The First Night

In an instant, the air shifted. Do-yeon's eyes, flooded with fluster, flicked between the wrist caught in his grip and the bedroom a few steps ahead.

"……."

The expression she stole a glance at still looked composed, yet the tips of her ears burned scarlet. That contrast of temperatures made the corner of Mo-jun's mouth itch with amusement.

She had been the one to provoke him first, yet the moment the atmosphere thickened she looked thoroughly tense. She had no idea how thoroughly that was scratching at the pitch-black inside of him.

"Thank you."

For the hesitating Do-yeon, Mo-jun stepped forward first.

His large hand closed at once around the bedroom doorknob and pulled it down; beyond the door the vast bedroom came into view. A tiny sound of breath being swallowed slipped out.

"What?"

The eyes that flew up to him in startlement trembled.

This is the first time she's shown me such an honest face. Mo-jun could not hold back; the corners of his mouth stretched into a smile.

"You must be tired, yet you stepped forward so eagerly."

She turned his words over twice in her mind.

Only then did Do-yeon realize he was joking, in his own way. Her palms were sweating, and here he was, overflowing with leisure.

Thank you?

The way he spoke as if she herself had engineered this situation was absurd. He was the one who had phrased things so that anyone listening would misunderstand.

She wanted to snap something back.

"……."

Yet strangely her mouth would not open. Mo-jun's gaze had grown so thick so suddenly that it felt as if her lips themselves had been sealed shut.

The bed set squarely in the center of the room was excessively high and wide—large enough that even lying side by side with this enormous man there would be no shortage of space.

And now, up there…

Do-yeon could not even tell what expression she was wearing. All she managed was to hold her breath, desperate not to let him hear how ragged it had become.

"But why are you so tense?"

A large hand slowly cupped her cheek. From the man who had drawn close came the cool, sharp scent of grass.

The touch that rubbed deliberately across her lips made her chest seize tight; even her eyelids fluttered.

"When you were the one who suggested we sleep together first."

At the playful tone Do-yeon immediately glared at Mo-jun.

Why does this man keep saying things so strangely?

"When did I ever—!"

The instant indignation and embarrassment crashed over the back of her neck—

Tch—

A deep shadow fell across her angry face, and then lips met lips. Do-yeon froze with her brows still furrowed.

Every sense seemed to rush to her mouth; a ticklish shiver spread from the crown of her head. It was only a light kiss.

"Am I your first, by any chance?"

The voice that asked after the briefest of bird-kisses was somehow softer than before. He already held her waist, thumb stroking slowly down over the robe.

The gaze studying her from so close twisted something low in her belly. To shake off the unfamiliar sensation prickling over her whole body, Do-yeon deliberately sharpened her tone.

"You're asking about something like that? More than I expected…"

"Mm, more than you expected?"

But she could not finish the question. Mo-jun's fingertips had undone the waist tie of her robe far too easily.

The gaze that slowly raked up the gap that had opened was thick and humid. And that unfamiliar look suited Mo-jun's clean, neat face surprisingly well.

"You're so rigid."

After a beat of lost words, Do-yeon continued a half-step late. She lifted her chin a little, pretending composure, yet she could not miss how the end of her own voice cracked with tension.

Just then Mo-jun laughed out loud. It ought to have been irritating, yet because it let her hide the insides that had clenched tight, Do-yeon felt only relief.

"Interesting. But a little correction is needed."

He wore an expression of genuine enjoyment. And without any warning he slid a hot hand inside the shower robe.

Where skin met skin it stung as if burned.

"I'm not rigid. I'm the pure and devoted type."

The same moment Do-yeon drew a sharp breath, her body was yanked forward.

Lips met again. It was nothing like the earlier kiss that had settled and then lifted away.

Startled to realize Mo-jun was sucking on her lower lip, Do-yeon gave a light shudder.

The feel of a first kiss was warm, moist, soft. When Mo-jun set his teeth lightly and nipped, the sensation grew stranger still.

Suddenly the scenes she had grown sick of seeing in France rose up.

Back then she had only thought of it as a public nuisance. It was just skinship—how good could it possibly feel that they did it out in the open?

