Chapter 20
“Are you sure this is only your second time?”
Dominic teased with an intentionally playful tone, already knowing the answer. He leaned in to whisper near her ear, his breath tickling her skin.
“Be honest. There’s no way you’d respond like this unless you were born for it—or hiding something from me.”
Elaine didn’t answer, only gazed at him with glassy, dazed eyes, her flushed cheeks giving away more than words ever could.
Her platinum hair shimmered like strands of sunlight, tumbling over her shoulders each time she trembled. Her green eyes, dewy and unfocused like a summer forest after rain, locked onto his with a dreamy intensity. And those soft red lips, parting as if to speak but surrendering instead to gentle gasps—that was enough to drive Dominic insane.
To think someone so innocent, so ethereal… could look like that.
For a moment, he forgot she was an Aiola—forgot that her face, so pure and angelic, belonged to someone he was supposed to detest.
“Elaine…” he breathed her name as if cursing himself for how much he needed her.
She looked up at him, a hint of reproach in her gaze, which only made his desire sharper.
“I’m going mad, Elaine. You’re driving me completely mad.”
His kisses turned desperate, no longer the tender kind one might associate with innocent romance. But Elaine didn’t retreat. She clung to him tighter, her arms curled around his neck as if she needed him just as badly.
Clumsy though her movements were, Dominic’s expression was one of deep satisfaction.
This girl—this Elaine Aiola—was giving him everything. Her awkward but earnest efforts, her quick glances checking whether he was pleased, her willingness to follow his lead without hesitation…
To Dominic, she was beautiful. Adorable. Irresistibly his.
My lovely Aiola. My charming little Aiola. Mine.
She belonged to him now, fully and unquestionably, and he looked upon her with something close to reverence.
“Elaine,” he murmured as he tried to regain control. “That’s enough…”
But when he paused, she looked at him with a slight pout.
“Was it… not good?”
“No, it’s not that…” he said, his voice catching.
“Then I want to keep going,” she replied with a mischievous smile, continuing what she had started without waiting for permission. He ought to stop her—should have—but he couldn’t.
She touched his face gently, running her fingers over his strained features, clearly enjoying his loss of composure.
When a soft groan escaped his lips, she kissed him, eyes gleaming with delight.
“I love you, Dominic.”
“Damn it… Elaine…”
“It wasn’t bad, right?”
She echoed his earlier tone, planting tiny kisses along the line of his jaw. Her teasing was shameless—and adorable.
Dominic didn’t answer right away. He held her for a while, catching his breath, trying to make sense of how completely she had undone him. How had a girl just barely past her coming-of-age managed to unnerve him so completely?
“What’s with that face?” Elaine asked, puffing out her cheeks. “Are you seriously telling me you didn’t like it?”
He caught a glimpse of genuine anxiety in her narrowed eyes. Even after taking complete control of him just moments ago, she still looked nervous about his opinion. She was ridiculous… and endearing.
Of course I liked it, he thought.
Too much, actually.
The sensation of her, so delicate and small, had overwhelmed him.
“Of course not,” he said aloud. “It was… very good.”
It was the clean, simple truth. How could it not be, when she was Elaine Aiola—every bit as lovely and desirable as legend said?
“I wouldn’t dare speak poorly of Lady Aiola’s…”
“Tell me you love me.”
His words, clearly poised to turn into another polite compliment, were cut off by her sharp demand.
That word—love—hung in the air like a trap.
He froze, caught off guard.
“Come on, Dominic. Say you love me. You know, now that I think about it, I’ve told you twice already. Isn’t it unfair that I haven’t heard it from you yet?”
He had said something like it once—that he loved her even in the daylight, even outside the bed—but Elaine didn’t count that. Not really. It lacked the weight, the sincerity, the romance she wanted.
And now, when he didn’t answer immediately, she pressed herself closer, rubbing against him with deliberate affection.
“Is that why you’re not answering?”
“Is it because you don’t love me? Is that it?”
Elaine’s persistent teasing and gentle provocation finally pulled a small laugh from Dominic.
“Oh, Elaine… I thought you’d have already felt my love without needing me to say it.”
“I want to hear it. From your lips.”
Elaine Aiola didn’t waver. The amusement in Dominic’s gaze narrowed into something more focused.
Love.
It wasn’t as though he couldn’t say the word. If a few whispered promises could win over Elaine Aiola’s heart, then it was an easy price to pay.
And yet… something about saying it aloud stirred an old discomfort.
“I love you, Vanessa.”
So many years ago, those words had come easily.
“And I love you too, Dominic.”
She had shone like a star in his dim, forgotten past.
