His words were cold, but he was my savior, and above all, his face compensated for his frigid tone.

The brown hair covering his forehead looked wild, and his black eyes, shining even in darkness, were so deep they seemed to pull me in.

With distinct features and deep-set eyes that were captivating, he was the most attractive man I had ever seen.

As I stared at him entranced, a cold droplet fell on my arm, and suddenly rain began pouring down.

It came down as if someone had emptied a bucket all at once, startling me to stand up abruptly from the steps.

“Ah!”

Having risen suddenly while drunk, I staggered and began to tilt.

If I fell now in the rain, the dress would be covered in mud.

“I borrowed this dress from Isilla!”

At that moment, a strong, thick arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into his embrace.

His firm body pressed against my chest, and the man’s rich cologne enveloped me first. A fragrance as intense and unforgettable as his appearance. And my vision filled entirely with Kaien.

Even he seemed surprised by pulling me close to help, as his black eyes looking at me rippled widely.

A man embracing a woman about to fall in a rainy garden—it was like a scene from a romance novel.

“Ah, this really is like being in a novel.”

“Th-thank you.”

Embarrassed, I lowered my eyes and pushed slightly against his shoulder, but the feeling under my hand was completely different.

‘Wow, his muscles are solid.’

The muscles of his shoulders and arms beneath his clothes were curved and firm, requiring pressure from my fingers to make any impression.

Unlike my father’s soft flesh from sitting at a desk all day, this was the body of someone who had trained for years.

“You’re getting wet.”

The arm around my waist loosened slightly, but he still held me.

Raindrops fell on his arm where the roof failed to provide cover.

We could have moved inside with just a small movement to avoid the rain, but he remained standing.

I followed his increasingly wet arm with my gaze and looked at Kaien.

The rain, warm temperature, and humid surroundings intensified the effects of the alcohol.

The sound of raindrops hitting the ceiling rhythmically, combined with the music from the ongoing ball, created a wonderful harmony.

His face appeared darker in the light leaking from the mansion, but his radiant beauty remained undisguised.

I wiped the raindrops that splashed on his face with my fingertips.

His eyes, looking down at me, grew deeper.

Somehow, I suddenly thought he looked like someone who had experienced pain in the past.

‘Well, at least he probably hasn’t suffered the misfortune of the Grand Duke of Blemer, who barely survived after being abandoned in a forest of demonic beasts, only to have his parents die in a carriage accident.’

Recalling the novel, I swallowed a faint smile.

The man before me had no lover, we were both adults, and we had drunk enough alcohol to be pleasantly intoxicated.

I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but flames burned for me in his eyes. His body pressed against mine was hot, and I could hear his heart pounding loudly.

Instinct sent me a signal.

I shouldn’t let this man go.

I gathered courage from the alcohol.

“How long do you plan to stay in the capital?”

He looked at my lips as I asked, then raised his gaze back to my eyes.

I could feel something hot passing between us.

A sensation I had never felt before began to dominate me. My waist tensed in his arms, and my spine tingled. My breathing quickened.

The corner of his mouth curved upward.

“For the time being.”

“Then, will your work keep you busy?”

“Perhaps.”

Worried that he might not like forward women, my cheeks burned with embarrassment, but I kept remembering the proposal he had made earlier.

“Shall we……”

“We?”

He urged me on as I hesitated. I felt his hand tightening around my waist. Somehow, his fingertips seemed to tickle as they traced my waist.

“Shall we date?”

I hurriedly clarified my words.

“I mean, just until Viscount Scott stops bothering me. When the social season ends, we’ll go back to our own lives.”

He was still smiling, but his handsome brow narrowed.

What about my words displeased him?

He must find it awkward that I was being serious about his joking suggestion to date.

I was about to say it was a joke when he spoke in a lowered voice.

“Are you suggesting a contract relationship?”

“Ah, maybe?”

“Maybe?”

His face came so close that our foreheads nearly touched, and his hot breath spread over my lips.

He was too close for me to lie.

“If you want……”

“May I kiss you?”

“Hup!”

Before I could answer, his lips covered mine. They were as soft as a newly made winter quilt stuffed with cotton.

But that was just the beginning.

