Get to Work, Prince! Chapter 23 - First Time

On the contrary, Theodore fell into a sensation where his head grew dazed as if he were heavily drunk.

 

He couldn’t interpret even a simple sentence, so he repeated her words over and over in his mind.

 

A faint hope, maybe, just maybe, kept growing, feeding on itself until he was on the verge of going crazy.

 

“Why are you doing this?”

 

At times like this, he had to hold tightly to the reins of reason.

 

He must not make a mistake.

 

Theodore found it incredibly frustrating that he could only see half of Renata through the door gap, so he opened the door wider and continued.

 

“Do you even know what you’re doing right now?”

 

That question might have been directed at himself as well.

 

He had only wanted to see Renata a little closer, yet somehow he had ended up fully inside her room.

 

What on earth was he doing? What exactly did he intend to do?

 

“Think carefully. You definitely hate me.”

 

He had to turn around and leave right now.

 

After enduring so much, after suppressing those countless desires for so long.

 

If he crossed the line she had drawn, she would desperately run away from him again, like last time.

 

“Look at this.”

 

Renata flinched at the touch on her cheek and pressed her lips inward.

 

As expected, the perceptive girl seemed to have instinctively sensed that something might happen. Whether to meet her expectations or not, he lowered his face and gazed deeply into her eyes.

 

“I won’t do anything, so don’t worry.”

 

Maintaining a distance where their breaths mingled, he gently stroked her cheek with his thumb for a long moment before smiling mysteriously.

 

“I can’t do anything to you.”

 

Noticing her body trembling, he exerted superhuman self-control and tried to pull away.

 

“…You can do as you please, Your Highness. You always have.”

 

But unfortunately, that was the death sentence for his reason.

 

Soon, a brilliant verdant light filled his blue eyes, followed by the touch of their noses brushing. His eyelids lowered along with his gaze, and a hot sensation settled once on her upper lip, then on her lower lip.

 

“…Even this?”

 

She had been holding her breath in tension. 

 

The moment the warmth left, she exhaled sharply and hesitated, unable to answer right away.

 

“You started it first.”

 

Theodore shamelessly shifted the blame and slid one hand down to wrap around her lower back, pulling her into his embrace.

 

Then, his heat touched her still slightly parted lips again as she breathed.

 

This time, as he gently bit her lower lip, he pulled her chin down with his fingers as if trying to delve inside.

 

Overwhelmed by the unfamiliar stimulation she was experiencing for the first time, Renata’s legs gave out, and she staggered backward.

 

It wasn’t just the strange sensation—her eardrums ached from the sound of her own violent heartbeat, making her shake her head.

 

“Your Highness, calm down first…”

 

“You want me to stop?”

 

“No, that’s not it…”

 

Sensing danger from his clearly changed eyes, she tried to take back her words, but at that moment an unfamiliar breath forced its way between her teeth.

 

The wet, slick sound of their tightly pressed lips filled her ears.

 

Moreover, the clumsy, reckless, invasive movements made even the inexperienced Renata realize it clearly.

 

Theodore was in a similar state to hers.

 

Because he was pushing forward without controlling his strength, she kept being pushed back until she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck.

 

Then she patted his shoulder with her palm, as if asking him to pull away for a moment.

 

He must have understood the meaning clearly, yet he feigned ignorance and supported her neck, pressing even closer.

 

“Wai…t!”

 

Renata barely managed to turn her head to the side, but before she could continue speaking, his lips followed and clung to hers again.

 

In the end, she chose her last resort.

 

Her bare white foot kicked Theodore’s shin.

 

Only then did he pull his face back and stare at her intently, as if finally willing to listen.

 

“My shoe came off…”

 

“Ah.”

 

Just as Renata said, her right shoe was lying abandoned near the doorway, quite a distance away.

 

The remaining shoe dangled precariously from the tip of her toes.

 

“It’s my first time, so it’s a mess, right?”

 

“…A little.”

 

“Is it… supposed to be this sweet originally?”

 

“It’s because I only eat sweet fruits and sweet drinks… Wait, stay there! Let me breathe for a second!”

 

As he wiped her glistening lips, wet with their mixed saliva, with his thumb and tidied them, he pressed his lips together.

 

“You don’t hate it, do you?”

 

Amid all the chaos in her mind, this one thing was clear.

 

She didn’t hate it.

 

No, perhaps she had been wanting this moment all along. But Renata did not honestly reveal those feelings.

 

The last shred of reason remaining urged her to stop even now and dismiss it all as a mistake made while drunk.

 

“Do you want to pretend this never happened?”

 

The next moment, her eye level rose sharply as she landed back-first onto the soft bed.

 

“Take some responsibility.”

 

Renata said nothing, but Theodore spoke as if he had read everything about her, as always.

 

“If you throw it away like that and leave, have you ever thought about what happens to the person left behind?”

 

Her head was too foggy to fully understand what he was saying.

 

However, she could easily guess that if she told him to stop here and go back, he would be hurt.

 

“…If you’re going to do it again this time, at least say goodbye before you leave.”

 

The prince who had lived with everything he could want and would continue to do so—what could possibly make him look at her with such eyes?

 

“Don’t disappear without a word and drive people crazy.”

 

She straightened her posture, hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

 

“I… won’t go anywhere.”

 

Just that one sentence and a light gesture brought life back into Theodore’s eyes, which had been fading.

 

That was why.

 

She decided not to hide it anymore and to follow her heart.

 

“I didn’t dislike it either.”

 

The arm she had extended fell limply.

 

The moment she lifted her head to check the reason, he leaned in and pressed forward again.

 

Then his hand moved to the back of her head, roughly messing up her hair and causing a faint pain on her scalp.

 

“Your Highness, gently…!”

 

Theodore was truly twice as reckless as usual.

 

He was always self-indulgent and playful, but he usually knew the proper line and acted with restraint. He had never been this wild and instinct-driven.

 

His body was hot and firm, yet this time he seemed to be controlling his strength somewhat, so it didn’t feel overpowering.

 

She naturally wanted to stay in his arms longer, but there was a small problem. She had no idea when or how to breathe while kissing.

 

“I can’t… breathe!”

 

With a snap, he finally broke her hair tie, and her tied-up hair cascaded down over her shoulders.

 

At the same time, as her body tilted back onto the bed, Theodore positioned himself over her.

 

The heavy pressure weighing down on her entire body made her eyes widen as she stared at him.

 

At some point, he had taken off his clothes, his blue jacket was now clutched in her hand, and he was currently loosening his cravat.

 

Surely he wasn’t going to take everything off? 

 

Anxious at the thought, she grabbed the waistband of his trousers.

 

At least keep the shirt on.

 

But contrary to her intention, Theodore was stimulated by her hand groping at his waist and urgently pressed his lips to hers again.

 

“Mmph…!”

 

However, that wasn’t what she needed to worry about.

 

His hand, which had gone down to remove her remaining shoe while stroking her calf, completed its task but did not leave that area.

 

It slowly traveled up from her ankle to her knee, then her thigh, lifting her dress along with it.