The bedroom door swung open, and the moment it did, the man pulled Anais close by the waist and cupped her cheek. He sucked her full lower lip, pressing light kisses against her mouth, once, twice, before skillfully parting her lips and slipping inside.

“……Mmh.”

The soft m*an dissolved entirely into his mouth. Killian lifted her easily and set her on top of the console, never once breaking the kiss. He swept through her tender inner walls, traced the slightly firmer roof of her mouth, then coaxed her small tongue into his.

Anais couldn’t gather her senses at all. In her entire life, the only contact she ever had with a man was the light kisses she shared with Louis, her fiancé.

Even the small movement of the man pulling her waist closer made her body flinch. Not knowing what to do with her hands, she left them hovering in the air, and Killian drew both her arms up and wrapped them around his neck.

She tried to follow along, clumsy as she was, but it was no use. Before she knew it, Killian was rubbing the bridge of his nose against her slender nape and working his tongue there. The hand that lifted the hem of her dress moved naturally up to her ankle and slowly stroked her ankle bone. The heat of that touch made both arms around his neck tighten sharply. Her head fell back, and the blue veins along her slender throat came into view.

Killian, who thought her overly sensitive to even small stimulation, paused for a moment. Her body was more than just sensitive; it was rigid with tension. Eyes narrowing, Killian spoke with his lips still pressed to her nape. The vibration of his voice hit her like another overwhelming stimulus, and Anais twisted at the waist.

“Why can’t you just enjoy this? Didn’t you come along to have a good time together?”

Undisguised desire ran clear through the man’s low, restrained voice.

I should act like I’m used to this.

But she had absolutely no idea what to do.

“You’re right. It’s just that this is my first time doing something like this……”

She swallowed the rest of the sentence on purpose, hoping he would take it to mean this was her first time with something so casual.

She looked at him, breathing in short gasps, and Killian gave a small smirk before pulling her off-shoulder dress down to her waist.

He looked at her chest, still wrapped in her undergarment, and let out a low laugh. He expected as much, but even more than he thought.

He lifted her up and carried her to the bed. He reached for her full br*asts without hesitation. The soft, generous weight filling his palm sent a deep, aching pull low in his body almost instantly.

It was like this from the very first moment he saw her.

From the moment he saw that expression on her face in the rain, helpless over a carriage wheel stuck in the mud. From the moment those strange, pale blue eyes, where resignation and exhaustion coexisted, looked directly at him.

He pulled down the undergarment still covering her round br*asts and smiled again at the sight of the pink peaks. So this is the color of her n*pples, pale as she is.

He flicked the peaks a few times, then pinched a n*pple between his fingers and squeezed her br*ast again. Then he took the other rosy peak into his mouth. She was sweet. He liked her far more than he expected.

“……Hh.”

He teased her gently with the tip of his tongue, then dragged his teeth lightly across without hurting her, and her hips jolted up. She was sensitive to stimulation. He liked that too.

Her fresh scent, made richer by the rain, flooded deep into his lungs. Intoxicated by it, he took her full br*ast into his mouth and sucked. The wet m*ans falling above his head were far too delicate.

“Mm, hh, mmng……”

He felt her body growing hotter and hotter. Blood rushed south until it ached. The moment Killian’s hand moved between her thighs, her body went rigid again.

It was a clear, unmistakable refusal, different from anything before. He stopped. The heat in his mind cleared, and cool reason settled back in.

Ah, this is……

Killian lifted his lips from the pink peak and pressed a hand to his forehead, looking troubled. A question clouded Anais’s pale blue eyes as well. He propped himself up on the bed with one hand and met her gaze, seemingly trying to gauge the truth.

“Anais, is this your first time?”

The man was blunt by nature. But the question hit Anais like a slap across the face.

Gripping the sheets tight, she trembled faintly, and a short, shallow breath escaped from between her lips first. She hesitated for a moment, then chose the truth.

“Yes, well…… is that a problem?”

