Thear might not have appreciated it, but Lysiana found the way he had noticed something was wrong deeply pleasing.

It sounded to her like Thear had been thinking of her even while handling dangerous matters far away, with his life on the line.

The fact that an unreturned letter had struck him as strange spoke to how close they were, and that put her at ease.

“I want to go back to the main estate soon. Maybe something will come back to me once we’re there.”

Lysiana said it brightly and burrowed into Thear’s coat.

Thear held her a little tighter and nodded.

“…Yes. That may well be.”

The wind was colder than the day before.

* * *

Lysiana without her memories was so endearing that even calling her endearing felt like an offense.

She smiled easily and often, and tossed out small jokes without a second thought.

“Thear. Here too….”

Above all, the moments when she met his eyes without hesitation or asked for affection in her sweet way were enough to put a strain on his heart.

Every time Lysiana acted like that, Thear felt something inside him slowly being worn away.

This relationship was far too precarious.

He knew that, and yet he could not stop himself from indulging her every whim.

“Hah.”

Her reddened, wet lips parted and a short gasp slipped out.

Lysiana gave honest responses each time Thear licked and bit at the soft mound of her chest.

She seemed to know only how to please him.

“…Lysiana.”

He explored Lysiana’s body hungrily, like a parched beast.

He nibbled at the peak rising from her chest while his fingertips traced carefully down her soft belly.

Then when he pressed into the hidden cleft between her legs, the body that had gone limp with pleasure would stiffen with tension.

“Don’t hide.”

Thear stopped her from closing her legs and pressed mercilessly into her.

“Ah, mm!”

Her white chest heaved each time his fingers rubbed through the tight, wet folds one by one.

He tasted her ribs with his tongue as they rose and fell, and pressed his lips to her parted mouth, breathing into her.

Watching his wife come undone and shudder helplessly each time his hands found her made something inside him burn.

It felt like thick molten metal was scorching through his insides and rising to pool at the back of his throat.

It was maddening.

And at the same time, intoxicating.

“The problem is that you keep being so adorable.”

“But you keep….”

Lysiana whimpered and grabbed Thear’s bare shoulder.

“Touching all the strange places….”

Listening to her sulky complaint, his fingertips pressed harder.

He bore down on the small, sensitive spot where Lysiana reacted most intensely and rubbed firmly inside her, and her thighs trembled in small shivers.

“You see.”

You’re the one seducing me.

Thear muttered quickly against her chest and finally pressed into her.

“Hah, mm…!”

By now she ought to have grown used to him. And yet Lysiana still took her husband in with some difficulty.

“You would do well to know that I want you at the slightest provocation.”

Thear pressed Lysiana’s back deep into the mattress and warned her in a low voice.

“I have no desire to be a fool who acts like a monk in front of the wife he loves.”

He let out the somewhat rough words and lifted Lysiana’s calves high. The point where they joined came fully into view.

“I don’t like this.”

Lysiana whimpered and twisted her hips.

But Thear became just a little cruel at exactly these moments, and ignored his beloved wife’s resistance.

“Be still, Lysiana.”

He spread the plump flesh of the already-stretched opening a little wider with his fingers.

The sight was stark. The soft, flushed skin, spread open like flower petals, twitched as it took him in.

“This is what you like most.”

He said it with a faint smile and complete certainty.

Each time Thear pulled back halfway and pressed in again, the soaked point of contact flinched rapidly.

“You see.”

“Mm, hm….”

Lysiana tried to hide her flushed face in the pillow. But Thear would not allow even that small rebellion from his wife.

“Lysiana.”

Thear lightly cupped her chin and lowered his upper body.

His tongue licked her wet lips and then slid gently inside, drawing out her saliva.

Lysiana accepted her husband’s kiss, now as familiar as anything, and pulled his neck toward her.

That seemed to be the signal. Thear began driving his hips in earnest.

“Hah, ah, ahh…!”

Lysiana let out breathless, helpless moans, soaked in the pleasure he gave her.

She swayed in the same rhythm as her husband, felt the slick friction of skin against skin through her whole body, and welcomed the full weight of him with gladness.

“Mmm. Lysiana.”

Thear let out a satisfied groan and pulled her back in tight.

He supported her back, where he could feel the shape of her bones, with his forearm, and her light body came rushing up against him.

“Ahh!”

The moment he settled her onto his thigh, Lysiana’s hips bucked violently.

