The flaw was that Louis kept overlapping with this man despite the two sharing nothing in common, yet she couldn’t deny that was part of why her eyes went to him in the first place.

“I’ve never been to the capital, so I never imagined there would be such a beautiful lady there……”

He seemed a little clumsy with women, though whether it was nerves or simply his nature she couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter either way. Anais kept her faint smile and touched her glass to his. A clear, bright sound rang out between them.

Something she never could have done in the capital. Approaching first, smiling, clinking glasses, drinking. But here, all of it was perfectly fine.

The champagne going down her throat was pleasant. As a light warmth crept in, Anais’s smile deepened a little. Leon, she thought he said. With each clink of their glasses, the man seemed to loosen up too, growing more at ease.

When they emptied three glasses of champagne, Leon leaned in instead of offering another and whispered at her ear.

“Miss Bellini, it’s far too loud and crowded here, so what do you say to stepping out with me……”

Before Leon finished speaking, someone wedged between the two of them. A solid body. The man who pushed Leon aside didn’t even glance at him, meeting her eyes instead and smiling.

“Hello, darling.”

…… This man is insane.

He plucked the empty champagne glass from her hand, then closed his fingers around hers and stroked them slowly. Anais didn’t look away from Killian’s violet eyes.

“Look at us, meeting again. Did you get in all right yesterday, Anais? You weren’t feeling unwell?”

He was a man who did exactly as he pleased. Calling her by her first name, then switching to her surname to put distance between them, then coming close again and calling her by her first name while touching her hand.

Careless, careless, and careless again.

She was well aware of the eyes drawn to Grand Duke Visconti’s every move. Anais stepped back, pulled her hand free, and smiled.

“Thanks to your concern, I was perfectly fine. Thank you for your help yesterday. I made it to Solean safely. But I’m sorry, would you mind stepping aside? There’s a gentleman I was in the middle of a conversation with.”

The man’s smile turned mischievous.

“Who?”

When Anais turned around at Killian’s question, Leon was already gone. He must have taken her for Grand Duke Visconti’s woman and made himself scarce. Anais let out a hollow laugh, looked at Killian, and asked in a voice too quiet for anyone else to catch.

“Why are you doing this?”

Killian leaned in and lightly pressed his cheek to hers. Close enough that to anyone watching, they looked like affectionate lovers.

“Well, this isn’t quite the place for a conversation, so why don’t you come with me.”

He closed the distance she put between them as though it meant nothing and took her hand. He was bare-handed again today, fingers tracing over hers. The heat of him came through clearly even past the thin silk.

“Mm?”

The question came again. Anais nodded, and the man wrapped an arm around her waist and strode toward the balcony.

* * *

The balcony felt like it was suspended in midair.

Being a summer villa perched on a coastal cliff, it offered an unobstructed view of Solean’s night sea stretching endlessly below. The scent of wild roses blanketing the marble railing reached her first, followed by the smell of the sea.

Behind Anais, standing with her back to the door, came the sound of the balcony door closing. Then the click of the lock.

The space, now completely cut off from the ballroom, held only the two of them. The man behind her wrapped his arms around her slender waist, buried his nose in the nape of her neck, and drew a deep breath. She flinched, her body trembling.

A faint citrus scent drifted over a rich woody base in the warm air. Killian’s scent. When Anais turned, his violet eyes were fixed precisely on her. It was a gaze she couldn’t have missed, the same one that kept finding her from across the ballroom.

A faint heat lived in Killian’s eyes. Impossible to miss. He looked at her that way from the very beginning. The standoff above the summer sea and its crashing waves went on for a time before Anais broke it by opening her mouth.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Well.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m not sure myself why I’m doing this.”

Anais’s face flushed. The heat rose sharply with the warm air. The man was deliberately getting in the way of her little adventure. Killian bent slightly, studying her reddened cheek, then said flatly,

“I have a feeling one more kiss might tell me.”

There was a lazy drawl to his voice, and beneath it, a low heat he didn’t quite manage to hide. Anais met his gaze. The desire pooled in his eyes was visible to her too. This man regrets letting me go as well.

“Are you sure?”

Killian exhaled, short and sharp, his breath slightly unsteady. This man could bare raw desire like this and still pull back in an instant. She already knew that from yesterday.

“Where are you going to stop today, Killian? Yesterday it was my chest.”

A cheeky, impish provocation.

Killian lowered his head a little more. Up close, the woman’s ears were burning red enough to burst. Her nape and the exposed skin above her chest were flushed all over. What was causing this color? The alcohol? Embarrassment? Both?

She looked like fruit on the verge of splitting open, and it stirred something in him. What sound would she make if he licked her, bit her? She seemed like she’d tremble at the slightest touch.

And she was doing this in that state.

A self-deprecating laugh took the place of the amused one that should have come. He was helplessly drawn to this side of her too. He spent the whole night imagining her pale, soft body, her full chest, the pink peaks, her fresh scent, the secret between her thighs he never got to see, working himself off alone more times than he could count.

He almost regretted sending her away.

Just holding her gaze sent heat rushing straight down in an instant. Those innocent eyes, the ones where exhaustion and resignation lived side by side, he wanted to see them come undone with desire.

He wanted to strip her bare right now and drive into her. He wanted to make her cry with pleasure. The longer he looked at her, the hotter his breath grew.

Pulling Anais away from that other man and bringing her here was a thoroughly impulsive thing to do. She seemed to have found a new man and looked ready to leave with him, so he should have let it be.

…… He couldn’t.

The thought of that man seeing her body was unbearable. Her pale, soft, dizzying figure, the body that left marks wherever his hands and lips touched, all the more satisfying for it. Beautiful.

Anais stirred his desire. Her red lips moved. Killian followed her every movement with a burning gaze.

“Killian, I don’t place any meaning on being a first time or anything like that…”

He cut her off gently.

“Most people say that and mean the opposite.”

Silence settled between them for a moment, filled by the distant sound of waves.

“I’ll be leaving again once summer is over, back to the capital. Leaving behind everything I found in Solean.”

Killian simply smiled at her words. A savage desire lurked behind that smile. There was nothing to hesitate over. A woman he wanted desperately was coming to him first, offering one season together before walking away. It was a better offer than he could ask for.

So why? Why was that?

His eyes narrowed, measuring. Even so, she kept talking. That even, composed voice made the ache near his ribs flare again. What sound would she make when she cried? How would she fall apart? He wanted to know. Something primal rose in him.

“You seem uncertain. I’m not.”

Anais stepped slowly toward him, closing the distance, and pressed her palm to Killian’s chest. Then she rose on her toes and touched her lips to the corner of his mouth.

“Honestly, it doesn’t have to be you.”

Saying something that bold so easily, breathing out that sweet breath.

“The choice is yours.”

His patience ran out.

There was no reason to hold back either. Killian bent and lifted her by the waist, set her on the table, and pulled her face to his with an impatient hand, pressing his lips to hers.