Chapter 2

The elation that Sebastian had truly accepted her request made Lottie’s chest heave.

Was it the effect of the amulet, or because he was, as he had been on the day of the entrance ceremony five years ago, an unfailingly kind person.

Or else… because a kiss was something he did not mind sharing with anyone.

As the turmoil in her heart throbbed and stirred up her chest, her eyes threatened to burn again. He had asked if she would stop crying if he kissed her. Lottie squeezed her eyes shut and willingly wrapped her arms around his neck.

If it could at least make her seem like someone who had kissed a few times before, that would not be so bad.

As if startled by her response, the man’s thick neck stiffened for a moment. Soon, a soft laugh slipped out along the place where they touched, and the way the man devoured her grew even rougher.

Unlike the hand that gently caressed her cheek, the man’s kiss swallowing her lips was desperate, as though quenching a long thirst.

As if he were someone who had coveted Lottie’s lips for a very long time.

Sebastian’s large hand cupped the back of her head. His thick fingers thr*st beneath her pale wheat-colored low bun. Her waist was pulled into the man’s firm forearm and bent back at an angle, and losing her balance, Lottie ended up surrendering her whole body to him.

The first kiss was like a raging wave.

The man took her upper and lower lips into his mouth in turn, then tugged and bit them long, as though reluctant to let go of their softness. Resolutely parting her lips, he pushed inside and coiled around Lottie’s awkwardly stiff tongue, rubbing against it.

The man’s flesh swept through the inside of her mouth.

After teasing the tender flesh beneath her palate, he sucked at the root of her tongue as though swallowing down the wavering sounds there. As if marking his territory, he smeared his saliva all through her mouth, wet and thorough, then somehow kept catching and biting Lottie’s lips as they fluttered in search of a gap to breathe through.

That indecent play of tongues, as if out of a passionate novel, stole Lottie’s breath. Her mind grew hazy.

‘T-too….’

He was relentless. And even more intimate than she had imagined.

The way he tightened around her and then let her go, over and over, left her almost dazed.

Even if he accepted her request, she had imagined it would only be a matter of lightly pressing their lips together….

And if one asked whether she disliked it, how could that be possible.

‘At this rate, he really might… even grant a request to spend the night together.’

In truth, what Lottie ultimately wanted was one night with him.

She had thought she would use the graduation banquet as an excuse to confess, and if he rejected her, she would ask him to sleep with her once. Then she would be able to let go without regrets.

Sebastian was the only man Lottie had ever liked, and if she did not end up with another lover, then all that remained for her now was a political marriage. So this was the first and last chance in her life to sleep with the man she loved.

More than anything, Lottie had never seen a man more handsome than Sebastian. She felt sorry toward her late father, but she truly meant it.

As for Sebastian’s intentions… she believed somehow it would work out. Lottie had no doubt that he had plenty of experience with women.

Just as lips would not wear away from a mere kiss, would there really be any problem with his manhood from sleeping with her just once?

“Look over there. Collins, and this time it seems it’s McClaon. I saw those two coming out of the piano practice room before.”

“No way, wasn’t he with Santana until just last month? Then again, I hear the McClaon family’s mines have been doing well lately.”

Because he had so many female schoolmates with whom he was close, people said that with some of them he was surely exchanging not just lips but bodies. And they said men that worn and practiced even treated laying women down as a badge of honor, so would Sebastian not also be quite likely to accept willingly?

She did feel guilty for looking at him with the same prejudice-filled eyes as everyone else, but she could not help it.

Sebastian had not accepted her confession, so this truly was the last time.

For this very moment, Lottie had made up her mind and put on a dress that emphasized her figure, and had even summoned people from her family home to carefully do her makeup and hair. It was unlike her usual self, who simply wore her cadet uniform plainly, without altering it in the slightest.

“Oh, Lottie……? I didn’t recognize you. You look really beautiful today.”

If that had truly had an effect, had Sebastian not said exactly that to her, even giving her that characteristic smiling look with his eyes.

In many ways, the situation was hopeful. If he had responded with nothing more than a bird kiss, she would have had to resort to all kinds of little tricks….

Since they had already mingled tongues, she had to stir up his desire as much as possible so he would want to mingle other things too. Pretending to be shy was a luxury.

Lottie clung desperately to the man’s tongue invading her and writhed, trying to accept him more deeply. Using their passion as an excuse, she pressed the full swell of her br*asts against his chest, tightened the arms embracing him even more closely, and pressed her lower body against him more firmly.

