The silence between them wasn’t as uncomfortable as she expected. It was surprisingly comfortable silence where they could quietly eat and drink without conversation, without feeling burdened.

But she couldn’t just keep her mouth shut. Saena opened with a safe topic.

“Wow, this is really delicious.”

Perhaps because she had returned after tasting life’s bitterness(?), unlike before, Saena no longer particularly enjoyed sweet foods, but since most ladies her age loved sweets, almost no one knew her preference.

Most ladies avoided sweets for fear of gaining weight, not because they disliked them.

But the desserts Royter brought were all moderately sweet and paired extremely well with the tea that was served.

Her admiration naturally slipped out.

“Your Grace should try some too.”

Saena naturally offered him some. But his face suddenly hardened.

“…I don’t particularly like sweet things.”

His reaction seemed strange for just a matter of preference, but that hint quickly disappeared.

“There’s plenty, so take some when you leave. Royter?”

“Yes, Your Grace. I’ll prepare them.”

“…Thank you.”

Saena expressed gratitude for his unexpected consideration.

After these strange meetings (no, actually even before them), the Duke kept showing unexpectedly delicate gestures that continuously broke down Saena’s guard.

Perhaps because of this, a personal question that she normally wouldn’t ask slipped out.

“I’m not sure if I should ask this.”

“……?”

“Please don’t answer if you find it unpleasant.”

“I’ll hear it first and decide.”

“Um, why do you always wear gloves, Your Grace?”

Actually, she wasn’t sure if there was a reason or not. But those gloves covering his skin like an iron fortress were clearly one of the walls he had built around himself.

Perhaps the question stemmed from her wanting to lower the Duke’s seemingly solid guard a bit, like her own.

However, as the silence lengthened, Saena regretted asking.

‘Maybe I asked something too personal…’

Though she didn’t know the story, it might have been too private a question. Just as Saena opened her mouth to apologize…

“I…”

He stopped mid-sentence, put down his teacup, and raised his hand in the air to look at it. He seemed to contemplate something while staring at his hand for a while.

Saena also looked at his hand along with him.

Even with gloves on, the large size, the shape of the long fingers, the contours of protruding knuckles—all couldn’t be hidden.

The hand underneath must be very beautiful.

And as if reading her gaze, the Duke asked.

“Would you like to see?”

“…Pardon?”

“I can show you if you’d like to see.”

“……”

What should she say at a time like this?

She did want to see, but it felt strange to say ‘Yes! Show me!’

As Saena hesitated, the Duke quirked his lips mysteriously and brought his hand to his mouth. He lightly bit the tip of the middle finger of the glove and slowly pulled his hand out. At the same time, he fixed his gaze on Saena.

He slowly removed the glove that had slipped from between his red lips with his other hand, and the bare hand then removed the remaining glove.

Saena watched the sequence, entranced.

Finally, his bare hand was revealed.

Though the Duke’s hands were hardened with calluses from years of swordsmanship, they still maintained an extremely elegant form.

From the straight long fingers, neat nails, to the sharp first knuckles protruding on the back of his hand and the veins flowing along the metacarpals. Everything was beautiful.

He extended that beautiful hand toward her.

“Take it.”

The Duke stared at her intensely with somehow darkened eyes as he spoke.

“You’ll find the answer to your question.”

The question meaning… why he always wears gloves?

I can know the reason by holding his hand?

“……”

Saena struggled between her curiosity to know the answer and her hesitation that this wasn’t right.

Even though she knew this was just to find the answer and that the physical contact had no real meaning, she had a premonition.

That the moment she took that hand, somehow, many things would change.

‘But his hand is so beautiful…’

Saena hadn’t known she was this weak for beautiful hands.

His hand looked like a fishing rod dangling before a cat. She found it impossibly hard to resist the temptation.

Finally, she took his hand as if enchanted.

The moment their hands touched, his gaze watching her reaction grew very intense.

The Duke’s hand was firm. It definitely felt different from her female hand. The size was also enormous, almost twice as large as hers.

