When you arrive at Sylus's private estate in Valerio, he shows you around. The interior blends classical elegance with opulence. And deep within a cave, a natural hot spring fills the air with warm steam.

Back at the mansion, you plop onto the sofa. Sylus leans over you, and you smile at him. You wrap your arms around his neck, and he picks you up, carrying you to the wardrobe and pulls out two sets of clothes.

"Here. Go change." you stare at the lavish yet alarmingly skimpy outfit. "Is this a hundred-year-old... garment? It won't disintegrate as soon as I blink, right?"

"It was custom-made. And it arrived this morning. You can also be naked. I'm the only one here any-" you slap your hand over his mouth, jump away, grab the clothes, and run while he laughs.

When you finished changing, he was already in the hot spring. You sat down next to him and eased your legs into the water. A content sigh escapes you. "Getting here took a while. But now it feels like we're on vacation." In the haze, you can see he's in a good mood. His half-lidded eyes and the subtle smile on his lips are proof of that.

You cup water in your hands, let it cascade down his shoulder, and watch the droplets trace his muscles. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I thought all kittens sniff and run around in circles until they're ready to choose." just as you're about to sink your teeth into him, he catches your chin. "You can be bolder when I'm here. Tell me about all those desires that stir inside you. Let them out."

He lowers his gaze, his thumb settling on your lower lip, slowly pressing. "If it were you... Can you tell the difference between satisfying desire and being enslaved by it?"

"I don't need to make that distinction. After all, desire is mine to command." A familiar, mesmerizing crimson gleam flickers in his right eye and you can't resist tracing the area around it. "You're quite confident, Mr. Sylus."

"And whenever you want to be a bad girl, you can't hide that look in your eyes." His hand holds the back of your neck as he makes you move closer to him. "There's only one desire I'm willing to yield to."

His fingertip slowly trails down and stops at where your heart is. You tremble, noticing how his skin is hotter than the water. "It's relentless, intense, and nearly impossible to restrain." he leans in to kiss you.

You grasp Sylus's shoulders and create a sliver of space between you as you struggle to steady your breathing. "Hmm?" | "You're... being cryptic. You still haven't told me what that desire you yield to actually is."

"Do you want to find out?" | "What? You're not willing to tell me?" he traces your nose "Why should I? You can feel it yourself right?" he turns to face you. "If, this desire tries to pull me into the abyss, will you hold me back?" you tease down his abs with your leg.

"I'd pull you into it's insatiablility" he grabs you by the ankle and pulls you on top of him as he leans back into the water. "Just like this" you place your hands on his shoulders.

"I'd take you into those very depths" he kisses up your stomach as he looks up at you and eases you down to his eye level before leaning in again. After a small make out session you push him away in a loss for air.

"You've already hit your limit? Teasing you is a little bit too easy" | "You're too heavy, I felt like I was being crushed" he laughs at your protest and pulls back, leaning down to pick you over his shoulder.

"Your escape route isn't that good" you grab his arm, but he restrains your hand behind your back as he carries you out of the pool. "Sylus..." you call out as he places you down on a flat surface, face forward as he pushes down on your back.

"Sylus!" he catches on the change of tone catching your hands and turning you around to face him as he pins them above your head, leaning over you not in a restricted way, but in a more grounding way.

Because even though it was odd, he wasn't moving away until you've calmed down from whatever triggered your panic, because that was his way of showing he cared.