“Hngh… hnnp.”

After sucking and scraping her tongue until his anger subsided, he changed tactics.

His head tilted to the other side, and his tongue, now rigid and pointed, thrust deep into Catherine’s mouth.

Perhaps it was because she received his tongue without daring to close her roughly parted lips. Unswallowed saliva dripped outside her mouth.

“Mm, ah…… Mi, Micha…… mm… ngh,”

Their teeth collided lightly due to their urgent, clumsy kissing, but that wasn’t enough to separate their lips.

Michael even began to devour her like a lit bomb suddenly exploding. Their tongues tangled, and they swallowed each other’s saliva, a taste neither had experienced before. Michael’s hands around her waist tightened. It was a powerful grip, as if he wanted to absorb her into his body.

“Ngh, mmm… haah.”

Catherine felt like the delicate flesh inside her mouth was melting away. The flame his tongue pushed into her seemed to consume her brain.

Unable to think, she clung to his neck.

Michael’s tongue, which had entered deeply, advanced along the root of Catherine’s tongue and began to rub against it obscenely.

The startled Catherine’s breathing grew rougher. Though not as much as hers, Michael’s breathing was also becoming ragged.

“Hoo…… haa, Catherine. Haa……”

He didn’t seem like the always-calm Michael.

He didn’t seem like the always-clean and elegant Michael.

Had his true nature always been this rough? Catherine was pleased to discover this unexpected side of him. Additionally, seeing this level of response reassured her that Michael enjoyed this kiss as much as she did.

The problem was…

“Hmm…… Mi, mmm, ju, just… haanh.”

Michael showed absolutely no sign of stopping.

Catherine clutched his shoulders, gasping for breath.

She was starting to feel dizzy from the lack of air. Yet she felt a clumsy desire not to separate their joined lips. She needed to pull away, but didn’t want to.

Due to that foolish passion, her breathing became even rougher, bringing tears to her eyes. Gripping his shoulders, Catherine gasped like she was sobbing.

On top of that, something had been pressing against her from between Michael’s thighs and b*ttocks for a while now. Something hard like a stick poking at her lower body was quite distracting.

When she unconsciously moved her hips, that already hard thing became even harder, and it seemed to grow larger too.

‘What is this?’

Strange. It definitely wasn’t there at first…

It bothered her, but she couldn’t focus on it.

Her head finally spun from the lack of breath.

Her head grew dizzy and her waist weakened. What caught her as she staggered was Michael’s hands, which were holding her waist and shoulders tightly.

“Haa, haa, hmm, haa……”

Gasping for the breath she’d been holding, Catherine lifted her tightly closed eyelids.

As her wet eyelashes trembled upward, her eyes met Michael’s directly, just as before.

Perhaps because he saw her tear-moistened eyes, he noticeably panicked and pulled away.

“Are you alright, Catherine?”

“…Haa. I, I was… a little short of breath.”

Catherine answered between pants, still slightly dizzy, and rested her head on his shoulder to catch her breath.

“I’m sorry. I… I. Stop……”

Catherine shook her head slightly to indicate she was fine.

He seemed shocked at himself.

She could see his hands wandering aimlessly in the air.

His smooth jawline was also tense, as if he were clenching his teeth.

Having mostly caught her breath, she quietly raised her head to look at him.

“…How was it?”

There was no need to ask, but Catherine deliberately posed the question to him.

She noticed his tightly closed lips, offering no answer.

The sensation of those violent yet soft lips devouring hers in a frenzy naturally came back to her.

She raised her gaze to meet Michael’s eyes.

“You’ll do it with me, right?”

“You…… really… you……”

She could see him grinding his teeth.

Catherine, who naturally hadn’t even considered his rejection, looked up at him with a broad smile.

Come on, give me your answer.

With those pretty lips that just kissed me, Michael.

Catherine waited a long time for his answer, her face flushed.

“…One week.”

But after being rigid for quite some time, Michael’s lips produced words different from what Catherine had expected.

“Give me one week to think about it, Catherine.”

