April stared fixedly at her finger. Sitting at the table set in a corner of the bedroom, she couldn’t take her eyes off the ring glittering on her hand. Seeing this, Miloa laughed and asked,

“Do you like it that much?”

“Yes.”

Flustered by Miloa’s knowing smile, April hid her hand.

It had already been nearly a month since she received the ring from Calsion. Yet whenever she looked at it, she still couldn’t hold back her smile. Noticing Miloa’s slender eyes on her, April cleared her throat and asked,

“Anyway, what is it?”

“Ah, Princess Barbara has sent an invitation requesting your attendance at an upcoming tea party.”

“Tea party?”

Caught off guard, April fell into thought.

After Calsion had accepted the imperial crown, April had naturally become the empress.

Living in the emperor’s palace was too uncomfortable. When she said she would move her bedchamber into the empress’s palace since it was vacant, Calsion hadn’t even responded. Because he insisted the place wasn’t safe yet, she had no chance of moving there. He was constantly scouring the grounds, saying there could still be remnants of the empress’s faction.

The emperor’s palace was in chaos every day. The locations of the emperor’s bedchamber, office, and reception rooms had all been changed. Furniture was moved around endlessly. But April left all that to the chief attendant and withdrew.

‘Too troublesome.’

Since she was pregnant, she knew she mustn’t move about recklessly. So April didn’t interfere in the emperor’s palace.

Her not returning to the empress’s palace stirred gossip in high society. Nobles argued with simplistic logic that an empress should, of course, reside in the empress’s palace. April found it ridiculous.

Calsion had explained it clearly enough, but the nobles’ complaints did not die down. If they simply wanted to nitpick, they could say so outright. But since they couldn’t, they seemed determined to make trouble in other ways.

“To stop that…”

Barbara was hosting the tea party. Since April, not being alone in her body, hadn’t been leaving the emperor’s palace, it was meant to give her a chance to meet other noblewomen and exchange opinions.

“Hm?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

April waved her hand, a faint smile gracing her lips.

“Tell her I’ll attend.”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress.”

After Miloa withdrew with a respectful bow, April tapped the tabletop. The steady sound calmed her tangled thoughts a little.

“Ha, my dream was to be a rich noblewoman.”

“Aren’t you rich already?”

Without a sound, Calsion appeared at her side.

“You’re here?”

“Was that really your dream—to be a rich noblewoman?”

“To be precise, a rich woman living alone…”

“What?”

At her words, Calsion immediately frowned. April shut her mouth.

“Rich and living alone?”

As he repeated her words, his black eyes glistened. The hand he reached out with was filled with tender warmth. When he stroked her cheek, April’s eyes grew hazy.

It was always like this. She could never look away when she saw the affection in Calsion’s gaze. As he lowered his lips to her forehead, the tips of her ears flushed red. When his lips trailed up to tease her earlobe, April flinched and shrank back.

“Like that certain lady I know?”

“Oh, that’s right!”

April clapped her hands with a smack, then seized Calsion’s hand and brightened.

“Princess Barbara was my ideal type!”

“Princess Barbara…?”

“But she’s an elder of the imperial family. Your sister, Karl.”

Even now, Barbara’s title remained unsettled. Some nobles insisted she should be cast out of the palace as the child of a treasonous empress, but Calsion ignored them. Thanks to that, Barbara was able to retain everything she had.

“Are the nobles still the same?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Her attempt to slip away wasn’t accepted.

“So your dream was to be a rich divorcée?”

“…Not anymore.”

“The way you say it, it sounds like you still do.”

Calsion brushed his lips lightly over April’s. Though she hadn’t intended to speak—wanting to discuss Barbara’s situation—he paid it no mind, biting softly at her lower lip. Heat swept across it, and April’s heart pounded mercilessly.

When his tongue pressed over her bitten lip, she couldn’t endure it. Her lips parted slightly, and Calsion’s tongue slipped in without hesitation. Unable to resist, April closed her eyes. The searing heat roamed every corner of her mouth, leaving her no room to escape.

Calsion finally pulled away after a long bout of biting and sucking, gently brushing over her lower lip. April’s eyelids still hadn’t opened. Watching her intently, he licked the saliva-slick curve of her lip once before speaking.

“If you stay like that, I’ll want to do it again.”

At the depth in his voice, April slowly lifted her lashes. Meeting his curved eyes as he looked at her, she gave an awkward smile and glanced away.

“I have to go to the tea party.”

“It’s not even today.”

“But I need to prepare… hht!”

“I asked the palace physician, and he said proper intimacy is good for the child.”

“No, that’s… ahn!”

Calsion captured her lips again as his hands seized her body. April’s resistance was too faint to stop him. The more she tried to slip away, the more relentlessly his hands moved.

Wherever he touched, heat blossomed. April’s face flushed crimson under the spreading warmth, and finding her beautiful, Calsion pressed his lips to her cheek. Lifting her in his arms, he showered her face with unceasing kisses as he carried her toward the bed.

“It tickles.”

“Only tickles?”

His voice, edged with displeasure, made the fine hairs at the back of her neck stand on end. Feeling the soft blanket against her back, April realized she had been laid down on the bed.

“Wait… haahk!”

“By now, you should give up.”

Calsion bit sharply into her slender neck. When a small m*an escaped, he soothed the reddening mark with the tip of his tongue.

“You’re fine, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not… hht!”

“Say you’re fine.”

The low whisper unraveled her tension. As he tugged her neatly arranged dress down, a smile tugged at his lips. Seeing the faint curl of his mouth, April tried to push him away, but there was no strength in her hands.

Calsion caught her wandering hand and pressed a deep kiss into her palm. The sight of him lowering his lips onto her hand while gazing down at her was almost reverent, and April couldn’t look away. Yet even then, his other hand never stilled.

“Th-this, wait—ahh!”

When he brazenly licked the same palm he had kissed, she faltered, about to beg him to stop. But his movements broke her protest before she could form a full sentence.

“Why?”

His voice, dropped low and rough against his throat, came out like a growl. April froze, unable to move under that sound. Meeting the burning desire in his eyes, she lowered her gaze—only to notice something that sent a wave of heat surging across her face.

Calsion noticed exactly where her eyes had landed and smirked. Lowering his head to her ear, he whispered softly,

“Seems like I’ll need you to calm it down for me.”

“You really are…!”

“Instead of wasting time resisting, if we move on to the next step, it might be over faster.”

“Liar. You never intend to end it quickly.”

Calsion had always teased and coaxed her into trying everything he wanted. April knew better than anyone that he wouldn’t stop here. After all, how many nights had they already spent together?

“You never know.”

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his mischievous grin. The thought that it was always her being swept up by his hands left her feeling indignant.

As she bit her lip, a thought flashed through her mind.

‘Fine.’

If she was going to be taken, she would seize control herself. Sliding away from him, April pushed at his shoulder, forcing him down onto the bed. Then, in one swift motion, she climbed astride him, a smile tugging at her lips.

Calsion, unable to look away from her, lay beneath her gaze as April boldly tugged down his trousers.