Chapter 261: My villainess wants pats

The midnight breeze tumbled down from the jagged peaks, chilling and clean, carrying the faint scent of pine and frost.

Out on the suite’s balcony, Aria sat curled upon an ornate velvet settee. She wore only a thin navy nightgown that clung to the graceful curves, the sheer fabric doing little against the mountain chill, framing a profile carved with aristocratic perfection.

She wasn’t reading, nor was she plotting anything. She was simply looking up at the moon, her golden eyes luminous and heavy with the silent, suffocating weight of the past week.

"Can’t sleep?"

A smooth voice cut through the cold air.

Aria’s eyelashes fluttered, her head turning slowly toward the open balcony doors.

There stood the blue-eyed idiot. Eren leaned casually against the mahogany frame, wearing loose night trousers and a shirt.

"I could ask you the same, darling," Aria murmured, her voice smooth. "Did your pink-haired conqueror and shorty professor finally release you on parole?"

"I executed a masterclass in tactical evasion," Eren whispered, walking toward her with unhurried ease.

He stopped beside the settee and held out the warm mug. "Here. You’ve barely had two continuous hours of sleep in the carriage."

Aria looked at the mug, then up into his eyes. Without a word, she took the warm mug with both hands, letting the soothing heat seep into her chilled fingers. She brought the rim to her lips, taking a small, quiet sip of the sweetened milk, staring down into the swirling white surface as her golden gaze darkened.

"I tried," she whispered, her voice barely carrying over the rustle of the wind. "I closed my eyes for ten minutes... and the darkness just turned into that burning brothel again."

Eren’s chest tightened. He quietly took a seat beside her—close enough that his body heat broke the mountain draft, but leaving her enough room to breathe.

"The second you were yanked into that teleportation array..." Aria’s fingers tightened against the cup. "I lost my damn mind, Eren. The grand Lady of House Reedings, the poised lady of high society... reduced to a feral, shrieking butcher. I didn’t even ask the mercenary who activated the rune for his employer’s name. I just drove hachette into his head."

She let out a laugh, turning her face away from him.

"Why...?" she whispered, the question fragile and raw.

Eren tilted his head, watching the tremble in her jaw. "Why what, Aria?"

She shook her head, biting her bottom lip. "Nothing. It’s ridiculous."

Reaching over, she set the half-finished mug down onto the low marble table with a soft clatter.

Before Eren could offer another witty diversion, Aria shifted. Gathering the hem of her dark silks, she turned, leaned forward, and gently flopped her upper body across the length of the settee, laying her head squarely in Eren’s lap.

Her blue curls pooled over his knees, her cheek resting comfortably against his thigh as she curled her legs beneath her.

Eren froze, hands hovering awkwardly in the air for half a heartbeat. "Uh... Lady Reedings? Am I being demoted to furniture again?"

Aria didn’t open her eyes, but her lips pressed together into an adorable, distinctly aristocratic pout.

"Pat my head, you absolute idiot," she muttered into the linen of his robe. "And don’t you dare stop until I tell you to."

The smirk faded from Eren’s face, replaced by a gaze so soft.

"As my lady commands," Eren murmured.

He lowered his hand, his fingers gently stroking her hair with steady, rhythmic tenderness, lightly tracing the contour of her brow with his thumb.

The mountain breeze swept across the high terrace, fluttering the hem of her dark silks, but Aria didn’t shift away from his warmth.

"Why...?" she murmured again, her voice a fragile, muffled sound against his thigh.

Eren paused his rhythmic stroking, leaning his torso down until his face hovered just above hers. Without warning, he leaned in and playfully nipped the soft, delicate cheek.

"Ow—what was that for?!" Aria hissed, her golden eyes flashing with mock indignation as she reached up to swat his shoulder.

"What ’why,’ my dramatic fiancé?" Eren asked with a low chuckle, resting his forearms around her waist while his blue eyes glittered down at her.

Aria looked up at him, her gaze softening into something hopelessly vulnerable, the aristocratic sneer completely dismantled beneath the silver moonlight.

"Why are you so dreadfully good at making me happy?" she whispered, her fingers curling lightly into the fabric over his knee. "Why do you shower me with more attention, more adoration, than a wicked girl like me could ever possibly deserve? Why do you have to be so insufferably handsome, and why do you always speak to me like the world isn’t entirely rotted to the core?"

Her lower lip trembled.

"Why didn’t you just leave me alone, Eren?" she asked, her voice cracking softly. "I was perfectly fine being the cold, ruthless villainess everyone expected me to be. Why didn’t you just act like Reinhardt, treat me like a monster, and let my heart turn to stone? Why did you have to turn me into this pathetic, lovesick girl who loses her mind every time you bleed?"

Eren’s hand drifted back to her hair, his fingers gently threading through the blue hair, his touch as steady as an anchor in a raging sea of emotions.

"Because," Eren murmured, his voice tender, unshakeable cadence, "I wanted my gorgeous fiancée to actually have a life. A real one. The brilliant, passionate life you always deserved, and I will do whatever for that to happen.."

His expression sharpened, a dangerous, possessiveness in his blue eyes as he leaned down until his lips brushed her ear.

"And for the record... don’t you ever utter that deadbeat idiot’s name in my presence again."

Aria went still, and then a slow, thoroughly wicked smile curved her lips.

Her hands shot up, her slender fingers firmly cupping both of his cheeks, tilting his face straight toward hers. Her golden eyes sparkled with mischievous delight.

"My, my," Aria purred, her melodic voice dripping with a sweet, teasing edge. "Is my notoriously unhinged, multi-timing fiancé actually feeling jealous? Over a ghost from the past?"

"I don’t get jealous, Lady Reedings," Eren scoffed with an arrogant smirk, though his jaw remained firmly locked beneath her palms. "I simply object to poor aesthetic taste entering my terrace."

"Liar," Aria giggled softly.

She tilted her chin upward, pressing a tender, lingering kiss right against his forehead. When she pulled back, her golden eyes burned with fierce, unyielding devotion.

"You don’t need to worry, darling," she breathed, her lips hovering a breath away from his mouth. "From now until the day my heart turns to dust, you are the only one in this world who owns me."

"Then let’s make sure I mark my territory properly," he whispered back.

He closed the remaining distance between them.

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