Chapter 16.2

As Yernia laid her head on his thigh, she stared at Cassian’s face while he was busy looking elsewhere.

Feeling the intensity of her gaze, Cassian glanced back at her, and their eyes met.

Yernia felt dizzy suddenly, and she blamed it on the moonlight.

Her cheeks were flushed with heat.

Her eyes were half-closed, her lips were moist, and her chin was stained with wine.

Cassian’s shaky thumb stroked Yernia’s lower lip.

He couldn’t believe that he saw a side of her that he hadn’t seen before.

“Yernia, don’t you like me?”

“Why would I hate you, Cassian? I don’t hate you, but I felt like I had the worst luck in the entire universe.”

It was amusing how Yernia liked to drink, but she couldn’t tolerate alcohol that much.

She gets drunk quickly, but she can be quite honest if she is under its spell.

Cassian was aware of this.

“Then, do you like me?”

“Well, yes?”

She wanted to be blunt, but she felt her heart tighten for a moment.

Cassian must have expected an unexpected answer from her.

Yernia didn’t see Cassian as something more than family.

It was nothing more than friendship on her side.

“Not like that, Yernia.”

“If it’s other than that, then… what do you mean?” Yernia slurred.

Cassian’s long fingers caressed and gnawed her lips gently.

“I don’t think you know what I mean.”

“Do you mean… if I like you as a man?”

“You’re smart.”

When Yernia moved her lips to speak, his hand had brushed her teeth and touched her tongue a little bit.

At first, she thought she was unconsciously chewing her lips. But when she recognized she was suckling Cassian’s finger, she quickly swatted his hand away.

Yernia scowled at him. “Don’t touch my lips, Cassian.”

“Why?”

“It tickles. Your hands tasted salty, too.”

She broke the sexual tension in the atmosphere, making Cassian laugh.

He didn’t stop like what Yernia wanted.

Instead, he touched Yernia’s sensual lips in more suggestive strokes.

The sight was seductive.

Explicit.

“Well…”

Cassian continued to caress her wet lips, and Yernia groaned without meaning to.

Now, her lips felt ticklish and itchy somehow.

“Cassian…”

“Tell me how you feel about me.”

“I like you. It’s not that I hate you for a reason, but I just can’t imagine the two of us being together. You’re like my brother. My childhood friend.”

Yernia thought he was like a brother to her?

If so, Cassian wondered what her real brother, Evan, was like.

He had never complained about Yernia treating him like a brother before.

Cassian might as well start now.

“If we were both young, I wouldn’t have to feel wronged.”

“What?”

Cassian looked at Yernia, who was drunk for a while and slowly lowered his head.

His raven hair fell forward as he closed the distance between them.

When they had a little space left between their faces, Cassian paused to turn his head.

“All this time, you have been treating me like a brother. I felt wrongly accused, Yernia.”  He whispered in her ear.

Now, she felt so bad for him.

“Yernia, shall we check?”

She stared blankly at him as lips moved closer and closer.

Yernia was too drunk that this whole scenario felt like it came straight out of her imagination.

“Checking? What?”

“Do I feel like a brother to you? A childhood friend?”

“You are Cassian. Nothing is going to change that.”

“Maybe, you will find out after kissing me.”

“Kiss?”

Yernia repeated in a daze.

Kiss.

Kiss.

“Well, you and I… will kiss? Are you going to kiss me?”

She blushed in embarrassment.

No matter how drunk she was, Yernia wasn’t a fool.

“I’ll let you go if you still feel like I’m your brother after kissing me.”

Kissing?

Cassian and…?

“You would let me go if I still see you as a brother afterward, right? Then, we don’t have to get married anymore?”

“What?”

Cassian quickly interrupted her thoughts before she could persuade herself against the idea.

“Well…I’ll do it.”

Drinking alcohol had clouded her judgment.

She could only hear that Cassian would let her go after the kiss.

“Do you want to do it?”

“Yes.”

“There’s no turning back.”

The long pink hair spread all over his thighs moved when Yernia nodded.

Cassian glanced down at Yernia, who closed her eyes too soon.

Was Yernia even aware of what they were trying to do now?

Never mind.

It wasn’t like she would remember all of these tomorrow.

Yernia would feel relieved if she didn’t like the kiss.

Cassian didn’t know what to do with Yernia.

How could she only look at him as a brother?

Honestly, Cassian was afraid that Yernia would never think of him as something more… more than a brother or a childhood friend.

Yernia wouldn’t even remember their kiss tomorrow, but Cassian still got greedy.

He finally had the opportunity to soothe himself by pretending to confirm their true feelings using this kiss.

It wouldn’t matter.

He would be surprised if Yernia remembered, but he guessed it’ll be alright.

Cassian would simply dismiss his sincerity as if it was some kind of a test.

He approached Yernia with his eyes open.

As he gradually came closer, he realized that her lips were as red as a rose.

The night wind swept through their skin.

He could hear his loud heartbeat and the rustle of leaves dancing in the silence.

Cassian’s mouth parted slightly to bite Yernia’s lips.

Before their lips could touch, a sudden murmur stopped Cassian from continuing.

“I feel so cold.”

Yernia tossed and turned.