Perhaps we had been a couple so deeply in love that others would have looked away in embarrassment, freely exchanging affection without a care in the world.

To Lysiana, who had lost her memories, her husband was essentially a stranger she was meeting for the first time.

And yet, his touch felt natural, and holding his gaze like this was not uncomfortable.

It felt like her body remembered him.

That thought suddenly made her curious about the man before her.

What kind of daily life had they shared, what moments had they spent together. How had they looked at each other, how had they touched.

‘We’re husband and wife, after all.’

Unable to contain her curiosity, Lysiana set the bouquet down beside her.

She pressed her knees into the soft mattress, pushed herself upright with all her strength, and reached out to grab her husband’s shoulder.

His sturdy shoulders looked like a great wall that would never budge, yet they yielded easily to her small force.

At last, her lips met Thear’s.

A soft sound rang out, and through his clothes she felt his shoulders go rigid.

“The flowers…. Thank you.”

Embarrassed for no real reason, Lysiana quickly pulled back.

It was only a light kiss on the cheek, not even on the lips.

Surely that much could count as a simple gesture of affection, so why did she feel so flustered?

She tried to hide the heat burning in her earlobes by fiddling with the bouquet she had just set down.

“L, look. Now that I see it, the flowers are the exact same color as my dress.”

Lysiana chattered away with deliberate cheerfulness, trying to dissolve the awkwardness.

“Right? Even this lace looks similar….”

Thear still stood frozen like an idiot, and only she was desperately casting about for something to talk about.

“….”

But her husband had no intention of responding to her efforts. Lysiana, suddenly growing timid, stole a glance at him.

‘Did he not like it?’

He wouldn’t think she was an improper woman, would he?

Looking back on it, her behavior did seem strange.

She worried he might see her as someone who flirted easily with anyone.

“I just… I was grateful that you bought me flowers….”

And you kissed my forehead yesterday, too.

She instinctively swallowed the retort back down her throat.

“Lysiana.”

Just then, Thear’s heavily suppressed voice dropped down onto the top of her head.

“Yes?”

The moment Lysiana looked up to answer him, a large, warm hand seized the back of her head.

Her breath caught at the same time.

“Mmph…!”

Lysiana squeezed her eyes shut and gripped Thear’s arm with both hands.

A hot, uninvited presence pushed past her lips and explored her mouth with abandon.

His firm hand pressed tight, as though it would not permit escape. And yet it did not hurt her.

As though it would never cause her harm.

“Hm, mmn….”

A faint breath slipped out between their tightly sealed lips.

Lysiana tried her best to breathe and to match her husband’s movements.

Her hands, with nowhere else to go, still clung to Thear’s forearm, and her waist, which had been floating awkwardly in the air, was now somehow caught in his hand.

“Hah, mm.”

Her hands traveled up along his forearm, feeling their way. The destination she finally found was his broad shoulder and the nape of his neck.

Just as Thear had pulled her waist toward him, Lysiana wrapped her arms around his neck.

At that, Thear’s shoulders jerked like someone who had been burned.

“Hah!”

He suddenly pulled away and let out a breath heavy with desire. The heat in his body still simmered intensely.

Thear stared down at her, swallowing hard several times like a man parched with thirst.

“My lady, why did you….”

He forced the words out with effort.

“But… you were the one who….”

Lysiana replied in a daze.

It was Thear, not Lysiana, who had kissed her so intensely first. And now he was asking why she had let him?

Lysiana looked up at her husband with that question in her eyes. What came back was nothing short of absurd.

“You still should have refused.”

“…What?”

He had grabbed the back of her head without warning and wouldn’t let her escape, and now he was telling her to refuse?

Had her husband always been the kind of person who said such outrageous things with a straight face?

“To you right now, I am a stranger, am I not. If I suddenly… if I act impulsively like that, you should push me away and say no….”

Lysiana shot a sideways glare at her husband, who had fumbled and changed his words midway.

“Why should I?”

She shot back pointedly and pushed out her lower lip.

Her lips, which had carried a soft flush of color, had grown slightly swollen and full. And glistening with moisture, they looked exactly like a perfectly ripe cherry.

Thear still could not take his eyes off that tempting little thing.

“Of course, I am at fault for acting on impulse, but….”

“I didn’t dislike it.”

“….”

“I didn’t dislike it. I was a little surprised, but…. You’re still my husband, and also….”

