Roina was curious but couldn’t look at the note, so she just stared at Suharto with round eyes.

“Your Highness?”

“Ha, really……”

Suharto was too dumbfounded to laugh or cry. It was a rejection, but he was so flabbergasted that he kept taking short breaths and exhaling repeatedly.

“Your Highness…… should I take this alcohol back?”

Roina, who had been standing outside the whole time, shifted her body back and forth before asking.

“No. Come in.”

Suharto crumpled the paper and stepped aside.

“You came all this way for me, how could I turn you away, Miss Roina.”

“Thank you for acknowledging me.”

Roina clutched the bottle to her chest as she brushed past Suharto.

“But when are we going to Vieta Valley? I’ve just been waiting?”

Suharto let Roina’s chattering words drift past him. Then he looked around the corridor with eyes full of lingering attachment.

“To pay the price of rejecting me, you’ll have to risk everything.”

His muttering was directed at Elena, who had coldly pushed him away.

“Why did you write that you would endure it all…… you keep making me want you. Since you don’t want to come to me willingly, I want to forcibly pull you to me.”

***

Elena opened the door to face Rudfelix, who wore a surprised expression.

There was a special feeling about seeing the man she had chosen after rejecting Suharto. Perhaps because she had chosen him over someone else……

“You were about to wash, I see?”

What had only shown his face now revealed his body as well.

He wore no outer garment, and his shirt was untucked, disheveling his usually neat appearance. It wasn’t the same knife-like Grand Duke atmosphere she had seen earlier that day.

Looking at his completely disheveled and flushed face, Elena squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again.

‘That kind of atmosphere is really dangerous.’

It was so breathtaking that just looking at him made her legs feel weak.

Rudfelix was equally bewildered in his own way. Elena’s gaze scanned him from head to toe, and then she abruptly asked if he was washing.

She clearly saw water dripping from his wet hair, yet she asked “are you washing” rather than “did you wash”?

“May I come in?”

“……Where to?”

Rudfelix asked, unable to gauge Elena’s intentions.

“Where else?”

Elena, intending to show him directly, walked past him into the room. She crossed the middle of the room and stood at the entrance of the bathroom, from which steam was flowing out.

“The bathroom, of course.”

“……So.”

“Go ahead and wash. I won’t look.”

Elena emphasized that she wouldn’t look. She even closed her eyes and covered them with her hands, creating an atmosphere where he really should wash.

“If you were feeling heavy-hearted about what happened earlier today, forget about it.”

Elena spoke with her eyes still covered.

“I won’t ask why you acted so coldly toward me.”

After all, it wasn’t as if Elena didn’t know their circumstances better than anyone else.

“If you want to say you’re sorry, just go into the bathroom.”

Rudfelix walked to the bathroom as Elena suggested. As he unbuttoned and removed his shirt, Elena, who had lowered her hands, was startled and closed her eyes again.

Washing twice wasn’t difficult. However, his steps toward the bathroom slowed as he wanted to understand what Elena was thinking.

As he passed by Elena, he saw her tightly closed eyelids trembling slightly. Following her tense instructions, he entered the bathroom and immersed himself in the bathtub.

The still-hot water made his body languid and relaxed again.

Elena, who had been listening to Rudfelix’s movements, slightly opened one eye and then the other.

Rudfelix sat in the bathtub with his eyes closed and his head tilted back, but she couldn’t see below his chest.

Elena picked up a towel she had folded into a circle and went to his head. She sat down carelessly on the floor, and though her pants got wet, she didn’t mind as she placed her hand on his head.

When she put the red hair on the towel, the soaked red strands swayed heavily. The steam would prevent his hair from drying, but Elena diligently rubbed the towel against his head. As she did so, she waved her hand in the air, feeling stifled by the hot, humid atmosphere.

‘It’s suffocating.’

She pulled at her collar, blaming the air, but in reality, she was tense and breathless because of Rudfelix’s occasionally visible body.

“Are you afraid that someday you’ll regret becoming my lover?”

