The moment their lips met, fireworks shot high into the sky and lit up the alley in a blaze of light.

They hadn’t been drinking long, so both their mouths still carried the scent of apple. What had started as a light press of lips deepened quickly.

It was festival season, and the clamor of voices and the crack of fireworks all blurred together around them.

“Mm, mmh.”

Slowly, his tongue filled her mouth, and their mingled saliva trailed down their chins. The harder Jeanne pulled at Ruhir’s shirt, the deeper the kiss became.

If she hadn’t had her back against the wall, Jeanne wondered whether her legs would have given out beneath her.

The more his hot, large tongue filled her, the more her mind went blank. Her toes curled on their own, and the wet sounds of the kiss grew loud in her ears.

“Hah, mm, uh…”

Each time she tried to pull away for air, his mouth pressed deeper against hers. Maybe it was because she was so drunk. Even the breathlessness came back to her as something pleasurable.

As they kissed, the haze of alcohol slowly lifted. She could see Ruhir’s gaze clearing too, the blur fading from his eyes. Now that things had come this far, she wanted to go all the way tonight.

In the two months they’d been together, they’d held hands and embraced often enough, but a kiss this deep was a first. If just kissing felt this good, what would the rest be like? According to the books she’d read, it was supposed to feel really, really good.

Just then their lips parted, and a long thread of mixed saliva stretched between them. He reached out and gently wiped her lips.

“Ruhir.”

“…Yeah.”

Jeanne, her arms draped around his neck, looked up at him. She could clearly see desire soaking through his soft gaze. So she wasn’t the only one feeling good. She pulled him close and pressed her upper body against his. Close enough to feel his heart beating fast.

The moment her soft chest met his, he didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands.

“The next two days are a holiday. Will you stay with me?”

“…Sure.”

“Will you do things that feel even better than kissing?”

She pressed her upper body closer on purpose and looked up at him, and Ruhir’s ears had gone a deep, burning red.

The dress wasn’t low-cut, but it was thin enough that he would feel every bit of her through it. And since she was his first relationship too, it would only be more overwhelming for him.

Ruhir managed a nod, then looked upward and spoke.

“Jeanne.”

“Yeah?”

“…Can we move somewhere else?”

“Where?”

The dormitory was out of the question, so was he thinking of getting a room somewhere? But it was the middle of the festival season. Everything would be fully booked.

He slowly drew her away from him, then took her hand firmly in his. And instead of heading back toward the lively main street, he walked deeper into the alley.

She’d thought she knew her way around fairly well after eight years at the Academy, but apparently not. Unfamiliar streets kept appearing one after another, and she was so busy taking it all in that before she knew it, they had arrived somewhere with very few people around.

“Where is this?”

“A private safe house.”

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary small manor.

They stepped inside together, and mana lamps flickered on, filling the interior with light.

The layout was similar to the dormitory, and curiosity stirred in her to look around, but Jeanne quickly brought herself back to focus. There was something more pressing at hand. After dancing at the festival and wandering all over the place, washing up had to come first.

“Where’s the bathroom?”

“You can use that one. I’ll head upstairs.”

After washing up and putting on a shower robe, she came back out to the sitting room to find Ruhir already done and waiting, a warm cup of tea in hand. Jeanne sat down on the sofa, pulling her robe firmly shut as it kept falling open.

“Do you come here often?”

“The dormitory has a lot of people, so I come here when I want to be alone.”

“Then do other nobles have safe houses like this too?”

“Some of them do, from what I know.”

“Does the princess?”

“Yes. Lilian mentioned she uses hers when she gets together with friends.”

Jeanne could only imagine how much of her had been talked about there. The thought of them all commiserating over the princess’s repeated defeats at her hands was simply funny.

Ruhir watched her for a moment, then slowly moved to sit beside her. Up close, she could see that his ears were still flushed, as though the kiss hadn’t quite left him yet.

It struck her anew that this breathtaking man, the kind who drew admiration just by being looked at, was her lover.