He parted my lips, pushed in roughly, and wrapped around my tongue.

Good heavens!

“Mmm, mmmm!”

I hadn’t planned on kissing.

I thought the first kiss would be a gentle one where our lips merely touched and parted.

He invaded without consideration, showing movements that exceeded my imagination. He left a strong impression as he stirred around my gums, teeth, under my tongue, and even the roof of my mouth.

Like a conqueror wanting to confirm everything.

My legs weakened and trembled, and I clutched him.

Otherwise, I would have collapsed from the strange sensation rising to the crown of my head.

“Mmm, haa.”

My mouth filled with sticky saliva, and he casually stole it away.

A shiver ran down my spine as an unfamiliar sensation I had never experienced before came over me.

Inside my lower abdomen, the part below that had only been used for excretion began to tighten and twitch.

I was getting wet.

My underwear became damp.

His fine brown hair touched my face, and the elegant, subtle woody scent emanating from him invaded even my lungs.

“A first kiss with such a handsome savior—this will be a memory worth keeping forever.”

Normally, I wouldn’t have had such courage or created such a situation, but alcohol was remarkable.

As our lips parted, he pulled me closer by my waist, and we began to move more intensely.

We entered the gazebo. The cold pillar touched my back, but it couldn’t cool my heat.

I struggled to keep up with his kisses and breathing.

The danger that someone might see us wasn’t in my mind.

His hand cradled the back of my head, disheveling the hairstyle I had carefully arranged, and I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him closer to me.

His solid body pressed between my legs, pushing against my voluminous dress. Our stomachs touched, and I could feel his rough breathing from his heaving chest.

“Haa, haa.”

When our lips parted, I saw his face looking at me intensely, filling my vision.

“I’ll call you Ivy.”

When my name came from his lips, a pleasantly chilling heat ran down my spine.

The hand caressing my back traced my concave spine downward, then grabbed my thigh and pulled it close.

Close contact.

Despite the voluminous dress fabric, something hard like a club touched my lower abdomen.

His c*ck.

“Ngh, Kaien.”

As soon as I called his name, his firm body pressing against my chest heaved greatly.

Was he feeling the same emotions as me?

I called his name again and kissed the dimple at the corner of his mouth, his sharp jaw, and the corner of his eye.

“Kaien. Kaien.”

Kaien’s breathing grew rough.

When he pulled my b*ttocks, my feet lifted off the floor. His waist came between my legs, pushing aside my dress.

We fit together like puzzle pieces.

His c*ck, firmly attached to his center, was inside his pants but pressed against my lower abdomen as if it would enter at any moment.

He rubbed against me without any intention of hiding his raw desire. The vivid craving wasn’t his alone.

“Ivy, will you regret this?”

“Asking such a question in this situation means ‘don’t refuse.'”

I cupped his face with both hands and gave him a quick kiss.

After a moment of surprise, seeing his eyes fold gently as if pleased, a loving feeling welled up in my chest.

“I won’t regret it.”

“Let’s move somewhere else. Somewhere we can be alone.”

His voice whispering in my ear made me shiver.

He took off his coat, put it over me, and was about to leave the gazebo.

The thought that my friend’s borrowed dress might be ruined didn’t even cross my mind.

“You’re getting wet too. Let’s share it. I’ve always wanted to try this.”

Covering our heads with his coat together, we ran into the rain.

The heavy rain penetrated the coat and water seeped in, but that only brought us closer, and I couldn’t stop laughing at the situation all the way to the carriage.

My body’s heat intensified under Kaien’s gaze.

As soon as we boarded the carriage, we embraced and kissed again without either of us taking the lead.

***

“History is written with alcohol. It played a crucial role in helping me catch him.”

I woke up suddenly, remembering my mother’s contented face as she said those words.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in the largest room of the best hotel in the capital.

Sunset was coming through the window, signaling the start of another night, and Kaien was embracing me from behind.

I couldn’t turn around.

There was no need to lift the blanket to check the state of my body under the sheets.

I could feel his body very well through our touching skin.

Memories of the previous night—hot breaths, heated bodies, and abundant moans—flashed through my mind in an instant.

“Mmm, mmmm.”