“Don’t run away.”

Thear kissed her sweat-damp forehead and pressed down on her prominent hip bones with both hands.

He was already as deep inside her as he could go, and still he wanted to go deeper.

He wanted to stir through every part of this tender, sensitive, shameless depth and leave his mark there.

He pressed deeper in search of more, and Lysiana’s thighs shook and trembled.

Each time her tightly clenching inner walls gripped him, he felt the thick ridges of her, and each time he dragged against that spot, her hips bucked again.

“Huu, mm, mmn….”

Lysiana panted in short, ragged breaths and rubbed her forehead against his shoulder.

“It’s too deep, too deep…. You can’t go in….”

Even her voice, sniffling and pleading in a rush, was endearing.

For a moment, a wicked impulse reared up, wanting to make her cry more and squirm further.

“Mmng.”

But looking at her wet eyes and hearing the cute little complaint that slipped out, the greed drained away on its own.

“Shall I let you go?”

“Mm.”

“Lysiana.”

He pressed ticklish kisses to her tear-soaked lashes and asked again, mischievously.

“You have to answer. Shall I let you go?”

“Mm, mm….”

Lysiana made a small crying sound and buried her face in Thear’s chest.

“Hold me.”

If he had to name the most harmful and most adorable answer in the world, it would be this one.

Thear let the laugh that escaped him show, and gave it back to Lysiana.

“Like this?”

The moment he moved his hips gently, Lysiana breathed out a hot breath against his chest.

The room filled with flushed heat and the scent of desire.

Thear held Lysiana until satisfaction filled him completely, and Lysiana, though it was a little much for her, welcomed him willingly.

“Hah, ah…!”

“Huuu.”

He drew a deep breath and finally finished inside Lysiana.

Thear moved his hips a few more times in the slick warmth of her before finally pulling out.

When he withdrew completely, her hips, hanging limp and spent, gave a faint shiver.

“I’m sorry for being too rough with you.”

Thear apologized belatedly when he found his wife thoroughly exhausted.

He laid her spent body down carefully and scattered small kisses along the fluttering edges of her eyes.

“Sleep if you’re tired.”

The red, glistening opening still seeping with what had spilled out was so tempting he desperately wanted to press back inside, but if he kept going, Lysiana would truly cry.

Feeling guilty, he pulled her damp body close and began gently stroking her side where a faint sheen of sweat had gathered.

Watching Lysiana’s face as she blinked slowly in the lingering haze of pleasure, he felt as though time had stopped.

He wanted this moment to go on just like this.

“You know.”

Thear was still holding onto that wish when Lysiana spoke in a husky voice.

“I heard earlier today. That your subordinate finished the work….”

“Ah. That.”

He snapped to attention, suddenly sharp, like cold water had been thrown over him.

“So are we going back to the main estate now?”

“Yes. We’ll have to. I can’t leave things unattended indefinitely.”

“I’m curious.”

Lysiana smiled softly at his answer.

Thear reflexively kissed the corner of her lips and asked back.

“About what?”

“Your room and my room.”

Lysiana answered, blinking slowly.

“This is a villa, so there isn’t much here. But once we’re back at the main estate, your room and my room will each be decorated to our own tastes, won’t they?”

Lysiana murmured in a rambling way, as though sleep was rushing in fast.

“Actually. I’ve been wanting to know all along. What you like, what kind of taste you have….”

“Then why not just ask me.”

“Because you know the real me, but I can’t remember. What if I ask too many questions and you start to find me strange.”

Lysiana’s complaint dug painfully into Thear’s chest.

“That would be…. awful.”

Yes. Awful.

The fact that I know nothing of what you truly feel.

Thear felt his body temperature drop and quietly patted Lysiana’s back.

“When we get back, I’ll let you look to your heart’s content. For now, go to sleep.”

“Mmn. You too.”

“Yes.”

“Good night.”

Lysiana kissed his lips in a drowsy daze. Soon her breathing settled into a steady, even rhythm and she fell asleep.

His beloved wife had fallen asleep, but Thear could not close his eyes.

Being yanked out of a dream and thrown into a fire would not leave him feeling this unsettled.

Thear knew a great deal about Lysiana, but he did not know Lysiana.

What she ate. What she wore. Where she went. What she did during the day…. All of it was secondhand information, reported to him like a man obsessed, nothing more than surface facts visible from the outside.