“Rather, I feel like I’ll regret it if I let you go like this.”

It was when Riena whispered those words quietly. Cassel lowered his head and brought his body close to her again, kissing the hollow above her collarbone.

After that, she couldn’t remember well what happened or how things flowed. She only surrendered her body to Cassel, letting out breaths and moans.

When she came to her senses, Riena was on a bed in an unfamiliar room. It was probably Cassel’s room.

Her dress was half off, exposing her entire upper body.

Cassel practically ripped off the buttons of his own shirt, unable to take his eyes off her body.

For the first time, Riena saw fiery passion in the eyes of the man who was always calm.

He wanted her as strongly as she wanted him.

That made her even happier. As if responding to her heart, her body also reacted. Her body heated up again and began to melt into the atmosphere.

Riena swallowed dryly. Soon, his firm body that she had only seen through his shirt was completely revealed.

It was a body more beautiful and three-dimensional than a statue painstakingly carved by a famous artist.

As Riena, captivated by that beauty, unknowingly ran her fingertips from his chest down to his sculpted abs, Cassel let out another rough breath.

She wanted to observe his body more but couldn’t. The greatly aroused Cassel kissed her white neck again.

As he inhaled deeply with his mouth pressed against her, there was a stinging yet toe-curling strange sensation. Red marks were left wherever his lips passed.

After obsessively kissing every visible spot, he lifted his upper body. Only then could Riena examine his body closely.

Observing his body with moist eyes, Riena noticed something unusual.

Cassel’s body had small scars here and there, befitting a knight. They weren’t large scars that made her heart ache. Some were old, and some seemed to have formed more recently.

But there was a strange wound on his left chest.

The red scar, about two finger joints long, looked more like a wound than a scar. It seemed to have formed very recently, not long ago.

The shape was also strange. The other scars were thin and long, as if cut by a sword. They were mostly on his arms or sides.

But the wound on his chest looked like it was pierced by something sharp, not scratched.

Of all places, a wound like that on the left chest covering the heart. How on earth did he get that wound?

Riena unknowingly reached out and traced around the red wound.

“…What in the world is this?”

Then Cassel grabbed her hand and bit her fingertips quite hard. That pain also stimulated her.

“Seeing that you have room to pay attention to other things, it seems I’m still very lacking.”

“No, that’s not it…!”

As Cassel pressed her hand against the bed, he stroked her thigh with his other hand.

When his hand reached the very top of her thigh, Riena got scared and pushed Cassel’s shoulders.

“Wait, wait a moment.”

“It’s alright.”

Cassel, who usually considered her, didn’t listen to her words.

“Doing this now will make it less difficult for you later.”

Under his firm body, all Riena could do was writhe and let out moans.

“Cas…”

“It’s nice to hear. My name coming from your mouth.”

“Ah…”

His hand slowly approached and brushed her hair behind her ear. It was an insignificant touch, but at the same time felt special. Riena’s shoulders trembled at his fingertips grazing her earlobe.

Her body shuddered each time his lips touched her neck that was already heated up. She simultaneously thought she wanted him to stop and to continue, these conflicting thoughts dominating her.

Cassel whispered, his gaze fixed on Riena’s eyes with fluttering lashes.

“You’ll never know how long I’ve waited for you to call my name like this.”

It was strange. Riena had called him by name since she met Cas as a child. After reuniting, she did address him formally as ‘Duke Winkler’ for a while, but soon went back to calling him by the nickname Cas.

But was that enough time to warrant the expression ‘waited for a long time’?

Or did he mean he wanted to hear it during the 10 years they were apart?

However, Riena could no longer continue her thoughts. He began to possess her.

Both her body and heart were filled only with Cassel. It was the first time her body was out of her own control. The feeling of being shattered and recreated by Cassel’s hands.

Riena dug her nails in and tightly grasped his shoulders. He didn’t even flinch, as if it was nothing.

Feeling Cassel who filled her everything, Riena barely managed to say,

“You too, call my name…”

Love me. So that the blue eyes that turned to love-hate because of your stepmother can become a symbol of love again. Love me even more.

Then Cassel whispered happily, as if he was delighted just by having her name on his lips.

“Ria.”

“One more time.”

“Ria.”

“Cas, I think I said it wrong earlier.”

“…?”

Riena smiled with reddened eyes.

“I think I don’t just like you, but love you.”

“…”

“I love you, Cas.”

“Haa, really…”

Cassel, sighing for a moment, soon began to move in earnest while kissing her. Riena could no longer say anything. She just called his name in a daze, overcome by the affection and pleasure Cassel gave her.

Riena barely moved her weary body and nestled into Cassel’s arms. Cassel, who covered her naked body with a blanket, bit her ear gently.

“You must be tired, so please sleep now.”

“How are you perfectly fine…”

Riena muttered unknowingly and soon realized she had asked a needless question.

“It would be strange if a knight was this exhausted.”

“I suppose so.”

“By the way, Cas.”

Riena, yawning slightly, impulsively asked the question she had been holding in her mind.

“Have you ever liked any woman besides me?”

No matter how much she thought about it, his actions today didn’t seem like his first time. He was bold and skilled.

Riena had heard that women have a hard time feeling pleasure at first, but shamefully, she had reached climax several times just tonight.

So she couldn’t help but be suspicious.

Of course, half of it was a joke. Even if Cassel had a past, if he answered that there was no one else at this moment, she intended to believe him.

But unexpectedly, Cassel held back his words. Normally, he would have denied it before the question was even finished.

Riena asked again with an uneasy feeling.

“Was there… someone?”

Only then did he answer.

“No.”

He hugged her body tightly.

“For me, there is only you. In the past, and now.”

Riena smiled bashfully, burying her face in his firm chest. It was a satisfactory answer.

“If you mean the past, you’ve liked me since the days you were the cowardly Cas?”

“Not like, but love.”

This time, Riena laughed out loud.

“Then it’s been a really long time.”

Cassel pressed his lips against hers again and muttered.

“Perhaps I have loved you much longer than you think.”

Again, he said something cryptic. Why had he been emphasizing the time ‘long’ since earlier?

Riena asked jokingly.

“Do you perhaps also believe in things like past lives? So you’re saying you liked me, no, loved me from a past life? Or that you remember your past life?”

“Perhaps.”

Riena nuzzled into his arms, acting cute.

“If that’s really the case, it’s sad? You’re the only one who remembers while I can’t recall. If I were you, I think I’d be really sad.”

Cassel stroked her lower back with his fingertips and replied.

“You don’t need to remember. It’s enough with just me remembering, so you just remember this present moment.”

“It is a night I’ll never forget for life.”

Riena, smiling playfully, suddenly remembered the wound she saw earlier and felt Cassel’s chest.

“Come to think of it, the wound I saw earlier. What on earth is this?”

“Ah, this is…”

Cassel trailed off as if in a dilemma.

“Did you get hurt while sparring? But no matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like a cut from a sword. It looks like a stab wound.”

Although she never properly learned the sword, Riena was a knight’s daughter. She had seen her father and other knights get injured quite often.

“Moreover, this is where the heart is. It can’t be that you were stabbed in the heart, right?”