But experiencing it herself, her fingertips went numb and a warm heat spread all the way into her belly…

Her head was growing whiter and whiter under the unfamiliar sensation when the tongue that had been gently pushing into her mouth vanished in an instant.

"What are you thinking about so hard?"

Barely the width of a finger.

With only that much space between them, Mo-jun asked in a near-whisper. The breath that settled on her heat-flushed lips tickled; Do-yeon hunched her shoulders.

The eyes looking down at her burned like midsummer sun. They seemed to be pressing her for an answer.

Under that wordless pressure Do-yeon opened her mouth without meaning to.

"A long time ago…"

"More manners than I expected, huh."

He had been the one to ask, yet Mo-jun cut her off in a soft tone. A thread of displeasure flickered across his smiling face.

It wasn't a question?

Bewildered, Do-yeon rolled her large eyes this way and that. It might have been her imagination, but his brow seemed to crease for a second and then smooth again.

"……."

Yet she had no leisure to examine Mo-jun's face carefully. The hand that had been fretting at the small of her back was climbing higher and higher.

Do-yeon drew a deep breath of tension.

"Thinking of old memories while spending the first night with your new husband?"

By the time the question mark landed at the end of the sentence, his thumb was already stroking the underside of her breast. Both cheeks flushed hot in an instant.

Even so, a small sense of injustice rose. I don't even have a past to recall—why make me out to be shameless?

Her heated eyes narrowed primly.

"No. It's not like that!"

And once again Mo-jun gave her no chance to explain. Instead he began to suck her lips in again.

The strong suction forced her closed mouth open. Through the gap his tongue invaded and raked through the inside of her mouth as it pleased.

The earlier leisure now felt like pretense; the kiss that followed was rough and selfish, without a shred of consideration. Even the nape caught in his large hand burned as if set alight.

"Hh…"

The sensation of a pointed tongue tip scraping the roof of her mouth sent a tingle all the way to the crown of her head. It was only lips rubbing, yet it felt as if her mind itself were being stirred; she could not think at all.

The way he tangled their tongues and pulled, then slowly licked down her upper lip, was blatant. And unexpectedly, Do-yeon did not dislike the kiss.

The wet sounds tickled her ears; then her breath was sealed so tight that her head spun.

"Breath—haah—I can't breathe…"

Only after he felt her small hands tearing at his collar did Mo-jun release her.

In time with the rough sound of her breathing, Do-yeon's chest rose and fell. Mo-jun's gaze followed that movement as he slowly lifted his hand.

"Hh, why are you staring so…"

Blunt fingertips climbed the gentle curve. When the thumb that had been tracing the soft underside—slightly drooping under its own weight—finally reached the peak, Mo-jun's brow crumpled hard.

Far too soft. He barely managed to shake off the urge to seize her breast at once.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one ready."

Perhaps because of his blunt words, Do-yeon bit down hard on her lower lip.

Beneath the face flushed red, the pale nipples stood stiffly. Seeing the mouth that remained stubbornly shut even now only stoked the mischievous impulse.

I want to tease her just a little more.

Even though the front of his pants felt ready to burst, Mo-jun took his time. He wanted to see Do-yeon's face when she glared at him, thoroughly worked up, when he ought to have been treating her well.

"…Ah."

When he lightly rubbed the areola with a fingertip he felt her slender upper body go rigid. Every time he "accidentally" brushed the nipple, the fist she clenched trembled.

The frequency of Do-yeon's little waist twitches increased. With a strange satisfaction Mo-jun continued the wet play of his fingers.

Even as her expression gradually crumbled, Do-yeon held on well. For a long while her lips only fluttered as if she had something to say.

"…Do it."

At last Do-yeon spat out a half-broken demand in a thin voice.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me."

"I didn't. I really didn't hear, so say it again."

When he kept playing dumb to the end, Do-yeon snapped at him, the rims of her eyes already red.

"…If you understood, then just do it already."

In that instant heat flared low in his gut. The white hands that had always handled flowers with such care suddenly seemed to have torn his reason clean away.

"Shall I lay you down now, then?"

Crushing the low, boiling heat inside him, Mo-jun wore an easy smile.