“All done.”

The low, murmured voice carried an understated warmth.

“Your hand…… is it all right?”

“……”

When Kyle hesitated, Shiloh pulled his arm toward her and examined his hand closely.

There was a bleeding bite mark on the back of his hand.

“I’ll take care of that later……”

But before Kyle could finish, Shiloh took the same magic ointment and rubbed it into the back of his hand in the same way.

Kyle’s eyebrows creased as if it hurt.

Shiloh finished and closed the ointment lid.

“Done. You should be going now.”

“The window is broken, it won’t be safe.”

“I can lock the attic door, so it’s fine.”

Shiloh forced the corners of her mouth up.

“……”

Kyle ran a hand through his hair as if wrestling with something and let out a long sigh.

“You really don’t need to worry.”

He hesitated, then finally stood, straightened his coat, and said his farewell.

“You seem like you’d rather I go, so I’ll take my leave.”

Kyle moved at a slow pace, opened the door, and disappeared down to the first floor.

‘He really left.’

Shiloh, curled up in the corner of the bed, looked up with vacant eyes.

She looked around the dim room lit by the lamp, and her expression slowly crumpled.

Everything that had just happened came crashing through her mind.

The grief she had been swallowing rose up through her throat.

The awareness of being alone again made Shiloh curl up in the dark and cry.

At that moment,

“This looks like the knife the robber left behind. Keep it just in case.”

Kyle, who had gone downstairs, opened the door and reappeared.

In the darkness, Shiloh clenched her teeth and wiped her eyes where he couldn’t see.

Kyle stared at her with wide eyes.

“Are you……”

“……”

She bowed her head and pressed her hand over her mouth, but the sound of her sobbing couldn’t be hidden.

“I’m sorry. I was trying not to bother you……”

She had been running hard in a strange place, focused on nothing but making the business succeed.

But the one person she had leaned on, Shuriel, had drawn her last breath without a farewell.

It was overwhelming, but she had been trying to look away from the anxiety and sorrow of being left alone in the world.

She had always been alone to begin with, after all.

And then a stranger had broken in and she had nearly lost her life.

She had been saved from the crisis thanks to him, but now that the tension had released, all the feelings she had been pushing away came flooding in like a tidal wave.

So there are times when the world frightens me too.

The truth was that she needed someone to lean on, someone to share her heart with and trust.

The moment she recognized that, she felt endlessly small and sad.

Kyle sat beside Shiloh and wrapped an arm around her back in an uncertain, awkward way.

“Shall I stay with you?”

He murmured quietly.

Shiloh gave a small nod and leaned into his arms.

Kyle held her head against him.

His free hand hovered in the air, then patted her back awkwardly.

“What if another strange person comes?”

Her whimpering voice sounded just like a small child.

When Shiloh burrowed into his arms, Kyle flinched and swallowed.

“……”

“You couldn’t stay the night, could you?”

Shiloh slowly lifted her head.

Kyle’s gaze lowered slowly and their eyes tangled together.

“Would you…… like me to stay?”

Kyle whispered to her.

“……”

Shiloh nodded in silence.

Kyle’s throat moved.

His bowed head brought his lips slowly closer to Shiloh’s.

A large hand gently cupped one of her cheeks.

A series of slow, soft kisses followed, brushing her forehead, her eyelids, her cheek.

Kyle’s lips trembled faintly.

His lips pulled away, and Shiloh looked at him with wide eyes.

But when Kyle’s thumb gently traced her lower lip, Shiloh’s gaze wavered.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this. I only wanted someone to be beside me, and yet it’s come to this……’

Kyle’s heavy gaze settled on Shiloh’s eyes.

Was it because she had been so lonely?

She couldn’t refuse the delicate touch that handled her like glass, or the burning look in his eyes that hungered for her. Ending it at a brief kiss felt like it would leave something unfinished.

Shiloh’s slender waist, held in his arms, was slowly drawn toward his lower body.

Kyle’s tongue, which had been gently licking Shiloh’s lips, pressed between them and slipped inside.

Shiloh wound her arms around Kyle’s neck and pulled him closer.

His hot tongue pushed deeper, moving through every part of her mouth in a dense, thorough exploration.