Killian’s brow furrowed. Crudely put, she was the most desirable woman he ever came across, but if she was a v*rgin, he would have to decline.

Finding a woman like her wouldn’t be easy, but finding someone willing to spend a night with him was easier than lifting a finger.

“Yeah. Sorry, but I don’t play with v*rgins.”

Her reddened eyes moved slowly toward him. Her lips, still wet with saliva, parted. Killian watched those lips steadily. His body twitched with the urge to taste them again.

“Why not?”

“Haa, it gets complicated for both of us.”

What he wanted was a woman who could enjoy herself with him. He preferred someone experienced, someone who understood that sharing a bed meant nothing more than that. Letting feelings into this kind of arrangement was the worst possible outcome.

Killian sat up, took the handkerchief from the nightstand, and dabbed the saliva from the corner of Anais’s mouth. Then he lowered his hand, seeming to intend to wipe her neck, her collarbone, and her flushed, heaving chest, all the way down to the pink peaks.

Anais coldly pushed his hand away and pulled the blanket up to cover herself. He raised both hands at the clear rejection. Even now he was so utterly unbothered that Anais felt a fresh surge of irritation.

He got up and straightened himself out. He smoothed back his disheveled hair and fastened the buttons of his shirt.

“It’s a shame, but you’d be better off finding another man, Miss Bellini.”

Unbelievable. And when exactly did he decide to drop the familiarity of her first name? A short, disbelieving laugh slipped through Anais’s teeth. She felt like someone threw cold water in her face, and yet the man went on without missing a beat.

“Rest here for a while. You’re welcome to stay for a meal tomorrow too. That much I can do for you.”

Was he out of his mind?

Were there really only people this insane in the south? Were they all like this?

He had just been touching her bare skin and sharing her breath, and now he was telling her to rest alone until morning and have a meal before she left.

“Excuse me?”

Anais finally snapped back in a sharp voice. She knew it was rude, but she simply could not manage any more courtesy toward this man.

“And if you’d like to go home, I’ll have a carriage brought around.”

Even now, the man wore that smooth smile on his face. As though the arousal still straining against him belonged to someone else entirely.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that he met her by chance, helped her, and naturally brought her all the way to his own bedroom. He smiled as though, with or without Anais specifically, his situation could be resolved any number of ways.

“Whatever you wish, my lady.”

Killian’s parting words left Anais’s expression set in stone. Left alone in the bedroom after he walked out, she talked herself down.

“It’s fine. There are plenty of men out there.”

He wasn’t her only option. Summer was here, and the social season was beginning. Nobles from everywhere would pour into Solean, and Anais still had plenty of opportunities ahead.

Of course.

She liked his warmth and his skill. His handsome face too. And the dazzling way he spoke, making her smile without a single coherent thought in her head. He was a man who had everything she was looking for in someone to meet here.

But so what. A man like that was someone she would have turned down herself.

Anais checked herself over, left the bedroom, and asked the butler to call a carriage. She had no desire to stay in this manor a moment longer.

She boarded the carriage and closed her eyes for a moment. Then, when the sounds outside grew lively and it seemed they had entered the city, she pulled back the curtain and looked out the window.

The rain that fell all morning stopped at some point. She opened the window and a thick wave of jasmine scent poured into the carriage. She breathed in deeply, and the tangle in her chest settled.

Open-air cafes and terraces glowed with lavish lanterns. Cheerful laughter and the sounds of the night festival tickled her ears. It was a scene entirely unlike the capital’s nighttime streets.

The man she met the moment she arrived in the south was the same way. Someone who seemed free, carrying an air that was somehow dangerous and languid all at once. The kind of person who, if she let herself be swept up in him, she could enjoy lightly and without a second thought. The kind of man who, when the season ended, would part from her cleanly, just as she wanted.

Killian. She didn’t know his surname. He never told her. And she didn’t particularly want to know. Anais came to Solean for exactly this kind of casual encounter.

Today seemed like a failure, but it didn’t matter.

Summer in Solean was only just beginning.