Eve who had tasted the forbidden fruit must have felt exactly like this. She should have rather not known. If she hadn’t kissed him, she might have at least considered the other two men on equal footing, but now she didn’t even feel like doing that.

Both Darryl and Timothy were good people, but when she was with them, she couldn’t feel any attraction. She wasn’t curious about when she would feel like kissing them, and she didn’t particularly want to know what it would feel like to kiss them.

Only Richard Dalton stimulated all that curiosity—even the curiosity beyond that. It was truly a desperate situation.

When she came out of the bookstore feeling lost both as Olivia Jennings and as Vivian Bennett, it was already after dark. When she closed the door and turned around, one large silhouette in a familiar shape quickly passed by Olivia and disappeared.

“……Mr. Dalton?”

Olivia, who had followed the gentleman who had disappeared into the alley with his hat brim pressed down, called him once more.

Whether it was because he judged he had already been caught, or because it was a dead-end alley with no corner to escape to, the man slowly turned his body toward the direction from which the voice calling him was heard. As expected, there was a man with Richard Dalton’s face.

“……Why are you here?”

Richard Dalton was silent for a while with his teeth clenched. He seemed to be thinking of finding an appropriate excuse, but Olivia had no intention of letting it slide from the beginning. It might not be as much as his estate in Sussex, but Little Fortune was at least Olivia’s territory. She wouldn’t back down.

“I just came to see if the matter I requested was handled well. I was about to leave because I didn’t know you would be here.”

“I don’t know what matter you requested, but it doesn’t seem like something that wouldn’t work just because I’m here?”

Richard’s jaw muscles rose once more. Whether it was anger or irritation, he was clearly holding it back, but Olivia thought she’d rather he let it burst out, whatever it was. His attitude of trying to get through everything too calmly and politely might be more suitable for receiving the evaluation of being gentlemanly, but it didn’t help soothe Olivia at all.

What Olivia wanted was the sincere emotion that seemed to have briefly flashed in his eyes during that kiss. The intense attraction that wasn’t visible but had definitely existed. She wanted the man armed with that cold mask to admit that such a thing had definitely been there.

She wanted him to confirm with words in his voice that this wasn’t just Olivia Jennings’ emotion or delusion alone.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

“Weren’t you the one who avoided me?”

He was definitely referring to her fleeing like running away from the Sussex mansion. Olivia had no intention of denying that it had been an escape, but she didn’t think it had been a wrong decision.

How many women could endure with sound mind beside a man who thoroughly ignored her after a kiss that could never be called nothing? Especially while watching another woman who admired that man stick by his side.

“Shouldn’t you be thanking me for avoiding you? …… I saw you holding Tim. Me disappearing without a word should’ve been something to clap and celebrate, shouldn’t it?”

Olivia’s eyes widened. From the deflecting gaze, it seemed like she could hear the words “I thought so.”

She hadn’t thought someone might have been watching. She understood how it must have looked to his eyes, but it wasn’t a result of the emotions he was guessing. She and Timothy knew that, but Richard wouldn’t.

“That’s a misunderstanding.”

“Ah, whether it’s a misunderstanding or not has nothing to do with me. That was the extent of our promise anyway.”

“……You’re really okay with it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying that what happened between us…… was nothing to you?”

Olivia’s voice trembled slightly. She had promised herself that nothing would change because of that kiss, but she didn’t want to have that confirmed by his words. In fact, she knew too well that it couldn’t possibly be nothing.

She didn’t want to believe that that experience was truly nothing. She couldn’t think that all of this was an emotion felt by her alone. Even though her voice trembled, hoping her steps wouldn’t waver, Olivia slowly began walking toward the end of the alley where he was.

“Fine, then.”

Richard, who stood looking at the approaching Olivia, neither opened his tightly closed mouth nor moved his body to avoid the spot. His eyes shining in the darkness flashed like those of a beast, but he couldn’t hide that there was something wounded about them.

In the wild, revealing wounds was exposing one’s weakness. Richard Dalton didn’t know that while staring at her with furious eyes, he had also revealed his weakness. Why he had a hurt face—it would be good if he thought about it a little more. The answer would be surprisingly close. Just as it had been for her.

“If it was nothing anyway, it wouldn’t matter if it happened several times.”

