Her voice trembled slightly, but not entirely out of anxiety. It was more due to the way Cesare pressed his lips firmly to the nape of her neck, leaving a distinct sound as he briefly sucked on her skin before letting go.
"It's been a while since I attended the hunting festival, so it should be fine. You've never been before, have you?" Cesare replied, making it clear that his decision to attend was entirely for her.
Eileen, preoccupied with potential political implications, felt flustered and looked up at him. But Cesare had already moved on from the topic of the hunting festival.
"They always say nothing happened," he muttered in a low voice, his tone alluding not just to the tea party but to events from much earlier.
Eileen's mind drifted back to the past. He had posed a similar question when she had given up university and returned to the capital.
'Did anyone trouble you at university?' he had asked that summer when Eileen was 17 and Cesare was 24.
