Chapter 442: The Underworld (XVIII)

The meal lasted longer than any of them admitted it would.

Vessa talked through half the courses and then went quiet once the wine hit, mostly because the princess answered just enough to keep her from inventing new rumors.

Riven ate like a man trying not to exist.

Gray ate, deflected, and gave the princess the same thin answers he had given her in Vhar’Zul.

She noticed, and grew annoyed, but strangely did not make a scene about it at the table.

By the time the last plates were cleared, Vessa was full, Riven looked even more tired than before, and the princess had learned nothing useful except that Gray still chewed more than he spoke.

They left through the side door this time.

The street had cooled down compared to before. Vessa stretched both arms over her head and groaned.

"If I die tonight, tell people it was the ribs. Not the princess... the ribs!"

"You are not dying," Riven stated.

"You are walking back to the inn before you invite anyone else to dinner."

Vessa looked at Gray, then at the princess, then seemed to realize the night was actually ending.

"Well. Goodbye, I guess. For now... if we pass the exam, I am finding you again. Both of you! Do not hide from me!"

"We will see you at the academy," Riven added, already steering her away.

"Your Highness. Gray."

They left, still arguing about whether Vessa had spoken too much.

The three guards stayed a few steps back and pretended they were part of the wall.

Gray turned to go.

The princess did not.

"Do you have a place to stay until the entrance exam?"

Gray stopped.

He could have lied since he had changed rooms in Vhar’Zul and could do it again here.

He shook his head anyway, because it was true enough.

He had stepped off a caravan that morning and spent the day walking into her dinner.

"No. Not yet."

Her lips curled lightly at his words.

"Then live with me until the exam."

Gray looked at her.

"That is a generous offer for someone who spent an entire meal failing to get answers out of me."

"I am not asking because you were useful at the table."

"Then why?" He smiled teasingly.

"Did the draw bother you that much? Or did the incubus thing finally start working after you decided it had not?"

Her eyes sharpened.

"You think this is a joke."

"I think a princess does not offer a bed to a man she cannot read unless she wants something more than lodging." Gray tilted his head.

"Should I call you lonely, or would that ruin the mood?"

He barely finished the sentence.

Thump!

His back hit the nearby wall hard enough to knock the air sideways in his chest.

One of her hands caught his jaw and lifted his chin.

The other pinned his shoulder to the stone.

She was close enough that the leftover heat of the restaurant wine was still on her breath.

The guards did not intervene; instead, they even looked away to give them privacy.

"If a mere incubus like you dares to make a move on me," she whispered in a strangely seductive tone.

"...then go ahead."

Gray’s smile faded lightly.

She leaned in until there was almost no space left.

"I am literally in front of you, offering my lips."

She smiled coldly, but there was a faint yearning under it, like she actually wanted him to kiss her.

Her thumb rested just under his mouth, not quite pressing, as if she had already decided he would be the one who had to close the last inch.

"Well?" she asked.

"You talk so much when you want to run. Let me see what you do when I tell you to stay."

Gray looked at her.

Up close, the cold smile did not hide as much as she thought it did.

Her fingers were steady on his jaw.

"You asked for it..."

[Authority of Beauty]

His eyes dimmed into pink.

It was not a bright glow, but enough to be noticeable.

A faint rose-colored mist leaked from his skin and wrapped around her before she could step back.

It clung to her throat, her wrists, the place where her hand still held his chin.

She had expected an incubus trick.

This was worse.

Her breath caught first.

Then the heat arrived, climbing from her stomach into her chest, into her face, into the places she kept locked behind her royal demeanour.

Each second made it thicker.

Her grip on his shoulder loosened and then tightened again, as if her body could not decide whether to shove him or pull him closer.

Gray lifted his thumb and pressed it to her lips.

Leak...

Gently.

He traced the line of her mouth like he was checking whether she still meant what she had said.

Her lips parted under the touch before she could stop them. He watched that, then looked up into her eyes.

"You told me to go ahead," he murmured. "Do not look surprised when I do."

Rustle...

His tail slid around her waist.

The heart-shaped tip curled against the small of her back, finding the gap between fabric and skin, and rested there with a softness that did not match the wall at his spine.

Then, it slowly drew an extremely slow line just above the base of her spine.

The princess’s lashes lowered.

"What... is this?" Her voice had less ice in it now. "This is not an incubus art... I have felt those... they usually pull one’s soul... b-but..."

"This one is even e-exciting my own b-blood?"

Gray did not take his thumb from her mouth.

"Then stop offering your lips to people you have not measured."

Her forehead almost touched his.

The princess’s eyes changed first.

The irritation was clearly there, but something hotter had risen beneath it and pushed everything else aside.

"You..." Her breath brushed against his lips.

"You really dare."

Gray did not move closer.

He left the final inch between them untouched, exactly where she had placed it.

That was the point.

He wanted her to understand who was closing the distance.

For another second, her pride held her in place, but just right after... it lost.

"Mhm!"

Her fingers tightened beneath his chin, and she kissed him.

There was nothing hesitant about it.

She drove her mouth against his with enough force to press his back harder into the stone, as though sheer aggression could transform her decision into an act of dominance rather than admit what had truly brought her forward.

Her lips were hot, impatient, almost angry.

Gray let her die as she wanted, not seizing control nor pulling her closer. He did not turn her sudden surrender into something she could blame on him later.

His thumb remained resting against the corner of her mouth while his tail stayed loosely curled around her waist.

His body remained against the wall, deliberately yielding the initiative to her.

Yet he was not unresponsive.

She felt the faint pressure of his lips against hers, enough to tell her he was accepting the kiss, not enough to let her pretend he had taken it from her.

That seemed to frustrate her more than anything.

"Hurmh...."

A quiet, irritated sound escaped her throat.

"Chuup!"

She kissed him harder.

Her teeth caught his lower lip before she pressed against him again, her grip beneath his chin tightening as though she were trying to silence the thoughts racing through her own head.

The narrow space behind the restaurant seemed to disappear around them.

The distant voices of the street, the footsteps beyond the alley, the faint clatter from inside the building, all of it faded beneath the heat of the moment.

She was the one who had crossed the line, and was the one who kept crossing it. And she hated how much she wanted to.

The princess finally broke away for air.

"Haah... huff..."

Her chest rose sharply as she stared at him.

For a moment, Gray thought she might step back, but instead, her eyes dropped to his lips once before planting another kiss.

"Mmh! Churup...♡"

This time there was less anger.

More hunger.

The realization seemed to infuriate her even further, but she did nothing to stop herself.

She kissed him as though she could drown out her own thoughts through sheer stubbornness, as though every second spent against his lips made it harder to remember why she had been angry with him in the first place.

Gray remained still.

He let her decide how far she wanted to go.

When she finally pulled away, her breathing was completely uneven, her lips slightly swollen, her expression caught somewhere between defiance and disbelief.

Her eyes remained fixed on his.

Gray looked back at her, the faint marks on his lips serving as quiet evidence of what she had done.

At this... his lips slighly curled up into a teasing smirk.

He did not ask for another kiss, and simply looked over at her with that same teasing smirk that normally would irritate her.

And somehow, that restraint made the heat in her expression burn even brighter.