82: Chasing men

Chasing men

Larissa's eyes widened considerably as she gazed intently through the window.1

Initially, Adela, who had been requested by her sister to spend the night in her room wore a mischievous grin upon witnessing Larissa's reaction. She imagined that Andreas must have been executing a romantic proposal in the garden.

Nothing could have readied Adela for the sight that awaited her.

Larissa's devastated expression with her eyes tightly shut and her arms pressed against her mouth, sent Adela into immediate action. She leaped off the bed and rushed towards her sister.

"Lari!"

"Adela, what is the meaning of this?"

In a panic, Adela moved closer to the window, scanning the dark night in search of what had shattered her sister's heart. It didn't take long for her to spot it.

Amidst two of the Archduke's knights standing nearby, Andreas stood engaged in a heated argument with a woman who appeared visibly intoxicated. 

A grave realization hit Adela. This might be Lotus.

"I'm going down!" Larissa's voice broke towards the end.

Adela's heart swelled with satisfaction upon hearing those words, believing that Larissa had every right to assert herself and establish boundaries with any woman who approached Andreas in the future.

"I'm coming with you," 

The girls hastily threw shawls over their nightgowns, attempting to move as silently as possible as they made their way out of the mansion. They knew their parents would undoubtedly hear about this in the morning, but if the Archduke and Archduchess were awakened at this moment, things could escalate into an ugly situation.

Both of them flinched as they opened the gate only to be greeted by none other than Egon von Conradie.

Adela's eyes quickly surveyed the surroundings, realizing that only Andreas remained, observing Larissa from a distance.

"Larissa, go to him," Egon advised.

"He should be the one to come to her!" Adela retorted, her voice dripping with protectiveness.

As Larissa hurried towards the stables, Andreas swiftly closed the distance, halting her in a spot where Adela and Egon could still observe them but not quite hear their conversation.

"Why do you always have to interfere with everything?" Egon asked, his eyes fixed ahead.

Adela's eyes never left her sister, "Look who's talking."

Adela and Egon observed as Andreas made an attempt to hold Larissa, only to be met with resistance as she pushed him away. A gratifying sight for Adela.

"It's quite intriguing." She remarked.

"...What is?"

"How women seem to follow you everywhere," she coolly replied.

"They care about us,"

Adela's blood turned to ice as she delivered her response, "Instead of troubling them all the way here, perhaps you should both return to Kolhis where you came from."

He crossed his arms over his broad chest almost touching hers. She held herself protectively when her arm tingled.

"Maybe we should follow your advice," he said with a hint of sarcasm. 

"You would do the best thing if you actually followed it," she retorted angrily. "And just so you know, my father will never let what happened tonight go unnoticed."

"Everyone has a past. I have mine too. Life in Kolhis is very different from life in Emoria, and Kaiser de Lanark is well aware of that,"

"It's painfully obvious that life in the Empire is different, with women chasing after men..." she remarked, her tone carrying both disapproval and condemnation. In her peripheral vision, she caught sight of him smirking down at her.

"Does it bother you?"

She scoffed, "Why would it? It's simply a matter of principle for me. Chasing after a man who is about to be married... I'd rather die than embarrass myself like that."

The shift in his demeanor gave her a clear indication that her words had struck a nerve.

"You never know what you'd do until you're faced with it," 

With that, he bypassed her and walked away, heading in the opposite direction of the stables and towards the darkened part of the garden. Outraged, she stomped her feet and followed after him.

"Such arrogance!" she exclaimed from behind him, but he didn't acknowledge her presence. "You truly believe you're the center of the universe, don't you?"

She stiffened when he laughed, "Do you think that this is funny?!"

"What's funny is how jealous you were of Olga when she was all over me at that table in Kolhis," he remarked, still not bothering to look down at her.

She came to a stop, feeling a burning sensation in her chest.

"You can't be jealous over something that was never yours," she calmly replied.

Egon abruptly stopped, his posture rigid for a brief moment before he spun on his heel and advanced towards her as if on a mission to unleash his anger, it was so intense that she went as far as to anticipate a physical blow. He reached out and seized a handful of her loose hair, causing a surge of fear to course through her veins.

"You asked for it," he sounded tormented right before he bent down with one final grunt and smashed her lips with his. 

It was not a jolt, but an explosion of heat inside of her.

Her brain raced to comprehend what was happening and questioned it, the scratch of his stubble against the tender skin of her face and how unbelievably soft his lips were, these could not have been a fragment of her imagination. 

Egon von Conradie was kissing her, and she was kissing him back.

Her lips parted to let out a gasp that was cut short when his lips claimed hers again, and she felt the power that kept women on their feet escaping her.

She lost herself in the surrender, his haggard breaths were what pushed and pulled their bodies, his chest pressing iron hard against her softness each time they collided. The heat that pooled in her lower parts was unknown and unimaginable, and her head became so light that she did not notice when the kiss turned into something so different, so sweet and tender.

One of his gloved hands was sliding down a strand of her long loose hair while the other gently clasped her cheek, keeping her in her place. He let her lips go only to brush his tongue across her lower lip, a shock that caused another explosion of heat inside of her.

"Mine..." His breath tickled her nose.

Her blurry gaze fixated on his gloved hand that was pressed to her cheek right where the bite mark should be—the very same mark that he had hinted at being the origin of their mate bond.

She hid her face in his shoulder, leaning her weight on him. "What bit you..." she whispered in agony, unable to contain the three words that had consumed her thoughts, now escaping in her vulnerability.

She couldn't see his eyes growing softer, "I survived that forest because of the bite,"

"Does it hurt?" Her eyes glistened as she finally met his dilated gaze.

"Nothing hurts when I'm with you,"

Is this what keeps him around me?

Egon pressed his nose gently against hers and moved it in the most tender gesture she had ever experienced. And amidst her internal struggles and insecurities, a sudden shout interrupted their intimate moment.

"Larissa! Adelaide! Where are you?" The Archduchess called out from the balcony of her chambers.

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