I didn’t know where the carriage was heading. Kaien’s heat transferred to me as he explored my body with desire, making me hot all over and robbing me of rational thought. I barely managed to exhale in the hot, humid, and somewhat damp air inside the carriage.

He wrapped me in his coat and headed toward a building.

Despite having just met, I never thought this person would commit a crime against me or do something frightening.

Entering a fragrant, clean-smelling bedroom, he pushed me against the wall and undressed.

When his rain-soaked shirt fell to the floor, his sturdy body was revealed.

“Hup!”

I couldn’t take my eyes off his body.

Of course, I had felt his firmness while embracing him, kissing him, and touching him with my hands, but seeing his n*ked body in reality was incredibly imposing.

Rather than being bulky, his muscles were well-trained, taut, and contoured, without a hint of excess.

His well-trained bronze skin bore small scars. His body showed how rough his life had been.

His skin, wet with either sweat or rainwater, emitted a haze of hot energy.

We had separated as he undressed, but I was still within his reach if he extended his hand. I tried to look away from his intensified scent and heat, but I was captivated again.

His brown hair, wet, appeared black under the dim indoor light. Kaien brushed back his wet hair and looked at me with eyes full of desire.

“Are you afraid?”

“What?”

“You’re trembling.”

At his words, I realized I was trembling.

Shadows fell over Kaien’s eyes, darkening them, and he asked again.

His flashing gaze was as fierce as a predator eyeing its prey.

“You can still run away now.”

Those words touched my pride. Even though I was drunk, I had willingly followed him, and he was making me look like a coward.

Perhaps I thought this way because I was intoxicated.

Good heavens, I grabbed his hair, stood on my tiptoes, and initiated a kiss while running my hands down his chest.

I could feel his hot pulse at my fingertips.

“Damn it.”

He swore and pounced on me. His heavy weight pressed down on me.

What followed was like a typhoon.

As if even the time to undress was precious, he lifted my dress hem and pressed his body against mine. No, did he kiss me and touch my br*asts first, or did he grab my b*ttocks and pull me close first?

His hand touched a pure place where no one else’s touch had ever reached.

Parting the rough thicket, he caressed the small fruit and delved into the moist place.

His fingers were thick and rough.

“Kaien! Hiiik, ah!”

It was a huge shock. His lips moved from licking and sucking my neck to my br*asts, and his hand became a merciless conqueror.

He rubbed the wet spot without hesitation. Squishy, lewd sounds emerged, and my lower region became increasingly damp.

No matter how his hand moved or what it touched, my body responded violently. Lightning struck my head, and my body trembled with ecstasy.

I grabbed his wrist, feeling as if I would release at any moment, but the gesture looked as if I were guiding his hand to my lower parts to pleasure myself.

He stirred inside a place where nothing had ever entered before, making squelching sounds. When his fingertip pressed somewhere—

“Ka-Kaien!”

I collapsed.

“Ivy, we haven’t even started yet.”

He whispered, licking my ear.

A growl, like the sound of a beast coming from somewhere, seemed to be heard.

“Ah, huuu.”

Saliva dripped from my open mouth, but he licked it as if it were sweet.

As my body was laid on the bed, he climbed on top of me. His waist entered as my legs spread.

I remember his black eyes glinting maliciously. His back swelled as he leaned down toward me, and his p*nis, with its massive volume, entered.

It forced its way in, widening the narrow passage.

It was too shocking. Exciting and good, but also frightening.

“I’m struggling……”

“I’m not even there yet.”

“Kaien, I’m not saying I hate it, just give me a moment……”

It was truly a flood of indescribable sensations.

It was pleasure swollen to about 300 times all the joy I had felt growing up since birth.

I embraced his back, cried out in ecstasy, and called his name.

I couldn’t gather my thoughts under his attack as he entered, stirred, and pounded inside me.

His thing filling my insides was so enormous that I could feel all the inner folds stretching. When his p*nis withdrew, it pulled my inner walls with it, giving me goosebumps.

Soon, he drove in his wedge as if claiming his conquest territory.

Intense shock and pleasure simultaneously rushed in, enough to make my entire body resonate.

I clung to him crying and showed him everything.

