“…It’s my father’s…”
At my answer, Kael let out a low, slow smirk — thin and sharp.
“Ah. Is that right. Your father’s.”
“Ha… yes.”
I scratched the back of my head, mortified.
“Do you think I believe that?”
“Pardon?”
“You’d better tell me the truth. Before I track the man down and tear him apart.”
“Pardon?!”
His eyes were the eyes of a predator who had watched his prey slip away at the last moment.
Kael pressed closer still, bearing down on me with nothing more than his gaze.
Those blood-red eyes — blazing with a light that was far from ordinary — told me everything: this man had completely and utterly snapped.
The pulse in my ears hammered like a blaring alarm, warning me of the danger that had drawn right up to my face.
I reached up with both hands and cupped his face between my palms.
“K-Kael! Please — just calm down for a moment!”
“Do I look like I can calm down right now.”
“It really is my father’s! The Count of Florence!”
The blood-red irises shifted — barely, almost imperceptibly. The cold, blazing light that had occupied his gaze began, slowly, to recede.
“…The Count of Florence?”
He raised one eyebrow.
“Y-yes! That’s right!”
His crimson eyes blinked once. Twice. Slowly.
It was impossible to say for certain — but reason, gradually, seemed to be returning to him.
“I snuck the shirt out of his things. It doesn’t belong to another man.”
I said it the way you might coax a small child through a misunderstanding, guiding him gently — hands still cradling his face, pressing lightly as though testing the texture of something.
“…Your father’s shirt,” he repeated.
He seemed to feel my touch, closing his eyes slowly as he murmured the words back.
“Yes. Where else would I have gotten a man’s shirt from?”
“…”
I was terrified.
Cold sweat was trickling down my spine, and I could feel every drop.
Kael’s eyes remained closed. The ragged roughness of his breath was gradually settling, evening out.
The faint warmth of each exhale grazed both my wrists where they framed his face.
This isn’t zookeeping — this is animal taming.
“…Have you calmed down now?”
“Yes.”
“Thank goodness. I thought I was about to be hunted for sport in someone else’s bedroom…”
“You should have said so from the beginning.”
“…I was saying it from the beginning.”
My protest, as usual, was ignored completely.
Kael offered no response to my complaint.
Now that the immediate crisis had passed, I became abruptly aware of the rather peculiar position we’d ended up in. My legs were coiled around his waist like a vine. He was leaning over me entirely, his upper body angled toward mine.
Which meant — I was half-lying across the table, holding his face in my hands.
Oh no. This is mortifying. What on earth does this look like?
Heat flooded through me from crown to toe, rushing all at once through every vein in my body.
“I-I mean — Kael? Our position is a little — ah!”
In an instant, my slender body lifted off the table entirely.
Kael had wrapped both arms firmly around my back and swept me up without hesitation.
“Was the position uncomfortable?”
He held me easily, face buried against the curve of my neck, drawing in a slow, deliberate breath.
The sharp line of his nose grazed and nuzzled the side of my throat.
I clamped my jaw shut so hard my teeth ached.
If I made so much as a sound, he would blame it on me — claim I’d been the one to tempt him.
I threw my arms around his neck before I lost my balance, clinging to him once again.
His hair brushed against my right cheek, soft and tickling.
A faint metallic scent drifted to me.
That’s the blood of the animals he hunted earlier. Obviously.
He’s frightening.
Wait — wait.
Haven’t I forgotten something important?
I was doing my best to ignore the sensations he was pressing into my skin, clawing my way back toward reason — when it hit me.
I came here to pretend to be a woman of loose morals!
The whole absurd shirt-ownership incident had completely derailed my plan.
And then — whomp — my body dropped onto the mattress.
I lay still, holding my breath.
His slow, quiet exhale hovered somewhere above my head.
I looked up cautiously.
His eyes were closed, both arms still loosely around me.
Is he asleep?
I slowly lowered my gaze.
The stubbornly fastened buttons of his uniform stared back at me.
Those wretched buttons. I will undo them today if it’s the last thing I do.
I practiced so hard. Why wouldn’t they come undone before?
Because I was nervous. That’s all. This time would be different.
This time, I’ll succeed.
With that resolve firmly planted, I reached toward his buttons once more.
Slowly. Carefully. Delicately.
And then — click — the first button came free.
I can’t believe it. I actually did it.
One by one, I worked my way down to the last.
All right — now what was I supposed to do?
I quickly turned back to Emily’s instructions in my memory.
“Men, generally speaking, dislike an overly assertive woman. Most prefer to take the lead themselves.”
