"An exception?" Natalie asked, her lips curling up into a satisfied grin. "Anybody I know?"

  "I think you know the ao that," Aina breathed, struggling to keep her posure. She bit her lip and blushed. "I bme you, really," she huffed. "For answering the door in that state. You put all sorts of things into my head that I 't get rid of."

  Oh, dear. Had she said that out loud? So bluntly?

  "Things?" Natalie asked. "Like what?"

  Not iionally, Aina's eyes flicked down toward Natalie's skirt.

  "Ah," Natalie said, catg the gnce. "You saw that too, then."

  "Saw … and was ied," Aina forced herself to say—throwing the words out there, to see how Natalie would receive them.

  By the growiement in her eyes, the i was mutual. Despite all the hints being there—the stant flirting not just today, but days previous—and that it shouldn't be a surprise, Aina's heart fluttered. So it was reciprocated.

  Natalie opened her mouth, and Aina hung on her words.

  But then Natalie hesitated and pulled back, grimag.

  "W-What?" Aina asked. She could read that rea easily enough, Natalie reining herself in. But everything had been going so well, and apparently, she erson more than up for some, um, casual iions.

  So what had happened?

  "I 't," Natalie said, looking away and breaking that sm eye tact that had been mixing up Aina's insides.

  "'t?" Aied. "Why not?"

  She didn't o ask what she couldn't do. That much was obvious.

  Her.

  Natalie wrinkled her ruggling to phrase it.

  "I told my teammates I wouldn't," she said.

  "O-Oh?" That took her aback. "You're taken?" She had beeing the feeling that the five girls were more involved than just delving partners, but she'd assumed it eionship. At least by how shamelessly Natalie had been flirting in front of them.

  "Taken? Oh, no, it's nothing like that." She grimaced. "It's … you."

  "Me?" Aina asked, armed.

  "Er, sorry," Natalie hastily corrected. "You're wonderful. I mean, it's your dad."

  "My father?" Uanding smmed home. A frown tugged on her lips. "What does he have to do with this?" She waved between them.

  Natalie shifted awkwardly. She made a sheepish expression, a sort of 'you know what I mean,' but Aina crossed her arms and made her finish the statement.

  "It's unprofessional," Natalie sighed. "That's what my teammates keep telli least. So I promised them."

  "Promised them what?" Aina asked, gring.

  Natalie spread her hands helplessly.

  "Promised them what!"

  "That I wouldn't get involved with you, okay?" Natalie said. "In that way. And yeah, it's bullshit, but it's also the situation we're in. Right?"

  Aina blinked.

  That 'right?' wasn't Natalie asking Aina to uand or to be sympathetic with her plight. It was the opposite.

  'vince me I should ighem,' her pleading eyes said.

  Though hiriously, Aina didn't think it was an expression given iionally. Just her subscious sending out a request for help.

  Her brain ed away as she formuted a pn of attack. This, she retty good at. Spinning an argument, or turning words around in the right way. Sure, she might not mingle in the high courts of Aradon, but a baron wasn't a man with no position, and she was his daughter. She was more than skilled with words.

  But should she try to vialie? She was right. It would be sdalous.

  Unfortunately, Aina was much, much more ied iing into Natalie's skirts than she was worried about a bit of a sdal.

  Maybe a bit of sdal was why she found herself so excited in the first pce.

  "Well," Aina said in her most reasonable voice. "I don't see what my father has to do with us at all. So that's an unfair reason to reject me, don't you think?"

  "Te makes it clear we're agents of them when we're out on a quest," Natalie disagreed. "It's probably implied we shouldn't involve ourselves with anyone, much less the point-of-tact's daughter."

  Aina ged tact. "It's not like we'd be caught," she argued. "Everyone's at the celebration. We could do it right here, in the grass, out in the open, and no one would be the wiser."

  That idea had Natalie's face rapidly turning red, but while it had her shifting around as if something was suddenly straining inside her skirt—which, Aina thought faintly, was exactly what was happening—it didn't do much to vince her.

  "I told my teammates I wouldn't, though," Natalie said. "It's not about being caught."

  She was loyal then. Or at least halfway; a flimsy 'we wouldn't be caught' wasn't enough to vince her. It was more about the promise itself than the possibility of her teammates finding out.

  Aina pursed her lips, rag her brain.

  "You told them you wouldn't … do me?" she asked.

  Natalie nodded cautiously.

  "Well. Okay. Then what if it's me that does you?"

  Natalie blinked.

  "Uh?" she said.

  Aina seized the opening. Before Natalie knew what was happening, Aina had climbed onto her p. That was nearly as promising for her as it was her target, because Natalie's body responded. Aina could feel it through her skirt—the half-hard bulge that swiftly swelled up, pushing into her ass. She settled down against it, straddling Natalie's thighs.

  "After all, you 't be bmed for what I dht?" Aina murmured. "Only what you do. And you just y there a happen, no involvement of your own. o fuck me—I'll fuck you."

  With wide eyes, Natalie looked at her. Then, iably, her gaze dropped down to Aina's breasts, which, with Aina sitting on her p and leaning ave a magnifit view into her cleavage. She'd picked this outfit for a reason.

  "You are your own person," Natalie murmured, drinking in the sight. "I 't be bmed for what you do. If Jay or Sofia disagreed, that'd be pletely unreasonable of them."

  Aina pressed the advahough it wasn't some strategic decision, but rather her excitemeing the better of her. She leaned forward and kissed Natalie.

  It sent a thrill through her how quickly Natalie reciprocated. Hungry and needy, she pressed her lips back against Aina's—then pushed further, addiongue, drinking her in. Aina clutched the side of Natalie's head, fiangling into silky red hair, holdihere as she melted into the kiss.

  Gods, she was a good kisser. Her stomach ed, heart pounding as Natalie's mouth cimed her own, hot and intense. Her hands dropped to grab Aina's thighs and roamed up into her skirt, across bare skin.

  And all the while, her cock had grown firmer against Aina's ass. With every roll of her hips—with every little thrust she gave against Natalie's bulge—it had grown stiffer, until it was as hard as stone. She could feel it throbbing through Natalie's skirt.

  Aina moaned into the kiss.

  The sound seemed to startle Natalie bato awareness. She froze, and her eyes shot open. She pulled away.

  "We, uh—" she said after a swallow. "We are in public, though, Aina?"

  Aina blinked several times as her brain caught up to reality. Right. She had been seds from sliding down Natalie and throwing up her skirt. But they were out in the park. In a panic, she looked around. There was no ohey hadn't been spotted. And they'd only been kissing, anyway.

  But that was still too much. For all it miffed her that Natalie had reservations about doing anything with her because of her father, she did have reason to be wary. As jovial as he presented himself, Father would not respoo Aina ... dallying ... with the Te delvers.

  She swallowed thickly and rolled off Natalie's p. She sat to the side, breathing hard.

  "Alright," Aina said. "Then how about we go find somewhere private?"