But when I woke up after falling asleep briefly from exhaustion after reaching climax, I realized how passionate a person I was.

“Ivy, dawn is ending. I need to go.”

I embraced his neck as he tried to get up.

“Where are you going? I’m not finished yet.”

“Then just a little more……”

Yes, my memories were dominated by flesh tones.

Though I could have forgotten after drinking such strong alcohol, I had inherited my mother’s high tolerance.

The embarrassment of acting recklessly while sober belatedly washed over me.

“I’m not usually this impulsive.”

I hesitated whether to run away and glanced back slightly, but my body froze.

A god incarnate was sleeping beside me.

I stared blankly at Kaien, who was severely handsome.

Ssseup.

A body trained through years of practice. Broad shoulders, a wide chest.

Lying back in his arms, I touched Kaien’s chest as if entranced, kneading it.

It was firm and plump, fitting nicely in my hand, making it enjoyable to touch.

Perhaps the heat from last night still remained in my body, as my lower abdomen warmed and my lower region became wet. Seeing him made my heart race.

My body was too honest and didn’t give my intellect a chance to deceive.

I should have run away, but I lost the opportunity, captivated by him.

My shoulder was pulled, and my face touched his neck.

He whispered in my ear with a husky voice, having just awakened from sleep.

“Don’t tempt me. If we do more, you’ll struggle.”

His languid, relaxed eyes looked at me deeply.

Though not burning as fiercely as last night’s heat, his expression had become more languid as the tension eased. He looked decadent.

Just that gaze made my legs curl up.

“He’s so handsome.”

Only after meeting Kaien did I realize I was weak for wild, beast-like men.

As I swallowed dryly and looked up at him, he suddenly narrowed his brow, and coldness flowed in his eyes.

He gave his characteristic smile, lifting just one corner of his mouth.

“You’re not going to say you don’t remember, are you?”

“Huh?”

A killing intent momentarily seeped into his narrowing eyes.

“If you took a man’s first time, you should take responsibility, Ivy.”

Wow, why does my heart pound so much when this person calls my name in his deep voice?

My shoulders hunched, and a pleasant shiver ran down my spine.

“What? First time?”

‘That was his first time?’

The memory of last night’s beast-like encounter made my body tremble.

“If you’ve forgotten, I’ll make you remember properly.”

“No, I remember, Kaien. I remember, but……”

Kaien pushed me onto the sheets, climbed on top of me, and pinned me down, placing both hands beside my head.

He bent his large frame over me and devoured my lips. The beast ravished me.

***

That’s how we became lovers.

He was a person from Magris who came to Ingmier for merchant guild business, and while he occasionally spoke cold and cruel words to most people, he was good to me.

When he smiled mockingly, I would stretch the other corner of his mouth with my finger to make him practice smiling, and he never got annoyed.

We walked around mountains and fields, and occasionally rode boats by the lake.

I lost track of time enjoying the sight of his bulging arm muscles as he rowed.

At first, he would feel awkward when I told him to open his mouth so I could feed him fruit, but now he would bring grapes and strawberries as gifts and ask to eat together.

How cute his expression was as he stared at me, waiting for me to put fruit in his mouth!

‘How can such a cute man!’

I covered my head, recalling the past time.

How could such a person be the villain, the “cursed Grand Duke Blemer”?

I discovered that the rabbit I had been adoring was actually a predator that tore and ate raw meat.

“Strange, why isn’t the carriage coming?”

Love’s voice, muttering as she looked out the window from the second floor, woke me from my thoughts, and I closed my bag and tightened the belt.

“Did you put up the flag?”

“Yes, I put it up a while ago. It should have come by now, but it’s not here.”

The method of calling a carriage is simple.

You hang a blue flag in the window facing the street, and passing children take the flag.

Then the children inform empty carriages and receive cookies or candy.

It was good for everyone—the children got snacks while playing, the coachmen got information, and customers were spared the trouble of unnecessarily calling for carriage drivers.

Usually, a carriage arrives quickly after hanging the flag, but today it was late.

“Miss! Miss! We called for a carriage!”

Love, who had stuck her head out the window, spoke with a child.

“And?”

“They say a carriage movement ban has been issued in the capital, so ordinary carriages can’t move right now!”