“So after I’ve undone the buttons…?”
“Get on top of him. That should be enough to make him think, ‘Hm? What is this woman doing…?’ — and he may very well push you off in alarm.”
Right. I was supposed to get on top of him!
I nudged his arm gently to the side. He shifted onto his back.
I wasted no time climbing on top of him.
But what do I do once I’m up here?
I forgot to ask that part.
Actually — did it even make sense to do this when he was asleep?
But I couldn’t exactly wake a man who seemed to be sleeping so soundly.
I stared up at the ceiling for a moment, weighing whether or not to rouse him.
…It’s probably best to let him sleep for today. He must be exhausted.
With that conclusion settled, I began to carefully, quietly ease myself back down off him—
“…!”
Two hands locked around both my thighs.
Firm. Unrelenting.
He was sitting up now. No idea when he’d woken. His eyes were open and fixed on me.
Kael wrapped both arms around my waist — as though it belonged to him — and held fast.
Then he pressed one broad palm flat against my back, ensuring I couldn’t retreat.
His touch was so sure and unguarded that I tensed, pulling my stomach in hard.
“Y-you were asleep!”
“You woke me.”
He tilted his head toward me and began leaning in.
Wait — is he about to kiss me?
I shoved both hands against his chest and turned my face away.
“H-hold on!”
“…Why?”
Kael frowned, his gaze settling on me with irritation.
His voice was distinctly rougher than it should have been.
“W-why aren’t you put off?! Look at me — I’m dressed completely scandalously! I mean, yes, technically it’s my father’s shirt, but still! I just boldly undid your buttons — and then I climbed on top of you while you were sleeping! The truth is, when you think about it, I might actually be quite a shameless sort of woman—”
“And?”
Kael narrowed his eyes.
“…What do you mean, and?”
“We have the same taste, it seems.” The corner of his mouth curved upward. “Personally, I find that rather ideal.”
His hands, unhurried and deliberate, began drawing me in closer.
“W-what?! That’s — surely not — are you saying you actually prefer this sort of thing?!”
“I thought you already knew.”
How on earth would I know that?!
I had put on quite a performance of being a woman of experience — but the truth was, I had no idea what experience actually entailed. I’d only done as Emily had instructed.
I’m losing my mind. I never, not for one second, imagined that Kael would like this kind of thing!
What?!
The book had clearly stated that men don’t like women like this!
I yanked myself out of his arms.
“I-I actually have no idea what any of this involves! I was only pretending for a moment — and besides, you’ve been out hunting and you must be exhausted, so I was just about to quietly excuse myself! Yes — I think it’s best if I leave now!”
I scrambled away from him and began crawling urgently toward the edge of the bed.
But then.
Thwack.
A firm hand closed around my ankle.
“And where exactly are you rushing off to, Eveline?”
I turned around. Very slowly.
And found myself staring directly into a pair of curved, amused crimson eyes.
“W-why are you — why are you grabbing my ankle—?”
“…”
One corner of Kael’s mouth tilted upward.
“Ah—!”
I was pulled, steadily and inescapably, back across the bed toward him.
“You’d go out looking like that? In front of other men?”
“I-I’ll change first! I have a dress — I folded it and hid it under the bed earlier!”
“It’s too late for that.”
“…?”
He flipped me over in one smooth motion. The back of my head sank into the soft pillow.
“Since you like it rough,” he said, shrugging his half-undone uniform off his shoulders, “I’m more than happy to oblige.”
Then, with the impatience of a man who had waited long enough, his practiced fingers undid the top three buttons of his black shirt.
He was holding a length of black silk between his teeth.
“Wh-what is that—?!”
He took the cloth from his mouth and held it between his fingers.
“A handkerchief.”
Then he tied it swiftly around my wrists.
“What?! Hey — what are you doing! That is not what I was asking — untie me right now—!”
Wait — what’s that?
He leaned sideways and lifted something from the nightstand.
A length of dark fabric.
His tie — which he had left there earlier.
In one fluid motion, he wrapped it over my eyes.
…Emily. Is this what you meant by experienced? Because this is not what you described at all.
Darkness swallowed my vision entirely.
“K-Kael… I’m actually not that kind of woman. I-I don’t really know about any of this…”
I shook my head quickly, waving my bound hands in the air.
“…”
“Kael…? Are you still there…? Are you listening?”
Kael said nothing.
Only the rustle of blankets and the low, quiet sound of a suppressed laugh drifted toward me.
Then he gently flipped me onto my stomach.
“…Please. Someone save me.”
