TLDOWN 51

CHAPTER 51……………

Slowly, and Deeply

“Take responsibility? For what, exactly?”

Leah gazed at the man with trembling eyes. The red eyes staring back at her were engulfed in blazing passion.

An inexplicable tension tightened around her chest, forcing her to swallow hard. From his gaze alone, an unbearable thirst spread through her whole body.

“Your Grace, please calm down first and let’s sit and talk…”

But Leah never managed to finish her words. Before she could, the Duke, who had been drawing closer, swallowed her lips.

“!!!!”

His hands bound her fingers one by one so she couldn’t escape, and the impatient softness invading her lips made Leah’s mind go blank.

It was a reckless kiss, as though he intended to devour her whole.

As the kiss deepened, Leah’s breath grew uneven, overwhelmed.

“Mm… haah…”

When their lips finally parted, a thin silver thread connected them. Leah felt as if she would lose herself, intoxicated by the heat radiating from the Duke’s body.

With dazed eyes she looked up, and Akkia reached out to brush through her tangled hair.

Perhaps his intention was only to smooth it back, but every touch of his burning hand made Leah flinch.

Her senses, one by one, were becoming hypersensitive to Akkia.

“Leah.”

Her helpless appearance seemed to provoke him, his voice low and strained as he called her name.

That sweet voice, brushing against her ear like a tickle, sent Leah’s mind reeling.

His lips slipped lower. From her jawline, down her neck, then her collarbone. Slowly, his lips traced the path.

Every time Akkia swallowed deeply, Leah’s mind slipped further away. She was drowning in the strange pleasure he gave.

“If you don’t want this…”

His eyes sought hers, as if asking for permission, as if he would stop if she refused.

Don’t want this? Not at all…

Far from resisting, her body was burning hot.

After riling up every nerve cell in her body, after driving her into such a frenzy, he asked if she disliked it.

He’s made it impossible to refuse.

At his words, her eyelashes trembled.

Perhaps she too was intoxicated by the drug’s side effects. Each time his hand touched her, her body shivered with near-painful delight.

I want this man too…

The thirst she had long held back now boiled over. Reason told her to stop here, but she could not.

Leah shook her head slowly. Then she reached out, pulling Akkia’s neck toward her.

I want you.

It was permission, given gently.

For a brief moment, his eyes deepened at her pull.

“I don’t dislike it. I…”

Before she could finish, he claimed her lips again, as if her words were a signal. The buttons of her dress came undone one by one, fabric falling away.

Soon, bare skin met bare skin. Heat poured through their bodies, but she did not hate it.

Her body flushed hotter under his burning presence. Their lips tangled once more, deeper, more intoxicating.

As if unwilling to miss even her smallest breath, the Duke pulled her into his arms.

Akkia entered Leah slowly, and deeply.

❀ ❀ ❀

In the faint dawn before sunrise, Akkia opened his eyes in the silent room. At some point, he must have drifted off to sleep.

He sat up, staring at Leah, who was still asleep, breathing softly. Her crimson hair spilled across the white sheets like fire.

“…This wasn’t what I intended.”

He murmured quietly, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. He should have grown used to it by now, yet every time he saw it, the vivid red still felt mysterious.

It wasn’t rare in the Empire for someone to have red hair. But usually it was mixed with other colors, dulled and muddied.

Never had he seen someone with such a pure, vivid crimson.

And yet… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before…

He let out a faint laugh at the thought.

Impossible.

Shaking his head as if to dismiss the absurd idea, Akkia’s lips twisted bitterly.

To think that such a fledgling woman had undone the plan he had spent over a decade preparing.

Even Illei must have realized he had been ingesting Forarium poison. That was why she had made him drink the tea infused with Hesali grass.

Illei must have believed that tea had stopped his heart. But in truth, Akkia had taken another drug in advance—a drug that halted the heart.

It stopped his heart for about a week.

If Leah’s new medicine hadn’t awakened him early, everything would have gone according to plan.

[My lord, you must go now. If you delay, they’ll discover you’re still alive. You understand this.]

Because he woke earlier than expected, everything fell apart. Even with Rikel urging him to leave the capital at once, Akkia could not move.

If he left now, Leah’s execution would proceed as planned.

Normally, the apothecary’s life wouldn’t have mattered to him.

But I couldn’t leave her.

He brushed her sleeping cheek.

Why he couldn’t leave. What bound his feet.

He gave a soft, self-mocking laugh, as if realizing the answer.

Truly insane. That this woman could matter enough to make me abandon my life’s ambition.

He turned his gaze around the room. The tangled sheets bore witness to the intensity of last night.

The heat had risen to a peak the moment their bodies joined, then slowly subsided.

The drug stoked his energy until even his most private depths burned.

But it wasn’t only the side effect…

No, taking Leah had not been merely because of that.

Neither the Duke nor Rikel had told Leah their plan, to ensure its perfection.

And yet, she fought to save me.

In truth, he had thought that upon hearing of his death, Leah would flee for her own survival. But she had struggled desperately to save him.

Testing side effects on her own body. Refusing to leave his side, as though her sole mission was to bring him back.

Is it responsibility? Or is it foolishness?

Rikel had risked his life to smuggle the comatose Duke out of the palace. And that day, Akkia—the Empire’s sole prince and duke—had died.

Now, he only had to wait for the right time, living as the head of the Magnolia Trading Company.

But as he prepared to leave, Leah’s impending execution weighed on him.

He, who had long lost all humanity, who lived coldly and with hostility—found Leah to be the only truly human being.

So he had defied Rikel’s opposition, turned his steps, and gone to the execution grounds.

Yes, it had been impulsive.

His life had always been built on precise calculations, but saving Leah was a gamble.

She was an unforeseen variable that entered his life. Yet as he looked at her sleeping face now, he thought—perhaps not a bad one.

Staring at her quietly, Akkia whispered.

“You don’t know how much I gave up just to save you.”

He caressed her cheek as he spoke. What he gave up was the plan he had prepared for years.

“Leah.”

She could not hear him, lost in deep sleep.

Like his cousin, who cut away everything—his own limbs, his most precious things—to seize the throne, Akkia too would ascend to Croatea’s highest seat. Even if he had to drench himself in blood.

“I will become emperor.”

He would reclaim everything.

He lifted his hand from her crimson hair. Between his fingers, her strands slipped down like flowing blood.

“The plan is broken, but I’ll just start again.”

The plan had derailed, but in exchange, he had gained this woman. Though he had sworn never again to create something precious.

“I gave you a chance.”

A chance to run from him.

He had warned her countless times to stay away. But Leah had crossed his lines with ease. Now that she had stepped into his life, there was no turning back.

“You came of your own will.”

Perhaps it had begun with her medicine. But now, Akkia knew—he could never let her go.

Just being near her set every nerve on edge.

“This time, I won’t lose.”

Not to anything.

“So all you have to do is stay by my side.”

As you always have. Stay by me, Leah. If you remain at my side, I’ll place everything you desire into your hands.

His eyes gleamed darkly as he whispered.

From the red depths, where desire and greed tangled, the quiet light of possessiveness shone.