There was no shortage of people who wanted Ruhir de Winter as their own. And yet she, a commoner, was the first to have him. The thought that she might even be taking his first experience sent a thrill through her.

Jeanne set her teacup on the table and rose from her seat. Then she climbed onto Ruhir’s lap and looked down at him.

“Ugh.”

She had expected him to stop at kissing, given how inexperienced he seemed. It surprised her that he’d brought her all the way to the safe house.

Ah. Or maybe he was thinking of it as another way to make her grades slip.

Perhaps he’d decided that just dating her wasn’t enough to bring her scores down. Either way, it didn’t matter.

Ruhir, who had resolved to date Jeanne for the sake of his twin sister the princess, and she herself, who had decided to take what she could while being used, were exactly the same.

Jeanne pulled his face toward her chest.

Her shower robe fell open, and she felt clearly the moment his face made contact with her soft chest. Ruhir could barely breathe, and barely managed to wrap his arms around her back.

She glanced down and saw that his ears had gone red enough to burst. And that wasn’t all. Between the thighs straddling him, she felt something growing hard. The knowledge that he was getting aroused because of her was interesting enough to draw a smile from her.

She closed her eyes and rested her face against the top of his head for a moment, staying still. Maybe it was because she’d come from somewhere so loud and crowded, but the silence was welcome.

“Jeanne.”

“Mmm.”

“…Can I kiss you?”

At those words she slowly opened her eyes, and found his gaze already dark with arousal. Jeanne reached out, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him directly. She felt his body flinch and tremble at the contact.

She soon pushed Ruhir down onto his back and straddled his stomach, pressing her lips firmly against his. When he squeezed his eyes shut and parted his mouth, she slipped her tongue inside.

It was nothing more than kissing and tangling their tongues together, yet she could feel through her shower robe the heat of his c*ck steadily growing harder.

Funny, how he can get aroused even without any feelings. Jeanne tightened the arm around his neck and sucked at his lips even more greedily.

“Ugh, mmh, hah, mm…”

The wet sounds of their tongues filled the quiet sitting room. When they’d kissed in the alley, the noise of the crowd had swallowed everything and she’d only felt the sensation, but this was different. The lewd sounds reaching her ears felt strange, and a shiver ran down her spine on its own.

She opened her eyes mid-kiss to find Ruhir’s face flushed red as a tomato, his eyes barely able to stay open.

Without thinking, she found herself stroking his soft hair, then pressing her lips to his nose, the corners of his eyes, his cheeks, one place after another. Then she gave his lower lip a light nibble, and a startled gaze met hers.

Jeanne wiped her mouth, then guided his hands to her shower robe. She made him take it off her. When her soft chest was bared, Ruhir’s eyes went wide and he froze completely.

He just sat there opening and closing his mouth. Jeanne laughed and guided his hands. She made his calloused palms cup and stroke her soft chest, and his already flushed face grew even hotter.

“Don’t they give you s*x education at the imperial palace?”

“They do, but… it was mostly through books, and I’ve never seen a woman’s body before.”

The hand resting against her bare chest was trembling. She hadn’t seen him like this since they’d become a couple, and it made her feel all the more mischievous.

“Then today’s the day you put what you learned into practice.”

Jeanne laced her fingers through Ruhir’s hand where it rested on her chest and kissed between each of his fingers. Since she was taking his first, she wanted to leave a memory he could never forget. Even if he ended up marrying someone else, she wanted to remain with him like a scar that could never be forgotten, for the rest of his life.

She knew she was being selfish. But it was Ruhir who had agreed to date someone as selfish as her, so he’d have to live with it.

After setting his hand down, she untied the sash of his shower robe. When she pulled it open, the skin below his neck was flushed a deep, vivid red.

She stared at it for a moment, then slowly dragged her fingers down from his chest over his abdomen in a way that was hard to describe. Even that light touch was enough to feel the muscle beneath.

“Ruhir. Will you make me feel good?”

“…Yes.”