‘But what’s the answer?’

Though she had taken his hand as he said, Saena still couldn’t understand what the answer was. It felt normal except for being slightly cool.

Should she touch more?

Saena moved the hand she was simply holding to align their palms, then stroked the back of his hand with her thumb. She felt him flinch through their joined hands. His hand was so beautiful she wanted to keep touching it everywhere.

‘Ah, could it be that he covers them because his hands are too beautiful? Is that the secret?’

Maybe he had encountered some pervert before. Someone who would pounce just seeing hands… Even I got entranced and ended up holding it like this, didn’t I? But if it were Duke Kramer, he probably wouldn’t have left even a pervert alone…

As Saena tilted her head in thought, the Duke watched her with strange eyes and asked in a low, husky voice.

“…Are you alright?”

“Pardon?”

“You don’t feel anything?”

She couldn’t understand what he meant by such questions.

“…Should I not be alright?”

Does he mean I’m being too casual when touching a man’s hand?

Feeling caught, Saena tried to slowly release his hand.

The Duke hurriedly grasped her hand as if to trap it.

“…Isn’t it cold?”

“It’s slightly cool, but isn’t that because you’re from the North, Your Grace?”

The Duke looked at Saena with even stranger eyes.

“…Well. Others say my skin is not just cold but makes them shudder when touched.”

Shudder?

Since she hadn’t felt anything like that from his bare skin touching her hand, Saena tilted her head.

“So it really is alright?”

The Duke suddenly smiled very brightly at Saena.

‘He smiled…’

This might be the first time she had seen the Duke smile. Not just a smile but a rich one at that. Saena’s eyes widened at the rare sight.

“Then… may I stay like this a bit longer?”

“……”

“I have a low body temperature but your hand is warm…”

“……”

“Just a little longer… Would that be alright?”

Now his gaze seemed somehow plaintive, and Saena found herself nodding. With a delighted smile, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the sofa.

“Ah…”

And a strange sigh escaped his lips.

His expression as he sprawled languidly on the sofa, making sounds like m*ans through slightly parted lips while focusing on the sensation, had something strangely stimulating about it.

A strange feeling that made the observer more embarrassed.

An expression that seemed like it should only be made in extremely intimate situations. An expression she never imagined the Duke would make… At that strangely sensual expression, Saena felt her heart racing unusually and let go of his hand.

But seeing his hand fall with a thud, she panicked, feeling like she had done something wrong again.

“Ah, it felt good as my hand warmed up… Was I rude?”

The Duke opened his eyes and instead apologized while gauging Saena’s thoughts. Seeing that made her feel even more caught out.

Getting red in the face alone with strange imaginings, getting flustered preemptively—what was this.

Saena shook her head vigorously as she spoke.

“Not at all! I… I think I touched Your Grace’s hand too carelessly…”

With slight exaggeration, she had practically kneaded his hand. The impure thoughts were just an additional option.

“…I don’t mind, so I’d like it if you would warm my hands like this sometimes.”

But he apparently wasn’t displeased. The Duke counter-proposed asking for more touches(?).

“Of course, only if you don’t find it unpleasant.”

“……”

“I don’t have any strange intentions… Hmm, really just holding fingertips would be fine. That feeling… the warmth somehow makes me feel stable, feel rested, yes.”

He seemed to become unusually talkative… He also seemed slightly flustered… Or was that her imagination?

However, recalling the Duke’s expression earlier, he had looked satisfied like a cat settled in front of a warm stove. Or like the expression when you lie down in a hot bath after being out in the cold winter for a long time.

“…Then, yes. If it’s just hands.”

“During these brief tea times, 5 minutes, no, just a moment of contact would be enough.”

“Yes. That much should be fine.”

“Thank you.”

The Duke smiled very long and deeply. Saena watched that smile and thought.

This man might not be just the cold person that the world knows him as.

Without any idea of where their relationship would flow, their fingertips touched like that.