Chapter 20
It wasn’t that I disliked the kiss. As I’d said, it was a gift I’d practically forced upon him. I would’ve been more than satisfied if our lips had just brushed lightly, but it already felt like I’d received too much.
When I reflexively leaned my upper body back, the young master clicked his tongue with a look of displeasure.
“Think about it, Ayla. Did you give me a present on my coming-of-age?”
I forced my sluggish brain to work. Of course, I’d never even thought about the concept of giving the young master a gift.
“Uh…”
“It’s late, but I’m thinking I’ll accept it now.”
Was I supposed to give him something, too? But his coming-of-age was two years ago…? While I was caught up in that, his lips pressed against mine again. I immediately lost myself to it.
With this kiss, even deeper and more intoxicating than before, I didn’t know what to do but clutch and wrinkle his shirt in my fists.
My face flushed hot, and my toes curled.
Claude only let me go when I was gasping for breath, beating weakly at his chest.
“You can go now.”
And in the very next moment, I was promptly kicked out of the room.
Any hope I’d had for a third kiss vanished with the abrupt ending, and I was left dazed as if under a spell.
“Happy coming-of-age. It was worth the wait.”
Only after reaching my quarters, with his cryptic words echoing in my ears and a box of chocolates in my hand, did I think—
Maybe the reason Claude sent me away like that was actually for my sake.
Still a little dazed, I stared for a long, long while at the expensive, delicately carved chocolate shaped like a rose.
* * *
After that day, the relationship between the young master and me changed at breakneck speed.
Really, after a kiss like that, trying to act like nothing had happened would’ve been even stranger.
Of course, if the young master wished, I was willing to pretend it never happened and go on as usual.
Having such a vivid memory of my first kiss wasn’t exactly a bad deal for me, either.
But the real issue was that, just as I’d become strange before my coming-of-age, the young master became quite strange after it.
The first thing that changed was the way he looked at me.
His red gaze, always cold enough to freeze a person, was still there, but how should I say it… There was a warmth in his eyes now.
And not only that. The way he spoke to me softened, gentle like a dogtail grass in spring.
He was no different in front of the other servants, but that only made it more obvious how differently he treated me. It was embarrassing and awkward.
Most of all, the biggest change was this.
Every time we were alone, whenever he found the chance, the young master would steal another kiss.
The first time may have been difficult, but now, as if nothing was holding him back, Claude would claim my lips again and again. The excuse of a ‘coming-of-age present’ had long since disappeared.
Right before leaving for a mission, right after coming back, during a lazy afternoon at the manor, or just before bed, whenever the moment came.
Whenever his large hand would suddenly wrap around my nape and pull me in, I would respond before I even had time to resist.
When his impudent tongue would part my teeth, rake my palate, and draw my own tongue out, my mind would go hazy.
I was always the one left reeling from the aftertaste of those short, intense kisses, while the young master would calmly leave me behind, departing on a mission or shooing me out of the bedroom.
That’s why I was confused. Sometimes I wondered, ‘Does the young master like me too?’ But then, when he cut things off so coldly, I would doubt it all over again.
He never passionately confessed his love to me, nor did he treat me like some crude plaything just to satisfy his desires.
So, we ended up in this strange relationship. A young master and his maid, stealing kisses whenever the opportunity arose.
Not that I disliked this ambiguous state. I didn’t yet know how to define it, but the vagueness made it all the more thrilling, and I enjoyed those moments to the fullest.
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