Chapter 25

“It’d be nice if you had woken me up.”

“I, too, had just realized that Your Highness was sleeping soundly.”

Her embarrassment lasted only for a mere moment. She then began to straighten her waist once more.

How utterly delightful she was when she could be masking as Alexia at that very moment. Vivian immediately recalled Alexia’s expression, which she had hated so much before she coldly began to say.

“There’s something else which I need to clarify.”

Vivian quickly pulled her hand away from his grasp. Then, she started to bring up the issue that she had practiced for dozens, no, hundreds of times last night.

“Yesterday was just a mistake. Your Highness too, had made that mistake.”

“…A mistake?”

The Grand Duke, who was wearing a gentle expression, had a sudden frown etched on his forehead at those words of hers.

“That’s right, a mistake. That mistake was unintentionally incited by the Grand Duke, who was too excited because of his own severe fever.”

“Is it okay for you to dismiss the love affair that we had shared together as just a simple ‘mistake’?”

“…There’s absolutely nothing we can do about the past.”

“Ha.”

He immediately raised his upper body upon hearing Vivian’s words. Knox swept his hair roughly just like he was wiping his own face while directing his gaze towards Vivian, who was still adorned with such brilliant colors.

“I’m sorry but I don’t want to think of what happened with you as a mere ‘mistake’. Should I ignore the traces, which are left on your body just because I was in such an urgent situation, then?”

“But……”

“There is no ‘but’.”

This isn’t supposed to be it. Vivian started to panic when she finally realized that things were going quite differently from what she had imagined it to be.

Vivian, who was embarrassed about that fact, moved as quickly as she could, but Knox was already one step ahead.

He reached out to her before embracing her in his arms. She tried to struggle as she had fallen forward due to the sudden force, but Knox was holding her even more tightly.

“If you have forgotten all about it, then I’ll just have to engrave it once again—more intensely, this time.”

“Your Highness, please wait.”

Vivian’s pitiful words immediately slipped into his lips. While he was biting on her lower lip, his tongue immediately invaded her mouth before it began to wander around.

“Do you hate being with me?”

Vivian didn’t even try to answer Knox’s question. She couldn’t decide whether to speak as the Young Countess or as Vivian, herself who had shown up instead of Alexia.

He slowly raised his hand, as if he was trying to stroke her as he touched her cheek. Far from his enraged face, his touch was extremely gentle.

“It’s fine even if you hate it. But, I do hope that you won’t make the things that happened between us like it didn’t exist in the first place—at least.”

Knox’s fingers then gently stroked her hair. The threatening atmosphere had already disappeared and the monster, who was in front of her, had suddenly become docile as he settled right beneath herself.

“Towards you, I……”

Vivian couldn’t bring herself to hear those words. She immediately lowered her head and covered his lips with hers.

Knox, who was absolutely surprised, stopped his hand motions before it started moving again soon after—as though it was reacting to her lips.

His fingers began wrinkling her clothes. The more wrinkled her dress had gotten, the higher her inflamed moans had become as well.

“Aah, Your Highness……”

“I’m sure I’ve told you yesterday.”

His gaze was kept intently towards Vivian—which seemed like demanding for more.

“I want you to call me Knox.”

His hand then suddenly crept into her clothes before he touched her back. He caressed the prominent bones of her spine, one after another while still staring at her with much ardor.

“….Sir Knox”

“Knox.”

He firmly asserted and immediately after, he buried his face against her nape. As though he was trying to etch his own trace on that soft nape of hers, he sucked on it vigorously as he began to reveal his utmost desire.

“Eughh, Knox…”

At the precise moment, his name had escaped from the tip of Vivian’s lips, a smile could be seen to be lurking on his face.