Love's Irresistible Temptation
I lit the candles one by one in the darkened house.
With a soft sizzle as the wicks caught flame, the scenery outside gradually came back into view.
The sun was setting.
The purple sky was slowly devouring the orange light, casting darkness over the land.
It was a sight too precious to miss, one that always left a lingering aftertaste.
Just as I wondered why the walls had vanished—
Click. The sound of the necklace being unclasped came right from under my chin.
With a gentle touch, yet with those ruined fingertips, she lightly tickled my neck as she removed the restraint, offering a bitter smile.
"...I'll have to fix this too."
As she tried to move away still holding it, I lightly caught her wrist and pulled her toward me.
Startled yet naturally wrapping her arms around my waist, Thea...
I lightly pressed my lips to hers.
...Even then, the sunlight still warmly illuminating us made that moment beautiful.
"Thea, don't worry too much. We just have to hold out for today."
"...Okay."
How long had she cried in my arms?
Holding her as she sobbed apologies and begged me not to leave, soothing and comforting her...
Now she even raised a hand to my cheek as I tried to speak, sending a faint signal not to stop.
Pulling my chin slightly closer, as she continuously loosened her lips and breathed warmth into me with her plea...
I couldn't give in.
If I crossed the line here, even I would no longer be able to resist her and would be consumed.
If that happened, I would face what would occur if I ignored the warning.
After all this effort to return, to be able to spend such happy times with her, defying death.
To even see the pitiful gaze of a woman who desired my love right before my eyes—I couldn't just throw this away.
...But as she kept clutching my collar, nipping at my lips little by little and whimpering, Thea's coquetry was indeed too much to resist.
Those eyes narrowed in a smile, the beautiful woman's form as she stuck out her long, wet tongue and slightly raised the corners of her mouth, this allure as she lightly wrapped her hands around me, wanting only me—what man could possibly shake that off?
It wasn't mere temptation.
Because she loved, because she wanted only me, because she couldn't accept anyone else in this world and had reclaimed me, she was telling me with her entire body that she wanted me now.
"E-van...♥"
In a soft, languid voice, from a throat thick with wetness, an irresistible sweetness was flowing out.
Gulp.
As I unconsciously swallowed my saliva, she drew even closer.
Ah.
Before I knew it, our tongues—
"Chuuup."
Ah.
They finally overlapped.
They mixed.
They began to tickle.
A tingling sensation raced up from below and instantly shook my mind.
As strength gradually left my legs, and just as I tried to pull away from the mouth connecting us—
"Tsup, chuuup..."
Gently supporting me with her arms, wrapping me in her embrace, there was no way for me to stop her as she invaded even deeper.
Perhaps her words were right.
Perhaps her anger had been justified.
It was just kissing because of love—what problem could there be with that?
As long as it didn't go further, it was fine.
Even if my body was being pleasantly caressed by her hands, even if my hands were strongly embracing her, drawing our bodies ever closer—I just had to keep a firm grip on my sanity.
Thinking that, just as I slowly tried to break the dam I had barely been holding back with my tongue—
A sinister voice began to giggle and echo inside my head.
"Eh, eh?!"
My face, which had been leaning on her lips, captured by her hands and mouth and having lost all strength, lunged straight into her embrace and collided.
My nose, nestled into her not-too-wide but soft chest, was enveloped in a thick floral scent.
"Mmngh..."
It stung.
The scent, which had somehow become concentrated, wasn't just making my head blank. Even my body considered it dangerous and desperately blocked anything more from entering through my nose.
But I thought.
Wouldn't it be okay to feel just a little, just a tiny bit?
But just as I tried to accept that scent, tentacles shot out in an instant, wrapping around me and pulling me from her embrace.
"Evan?!"
"Uugh?!"
Lightly, the writhing flesh gripping my body woke my spirit. The mild pain from tightly squeezing my arms and legs once pulled me, intoxicated by her, back to reality.
But Thea could not.
"What are you trying to do to Evan right now—"
Without even wiping the drool that had flowed from her loosened lips, step by step, she was expressing her rage at the god she served without hiding a single emotion.
What was shot at her as she reached out to pull me back was a single sentence.
...That warning was dry, yet terribly heavy.
Thea's boiling rage cooled.
Like the bubbles rising in a pot that failed to control the heat sinking straight to the bottom with a splash of cold water, her undulating hair now hung limp, as if revealing its master's emotions.
"W-what?"
An ominous vibration shook the surrounding air.
Purple eyes appeared for a moment in the shadows, then vanished.
As it spouted incomprehensible words, from the twisting form of its body I felt my head growing dizzy.
It was nauseating.
I felt my throat burning again.
As I unconsciously tried to pull free from the hand gripping me amid the sensation that I might vomit at any moment—
In the blink of an eye, I was somehow seated on the sofa, holding a glass of water.
As if I had never been captured from the start.
"Don't say things like that, please tell me again. Evan, what did you say?"
I didn't even notice that my position had changed.
At that fact, though not as much as before, my head ached slightly.
There was no shaking, no wind brushing the skin, no movement of me or the tentacles. Even the form of the quiet black robe, as if no tentacles had ever extended, was alien.
But Thea was a little different.
As if she had seen me being seated, she still fixed her gaze on me as she spoke. Her eyes full of fear and confusion.
"I-I was just with Evan—"
Each word seemed to pierce Thea.
Though I couldn't see the face, beyond that hooded face was a sly expression. As if knowing everything, leisurely keeping me and Thea in its gaze, enjoying this moment.
Laughter came again.
But I, and she, could not laugh.
Thea was still looking at me.
This time, pain was in it.
The fear of nearly losing me once more, and the fact that she had nearly done it with her own hands, seemed to have left a somewhat deep wound on her.
"Thea, come here."
So I called her.
"I-I... Evan..."
Bringing her hand to her mouth, she was about to bite her nails again.
The thumb worn down from countless torments.
I had to stop her.
"Thea?"
In that moment, my viewpoint twisted.
Immediately expelling the clumped breath from the rising nausea, I shook my head vigorously once.
Despite the shaking vision, I could tell she was in front of me.
Because I couldn't miss the form of that body that had pleasantly embraced me, and those eyes that shone brightly even in the dark room.
"E-eh?!"
I immediately spread my arms wide and threw myself over her body.
She, pinned beneath, received my body with a shallow scream.
I thought I had fallen with all my strength, but Thea was holding me all too easily.
"E-Evan... that is, I-I just thought you were making excuses because you were tired. I wasn't trying to do this, I wasn't trying to hurt you—"
To stop her rambling mouth, I strained to raise my head and lightly pressed it to her lips.
But I had to immediately pull away and create a little distance.
...Because a gaze that had become extremely displeased was felt right beside us.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll definitely respond."
While being embraced, I showed a smile once.
But just from simply smiling, her eyes sparkling again. Her moistened lips.
Feeling unease at that for a moment, a sound of something breaking came.
Sudden drowsiness and darkness rushing in.
Even knowing that if I relaxed my legs now I would surely hit the floor hard, in that strange sensation of being unable to put strength into them, I eventually let everything go.
Black shadows catching Thea's collapsing body.
I too could comfortably lean against something supporting my back.
In that final ringing voice was kindness.
It must have been a black form full of grotesqueness and fear.
Why, in this moment, does a benevolent smile come to mind?