"In love you say?" Anya was still giggling as she held her stomach.

"Do you think love is important for a poor girl like me? Do you know? I struggle to eat everyday? You think matters of the heart are more important than matters of the stomach?" Anya continued to giggle, making Xav's face turn sour. He seemed offended by the way she responded to his question.

"What's so funny? Why are you laughing like that?" Xav snapped. Instantly the girl clenched her mouth shut, silent for an instant.

"Why are you asking me that? Ahh... you're making me think of first love. But that was back then, when I was in elementary school," Anya replied and walked past Xavier.

"Where are you going?"

Anya stopped then turned around, looking at the man behind her. "Didn't you just tell me to go to bed?"

"Not now!" Xav pulled the girl's arm and forced her to sit in the living room. On the long sofa facing a forty-nine inch flat screen television.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be in love?" Xav asked the girl like a human resources officer interviewing a prospective employee.

"You can look up the answer on your smartphone's search engine, why are you asking me to explain something I clearly don't know the answer to." Anya was about to leave her seat, but Xav pulled her arm again, "who let you leave here. I said sit down!" Xavier said forcefully.

"Now, take my hand!" he ordered the girl who was now staring at Xav in confusion. Of course, Anya did not immediately obey the young master's strange order.

"Hurry up, you're wasting my time," Xav complained, taking Anya's hand and kissing the back of her hand affectionately, like a prince wooing a princess.

"What are you doing!" Anya shouted as she pulled her hand away quickly. The girl wiped Xav's kiss marks with her T-shirt.

"Why are you cleaning it?" protested Xavier unhappily.

"You perverted young master, what do you mean kissing my hand like that?"

"I was just wondering how you feel when a man is being intimate with you?" Xav defended himself.

"You must be out of your mind young master, if you want to fool around don't do it with me. You can do that with another maid, or yes... that girl who was drunk yesterday. Ehhm your ex-girlfriend, who? Ahh... I forgot her name," Anya joked while tapping her forehead.

Again, Anya's hand was tripped, Xav not allowing the girl to leave the living room.

"Let go of me!" cried the girl, but instead of letting go, Xav pulled Anya's body into his arms. The girl struggled, but Xav tightened her embrace.

"Are you comfortable?" asked Xav as he smiled sweetly, even though Anya was clearly struggling to be released.

"Isn't it warm?" asked Xav again, ignoring the screeches and harsh curses that came from Anya's mouth.

"Sssstt... be quiet. Don't keep moving, can't you stay still for a minute?" protested Xav as he flanked Anya's body with both of his burly arms.

"Let go of me, you're making me unable to breathe!" cried Anya angrily. With just one movement, the man removed his arms from her body.

Anya fell down and groaned in pain.

"You!" Anya shouted, pointing her index finger at Xav.

"You asked me to let you go," he said with one eyebrow raised. Anya immediately stood up from where she had fallen, and unceremoniously pushed Xav's body hard in retaliation. The man wavered and was about to fall when his hand deftly pulled Anya up, falling together, tumbling over the abstractly patterned tapestry.

Anya's body rested right on top of Xav's chest. Their faces stared at each other, only centimeters apart. Time seemed to stop, as their heartbeats increased.

Xav brought his lips to the girl's pink lips. Gently licking the girl's upper lip, a strange swish filled Anya's chest cavity. The other side of her screamed for this to stop, though the other part demanded more. There was a war going on during Xav's warm and intense kiss. Until, the eyes that had been closed, because they were immersed in pleasure, when the man's lips began to touch her were wide open. The girl instantly realized that she had to defend her dignity.

Bruagh!

With all his might he pushed off Xav's body, and quickly moved off of him. Walking quickly from without, without looking back at Xav who was still staring and holding his own lips.

***

"My first kiss, my first kiss, was taken away by that crazy man! Brainless young master!" cursed Anya as she washed her mouth and brushed her teeth in the sink. She had already done this three times. Not because she was afraid of getting a toothache or gum infection, but because she wanted to get rid of Xavier's kiss. Or perhaps it was more accurate to erase the memory of the kiss, a memory that was still playing vividly in her head.

"He took my precious first kiss! Anya why are you so stupid? Why did you let Xavier do that to you?!" she was angry at herself while looking in the mirror.

After cursing herself and Xavier, Anya threw herself onto the narrow bed. Her eyes couldn't close, this always happened whenever she overthinks something. She couldn't calm herself down. The incident she had just experienced, really disturbed her mind and heart.

***

The man named Xav walked to his room, after sitting on the stairs for a few hours while watching the room at the end of the corridor near the kitchen. The room of a maid named Anya, the girl he had rescued from the house of Margot the prostitute.

There was a feeling of guilt as he realized he had done something no educated and dignified man in the Dmitry family should have done.

After changing into his expensive silk pajamas, Xav picked up a book on the nightstand, but before he could enjoy reading, his cell phone suddenly rang.

Uncle Berry.

A call came in from a pot-bellied man named Beary. He was the bodyguard and confidant of the grandmother-the great lady Xerena Dmitry.

"Hello Uncle-"

"Where are you now?"

"Me, I'm studying, at twinnies palace," Xav lied.

"Young man, again you try to deceive us."

Xav bit his lip, cursing his stupidity.

"Where are you now?" repeated Beary, the man's name was actually Edmund. But because of his bear-like stature, Xav had always called him that since he was a child.

"I'm... uhmm... at the cottage by the lake," Xav said softly.

"You visited her again?" asked Edmund.

"Yes, I, uhm... I miss her a lot," Xav was honest.

"Do you know there are more important things than lamenting about your past?"

"What do you mean uncle?" Xav felt curious, his forehead furrowed.

"Great lady Xerena, will make an important announcement tomorrow morning. So... you'd better hurry back or your dream of becoming the main heir won't be realized. Actually, the great lord forbade me to say this to you. But you know, I love you Xav..."

For a moment Xav was silent, his brain thinking hard, describing the simulations and possibilities that would happen tomorrow morning.

"Let's hope it's not something bad," Xav mused even though he wasn't sure of his own conviction.