mething else entirely, bold and unrestrained.

“Ah—”

His lips swallowed hers in an instant. The warm, yielding pressure where their mouths met made Hari’s chest tremble so violently she couldn’t even breathe properly.

She stood there, helpless, feet fidgeting against the pool floor, until his lips parted from hers with a soft sound.

The fleeting warmth of that moment still lingered on her lips. It was sweet enough to make her dizzy.

“Come closer.”

Hari was still savoring the feeling, fingers brushing her own lips, when he made it clear this wasn’t over. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her flush against him.

Heat passed back and forth between their pressed-together bodies as if in competition.

Hari stared up at him, swallowing hard.

She hoped desperately, and then hoped again, that the look in his eyes as he gazed down at her, tender as if he were watching something precious, was not just her imagination. She waited for what he would do next.

“Don’t you dare say you want to take it back.”

As if answering her anticipation, his sweet lips found hers again. There was no comparing the closed-mouth kiss from before to this one, lips parting fully against hers. A breathless, unguarded sound escaped her on its own.

He kissed her with relentless, consuming focus, drinking in her every breath, and Hari surrendered hers to him, giving it freely.

She felt no guilt about kissing her bodyguard. From the moment she had reunited with this man in that role, she had known it would come to this.

“Then make sure I can’t take it back even if I wanted to. I have plenty of time.”

Her provocation made him sweep her off her feet. It seemed like things might go even further than that.

It wasn’t the romantic first kiss she had imagined, with bells ringing in the distance, but the dizzying, languid feeling of it was better. Far more romantic than anything she had dreamed of.

“Haah.”

When Hari finally reached her limit, having held her breath again and again, their lips finally parted.

She filled her lungs and tried to settle her spinning head, and her legs, drained of all strength, threatened to give out beneath her.

“This won’t do.”

Jisang lifted her again and set her down on the edge of the terrace floor.

Now that she was higher up, Jisang had to look up at her.