“But what can I do? I love Fernando just as much as I love you.”
Her voice had been sweet—seductive—and laced with cruelty.
“Don’t worry. Nothing will change. I’ll still cherish you. Just keep loving me, just like this.”
And Dominic, the fool, had believed it was real love. If not for that incident, perhaps even now, he’d still be orbiting her—desperately hoping to be loved in return by the woman who became mistress of Aiola.
“Poor, stupid Dominic. Did he truly think I loved him?”
A filthy, low-born child? How could I ever love something like that?
No—he no longer believed Vanessa’s words had meant anything. But what he had felt for her—that had been real. That much, he couldn’t deny. Otherwise, how could he still feel this deeply—this angry, this obsessed?
Vanessa. The only woman he had ever loved. The woman he once wanted to destroy.
It was for that destruction he had returned to Hermanda. It was for that plan that he approached the delicate flower of House Aiola.
Elaine Aiola. The girl now looking up at him, asking to be loved.
“Dominic?”
Her voice brought him back to the present. He looked at her, eyes softening. A smile, half affectionate, half pained, curved his lips.
“I love you, Elaine.”
His low voice, warm and gentle, brushed her ears like silk.
She had been so adamant about hearing it—yet when the words finally came, she froze, stunned. He found her silence strangely endearing.
“I love you,” he repeated. “So much. More than you know.”
He pressed soft kisses to her face, and as if finally waking from a spell, Elaine’s cheeks flushed bright red. She threw her arms around him tightly.
“Dominic…!”
Before he could say more, she was already peppering his face with kisses, giggling breathlessly in his arms.
“Wait—Elaine…”
The desire he had barely managed to subdue moments ago now flared up again. She surely sensed it too, but that didn’t stop her from pressing close and kissing the corner of his mouth.
“Please… calm down.”
Dominic gently gripped her shoulders, trying to steady both of them. But when he pulled back slightly, Elaine looked up at him with those bright green eyes—eyes that shimmered like glass, full of hurt.
“You don’t want to…?”
Elaine Aiola. A siren, no doubt. How was anyone meant to resist a gaze like that?
Even if the man standing before her was the very one who planned to use her for revenge, even he wasn’t immune.
“I just… like you too much,” she whispered. “I want to be close to you…”
The second those quiet, clumsy words left her lips, something shifted in Dominic’s eyes.
In one swift motion, Elaine found the room flipping upside down. White ceiling. Blurred vision.
“Elaine…”
“…mm?”
“You’re going to drive me insane.”
Whatever restraint he had shown moments earlier vanished. The man who had gently pushed her away now hovered above her, his shirt clinging damply to his back.
Elaine Aiola.
That face—so innocent, yet always dancing on the edge of something more. That expression—far too tempting.
“You started it this time, remember,” he murmured, lips curling with mischief.
“Don’t blame me later.”
Much later, Dominic finally let her go.
Elaine lay sprawled across the sofa, gazing at the ceiling, her limbs heavy with exhaustion. She didn’t move an inch.
A quiet click—then the door opened. Dominic stepped back in, carrying a basin of warm water and a clean white cloth.
He paused when he saw her still in the same position, a soft smirk tugging at his lips. He walked across the room and sat at the low table before her, his posture relaxed, unbothered.
Elaine blinked at him, remembering too late that tables were not for sitting. But then again, she also remembered everything they had done moments ago on that same sofa. Surely this was the lesser offense.
Dominic caught her eye and smiled, warm and teasing. As he gently wiped her skin with the cloth, the visible traces of their shared moment began to fade.
All but the faint red marks he had left behind.
Then, between the marks, he saw something else. Something older. A deep red stain, small and petal-shaped.
Not his doing.
Carlotta’s poison.
Seeing remnants of something—someone—else on her skin stirred a bitter emotion in his chest. He deliberately lingered there with the cloth, scrubbing gently, though it did no good.
“Hey, Dominic.”
Elaine’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
“I want to introduce you to my brother and Vanessa.”
He paused.
She looked dreamy, her face half-lost in the clouds.
“It’s Vanessa’s birthday soon,” she added. “We’re having a grand party at the Aiola estate.”
He remained silent.
“I want them to meet you.”
After a long, heavy pause, Dominic finally answered.
“You mean… me, at a princess’s birthday party?”
“They both want to see you. Don’t worry.” Elaine smiled sweetly. “You’re the man I chose.”
“…What an honor.”
Dominic returned her smile—but his eyes, cold and glinting, betrayed a deeper thought.
Still, seeing him smile so openly made Elaine giggle softly, her own smile shy and radiant.