Lysiana trailed off, her eyes darting around to avoid Thear’s gaze as she searched for an excuse.

But no suitable reason came to mind.

“There was no reason to push you away either….”

Lysiana’s eyes kept rolling around, and her face began to turn redder and redder.

Suddenly, she felt wronged. He was the one who had acted impulsively, so why was he speaking to her in a way that seemed to lay the blame on her?

“You were the one who started it…!”

The surge of indignation that had been about to spill out into a protest quickly died down.

There was nothing to gain from damaging her relationship with her husband right now.

Of course, Thear did not seem petty enough to get angry just because she pushed back a little. She also could not imagine someone of his size doing something so small-minded.

Still, pressing Thear with a strong protest did not seem like a good idea.

“Y, you were holding me like this.”

In the end, all she could manage was a meek little defense.

Even as she whimpered and mumbled like a puppy, Lysiana kept stealing glances at him, just in case.

How they normally talked and argued, what kind of person Thear was, what he liked and what he disliked.

She could not remember a single thing, so she could not help but shrink into herself.

Thear, on the other hand, was about to lose his mind.

‘She could have just said something.’

Why did she have to take his hand and bring it to that small, beloved head of hers?

How could she act so freely with him like this, when she didn’t even have her memories?

‘Is she this open with me because she has no memories?’

If her memories had been intact, the two of them would never have been sitting face to face like this in the first place.

That thought made him suddenly regret wasting this moment, this opportunity.

He had never let it show, but Thear had always felt a certain lack with Lysiana. And the Lysiana before him now did not avoid him.

No, far from avoiding him, she had said she didn’t dislike it.

‘If it’s now.’

Now would be fine. He could take her, as much as he wanted.

The impulse he had worked so hard to suppress caught fire again.

The last scraps of conscience at the bottom of his soul were beating his better nature senseless, but for that conscience to do its job, the Lysiana in front of him was far too….

‘D*mn.’

She was defenseless.

Setting aside the fact that she was practically already in his arms, she wore a nightgown that looked like it would slip off with almost no effort, and from her drifted a sweet scent he couldn’t quite place.

And on top of that, a Lysiana who reached out to him first.

Thear recalled how she had behaved moments ago, when he had impulsively kissed his wife.

The weight she had surrendered entirely to him, her head tilted back like a baby bird.

Her lips, breathless yet earnestly moving against his, had been dangerously sweet.

Of everything, what stirred him most was her warmth.

The warmth of her clumsy hands, so slender they looked like they might snap if he held them wrong, as they traveled up his arm. The heat that touched the nape of his neck. The feel of her skin….

Not a single thing failed to captivate him.

What was more, Thear had not laid a hand on Lysiana since their wedding night.

‘Hnngh….’

He had not wanted to force himself on a wife who bit her lips until they bled trying not to show the shock of her first experience.

Thear had not wanted Lysiana to remember him as that kind of shameless husband.

If he ever held Lysiana in his arms, it had to be entirely of her own will.

He had surely made that vow to himself….

“Hah.”

Right now, Lysiana was shaking that vow mercilessly.

“And you’re so strong that even if I tried to push you away, you wouldn’t budge….”

Lysiana mumbled, rolling her jewel-like eyes.

Whether she said it or not, Thear had no room to spare to listen to her complaints.

He wanted to drag his tongue across that pouting pink cheek, knead it in his hands, and tease her with it.

He desperately wanted to stroke that waist that fit easily within both hands, bury his nose in the full curves hidden beneath her flowing nightgown, drink in her scent, and lose himself in her completely.

‘You madman. She’s a patient right now.’

Two selves warred furiously within him.

The strange thing was, the one screaming at him to take Lysiana right then and there looked exactly like Lysiana herself.

I’ll touch you and burn what’s left of your reason to the ground.

‘What is this woman trying to do to me?’

Thear swallowed anxiously, his throat dry.

“Yes. It is entirely my fault, so please let go of my hand first and we can talk.”

“No. You touched me too.”

Lysiana shot back with a pout. Her words landed in Thear’s ears like this:

You touched me, so I’ll touch you too.

I’ll touch you and burn what’s left of your reason to the ground.

“And besides, what’s wrong with holding hands? We’re husband and wife anyway.”

Lysiana demonstratively pulled his hand toward her and laced their fingers together.