“Are your shoes uncomfortable? Would you like to change into different ones?”

The shoes matched to the dress had a slight heel, and being unaccustomed to heeled shoes made Catherine’s steps careful.

Since her feet weren’t actually uncomfortable, Catherine didn’t bother changing her shoes.

When she descended to the first-floor lobby, the butler who had already come out greeted her.

“My, I thought Laura was exaggerating, but she wasn’t. Miss Catherine, you look truly beautiful.”

“I don’t think it’s that special, but it feels nice. Thank you, Johan.”

Catherine blushed slightly and offered a shy thanks. Just then, a carriage arrived at the lobby.

She thought it might be the carriage Laura had called, but the pattern painted on it was different.

Catherine squinted at the carriage until it came closer, then her eyes widened.

It was the Heimdall family’s carriage.

The door of the carriage that stopped right in front of Catherine swung open.

“Oh my, Cathy? Where are you going now?”

Surprisingly, the person who opened the door was Catherine’s mother, Countess Notrisha.

She spotted Catherine and asked with eyes wide open as if she’d seen a ghost. The green eyes that Catherine had inherited exactly scanned her daughter from bottom to top, taking in the different face and different attire.

Surprise spread instantly.

Countess Notrisha spoke with a voice unable to contain her excitement while covering her mouth with one hand.

“Oh my… goodness, you’re wearing makeup?”

The Countess’s complexion, which had looked somewhat tired, brightened in an instant. Still covering her mouth with one hand, she circled around Catherine once in amazement.

“My daughter, you look so beautiful.”

At her mother’s somewhat excited voice, Catherine felt shy and gave a slight smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand? Where are you going? What kind of party has my daughter going out at this hour?”

“There’s a party hosted by Princess Lascent, so I thought I’d attend.”

“Oh! Princess Lascent’s party, that’s wonderful. Just hearing about it makes me happy. Since you’re already going out, enjoy yourself. It would be good to make many friends too. You’re taking Laura with you, right? If you get tired, come back, but if not, stay out all night and enjoy yourself.”

Her mother patted Catherine’s shoulder, telling her to stay out all night as long as she wasn’t tired.

It seemed almost as if she was hoping Catherine would get into some trouble during her rare night out. Knowing her well-behaved daughter wouldn’t do such things, she was encouraging her all the more.

But tonight was a night of impulses for Catherine, and she was somewhat prepared to give in to curious desires, so she nodded and smiled in agreement.

As Catherine was about to pass by, she noticed the dark shadows under her mother’s eyes and asked with concern.

“By the way, Mother, where have you been? You don’t look well.”

“Is it that obvious? Oh my, I was so shocked earlier. It gave me quite a fright.”

“Shocked? Why?”

“Oh my, you haven’t heard yet? Well, I didn’t have time to inform the mansion. Rosie had a carriage accident today. On her way to our mansion, a child ran out and as they tried to avoid hitting them, the carriage rolled down a hill. Thank God she wasn’t seriously injured, but she broke her arm. Poor Rosie. I had to borrow this carriage to come back.”

Rosie was Michael’s mother and the Duchess of Heimdall.

At her mother’s words, Catherine’s eyes widened in shock. Her startled heart pounded heavily.

“Aunt Rosie? Is she badly hurt?”

“She’s fine. I saw her up and smiling before I left. I was shocked too, but Michael seems to have been really shaken. Oh, right. He was in the same carriage, and he witnessed Rosie breaking her arm and fainting right in front of him……”

Catherine’s face turned pale as she listened to her mother.

‘Oh no!’

The Princess’s party was no longer important.

Catherine urged the coachman to head toward the Heimdall mansion.

⁕⁕⁕

“I’m fine now, so you can go, Michael.”

Roselyn Heimdall gave a troubled smile to her son who was silently standing by her side.

Michael looked at his mother quietly before asking in a subdued voice.

“Are you really alright?”

“Yes. My headache is gone and there’s no more pain. Allen’s medicine seems to be working well. If I need anything, I can call the servants, so you should go now. To be frank, it’s quite uncomfortable having my grown son hovering around me.”