Elena was the first to mention what had happened earlier. Rudfelix opened his closed eyes and turned to look at her.

“That day could come. I might become a man who is nothing at all……”

“Or you might die for treason.”

When Rudfelix flinched, the water rippled. She felt his reaction through the towel. Elena spoke while focusing only on Rudfelix’s head.

“The Grand Duchy is scheduled to revert to the imperial family, and you’re responsible not only for the Imperial Guard but also for protecting the imperial family. You’re always busy going back and forth to the imperial palace doing two jobs simultaneously. But since that won’t be maintained forever, something will happen. If you choose the throne as a way to reclaim the Grand Duchy, that would naturally be treason.”

Elena set the towel aside and moved to his side. She hadn’t intended to dry his hair from the beginning.

“So I heard that being the Crown Princess would be better than being the Grand Duchess who might lose her position at any time. It’s…… strange.”

Elena lightly touched her fingertips to Rudfelix’s shoulder, not caring that her clothes were getting wet.

“I’ve never said I would become the Grand Duchess, nor have I coveted the position of Crown Princess.”

His shoulder trembled slightly, transmitting through her hand. He was shaken.

“We could just date and break up, couldn’t we? Isn’t that the kind of relationship we have?”

Elena said it was strange to determine their current relationship based on worries about the future when they were just having a casual romance.

“I don’t plan to break up.”

Rudfelix firmly grasped Elena’s hand and kissed it.

“Then don’t do that next time.”

“I did as I was told.”

“I didn’t tell you to turn away with such a cold look.”

His lips pressed against the back of her hand. Feeling the soft and hot sensation, Elena spoke firmly.

“I was preventing a fight over me in advance. Even though you followed my words, your eyes made me a little sad earlier.”

“Don’t you care what might happen if you stay by my side?”

“That’s a different issue.”

When Rudfelix looked up, Elena was smiling.

“Now that I’ve become your ally, do you think I’d just stand by and watch you be executed for treason?”

“Ha, haha. That’s true.”

Why hadn’t he thought of that?

While Rudfelix chuckled, Elena dipped her calves into the bathtub. Feeling the water soaking up her pants, she immersed herself in the tub.

The reason Elena brought Rudfelix back to the bathroom. She surrendered herself to the hot sensation rising from her legs while breathing the hot air for a moment. Then she turned to look at Rudfelix.

Her movements were slow for someone whose wet clothes were difficult to remove.

Everything was hazy with steam, and both her face and the atmosphere were heated.

“I’m seducing you right now. Can’t you tell I’m waiting?”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m going to sleep here tonight.”

When Elena blinked, a droplet clinging to her eyelashes fell. Rudfelix’s muscles tensed at that small movement.

“Even if we just hold hands and sleep, I’ll let everyone know tomorrow that I was with you, Alix.”

Elena planned to definitively cut ties with Suharto by making it clear to him that she was Rudfelix’s lover.

“Will you hold me?”

Rudfelix responded to Elena’s seduction without hesitation.

“Don’t regret it.”

He immediately lowered his head to her parted lips.

His tongue licked the moisture on her lips before immediately entering her open mouth.

Elena closed her eyes, tilted her head, and grabbed Rudfelix’s arms.

She hadn’t expected him to approach slowly, but his kiss came intensely as he stroked her palate and then immediately rubbed against her tongue.

His kiss, exploring every corner of her mouth, was thrilling and *rotic.

“Ah, ahh.”

Elena let out a wet m*an as Rudfelix’s lips moved downward.

She couldn’t tell if her breath felt hot because of the steam or because of her heated body.

However, the places where Rudfelix’s lips touched felt especially hot.

Perhaps because they were in water, Elena gripped Rudfelix’s arms more tightly, feeling a sense of floating.

Sensing her unstable stance, Rudfelix strongly pulled Elena’s waist toward him.

Thanks to this, the distance between them grew even closer. Elena squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.

Through the layer of clothing between them, she could feel his heated center.

Rudfelix, who had been sucking on Elena’s neck, pulled aside her cumbersome clothes and spread them open.