“I loved you. Please, just keep going without looking back.”

When those words came out of Anne’s mouth, Evan felt like he couldn’t breathe.

The pain in his chest intensified as the memory of her final moments, which he had tried so hard to forget, came rushing back.

Evan knelt on the floor, pressing his forehead against the back of her hand. He kept repeating to himself that it was just a nightmare and that she was alive and beside him, but he couldn’t calm down.

Just like the moment when he had been left alone in the world, Evan couldn’t breathe. Tears fell as he feared she might never open her eyes again.

“Evan?”

Waking up, Anne saw Evan crying as he clung to her and, startled, sat up in bed.

As soon as Evan saw that she had opened her eyes, he climbed on top of her.

Anne, who was briefly surprised, gently wiped the tears from Evan’s face with the back of her hand. Despite that, tears continued to fall on her cheeks.

Evan slowly lowered his head.

Anne thought he was about to kiss her and closed her eyes softly, but she felt no touch on her lips.

Instead, Evan rested his head on her shoulder, trying to stifle his sobs. Anne cautiously patted his back.

“Why are you suddenly like this?”

“……”

“If you don’t want to talk, that’s okay too.”

It was in the midst of this prolonged silence.

“Earlier, I had a dream—a really vivid one. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“…It was a bad dream. You shouldn’t dwell on it.”

“How can you be so sure it was a bad dream?”

Anne smiled softly as she recalled the details of her dream, which still lingered in her mind. They say dreams are a reflection of the unconscious mind; the thought made her blush, wondering if she had ever imagined such things before.

In the dream, Evan had been a bit rougher, more abrasive, but still undeniably captivating. Their first meeting had been different from reality, almost like a drama.

And then there was the moment when he saved her from the Evian family… Oh, and that time when she was being followed while trying to procure medical supplies in the alley. She had escaped thanks to him, too.

As she inhaled his familiar musk, Anne thought to herself.

‘It was a good dream.’

Even if she had died in the end, it was a happy dream.

“Forget it.”

“Oh, come on. It was a good dream.”

Evan shook his head. He had clearly heard the words she had spoken before she died. How could that be a good dream?

“I don’t believe you.”

“Aren’t you curious about what kind of dream it was?”

Anne found Evan’s childlike behavior endearing and let out a small laugh. Evan responded in a low, somber voice.

“…You died, didn’t you?”

Anne continued to comfort Evan, who was still quietly sobbing, and asked,

“How did you know…?”

How could he forget that vivid memory?

Evan lifted his head to look at Anne.

He could feel the heartbeat through their connected chests. This small rhythm that saved him every day was something she would never understand.

“If it’s about you, I know everything.”

“You’re lying. It’s just a dream.”

Evan gave a pained smile.

“That dream… just forget it. It wasn’t a good one, was it?”

“…Even if I died in the dream, I was glad you lived.”

At that, Evan’s tears started flowing again. His blue eyes shimmered beneath the wet lashes.

It was strange to see a man who once seemed fearless now crying because of her. It made Anne’s heart tingle.

Just as Anne was about to tell him to stop crying, she felt the soft touch of his tongue filling her mouth. It was a deep, insistent kiss that explored every inch of her mouth.

In the silent room, the sound of their tongues meeting was the only thing that filled the air.

Anne, holding onto Evan’s shirt tightly, was too overwhelmed to think of anything but responding to his passionate advances.

In truth, she had anticipated this.

From the moment he offered to take her home, she knew this was where it would lead.

She knew what could happen when a grown man and woman were alone together in the same house.

But even knowing that, she couldn’t resist.

Though she had told Evan it was a happy dream, the truth was that she would have been a little scared to wake up alone.

If it weren’t for Evan by her side, crying with her, she might have still felt as if she were truly dead.

She might have even gone so far as to ask around, just to make sure nothing had happened to him, fearing that the dream was some kind of premonition.

As tears and breaths mingled and wet their faces, the two of them sought each other’s warmth, intertwining with one another.

“Let’s go to my house now, Anne.”

For the first time, Anne nodded to a proposal she had rejected countless times before. Evan struggled to contain his emotions as he asked again,

“When we get back, marry me.”

Anne nodded again and replied,

“Alright. Love me—so much that I lose my mind.”

Evan slowly undid the buttons on her dress.

He had no intention of warning her that it was too late to change her mind. After tonight, he planned to take her to the duke’s mansion immediately.

Even if her feelings for him stemmed from pity for his helplessness without her, it didn’t matter. Even if her answer was given in the heat of the moment, it didn’t matter.

Now that he had her permission, Evan had no intention of holding back.

He kissed the exposed skin of her neck, inhaling her scent.

His thigh slipped between hers, and with urgent hands, he began to unbutton his shirt.

Anne blushed and tried to cover her face with her hands, but it was futile. His long fingers wrapped around her wrists, lifting them above her head.

“Evan!”

“Quiet. Your brother might hear.”

He whispered softly in her ear, licking the edge with his tongue. His hot breath sent shivers across her body.

He trailed kisses down her neck, sucking and licking the spot where her pulse throbbed. The faint heartbeat beneath his lips calmed him.

Anne tried to close her legs against the growing warmth in her lower belly, but his knee kept them apart.

“Hah… Evan, please…”

Soon, as Evan’s hands explored every sensitive spot, Anne couldn’t help but moan.

“Ahh, hnngh…”

Evan wiped the saliva from his lips with the back of his hand and spoke.

“Yes. Your brother is a grown man now; he should understand.”

Anne couldn’t comprehend what he was saying, but the mention of her ‘brother’ during such an intimate moment filled her with a sense of shame.

Turning away out of embarrassment, Anne was quickly turned back by Evan.

As her clothes loosened, the soft curves of her body quivered visibly.

When Evan’s expression changed upon seeing this, Anne, flustered, began to slide downward.

Finally, her face met his chest, out of sight of his gaze. She wrapped her arms around his waist and cried out.

“Don’t stare at me like that.”

Just as she thought she had escaped his predatory gaze by hiding in his chest.

Evan let out a low groan, as if suppressing something, and whispered softly.

“I didn’t realize it would be this provocative.”

Anne looked up at him with confusion in her eyes.

‘Why?’

Unaware of what she had provoked, Anne felt her entire body melt under Evan’s intense kisses.

It was when she felt the blunt, soft tip of his tongue touch her sensitive spot. Evan’s gleaming red lips explored her body, as if unwilling to end this easily.

By the time she felt like she was floating in a cloud, Evan finally moved like a beast.

No matter how many times they did it, Anne could never get used to the electrifying sensation. Utterly exhausted, she collapsed on the bed.

A pounding sensation echoed in a corner of Anne’s heart.

Perhaps it was the lingering effect of that dream.

‘I won’t be able to let this man go.’

To him, she was a fateful encounter; to her, he was destiny.

This relentless connection would never be severed by her own hands.

TL NOTE: Visit dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and stories