This time it was him, not her, who’s eyes had widened. Olivia was quite satisfied with that. Making it impossible to hide that the man pretending to be indifferent was actually not close to such a thing at all. The fact that she, and no one else, was the one creating such trembling.

“If you’re thinking ‘surely not’ right now…… Yes, that’s right.”

“……Are you insane? I’m not Tim, and there are people passing by behind there.”

“You knew from the beginning that I was a slightly crazy woman. That doesn’t seem like it would be a problem now?”

Olivia was at his chin. Richard found it impossible to stand there without recalling what sensations Olivia Jennings’ lips, now spouting half-mad words, had provided. The memory he had been unable to forget ever since that night was revived by Olivia’s approaching scent.

Richard struggled to suppress the hand that was about to reach out unconsciously. As if mocking such effort, Olivia wrapped both arms around the back of his neck. Following the now quite natural movement, goosebumps spread from his nape to the top of his head.

The breath trapped inside his throat finally burst out. With that undeniable heat, Richard became aware of how hot he was right now.

“……Yes. That’s right. You keep saying it’s nothing.”

Olivia, just like that time, once again pulled his head down. Richard closed his eyes as if he had been waiting only for that moment. He, who had lost his mind to the rushing heat, pulled the back of Olivia’s head and returned the kiss. Richard Dalton’s deception was exposed in an instant.

Forgetting who had said there were people passing by outside the alley, Richard clung to her as if only the woman before his eyes was the sole living, breathing existence in this place. The breath that Olivia Jennings exhaled was hotter, more humid, and sweeter than memory.

His hand that had come down along her white nape and his other hand that embraced her waist were filled with strength. Richard, who had turned the woman’s body to have her back against the wall, blocked Olivia from the outside world. So that Olivia’s world would be filled only with him. So that no one else could see the woman.

Olivia, whose breathing seemed breathless but whose hand gripping his shoulder never let go, raised her body on tiptoe. Richard lightly lifted such a woman. Olivia, who had gently wrapped one foot floating in the air around his body, didn’t part her lips even while hanging in his large embrace. After lowering her head that had been tilted back the entire time, she felt a little more comfortable.

Thinking she could kiss him like this forever, she placed both hands on his cheeks. Richard opened his eyes when he felt that touch.

“……Liv……”

The locked voice whispering the name as if in pain sounded pleasant. Olivia put strength into the hands cupping his cheeks and made him look up at her. The heat that hadn’t subsided within the unextinguished flames fanned Olivia’s desire. If this place hadn’t been some alley next to Little Fortune, then she couldn’t have guaranteed how far things would flow from here.

“……You said it was nothing.”

“……This is absolutely…… Here, I… you……”

Richard couldn’t help but be horrified when the words he couldn’t bring himself to say flashed through his mind. The words he had swallowed with difficulty surged near his throat. No, this really wasn’t right. He had done something wrong to the woman and his friend again. He should have pushed her away. What could he possibly do with such weak will?

“……I started this.”

It was something he shouldn’t have let begin. Richard, who had clenched his teeth, took in Olivia looking down at him. Olivia was still in his arms. While thinking this shouldn’t be happening, dropping the woman wasn’t easy. Now it seemed like he could never escape forever even if he fled to the ends of the earth, not just the ends of England.

“……And this time…… the ending will be entirely my responsibility too.”

“Olivia—”

“You can’t say no. Since it’s nothing to you anyway, it wouldn’t matter much.”

Both of them knew this couldn’t be nothing.

Whatever sounds came from their mouths, it was undeniably clear that it wasn’t the truth. Richard truly wanted to turn back time. To the time before he had kissed Olivia Jennings. No, if possible, before he had met Olivia Jennings.

But soon he thought he couldn’t even be certain whether he truly wanted that.

If it had been another man, not him, who had received that note. If it had been another man, not him, who had kissed these lips. Could he actually stand to watch something that was unbearable even to imagine?

Richard Dalton no longer had the confidence to send the woman in his arms to his friend as he had originally intended, to wish for her happiness with that friend.

“I hope it continues to be…… nothing to you. If that makes it easier for you to give up being a gentleman……”

The woman’s last words chilled his bl＊＊d that had been boiling. With his head where cold bl＊＊d began to circulate, he thought.

He hadn’t known that the price of stepping into this dangerous game would be staking his everything. But also about the reality where he couldn’t be the first to desire or request anything with his own mouth.