But the moment the glass was placed on the side table with a soft clink, her thoughts scattered like startled birds—because Leon suddenly tilted forward and claimed her lips with unexpected hunger. Her lips parted involuntarily, and his hot tongue slipped between them. The moist intertwining of their tongues tasted of sweet and bitter wine. The intimate pressing and explicit movement of his tongue against hers clearly mirrored what their bodies ached to do.
Even when she gasped for breath, he gave only the briefest reprieve before capturing her lips again. Now she understood why excited men were compared to beasts—there was something primal and untamed in his touch that made her blood sing.
The more she tried awkwardly to match his passion, the more his desire seemed to ignite. Her hands, which had been gripping the armrests as if they were the only things anchoring her to reality, twitched and lost strength when he began to caress her through the fabric of her dress.
More, harder… no, stop.
Leon swept the bewildered Veronica into his arms and carried her to the bed with effortless strength. Only when her back sank into the soft mattress did their lips part, leaving her gasping.
She opened her unfocused eyes while desperately catching her breath, her chest heaving. Now Leon was fumbling with the decorative knot at her waist, his usually deft fingers clumsy with desire.
“What kind of dress is this?” he growled in frustration.
When she glanced down at his complaint, Veronica couldn’t help but burst into laughter despite the gravity of her deception. The fearsome former holy knight was frowning at a white ribbon with an utterly confounded expression.
The ribbon that cinched the waistline of her dress was merely ornamental, so untying it would only make the skirt billow out. But Leon, who knew little about women’s clothing, couldn’t have known that.
“If you want to undress me, you need to untie the laces on my back,” she explained.
“Then why is there a ribbon here?”
“Not all clothes are designed with practicality in mind, Sir Knight,” she teased.
As she giggled and rolled over, Leon muttered a colorful curse. Remembering the intricate X-shaped lacing that ran down her spine, Veronica laughed so hard she could barely breathe. It was delightfully amusing to see a man who could slay monsters and command armies struggling helplessly before a thin piece of fabric. He could have simply torn it with his strength, really.
“Perhaps this is divine intervention,” he sighed. “Thanks to this cursed dress, my sanity has returned.”
When Leon finally surrendered and lay down beside her, Veronica turned to face him, still giggling.
“You’re giving up?”
“I’m not giving up. I just can’t—not right now.”
“Has the mighty holy knight been defeated by the task of untying a few laces?”
“No,” he muttered, rubbing his face with his hands while staring at the ceiling. “I told you, I’m too filthy right now.”
His profile was sharp against the dim light.
“As if the Bahamuts’ accursed blood wasn’t enough, I was in the sewers and digging through filth today. I must be mad to have even thought of touching you in this state.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as though he were suppressing the raging fire within himself. His eyes, fixed on the ceiling, had a smoldering look that created an atmosphere thick with unspoken desire. After watching him for a moment, Veronica playfully crawled across the bed and straddled him, just as he had done to her earlier.
Leon gazed up at her with heat in his eyes. The man lying there with his disheveled hair was beautiful in a dangerous, decadent way. It was the first time she thought of that adjective—“beautiful”—to describe such a powerful, intimidating man. He was like a living flame—the kind that made you believe you’d gained invincibility just by being near its light.
Veronica caressed him slowly, reverently, like a blind woman memorizing a beloved face. Her fingers traced his neat eyebrow ridge, his prominent nose bridge, the sharp angles of his cheeks, the sensitive shell of his ears, and the vulnerable hollow of his nape. She could feel his body tensing beneath her every time her fingertips brushed his skin, like a bowstring pulled taut. His breathing grew rough and ragged, then suddenly halted when her explorations reached his lower abdomen. Leon gripped the sheets with white knuckles, veins standing out prominently on his forearms.
“Veronica,” he rasped.
His voice, locked tight with restraint, called her name as if it were both prayer and curse.
“Shall I recite the names of the Popes to cool you down?” Veronica asked playfully, her lips curving into a teasing smile.
“I’m already doing that in my head,” he confessed. “Unless you get off me, even the first Pope’s sudden presence in the room wouldn’t be enough to cool me down.”
“Then just push me off.”
Leon furrowed his brow as if she’d suggested something utterly preposterous. Fearing his revenge if she tormented him further, Veronica relented and settled comfortably into his strong arms. She could feel his deep sigh of both relief and regret through their pressed bodies.
“Your heart is thundering like war drums,” she whispered against his chest.
“It always does,” he admitted, “when you’re within arm’s reach.”
“Then perhaps it would be healthier for you to maintain your distance from me. Better for your self-control, too.”
Suddenly, silence fell between them.
As she cautiously raised her head to gauge his reaction, her world spun dizzyingly, and in an instant, she found herself pinned beneath him again, his powerful form caging her against the mattress.
“Self-control?” he echoed. “If you knew how I spent the nights when you were gone, you wouldn’t speak of restraint anymore.”
Leon looked down at her, his weight braced on one elbow, unfulfilled desire smoldering in his eyes.
“How did you spend the nights?”
“Do you really want to know?”
A delicious chill raced down her spine as she met his intense gaze. As she hesitated, he tilted his head slightly, in a predatory movement.
“Humans are creatures that know how to satisfy their hungers by themselves, when necessary,” he said, his voice like velvet over steel.
Veronica inhaled sharply, her chest rising against his. It wasn’t difficult to understand his meaning—to realize what he had done in solitude, thinking of her. Their pressed bodies were communicating through layers of fabric what words could only hint at.
“Your scent lingered on the bedding. I knew it was dishonorable, but…”
His low voice was tender enough to melt her resistance, to almost make her forget her true purpose tonight.
“Sin is only sin when committed with full knowledge of its nature, is it not?” he murmured against her ear.
Oh.
Veronica finally couldn’t take it anymore and gripped her skirts tightly, bunching the fabric in her fists. The low groans and rough breathing cascading from above made her body heat like metal in a forge. She understood now why he was usually so sensitive to sounds—the eardrum itself was an exquisite instrument of pleasure. The man who had abandoned his years of abstinence was more intoxicating than any demon tonight. As sensation built toward an unbearable peak, Veronica arched beneath him.
“Ah!” A small, broken sound escaped her.
A tingling sensation raced from her waist up to her nape like lightning seeking ground. Being drawn to an increasingly high precipice, when she finally reached the summit, an intense pleasure of freefall engulfed her entire being.
She trembled in his arms, feeling a tempest of sensation. Even the heated words he whispered in her ears were stimulation too exquisite to endure.
She felt something warm and liquid seeping through her, and in that moment of sweet powerlessness, Veronica panted with her eyes rimmed crimson. She twisted the sheets with her heels and shed tears of overwhelming pleasure. Nerves alight with satisfied desire unwound within her like gossamer threads in warm water. She felt like she might go insane. No, perhaps she had already lost her mind.
She remembered the ancient legend that humans originally came from the vast, primordial sea, and thought, Perhaps that’s why we return to those tidal depths only when we become one with another soul.