the man, who was both new to dating an alpha and new to being taken from behind.

So he acted as he always did. The problem was the category into which such actions fell.

Doing things one would do with a dating partner, but with someone with whom such entanglement was impossible… What kind of relationship should that be called?

Time passed even as he mulled over the unresolvable problem. The man diligently responded to their meetings. After two or three meetings, one might usually get a sense of the other person, but the man’s expression remained unchanged.

So Ash kept touching him. Then the tightly closed lips would part slightly. Exhaling hot breaths, the man would let out unimaginably sensual moans that would drive a person crazy. And then, finally, little by little, he would say things that Ash would only hear when they were in bed.

It was probably around then that things began to change.

Karlyle, disoriented by his rut, called Ash. The man who had cut off Nick and Ash’s relationship, with a face whose thoughts were unreadable, called first.

Karlyle asked Ash to come to him in a very small voice. Despite his complicated feelings, Ash sought out Karlyle, drawn by his polite yet precarious tone.

And then, having willingly prepared lubricant, Ash held Karlyle like a madman, as if Ash, not Karlyle, was in rut, as Karlyle looked at him with eyes that clearly wanted him to do something.

Karlyle, disoriented, didn’t seem to fully feel it, but anyone observing would surely have thought so.

He still couldn’t understand what kind of person Karlyle was, but Ash now knew that the man was incredibly attractive. His ears, his neck, his firmly straight collarbones, the slight hollow in his chest, the softest inner part of his wrists, his ankles, his thighs—every part of Karlyle Frost’s body was beautiful and incredibly sensual.

If Karlyle were his lover, Ash would have marked his entire body. It was a body so delicious his lips couldn’t help but touch it.

However, Ash skillfully suppressed the surging desire that rose like instinct. They wouldn’t see each other in a month, and there was no reason for someone of Karlyle’s type to specifically meet Ash.

In the way he said unnecessary feelings weren’t needed, Ash was reminded of the only noble he knew. Though their personalities were opposite, he knew that nobles had their own society.

If Karlyle hadn’t said such things, Ash would have held no feelings until the end.

‘Please… stay by my side… just a little longer.’

If Karlyle hadn’t said just this before falling asleep as if collapsing.

‘I regret not being able to help.’

If he hadn’t quietly said this, looking at Ash with a face that somehow lingered in his mind.

‘I mean, I’ve never dated anyone.’

If he hadn’t said such things.

‘I’ve never kissed the same person more than twice.’

If Karlyle hadn’t shown such questionable words and actions, Ash would truly be greeting the day without a care.

But he couldn’t. As time passed, Karlyle said and did things Ash hadn’t expected.

When living emotions appeared on his cold, inorganic, statue-like face, Ash understood a line from Roman mythology. The cold white light gradually turned into a warm white light. As if life imbued it.

Like a slowly blooming flower, Karlyle’s lips gradually softened. And finally, on the day his tightly closed mouth broke open and a profuse smile blossomed, Ash’s gaze was stolen by that beautiful sight.

Ash Jones loves beautiful things. He had seen countless beautiful things in his life. And the man’s smile Ash witnessed that day was, without a doubt, the most beautiful of all he had ever seen. He couldn’t take his eyes off it.

Then curiosity surged. The man’s actions, which he had overlooked to avoid complicated entanglements and unnecessary friction, rushed in all at once.

Why did you smile at me?

Why did you say you wanted to see me?

Why do you dislike it when I mention other alphas?

Karlyle, do you like me?

There were so many things that confused him. The quick replies, contrary to what he expected, the way he accepted Ash while knotting, his reddened eyes bursting into tears—all of it confused Ash.

Because all of Karlyle’s actions were in perfect contrast to the day he said he didn’t want to harbor personal feelings.

This was the first time he had met someone so difficult to understand. As time passed, he would get confused by how quietly the man accepted his touch, but then, seeing his expressionless face staring back, he would think it was just a misunderstanding again. It was hard to read his expression.

But his smiling face was different.

Looking at the man who gazed at him with gently curved eyes, Ash felt an unbearable impulse. He wanted to know what this person was thinking. Even though he knew they weren’t close enough to ask.

Even after sending Karlyle away, Ash kept recalling Karlyle’s smiling face. His quiet demeanor kept lingering in his mind.

The day he received Karlyle’s text saying he had something to say, Ash also wanted to ask the things he was curious about. He wanted to ask what Karlyle thought of him. Only by knowing that, he felt, would his confused mind settle.

But Karlyle, who came to him, didn’t even give Ash time to ask. Instead, he uttered words Ash hadn’t even guessed. The man was always someone who defied Ash’s expectations, so it wasn’t surprising, but…

‘I wanted to tell you that… we don’t have to continue meeting next time.’

Even so, hearing those words, he couldn’t help but feel subtly bothered. Ash scrutinized Karlyle’s face. He looked at the man’s face, as if searching for something.

He couldn’t find it. The smile hidden within his cold expression had vanished somewhere, leaving no trace. A complex feeling surged within him.

Was this all it was?

Ash smiled. He seemed a little angry. He’d thought Karlyle was coming to pick him up to say something, but what he heard to his face was that.

However, strictly speaking, Ash had no reason to be angry at Karlyle’s words. But Ash also had his reasons.

Because the relationship, which had begun out of goodwill, had somehow become a relationship he continued of his own volition.

After mistaking someone else’s back for Karlyle’s once, the symptoms worsened slightly. Seeing a back in a suit similar to Karlyle’s would make his steps halt. Even while finishing projects, the time he spent lost in thought gradually increased. Eventually, it became difficult to concentrate. Mackenzie easily noticed it too.

“I sent you home to rest, but why have you gotten worse in three days?”

Mackenzie asked, looking at Ash who was slightly frowning and staring outside. They were in Ash’s office. When Mackenzie’s voice reached him, Ash quickly relaxed his expression. Then he smiled.

“There’s a lot of work.”

“You’ve never been like this, even with worse schedules.”

“Guess I’m getting old.”

“Then I should be dead?”

Is that how it is? Ash smiled and apologized. Mackenzie, whose brow was furrowed like a crumpled paper ball, sat on Ash’s desk.

“I’ll just give you a vacation. You’ve finished all the important final touches anyway.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine with me. It’s hard to watch you moping around. Are you lonely?”

Ash made a strange expression. When he quietly looked at Mackenzie, Mackenzie shrugged.

“You know there are tons of people around me who want me to introduce you, right? Pick one from there.”

“Really?”

As he asked back with a subtle smile, Mackenzie pulled out her phone. Seeing her prepared, it seemed she had been urged.

“When you become single, rumors spread around the company. Since nothing happened for a year, they’re lining up. Speaking of which, Olivia, really no? She has a great personality and she’s liked you for a long time.”

Ash rested his chin on his hand, his eyes curving into a smile. Emotions couldn’t be one-sided. There was no reason to accept someone just because they liked him. His smiling eyes turned back outside. Then a question arose.

“Or among my acquaintances…”

What if he had asked Karlyle what he wanted to ask?

“…Perhaps this isn’t your type? Then…”

And if Karlyle had affirmed that question?

Would he have accepted Karlyle then? Probably. But there was one thing he couldn’t be sure of. He didn’t know if the feeling he felt for Karlyle could be called love.