The linens lay forgotten in the grass, moonlight spilling across them like pale silk. The girl pressed against the stone wall, her breath sharp and uneven as Adrian's lips claimed hers again, hungrier now.
Her hands trembled where they clutched his shirt, torn between shame and desire. Every part of her whispered no, but her body answered yes with every shiver.
Adrian deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding past her lips, drawing a soft moan from her throat—a sound she tried to stifle but couldn't. It was the sound of walls crumbling, of resistance dying.
"Someone might hear," she whispered, though her voice cracked with need.
Adrian's smile brushed against her lips. "Then they'll know you couldn't resist me."
Her gasp melted into another kiss as his hands roamed, tracing her waist, her hips, the small of her back. She pressed closer, as though desperate to fuse herself against him, to drown in the warmth that poured from his touch.
The world narrowed to heat and shadows. The night air felt thin, each stolen breath a tether pulling her deeper. She whimpered when his lips left her mouth only to trail down her neck, his teeth grazing skin as though marking her.
Her moans grew softer, rawer, pulled from places deep inside her she hadn't known existed. Every touch, every kiss unraveled her, until she was arching helplessly against him, lost in the rhythm of his hunger.
Adrian's hand slid lower, claiming her body with a possessive pressure that made her knees weaken. She clung to him, trembling, as if she would collapse without his strength holding her upright.
"Say it," Adrian whispered, his voice like velvet wrapped in steel. "Say you want this."
Her breath caught, shame flickering for a heartbeat. Then her eyes fluttered closed, surrender spilling from her lips in a broken whisper. "I want… you."
Adrian's grin was wicked, triumphant. "Then you're mine."
The kiss that followed was not gentle—it was fierce, consuming. His touch demanded everything, and she gave it, every gasp and cry a surrender that bound her to him more tightly than chains.
The night swallowed the sounds of their passion, each moan echoing against stone, each stolen gasp filled with both fear and hunger. She was lost, completely, and Adrian reveled in it—the power of desire turned into submission, the pleasure of knowing she had yielded everything.
Her climax came like a breaking wave, her body trembling, breathless cries muffled against his shoulder. Adrian held her through it, savoring every shudder, every tremor, every sign of her collapse into him.
When at last her body went limp against him, she clung desperately, her forehead pressed to his chest, chest rising and falling in frantic rhythm.
Adrian tilted her chin up once more, forcing her dazed eyes to meet his. "Now," he murmured, his voice still thick with the edge of heat, "you'll tell me about your mistress. Everything she hides. Everything she fears."
The servant girl's lips parted, her voice trembling but sure. "Yes… I'll tell you anything."
Adrian smiled, brushing his thumb across her flushed cheek. "Good girl."
The rest of the night vanished into shadows—into heat, into silence, into a bond forged not by love but by surrender.
And when the moon dipped lower, Adrian knew: the first step into the noblewoman's world was already his.