Her head tipped back, and her jaw, neck, and collarbone grew slick with his saliva.

Kyle threw off his tunic and buried his face in her chest, breathing in ragged gasps.

He lifted his head again and pulled down the strap of her linen dress.

When one of Shiloh’s br*asts was bared, Kyle cupped it with a trembling hand.

His wet tongue moved and carefully licked her peak while his straight nose grazed the side of her br*ast.

Shiloh’s body shuddered helplessly. Goosebumps rose across her entire skin.

Kyle stripped off his remaining clothes and threw them roughly off the bed.

Even so, his gaze never left Shiloh.

He lifted her hand and again ran his wet tongue along her neck.

Shiloh twisted and cried out.

The lower his tongue traveled, the more heat rose in her, her lower abdomen clenching tight as the space between her thighs melted with warmth.

Shiloh trembled, gripping the shirt still on Kyle’s body.

The hot, swollen flesh that had been searching below her waist found its way and pressed deep between her thighs.

Shiloh shuddered at the thick, full sensation that went through her entire body.

He moved gently and slowly inside her, as if mindful of her.

As she grew wet quickly, Kyle began to thr*st with gradually more force.

The louder the bed creaked, the more Shiloh twisted and furrowed her brow.

“Mmh……”

Kyle’s c*ck drove deep inside her, all the way to the root.

An unstoppable m*an broke from Shiloh’s lips.

Kyle covered her parted mouth with his own and kept moving.

Rough, hot breath passed back and forth between their lips.

Hot waves surged into her, sweeping away every trace of loneliness.

*

Shiloh was asleep with her face half buried in the pillow.

“Mm……”

Her eyes drifted open and the worn ceiling came into view.

The lewd dream she had dreamed last night suddenly came to mind.

‘Quite the variety.’

Of all people to have that kind of dream about, her investor……

Was her heart too hollow.

Or was she just pent up?

Shiloh let out a hollow laugh and stretched lazily.

“Ugh……”

A sudden pain made Shiloh pause with a furrowed brow.

Her whole body ached, and her lower body in particular felt unusually sore in a way that felt wrong.

She held her breath, slowly lifted the blanket, and looked down at herself.

“……”

One strap of her linen dress had slipped down and everything was in disarray.

Shiloh sat still for a moment, tilted her head with a frown, and then.

Rustle.

Shiloh’s eyes flew open. She quickly straightened her clothes and pulled back the curtain.

In the faint sunlight filtering through the window, her body was reflected.

Her skin was mottled red here and there, as if bitten by insects all over.

Only then did the full picture come together, and Shiloh’s heart plummeted.

“You’re awake?”

She snapped her head toward the voice.

A man sat on the bed, buttoning his shirt, his broad back to her.

“……”

Shiloh’s mind went blank and she pressed her hand over her mouth.

The events of the night before came flooding back.

‘You couldn’t stay the night, could you?’

Her heart hammered.

Blood rushed to her head.

Shiloh wanted to slap herself.

‘I must have lost my mind. Spending a night with my investor……’

She chewed her lip, trying to think of something appropriate to say, and finally managed to speak.

“About last night……”

Before she could finish, he adjusted his sleeve and turned around.

Tall, with broad shoulders. And the features were similar to the man she had seen last night, but……

Black hair. Eyes a cold, deep red.

Shiloh tilted her head.

He was a strikingly handsome man she had never seen before, with a completely different air about him.

Her eyes went wide.

“Who…… are you?”

Shiloh quickly grabbed a pillow and backed away in a defensive posture.

Had the man who had spent that burning night with her not been the investor she had assumed?

“You don’t know who I am?”

Kyle approached her.

The voice was her investor’s, but……

“Um…… you said you shaved the beard…… but your hair is…… and your eyes too…… why did they suddenly change?”

Shiloh muttered to herself, her index finger fidgeting.

“They haven’t changed.”

“Pardon?”

Shiloh stared at him with bewildered eyes.

His lips moved carefully.

“Kyle Ios.”

“Kyle…… Ios…… that’s the same name as the emperor.”

Shiloh murmured with a dazed expression, then startled suddenly and her eyes flew wide.