To arouse the center that must be somewhere beneath those layered skirts.

“Hngh….”

Perhaps that shallow little ploy had worked, because the man’s kiss, which she had already thought rough, grew even more fierce.

As though he could only live by swallowing her breath and saliva, he stirred her up with desperate force. And yet the movement of his tongue sweeping over her lips, her palate, and the soft inner flesh of her mouth was so gentle that a tingling tremor ran beneath her navel.

The hand gripping the back of her head slid down and caressed Lottie’s bare back. Together with the panting movement of his mouth as if he meant to swallow even her lower jaw, the arm supporting her waist drew her even closer.

It felt as though their navels were touching. She was pressed to him along the rises and dips of his lower body.

…And there, something impossible to ignore was showing off its hard presence.

Something long and swollen along her thigh kept catching whenever he moved his hips in that rubbing motion.

Which meant.

‘H-he’s really aroused, Seb too.’

Even if he did not intend to date her, desire had been stirred in him. So much that, if only to deal with the state he was in, he would not be able to help seriously considering her temptation.

And after the kiss went on for quite some time, the two of them breathing in each other’s exhalations and quenching themselves with each other’s saliva.

“Hoo……”

Sebastian drew back from her. A heated sigh broke apart in the slight distance between them.

The silver thread stretched between their lips caught the moonlight and gleamed. The man’s tongue and lips, as he gathered it away and licked it up, were all flushed red.

His face looked indecently sensual. The usual easy composure he always wore was long gone without a trace. The corners of his eyes were reddened with excitement, and even his cheeks, as he drew in breaths heavy with desire, were faintly flushed. Needless to say, his lips were soaked with saliva.

And there was still that hot, hard presence she could feel below….

The sight of the handsome man, who always wore only a fresh smile, now looking slightly undone, was unbearably obscene.

She could feel the place beneath her navel tightening faintly. The hidden place beneath her lace undergarments grew hot and dazed.

So.

So……

“Would this much… be enough?”

Sebastian, barely managing to steady his heated breath, asked as if in a sigh.

“The… final memory you wanted.”

“Well….”

Lottie panted out her excited breath and looked steadily up at Sebastian. She had meant to steel herself before making her final proposal… but the man’s face was strange.

In his water-colored eyes, disordered by heat, it looked as though regret was dripping from them.

Was it because he too, being so practiced in kissing, found it regrettable to stop at this point……?

“If, perhaps, it would be alright……”

Lottie secretly steadied her breathing and tried hard to keep her voice from trembling as she looked steadily into the man’s eyes.

“More than this……”

“What?”

“I mean, would you spend the night with me?”

Sebastian’s face froze in a peculiar way. The neatly furrowed space between his brows somehow looked as though he were enduring pain.

“Right now……. Do you even know what you’re saying?”

“Yes! I, I mean I want to do it with you……”

Lottie merely blinked, and he gripped both her shoulders, lifting his upper body away from hers.

As though drawing a line.

Lottie’s arms, which had been around his neck, fell away limp.

The line of Sebastian’s eyes was twisted. What was there was a chill Lottie had never once seen in the past five years.

What was this. No matter how lightly he treated such things, was she still not someone he would do that with. Or did it mean that even if he could give lips to someone who meant nothing, he could not give his body.

Or was he… angry.

Picking up every kind of speculation in her mind, Lottie fidgeted with her clasped hands and desperately rubbed the gem on her bracelet.

“Thank you for granting my request. You granted one, so asking for another is a bit much, right. But since you’ve already given me a final memory….”

“……”

“Of course, since it’s a memorable day for you too, maybe you already promised someone else in advance. But if, perhaps, you don’t have anyone else promised… no, even if you do, the night is long, so you could stay with me first and then go, right? Since it has already come to this, just this once.”

“……”

“That, if you just leave it like that, it hurts. You, y-you were hard.”

“Lottie, you……”

Sebastian, who had silently listened to her stumbling and rambling persuasion, pushed back the long strand of hair that had fallen over his forehead. When the golden strands that had poured downward were brushed away, his straight forehead shone in the moonlight.

“You truly are, quite……”

“……”

“Quite… difficult.”

The man’s voice as he said that sounded like the groan of a wounded beast. No… it also seemed as though overwhelming desire was boiling fiercely and scraping at his throat.

Boom, boom! Boom-boom! Fireworks climbing toward their cl*max rippled harsh shadows across his face.

“I really don’t know what kind of person you take me for…….”