Claude, who had only raised his eyes and slightly pressed the gradually swelling flesh with his thumb, gently licked the tears forming in her eyes. He firmly held her flowing hand and made it wrap around the back of his neck.

At that moment, her toes curled desperately as if something was about to burst with a tingling sensation. A cry of pleasure erupted before she could even realize it.

Claude embraced her face to face and laid her on the bed. The contrast between her white swollen br*asts and reddened face was incredibly enchanting.

Moonlight settled on Flora’s n*ked body. The places where his lips had touched her vividly exposed skin were reddish.

The maid showed relatively diverse expressions in front of him.

“……No turning back.”

Claude, who let out a twisted smile, threw off his top. Well-knit muscles appeared below his cleanly carved collarbone. Shadows fell into the hollows between the densely packed muscles over his broad abs.

After unbuckling and unfastening, he pulled out his hardened tip and positioned himself between her slender legs spread wide.

Soon, the large man’s lower body smoothly pressed against her moistened b*ttocks. Her soft flesh filled his grasp completely. The flesh between her twitching l*bia was particularly dark in color.

He slowly rubbed against her immobilized lower part. His weight pressing down heavily, along with his even harder and larger body, was pressing down on her bottom. As if he could enter at any moment.

He parted her tightly closed crevice and dug in somewhat roughly, with his pelvis completely attached.

“Ah, ngh!”

A turbid breath escaped between her teeth. A sticky sensation clung to her b*ttocks, and her lower part tightened snugly.

Claude, furrowing his brow, tapped the swollen point between her legs. Rather than forcing it in with strength, it was an act to relax her body and make her loosen up.

The action of rubbing the slightly protruding area was teasingly long. Before she knew it, her lower part, drenched in fluid, was gradually opening up and fully accepting him.

Claude gently stroked her tense body as if coaxing her.

Once her body’s trembling subsided as she relaxed somewhat, he pushed himself in strongly again. His thick body line swam through her inside, sliding.

“Ha……! Ungh.”

The view of his broad chest shook dizzyingly. She panted with heated breaths at the act that followed no rules.

Over the slippery sensation, the sound of flesh colliding continued without pause. It felt as if his dynamic movements were being engraved on her entire body.

Suddenly, the view that had been shaking for a while stopped, and her emptied lower part felt hollow. As she tried to look with puzzled eyes, he turned her waist that he had embraced and made her lie face down on the bed.

After placing a couple of pillows under her lower body in that position, she assumed a posture with her b*ttocks raised. Claude’s broad upper body pressed against Flora’s back.

In the brief moment, a hot sensation rushed in where the cool air had touched. As she felt the strength in his firm thighs, Claude’s firm b*ttocks moved smoothly, burying himself in her body.

This time, the pristine white bedding in her view began to shake wildly. At some point, her lips started panting strange breaths on their own.

“Haah……”

He firmly held her trembling body and rubbed their connection point slowly. In that brief moment, her contracting p*ssy tightly squeezed his twitching c*ck.

“Hah…… This is maddening.”

Claude’s brow slightly furrowed as he exhaled a rough breath. Her p*ssy, which gripped something much larger than herself as if unwilling to lose, perfectly resembled its owner.

Claude slipped his hand between where she met the bedding and languidly caressed her plump belly that struggled to contain his c*ck. As her abdomen tightened, a delicate moan burst out.

“I might just finish like this.”

He pulled her waist strongly toward himself, then drew his hips back before thrusting up. The soft sheets crumpled under her pale hands.

“Haah…… Ah, unng……”

The shadows of the two people overlapping on the low bed moved up and down for quite some time.

Clear tears flowed down and soaked into the white sheets. Just as her vision grew increasingly blurry and dizziness set in, he finally let out a turbid moan and the pulsing of his muscles ceased.

Flora closed her eyes at the feeling of heat thoroughly warming her lower abdomen. As the passionate lovemaking ended, deep slumber overtook her.

Claude gently brushed back her hair, damp with cold sweat. Her clear, sound asleep face looked quite peaceful.

As he removed a few strands of hair stuck to her cheek, his gaze naturally fell on her white, round forehead. I pushed her a bit too hard. After wiping away the sweat that had formed, her eyelids fluttered as if ticklish.

Does she not wake easily when tired?

No, in fact, he knew. He knew that she, who reacted most sensitively while everyone else was asleep, had been sleeping quietly in his arms for some time now.

The only aspect of her that he, who knew little about her properly, knew well was how she appeared solely when in his arms.

And the same was true for him as well.

The fact that Flora lay beside him brought him a sense of peace. To the extent that delving deep inside her could fill his empty heart.

A self-deprecating laugh escaped at how pathetic it was. Looking at her unusually small and thin back, Claude became lost in thought.

A woman straddling the middle of the line he had drawn.

It’s merely compassion. So he shouldn’t think about or show interest in what her life was like before, or her life before losing her memories.

He just needed to never open the only door that led inside.

He closed his eyes, making excuses to himself.

* * *

The refreshing morning air lingered at the tip of her nose.

Flora, who opened her eyes to the crystalline birdsong, suddenly stretched her arm to the side. Her hand, seeking the warmth from the night before, momentarily lost its way.

As she raised her body, she soon realized she was left alone on the large bed. The spot beside her had been empty for some time, with only a cool sensation lingering.

‘He left.’

Somehow her body lost strength at the fact that he had gone without a word, as always.

The duke who visited in the late night had embraced her with a slightly different face than usual. It’s hard to explain, but it was definitely different compared to their usual lovemaking.

He, who liked to look at her face while embracing her, occasionally averted his gaze last night and was excessively sparing with words. Though just for a moment, his gaze also seemed complex and subtle.

“There was a smell of blood……”

Judging the scent of blood that emanated from him, she could guess it had been a rough day.

Emerging from her memories, Flora removed the blanket and got out of bed. Since she couldn’t postpone her maid duties, she changed the sheets that fully contained last night’s pleasure and hurriedly went out to the corridor.

As soon as she left her room, Flora knocked on the duke’s door.

It was to attend to his morning needs, as he would naturally be inside, and she also wanted to ask if his physical condition was alright. The duke’s expression, which looked somehow different yesterday, kept bothering her.

But there was no response. She carefully peered inside, but Claude was nowhere to be seen. For some reason, she felt anxious.

As Flora looked around the corridor and descended the stairs, she spotted Deverik just entering through the front door and approached him in one stride.

“Butler, have you seen the master?”

He wore a somewhat unexpected expression.

“He just left by carriage. But how did you know he briefly stopped by at dawn?”

“……I vaguely heard the sound of a carriage at dawn.”

Flora, who almost made an awkward face, answered with a slight bow.

“You have keen ears to have heard that. It seems he just stopped by briefly. He said it would be difficult for him to return today as well.”

Fortunately, her answer seemed plausible as the butler smiled kindly and passed by her.

So he had already left in that short time.

With an anxious heart, Flora flung open the front door and went outside. She could see a carriage rolling away far beyond the gate.

In that moment, she felt utterly deflated.

Suddenly, she regretted last night when they hadn’t properly conversed. Beyond seeing him after a long time, she doubted whether she had conveyed what she wanted to say as well as she had intended.

Walking along the stepping stones placed at intervals, Flora turned her head in regret. By then, the carriage that had passed through the gate had disappeared without a trace.

* * *

“If you were going to do this, why did you even come to the mansion?”

Heriot grumbled while looking at Claude’s face, which had dark shadows under his eyes from fatigue.

“I came to sleep.”

Claude retorted bluntly, resting his chin on his hand and looking out the window. He was now in a rattling carriage with Heriot and Baren.