6
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Aileen felt embarrassed under his gaze. She knew her disguise was clumsy, and wondered what Cesare thought of it.
Aileen cautiously met Cesare's eyes. The moment their gazes locked, Aileen was startled. She had expected to see pity, but it was not that at all. He was looking at her with an expression she had never seen before.
Crimson eyes, shattered and crumbling, leaving only fragments of ruin. She couldn't believe the always arrogant and perfectly shining red eyes could look so broken.
But the precarious look vanished quickly. Cesare smiled, his face as normal as ever, as if what Aileen had seen was just a dream.
'I must have been mistaken?'
While Aileen was still confused, he stood up. Then he sat next to Aileen and picked up a cookie from the table. Cesare casually unwrapped it and said,
"What are you so scared of?"
When Aileen didn't answer, he tapped her lips with the small cookie. Aileen slowly opened her mouth. He naturally placed the cookie in Aileen's mouth.
"I would never do anything bad to you. Except maybe kiss you."
Aileen almost swallowed the cookie whole without chewing. While Aileen hurriedly crunched on the cookie, he unwrapped the second one.
She was completely flustered. She couldn't believe she was having a conversation with him that included the word 'kiss.' It was hard to keep up with the sudden change in Cesare. For Aileen, this whole situation was earth-shattering.
He was about to feed her the unwrapped cookie again, so she took it from his hand. Instead of feeding her the cookie, Cesare lightly brushed the crumbs from Aileen's lips.
Gulping, Aileen finally swallowed the first cookie and asked in a cracked voice,
"...Do you really intend to marry me?"
Cesare asked back nonchalantly.
"Why, are you still doubtful? Should I reassure you more?"
"No, no. It's not that."
Aileen hurriedly denied it, clutching the cookie he gave her and said carefully.
"You didn't used to be like this with me. Of course, things are different now, but still, it's surprising how suddenly you've changed..."
"Seven years is enough time to change."
"Seven years?"
The war had ended three years ago. She wondered if she had misspoken and waited for him to correct her, but Cesare only smiled silently. Aileen pushed aside the brief sense of incongruity and continued.
"Anyway, so... is there no other way?"
She couldn't bring herself to say it honestly. That she dared to like him, and didn't want a loveless marriage.
Marriages between noble bloodlines were all transactions. Aileen's desire to talk about love was nothing more than a childish whim.
Suddenly, his kiss flashed through her mind. Aileen bit the inside of her cheek at the embarrassing memory. It might have been nothing to Cesare, but it was a memory Aileen would never forget until the moment she died. She had been tossing and turning at night for the past few days because of it.
'It was my first kiss.'
Since she was young, Aileen had kept her distance from men. It was entirely her father's fault. Her father, who enjoyed drinking, gambling, and women.
Aileen had grown up watching her mother suffer because of her father's affairs. Naturally, she developed a revulsion towards the opposite sex and focused solely on her studies.
Even when someone occasionally approached her, they all fell away because Aileen didn't want a relationship. Cesare's knights had cleanly dealt with the ones who persistently clung to her and tried to do strange things.
Thanks to that, she had never even had a proper hug with a man, let alone a kiss, even at her age. At most, she had only lightly touched the knights while being escorted.
In the words of the ladies of society, Aileen was a 'country bumpkin.' A boringly innocent and old-fashioned, truly dull person.
But she didn't particularly desire attention from the opposite sex, so she lived her life fairly content. Then suddenly, Aileen was bombarded with actions of an extreme level.
The more she replayed the memory, the more her lips, which had been kissed so passionately, tingled, and the strange, subtle sensations she had felt at that moment crept back.
"Aileen."
Aileen snapped out of her reverie at the low, hushed voice. The man who had given her one of the most shocking experiences of her life asked.
"Did you dislike the kiss?"
It was definitely not that she disliked it. It was a kiss with someone she had a crush on. But she couldn't say she liked it either. It was something she had never experienced in her life, so she didn't know how to express it.
Seeing Aileen's confusion, Cesare slowly curved his eyes. Aileen's heart began to beat rapidly. The moment she realized how close he was, Aileen squeezed her eyes shut and desperately shouted anything.
"I, I hated it!"
Cesare gave a crooked smile.
"I told you not to close your eyes when you lie."
He knew all of Aileen's little habits. Aileen immediately confessed the truth.
"Actually, I don't really know..."
When she said it with a tearful face, he tilted his head. The distance between them narrowed sharply. Cesare whispered from a distance where their breaths could touch.
"Then shall we try until you know?"
Her heart, which had been pounding since earlier, began to race even faster. It felt like it was beating so hard it would jump out.
Crimson eyes surrounded by long eyelashes stared directly at Aileen. Shapely lips moved slowly, uttering a low sound.
"It would be a problem if you didn't like it. We have to do even more in the future."
His breath tickled her skin, and his low voice dug deep inside her. A strange and subtle feeling rose through her body.
Aileen, who had been frozen, let out a short groan. Before their lips could touch, she quickly turned her head.
"You've had alcohol, and cookies..."
Aileen, who was muttering, widened her eyes at what happened next. His lips touched her neck.
At first, they touched and fell away as if pressing lightly. Then he pressed his lips firmly and licked her skin with his tongue. A short sucking sound followed, and hard teeth scraped her tender skin. A faint, almost ticklish, sensation of pain came over her.
What is this?
The unfamiliar sensation made the hairs on her body stand on end, and her lower abdomen tightened. Was this the tension she felt from being bitten in a vital spot? Or...
Aileen's knowledge of sex was limited to biological common sense. She couldn't understand anything. She could only tremble and whisper to Cesare as if begging.
"It's, it's strange, ugh."
Each time a strange sound leaked from her neck, her body twitched involuntarily. Long fingers loosened the collar of her loose shirt.
When he kissed the exposed collarbone, a dizzying sensation wrapped around her tailbone. She couldn't take it anymore.
"Stop...!"
Aileen instinctively pushed Cesare away in fear. Cesare grabbed her pushing hand and pulled her in tightly. He bit down hard on the inside of her wrist, where a blue vein ran.
Aileen's fingertips twitched. The teeth that had pierced her skin slowly fell away. Cesare slowly licked the clear teeth marks on her white skin before letting Aileen go.
Aileen looked at Cesare, panting with her chest heaving. His flushed, red eyes fully embraced Aileen. She was unfamiliar with the lust he was showing her. Aileen whispered without realizing it.
"You should only do this with someone you like..."
She knew it was a foolish and stupid thing to say. But she couldn't think of a sophisticated way to express her surging thoughts. Her head was a mess.
Seeing her at a loss, he lightly stroked Aileen's cheek as if she were cute.
"You can do it with someone you're going to marry."
He answered as if it were nothing, then continued in a low voice.
Enter the palace tomorrow. Come to the victory celebration banquet and congratulate me."
You can do that, right?
Aileen nodded blankly. Then Cesare stroked her head.
"Let's talk more at the banquet. And your father."
He paused for a moment. Then he continued in a reluctant tone.
"I'll find him and send him back home, so don't worry."
