Damon dragged his lips down to her chin and licked up every drop of saliva she spilled. His thick tongue traced slow circles down over her skin. He was trying to leave a mark below her collarbone again. Nate squirmed and hurriedly tried to stop him.

“N, no, Young Lord. Don’t leave a mark. Hng…….”

“No. If I leave a mark, other bastards will know not to come near Nate.”

“Hh, I don’t understand why you say things like that. Why do you keep doing this to me? Mmng, you don’t even like me……. Ngh.”

“If I said I liked you, would you let me? Would you stop playing around with other men?”

Damon lifted his head from where he was dragging his lips over her soft skin and looked at Nate. His wicked hand was kneading her soft chest.

Nate swallowed a m*an and looked up at him. Her teal eyes wavered faintly. She held his gaze for a long moment, then opened her mouth.

“Is it because you want to sleep with me?”

Damon paused. He stared at Nate with a stiff expression. Then Nate spoke again.

“If it’s because you want to sleep with me, you don’t need to say you like me. I wouldn’t believe it anyway……. But if that’s truly what you want, I’ll think about it.”

Damon looked at her with a hardened expression, then laughed coldly.

“Ha, you wouldn’t believe it anyway……. And yet you’re saying you’d still sleep with me if I wanted?”

“…Yes. But in return, I’d like you to stop closing the distance between us like this.”

Nate’s quiet voice bored into Damon’s ears.

Of all the wretched timing, at this very moment, Damon finally understood. The meaning of the confusion that churned inside him all this time. At the exact moment Nate said she wouldn’t believe his feelings.

‘D*mn it……. D*mn it all……!’

Holding her gaze, Damon swallowed the curses inside himself. They were aimed at himself. At the fool who kept choosing the most idiotic course of action. At himself, who wanted this woman desperately yet refused to admit it and kept doing nothing but stupid things.

Damon Preston likes Nate O’Hara. And perhaps for quite a long time. Even before Nate confessed to him……

Realizing it now, Damon felt a surge of emotion. The knowledge that he ruined everything himself filled him with crushing self-contempt.

Nate was already hurt, and he couldn’t undo that. So what was he supposed to do now……

He slowly raked his gaze over her, then pushed himself upright. Nate, quietly watching him, rose from her place as well.

She straightened her dress, stared at him in silence for a moment, then moved to step outside. He had no intention of stopping her anymore.

But before she could leave, Damon spoke in a voice that carried a trace of unease.

“Don’t come to Ombra, Nate.”

Nate opened the carriage door, stopped, and turned back to look at him. Damon couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes as he spoke.

“This really isn’t a good place.”

Nate furrowed her brow slightly.

“But you come here every day, Young Lord Preston. So why can’t I? I’m coming with Roderick.”

“…Even if you’re meeting Young Lord Lovitz, meet him somewhere else. I won’t be coming here anymore either.”

It was deeply uncomfortable for Damon to be the one telling her to meet another man somewhere safer. What he truly wanted was to cling to Nate and beg her not to see Roderick at all. To tell her the jealousy was killing him. That every time he saw her with Roderick, his heart was in agony.

But saying that out loud would have been too shameless, so he couldn’t. He was the idiot who deliberately kept seeing other women to provoke Nate, just to confirm with his own eyes that she cared for him.

Nate looked at him as though she couldn’t make sense of him, then stepped out of the carriage.

Only after she left did Damon turn to look at her. He watched through the window as she grew smaller in the distance.

Eventually he dropped his gaze and clenched his fist. A sharp, stabbing ache spread through his chest. Becoming aware of his feelings tormented him more than he expected.

He already missed Nate, and he lifted his eyes again to find her. But she was already gone from his sight.

* * *

Nate never returned to Hotel Ombra after that. Not so much because of what Damon said, but because going there with Roderick didn’t make it feel any safer.

Damon said he wouldn’t go to Hotel Ombra anymore either, but Nate had no way of knowing whether he was actually keeping to that. She didn’t believe him, truthfully. There was no reason for Damon to stay away from Ombra on her account.

Yet the things she kept hearing around her made her uneasy. According to those around her, Damon Preston’s behavior recently seemed a little different from before.

“I heard Young Lord Damon has been turning down every confession from the young ladies lately?”

“That’s right. I heard the same. And that’s not all. They say he’s not attending parties as often as he used to. Apparently he barely responds even when young ladies try to speak to him.”

“Why would he be like that? Do you think something happened to Young Lord Damon?”

Nate felt no particular reaction to hearing that Damon turned down confessions from other young ladies. She was, after all, the one he turned down first, and more than once. The original rejection was hers.

“Miss O’Hara, do you perhaps know the reason?”

The question eventually made its way to Nate. Probably because the memory of her caring for Damon was still lodged in everyone’s minds.

“I’m not sure. I really don’t know.”

Nate took a sip of tea and answered simply. The young ladies caught themselves and laughed awkwardly.

“Come to think of it, Miss O’Hara has already put away her feelings for Young Lord Damon, hasn’t she?”

“We were rather thoughtless. You’ve been getting along quite well with Young Lord Lovitz lately.”

“Are you seeing him?”

Nate smiled gently and replied.

“I’m not sure. I’ve simply been spending more time with him naturally, since I’m close with Lilia.”

It was an answer meant to keep unnecessary rumors from spreading among the nobility. But the sharp-eyed young ladies smiled knowingly.

In truth, Nate felt a little uncomfortable being talked about in connection with Roderick. He wasn’t a bad person, but the heavy desire he sometimes showed her was quite a burden.

Nate lifted her teacup again. The young ladies, who briefly touched on Roderick, turned the conversation back to Damon’s recent behavior.

Nate listened quietly, then said in a low voice,

“Young Lord Damon will be back to his old self soon enough. There’s no reason he’d change so suddenly.”

She spoke like someone with no particular expectations. Having stayed stubbornly at Damon’s side for five years, she perhaps knew him better than anyone. The young ladies nodded, agreeing that was probably true.

“Oh, I heard the young lords are gathering for a hunt at the Lovitz Marquisate’s private hunting grounds today. Is everyone planning to attend?”

One of the young ladies, never one to miss a small gathering, asked the others first.

“Of course. We have to be there to cheer them on.”

“I’ve already prepared a handkerchief. I’d like to give it to someone I fancy as a token of encouragement.”

Everyone laughed and responded warmly. Then one of the young ladies turned to Nate, who hadn’t said anything yet.

“You’ll be going too, of course, Miss O’Hara? Young Lord Lovitz is sure to be there.”

Nate was, in fact, already asked by Roderick to bring a handkerchief. She smiled and answered.

“I should go.”

The young ladies quickly shifted the conversation to talk of the hunt. Nate listened to them calmly and found herself wondering,

‘Will Young Lord Damon be attending too?’

It was a passing curiosity, thinking of him, someone who had lately been hard to spot unless it was a large party or an event he was obligated to attend.

But Nate let the thought go quickly. She thought instead of the handkerchief she needed to prepare for Roderick.

She looked up at the sky. It was decent weather for a hunt. Brilliant sunlight was settling warmly over the earth.