⁕⁕⁕

A week passed, though Catherine couldn’t tell how.

Catherine, who had arrived early at the greenhouse that opened every Tuesday as usual, tried to suppress her pounding heart by opening a book.

‘One week. Alright. You waited well, Catherine.’

Catherine lifted her slightly flushed face to look at the open greenhouse door. Soon, Michael would appear through that door.

“…I won’t be surprised no matter what he says.”

Of course, she hadn’t slept properly all week, thinking about their kiss, but she had decided to respect Michael’s choice.

Catherine, with an open book she couldn’t even focus on, habitually touched her lips again.

The memory of that stormy kiss remained vivid.

Catherine moistened her dry lips with tea and forced her eyes back to the book.

How many hours passed like that?

“……”

Catherine closed the forcibly turned pages and looked at the sky.

Though she had entered when the midday sun was blazing, an orange sunset had already spread across it.

It seemed Michael wasn’t coming.

“This has never happened before.”

Michael had never missed their reading gathering before.

Though it was just the two of them, they had read books in the greenhouse every Tuesday for over ten years, like a tradition of their own.

He had never skipped a day unless something special happened…

“How strange.”

She had prepared herself to accept whatever he said, but the shock was greater because she had never thought he wouldn’t show up.

Catherine dropped her small shoulders and kicked the dirt floor with her toe.

For that polite guy to miss their meeting without a word, his concerns must be truly significant.

This must be Michael’s answer.

He seemed so confused that he couldn’t even come to see her, his closest friend of half a lifetime, let alone give her an answer.

‘Was it that shocking to him?’

Catherine belatedly felt somewhat sorry.

She would have to send a letter tomorrow or the day after.

To say she was sorry for making him worry.

That she would handle it well on her own, so he didn’t need to worry anymore.

Wouldn’t that help him feel a bit better?

‘Maybe… he won’t even accept my apology?’

Catherine scratched one cheek and looked out the window with worried eyes.

‘Well, he does have a rigid side to him.’

But she didn’t think this incident would create distance between them.

Their relationship was perhaps closer than family.

And while Michael was cautious and sensitive, he was much bolder and more daring than one might think.

Even if Catherine had come to him after stabbing someone, he would first listen to her circumstances, believing she must have had a good reason, and try to understand her fully.

Of course, if something like that happened to him, Catherine would also try to understand him.

So even if he agonized for a few days, Michael would eventually shake his head and come to find her.

And he would pat her shoulder with an awkward smile, as if nothing had happened.

Having sorted out her thoughts, Catherine dusted off her wrinkled clothes and left the greenhouse.

He probably needed more time, so she planned to leave him alone for now.

⁕⁕⁕

“I’ve brought your meal, Miss.”

As soon as Catherine entered her room after a brief bath, her personal maid Laura came in pushing a food trolley.

Catherine, who had been drying her hair, sat at the simply set table and ate some warm stew.

Though she hadn’t eaten all day, she had no appetite.

Laura, who was assisting with her meal, asked in a worried tone.

“Do you have no appetite? I selected only easy things to eat…”

“Yes. I have no appetite at all. The food is fine. But Laura, could you bring me a glass of wine?”

She tried to eat because she was hungry, but the food simply wouldn’t go down.

She could feel she had lost weight from barely eating all week, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Though she tried to pull herself together, her mood was worse than usual.

“Has Mother not returned yet?”

“No, she left urgently during the day and hasn’t returned.”

“I wonder what happened? Do you think she won’t come home tonight?”

Her mother occasionally stayed overnight at friends’ mansions, but she usually gave Catherine advance notice.

“Shall I find out?”

“Hmm, no. She’ll come back.”

Laura, who had been brushing Catherine’s hair, looked worriedly at her as she stared blankly out the window.

‘It seems like something’s wrong with Miss, not Madam…’

And Laura silently guessed that it had something to do with Michael, who hadn’t come today.

Laura had been working at this mansion for seven years now. In those seven years, Michael had missed coming on Tuesdays only a handful of times.

And for Catherine to be in such a bad mood…