Looking down, she saw the aquamarine ring on her finger. The ring and the bracelet clasped around her wrist below it.

Rolling her eyes sideways, she looked at Kaiden’s hand resting on the chair’s armrest. His large, knight-like hand still wore the ring she had put on him. It was the ring she had felt among his touches when he was caressing her body. Objects that visually showed they were husband and wife.

“Is it uncomfortable eating here?”

Dana tried to act casual while speaking without looking at Kaiden. And the man sitting close to such a woman answered.

“No, I prefer it here.”

Huh?

Dana unconsciously lifted her head to look at Kaiden. Their eyes met. Dana realized that Kaiden had been watching her the whole time.

Dana swallowed in surprise. To think he had been watching her like that. Just like when he told her he would continue this marriage…

Dana barely collected herself and asked.

“Why? This isn’t even a dining hall.”

The table with food was narrow and slightly lower in height, which Dana found uncomfortable. But Kaiden answered.

“Because you’re closer.”

Her heart dropped with a thud. It was true, as Kaiden said. Their current seats in the reception room were much closer than the chairs in Eluan Castle’s dining hall. Dana looked at Kaiden, feeling even warmer. She answered without avoiding his eyes.

“Then, when we return to Khalid, let’s eat this close too.”

Kaiden responded slightly late to her words.

“…Yes.”

Dana pulled up her lips in an awkward smile. Somehow it really felt like they had become newlyweds in a very passionate atmosphere. It made her shy and nervous. Sharing a bedroom, having marital relations, sitting close together for breakfast and agreeing to stay close…

Dana tried to scoop up some soup with her spoon to take a sip. However, Kaiden hadn’t even picked up his utensils and was just sitting there watching Dana.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

At this point, Dana wanted to ask what she was really curious about.

“Do you usually not eat breakfast?”

Though they had eaten breakfast together at Eluan Castle, Dana had noticed that Kaiden wasn’t eating properly. While she tasted and ate the food course by course, Kaiden would only wet his throat with the aperitif and barely touch the food a few times before getting up with her when she finished her meal.

Dana wondered how such a knight who trained so much and had such a large build could eat so little, and if he could maintain his strength that way.

And to Dana’s question, Kaiden answered.

“I do eat.”

“But you barely eat anything every morning.”

At that moment, Kaiden’s eyes twitched. He asked in what seemed like a surprised voice.

“Have you been watching how much I eat during meals?”

Dana became slightly embarrassed. Without realizing it, she avoided Kaiden’s gaze again as she answered.

“I was just… curious.”

When Kaiden opened his mouth to answer, his voice was slightly trembling.

“Because I was watching you.”

Oh…

The words of the continent’s most wonderful man struck Dana’s heart deeply.

Dana looked at Kaiden in surprise, then turned away shyly. The unexpectedly sweet words thrown by the man she thought was just brusque were pounding at her heart.

Looking down at the soup bowl, she found herself smiling without realizing it. Unable to hide her smiling face, she looked at Kaiden again. Kaiden got to see Dana up close, with her cheeks flushed pink and dimples showing as she smiled.

The man who had barely been keeping himself in check was in danger of being completely disarmed by that brilliant attack Dana had unintentionally launched. One wrong move and the armor that was barely maintaining a human form would crumble, and the beast inside that he was desperately suppressing would burst out.

“Then let’s do this.”

Dana, who had no way of knowing what was going on inside him, scooped up some soup and brought it to Kaiden’s mouth. This way, Kaiden could watch her while eating. If she fed him. Though she had never done this before, she wanted to take care of her husband who couldn’t eat properly because he was busy looking at his wife’s face.

Kaiden stared dazedly at Dana’s hand approaching him, at her face coming closer to him. Dana held the spoon filled with soup in front of Kaiden’s mouth, watching him from right in front of his face. She waited for him to open his mouth to eat the soup.

However, Kaiden’s mouth remained sealed shut as if glued. He looked like he couldn’t understand the situation, and also appeared shocked. Dana saw his blue eyes, which reflected her image, trembling.

Dana became very embarrassed about the hand she was holding up. She hoped Kaiden would quickly accept the soup and end her embarrassment. Dana opened her mouth in a round shape toward Kaiden, meaning for him to copy her, and said.

“Ah…”

The expression of the man who had been frozen as if unable to move collapsed in an instant. He lunged straight for the mouth of the woman who had opened her lips toward him.

“Ah!”

Kaiden pounced on Dana, inserting his tongue into her opened mouth. The spoon Dana had been holding fell. The soup in the spoon spilled.

Kaiden continued kissing her while holding her waist and gripping the back of her neck. He laid Dana down on the sofa and positioned himself above her. He frantically explored inside her mouth while continuously changing the angle of his head. Wet sounds echoed.

“Mmph…”

Dana couldn’t collect her thoughts because of Kaiden who was devouring her lips breathtakingly frantically. After licking Dana’s lips with his tongue, Kaiden’s lips traveled down her neck. Dana, who had regained the freedom of her mouth, hurriedly said.

“Kaiden, the soup!”

They were in the middle of a meal. Kaiden, who had been frantically sucking on her neck, raised his head. Looking at Dana, he spoke quickly.

“The soup got on you. Take it off, it’ll be hot.”

“No…”

The man’s hands approached like he was about to strip off her clothes any moment. As Dana grabbed Kaiden’s shoulders in surprise instinctively, at that moment, there was a knock at the door.

Dana turned her head toward the closed door. Kaiden paid no attention and sucked on Dana’s collarbone. Dana tapped Kaiden’s shoulders and spoke quickly.

“Kaiden, someone’s here.”

“They’ll go away again.”

“Nngh!”

Dana shrunk her neck at the sensation of Kaiden’s mouth biting her neck.

“Hah…”

His tongue and breath traveled down her collarbone. As Dana’s body trembled, there was another knock-knock at the door. This time a voice accompanied it.

“Lord Khalid, it’s an urgent matter.”

‘Urgent?’

Dana turned her head toward the door with wide eyes. The voice she heard wasn’t a maid’s but a man’s voice.

‘A knight?’

However, Kaiden was still busy sucking on Dana’s neck. Dana hit Kaiden’s shoulders frantically while urgently calling out.

“Kaiden. Kaiden!”

“…”

Kaiden stopped with his head still buried in Dana’s neck. He raised his head to look at Dana. Dana said to Kaiden.

“They say it’s urgent.”

Wondering if something had happened in Khalid, Dana looked at Kaiden with a face full of concern. Kaiden, who had been quietly looking at Dana, embraced her with both arms and raised their bodies together. Dana fixed her clothes that had become disheveled from Kaiden’s touches.

Meanwhile, Kaiden, who had gotten up from the sofa, walked across the reception room. While he opened the door and went out, Dana looked at her soup-stained clothes and the sofa, the spoon fallen on the floor, and rang the bell on the table to call a maid.

After the maid came and cleaned up what had fallen and spilled, Dana ordered new clothes to be brought. While waiting for the maid again, this time Kaiden walked into the reception room. Dana looked at Kaiden with round eyes. Kaiden, walking toward Dana, said.

“We must return to Khalid immediately.”

“But my brother…”

Kaiden said in a calm voice.

“He has granted permission for our return. We’re going back to Khalid right away.”