QT: I hijacked a harem system and now I'm ruining every plot(GL)-Chapter 82: Embrace

Chapter 82 – Daphne POV

She tastes like rainwater and recklessness.

Like something forbidden and inevitable.

Her mouth crashes against mine, and it’s everything I’ve been trying to avoid.

Everything I’ve denied myself.

Everything I can’t stop wanting.

I kiss her back.

Gods help me—I kiss her back.

My fingers fist into her wet hair, my other hand finding the curve of her back, dragging her closer even though I know I shouldn’t. The water sloshes around us as we move, bodies pressed together, skin to skin, like we’re trying to carve this moment into time.

She gasps when I nip at her bottom lip, and I feel it—how her hands tremble before tightening around me.

It’s messy.

Too much.

Not enough.

I want to run. I want to stay.

I want to forget and remember at the same time.

She sighs against my mouth like she’s coming undone, and it’s that sound that breaks something inside me.

Because it’s not her voice I hear in my head.

It’s Jiang Yuxi’s.

I pull back.

Breathless. Shaking.

Her eyes fly open, wide and startled, lips parted and still wet from the kiss.

My heart slams in my chest.

I step back into the water—just one step. Just enough.

"Evelyne," I say, and it’s the first time I’ve ever said her name aloud.

It tastes like betrayal and comfort all at once.

Her name is not hers.

Her face is not hers.

But the ache in my chest is very real.

So I say it again.

Quieter.

"Evelyne... I—"

And I can’t finish it.

So—like a coward—I run.

I tear away from her grasp, water sloshing violently as I stumble backwards toward the bank.

I don’t speak.

I don’t look at her.

I just move.

Fast.

My dress is still where I left it, half-crumpled in the grass. I yank it on with shaking hands, not bothering to dry off, not caring that the fabric clings to my soaked skin.

The bodice is misaligned. The hem drags in the dirt. My hair is plastered to my face like ivy.

I don’t fix any of it.

I throw my cloak over my shoulders, half-buttoned and crooked, and I run.

Barefoot.

Into the woods.

Twigs scratch my ankles. Mud splashes up my calves. The wind hits my wet skin like ice, but I don’t stop.

Not until the castle comes into view.

***

Evelyne POV

I can’t think.

I don’t even remember how I got here.

One moment I was standing in the stream, the ghost of her lips still burning against mine—and the next, I was... here.

In my chambers.

Lying on the plush bed, soaked to the bone, wrapped in a towel someone must have draped over me.

The ceiling above me is carved and gilded, a reminder of everything I am. Of what I’m supposed to be.

But right now?

Right now I am nothing.

I stare blankly upward, blinking slow and aimless, like I’ve forgotten how to function. My hair is damp, my fingers pruned, my mouth still parted like it’s waiting for something—waiting for her.

My mind replays it over and over again.

Her eyes just before she ran.

That second of surrender.

That second of guilt.

And then she was gone.

Gone like a dream I wasn’t ready to wake up from.

Gone like I imagined the whole thing.

I don’t know how long I lie there.

Minutes.

Hours.

Time doesn’t matter.

Only the weight in my chest does.

Heavy. Hollow. Dull.

She kissed me back.

And then she ran like I’d poisoned her.

I close my eyes, pressing the heel of my hand hard against my chest like it might keep my heart from cracking wider.

I don’t even know what this is.

What I’m supposed to do?

How am I meant to look at her and pretend nothing happened?

How do I walk through these halls with my head held high, pretending to be a duchess, pretending to be composed and proud and untouched—when now I know what it feels like to be in her arms?

To feel her lips against mine.

To feel her breath hitch, her body press against

me like she needed me just as much as I needed her.

Now that I know what it feels like to be in her embrace,

I don’t think I can live without it anymore.

I turn in the bed onto my side and—

I squeal.

Actually squeal.

I bite my knuckle to muffle the sound, immediately horrified at myself. What am I doing?

I feel like a little maiden in a romance ballad. Giddy and warm, wrapped in the glow of stolen affection.

It’s ridiculous.

Undignified.

And completely out of character.

But I can’t stop smiling.

My cheeks hurt from it.

My legs kick gently beneath the covers, restless. Useless.

Is this what madness feels like?

For a second—

Just one single, borrowed, beautiful second—

I had her.

And I think that second might ruin me for the rest of my

life.

Because now I know how she tastes when she kisses me.

How her voice catches when she’s holding back something she’s too afraid to feel.

How her arms feel around me—not stiff, not polite, but real.

That moment is carved into my soul now. A brand. A wound. A promise.

I turn in the bed again, pressing my face into the pillow.

***

Daphne POV

I haven’t left my bed.

I stare at the ceiling like it holds the answers, but all it does is press down on me.

I don’t know what I’m feeling.

I don’t want to know.

My chest aches like I’m mourning someone who hasn’t even died.

What did I do?

Why did I do it?

Why did it feel so—so real?

So good?

Good is an understatement, it felt amazing and electric.

I press the heel of my hand to my heart, as if I can force the ache to stop.

But it doesn’t. It just deepens.

Because I wanted it.

And that’s what terrifies me most.

Not that I kissed her.

Not that she kissed me back.

But that I could let myself feel something again—after Jiang Yuxi.

It feels like betrayal.

And yet...

Her voice.

Her touch.

That broken, breathless moment when she whispered my name like it meant something holy—It’s stupid. It’s dangerous.

But I think I’m falling.

And I don’t know if I’ll survive it a second time.