“Can we do it one more time?”

Claudel was curious about what Kaiyan would say this time, other than ‘fearless’.

“That’s not a sentiment fitting for a first kiss memory.”

Despite having shared many intimate moments and knowing each other as husband and wife, her maidenly emotions, still clinging to the idea of romance, surfaced.

Claudel cupped his face with her hands.

Then, as if challenging her to go ahead, Kaiyan leaned towards her.

A soft, cute sound passed between their lightly touching lips.

Though just a brief contact, like coming and going, the sensation lingered, intensifying her longing as if she had just plucked an unripe cherry.

Watching her actions, Kaiyan finally moved.

“Ah!”

In the water, he effortlessly supported her hips with one arm while firmly grasping the back of her neck with the other.

“A kiss isn’t done like that.”

“What? But…”

As Kaiyan pressed his lips more forcefully, covering her mouth and intruding into its hidden depths, Claudel’s brief question, ‘What?’, melted away amidst their frantic mingling.

Claudel, held in Kaiyan’s embrace, shared breaths with him in a whirlwind.

Shared? It was more like she was being robbed of it.

The lukewarm lake water, which had felt refreshingly cool, now seemed to simmer with their combined heat, pooling around her chest.

Gasping for breath, Claudel leaned her head helplessly on his shoulder when he finally released her lips.

Still holding her, Kaiyan cut through the water effortlessly towards the shore.

As they emerged onto land, the chill air quickly enveloped them.

Claudel shivered, her lips quivering.

But she soon felt better.

Emerging from the lake like a monster rising, Kaiyan was agile and swift.

His massive, solid body quickly overpowered the smaller frame of the woman.

The cold vanished as another sensation engulfed her entirely.

Kaiyan had long felt the urge to kiss Claudel.

After their wedding night and several more nights, he had not kissed her.

He had never been with a woman before.

Before the death of the previous Duke of Temnes, Queen Silvia had inquired about his marriage to Princess Bianca.

Blond-haired, blue-eyed siblings, so alike to the Queen, they were more like real siblings than cousins.

The idea of marrying Bianca immediately struck him as incestuous.

In Oberon, cousin marriages were common, and even uncle-niece unions occurred in other nations. But the thought of marrying Bianca was repugnant to him.

Kaiyan firmly requested that any talk of marrying Bianca be dropped.

Temnes had a tradition of ascetically raising heirs, and as far as Kaiyan knew, his father had no other woman besides his mother.

Of course, a child’s knowledge of their parent’s private life is limited.

And now, whether his father had kept a mistress without his mother’s knowledge was unknown.
His conviction that there were no extramarital affairs stemmed from the former Duke of Temnes, his predecessor, not being a man of idle words. He taught Kaiyan, his son, about the misfortunes that come with the corruption of a lord and was not of double standards, enjoying things behind the scenes.

Kaiyan respected and aspired to be like him. Consequently, Kaiyan had never encountered women. Occasionally, after a fierce battle on the battlefield, he would overhear soldiers, drunk as if street thugs, boasting about their conquests.

“Ha! Last night that wench puckered up her lips to me.”

“Absolutely thrilling.”

“Ha ha! She was so desperate for me.”

The tales about stealing kisses from courtesans seemed so grand, but there was a key theme. According to them, women who are paid for the night never allow kisses. Kisses are only shared with someone they have a genuine connection with.

Upon hearing this, Kaiyan believed that the man who first started the story probably never received permission from any woman. He viewed women as delicate and complex beings. This was true for his mother, his aunt Queen Sylvia, and even his younger cousin Bianca. He believed that women give themselves only to those with whom their hearts resonate, not to those who crudely pursue them.

To him, the boasts of blood-soaked soldiers were like them claiming to have found a unicorn’s horn. Still, the notion that women only permit kisses to those they truly connect with seemed credible. This was especially true when he saw Claudel, clenching her teeth and keeping her lips tightly sealed on their wedding night, as if refusing to allow any emotional connection.

Her body consented, but her spirit did not seem to, seemingly indicating a refusal to allow intimacy. The idea of kissing a woman with a pale face and tightly shut eyes seemed impossible in that context.
After Herzol healed and Claudel’s lips regained their color, they fluttered in Kaiyan’s gaze like petals borne on the wind, sometimes like living, fluttering butterflies. Yet, Kaiyan couldn’t bring himself to reach out to her, feeling as if he had already been rejected, for Claudel had never desired him.

“May I kiss you?”

Why She Is Still Unmoved (Female-dominant)

One-line summary: He uses various methods to seek her affection, but she remains unmoved.

Synopsis:

Si Qingyu is a doctor who has saved countless lives and enjoys tranquility.

Luo Shaoxuan is ruthless, deeply scheming, and the top young master in the capital. He admires Si Qingyu.

Luo Shaoxuan: I want to be the only one in your eyes and heart.

Features a cold and calm female lead vs A noble and scheming male lead.

There will be both sweetness and torture towards the male after their marriage.