Rosie shooed her son away, shaking her head tiredly.

Unlike Rosie, who had bruises all over her body, a broken arm, and a concussion, Michael only had a small scratch on his nose bridge.

Feeling guilty for not protecting his mother, he had stayed by her side all day before finally returning to his room late.

Though he wasn’t injured, his entire body felt tired.

Michael asked his butler to prepare a bath and took out a bottle of wine. Nothing was better than a glass of wine for relieving fatigue.

‘…I wonder if Catherine received the message.’

He had been on his way to Catherine’s mansion as usual.

Moreover, this week was especially important, and he had been preparing himself mentally since morning, unable to do anything else.

‘And then the carriage accident happened as soon as we left.’

Michael wasn’t badly hurt, but his mother’s serious injury had left him distraught. He had carried her unconscious body back to the mansion on his back and quickly called for a doctor.

Compared to Michael, who only had a scratch on his nose and a slightly sprained wrist, his mother had remained unconscious for half a day. How terrifying and nerve-wracking it had been.

Meanwhile, he had sent a messenger to Catherine’s mansion to inform her that he couldn’t attend their meeting today due to the accident, and Catherine’s mother, Lady Leila, had rushed over. Apparently, she had met the messenger on the way and came directly.

Michael rubbed his tired face and leaned back on the sofa, resting his head.

‘Catherine…’

When he closed his eyes, he naturally saw someone’s loose red hair and deep green eyes like verdant foliage.

Her skin so white it was almost transparent, the light freckles on it, her small round lips, and even the sensation inside those lips…

Clench.

Michael unknowingly clenched his fist tightly before releasing it, gritting his teeth.

How sweet and soft the sensation inside those lips had been—he kept recalling it without meaning to.

The saliva pooled on her red tongue was so sweet that he repeatedly felt the desire to gulp it down.

“…This is driving me crazy.”

Flustered, Michael shook his head vigorously, trying to shake off thoughts of Catherine. No, trying to shake off the memory of that kiss in the garden.

But the more he tried, the more vivid the afterimages became, and his body temperature only rose.

It was bewildering.

Like a dumbfounded fool, he had thought about Catherine all day. While reviewing documents, while horseback riding, even during his audience with His Majesty.

He had thought about Catherine so much that he even had a dream he’d never had before.

In the dream, Catherine had begged him. She grabbed his hands with her small ones and rubbed her flushed face against his palm, desperately saying:

‘You’ll sleep with me, right, Michael? You’ll do it with me? Right?’

Gently pressing her fragrant body against his while meekly begging…

‘Do it with me… Michael. Please?’

His lower part had stood straight up.

D*mn it.

It was just a dream, yet his reaction was this intense. He was dumbfounded.

Standing firm and tense, it had even ej*culated white, sticky s*men when Catherine took his hand and led him to the bed.

He woke up from the bed with a pale face.

“…Haah.”

For Michael, who had never seen Catherine in a s*xual way, that dream was shocking in itself.

Moreover, it was his first wet dream ever.

Michael truly felt strange. He felt self-loathing and guilt.

Even though he hadn’t actually done anything to the real Catherine, he felt awful, as if he had done something terrible that he shouldn’t have done to her.

Among everything, what bothered his heart the most was… himself, unconsciously ruminating on the content of the dream.

‘Get a grip.’

Catherine was a friend he needed to protect. Someone he had cherished like a sister, a precious neighbor.

Especially since she had almost died because of him when they were young, he thought it was even more wrong to have impure thoughts about her.

So…

So he had to refuse her proposal.

“……”

Even though the sensation of those lips kept tormenting him, and Catherine’s sweet scent had made his lewd c*ck stand up several times.

“Phew.”

He rubbed his tired face and got up. Just as he was about to move, thinking the bath water must be ready by now, he heard urgent knocking on the door.

Knock knock. Knock knock knock!

It was a somewhat forceful knock, a bit too rude to be from a servant.

Before he could ask who it was, he heard his name from outside the door.

—Michael! It’s me!

It was Catherine.