Even though the engagements remained formal and polite, nothing about Jay and Keifer was the same. To everyone else, they were still the composed, respectful couple, Keifer with his fiancée and Jay with her own arrangements.
But behind closed doors… the rules no longer applied.
Jay leaned against the doorframe, smirking as Keifer crouched near the fireplace, pretending to adjust a rug.
"You're ridiculous," she said, trying to suppress a laugh.
Keifer looked up, eyes glinting mischievously. "Me? Ridiculous? Says the girl who just hid behind the curtains to scare me."
"I was investigating," Jay said, mock serious, "not… whatever ridiculous thing you're thinking."
"Sure," he said, slowly standing, the gap between them closing. "Investigating."
Before she could react, he grabbed her wrist gently but firmly, tugging her closer. Jay yelped, trying to pull back, but the smirk on his face told her she wasn't going anywhere.
And then he kissed her. Softly at first, testing, and then deeper, the kind of stolen kiss that left them both breathless, heartbeats colliding in perfect chaos.
They pulled apart, grinning at each other like idiots. "You're impossible," Jay muttered, though the heat in her voice betrayed her.
"Am I?" Keifer teased, brushing a wet strand of hair from her face. "Or did you finally realize I'm… inevitable?"
Jay rolled her eyes, laughing despite herself. "I'm not admitting anything."
"Good," he said, leaning closer again. "Because I'm not done."
Late nights became their playground. Sneaking into empty rooms when everyone else was asleep. Whispered challenges across the library. Soft, reckless laughter echoing through the mansion corridors. Every glance, every touch, every brush of fingers carried the weight of their secret—of stolen moments that belonged only to them.
And teasing… oh, they were relentless.
"You know," Jay said one evening, arms crossed, as Keifer pretended to read a book across the room, "you're terrible at keeping your eyes off me."
Keifer didn't even look up. "And you love it," he said casually, though a mischievous grin tugged at his lips.
Jay's lips twitched. "I do not—"
"You do," he interrupted smoothly, sliding closer, letting his knee brush hers. "Every time. Admit it."
"I—" she stopped, realizing she couldn't. She didn't even want to.
And that was the new reality. The world around them continued as it always had—formal, polite, arranged. But Jay and Keifer? Their hearts, their bodies, their laughter… theirs alone.
Every stolen kiss, every teasing glance, every quiet, reckless night together made them feel alive in ways no engagement, no duty, no expectation could touch.
They were chaotic, relentless, and completely, utterly, hopelessly theirs.