Chapter 124
He placed his lips below her earlobe and lightly sucked at the fluttering skin, making her slender shoulders flinch and shrink.
He gently rubbed her tightly tense, delicate muscles with his palm and pressed his chest against her slick spine.
The feeling of bare skin touching bare skin was terribly stimulating.
“D-don’t…”
She murmured in a fragile voice.
Letting that sound go in one ear and out the other, he lightly bit her delicate shoulder and lowered his hand below her waist.
She was thoroughly wet.
When he gently stroked the slick flesh dampened by both of their fluids, the woman, who had been stiff, began twisting her whole body.
He reflexively grabbed her wrist.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I told you not to! I have no intention of repeating that act twice in one night!”
She shouted with a deeply shrunken face.
Varkas looked down at her with narrowed eyes, then let out a low sigh and pulled the blanket over.
“If Your Highness does not wish it, I will do nothing more. Even so, sleep in my bed.”
After wrapping her in the soft cloth and embracing her waist once more, confusion and anxiety crossed her small face.
Like a snail withdrawn inside a thin shell, she left only her face out from under the blanket and sent him a wary look.
“Why should I? By now, everyone in this castle must know that we have had marital relations. There’s no need to go through the discomfort of sharing a room.”
He glared at her as he felt the languid heat wrapping around his body fade in an instant.
If she had not looked so extremely anxious, he might have poured out some cutting words.
Varkas inhaled deeply and slowly stroked her curled back.
“There is no reason not to share the same room either. It is natural for a married couple who spent the night together to use the same bed.”
“B-but we…”
She mumbled with a flustered face.
He brushed away the hair clinging to her face and brought his lips to her cheek, which was cooling lukewarmly.
Perhaps the breath brushing her skin tickled, because her slender neck, barely a handful, twitched and trembled.
Feeling himself grow increasingly impatient, he swept his hand over her lower abdomen through the thin blanket.
“We are no different.”
When he whispered low by her ear, he felt a faint shiver sweep through her body.
The face touching the bridge of his nose gradually grew hot.
If the surroundings had been bright, he would have been able to see a red flush spreading over her skin, transparent like milky glass.
Feeling the desire he had barely resolved rise again, he lightly bit her soft earlobe.
The woman drew in a sharp breath and shuddered.
Since she did not seem to particularly dislike it, he circled the flower-bud-like ear with his thumb and slipped the tip of his tongue against the small opening.
Then she startled violently and jerked her head back.
“You said you wouldn’t do anything more!”
“Is simply touching you not allowed either?”
As he embraced the small body that fit neatly in his arms and whispered against her forehead, her large eyes shook violently.
Realizing that she was conflicted, Varkas touched her thin waist over the blanket, then teased near her long, straight navel.
She curled her body even more tightly.
But this time, he could tell it was not because of tension or anxiety, but because of arousal.
His stomach heated with the expectation that she might accept him one more time.
“May I remove the blanket?”
“N-no.”
“Truly no?”
Even in the darkness, he could clearly see her eyes move as if she were hesitating.
Pulling up the corner of his mouth, Varkas quietly slipped his hand inside the blanket and carefully spread her knees.
At that moment, the woman, who had slowly been relaxing, began thrashing violently as if struck by lightning.
He frowned and strongly tightened his grip around her thin waist.
A shrill scream burst from her mouth.
“It hurts!”
He released his arms as if burned by fire.
Not missing that moment, the woman leaped out of the bed, wrapped the blanket around her body over and over, and staggered toward the door.
Varkas watched her with a fierce gaze, then strode after her and caught up.
“Why are you trying so hard to return to your room?”
“I-I… don’t want to be here. My room is comfortable.”
Her voice was filled with deep fear.
The moment he realized that, it felt as though cold water had been poured over his head.
She was a woman who held strong disgust toward sexual contact.
Perhaps his forceful behavior had touched her nightmares.
“Did I make you uncomfortable?”
When he murmured in a tightly locked voice, complex emotions passed across her face.
She lowered her head and spoke in a sunken voice.
“You did nothing wrong. It’s just… I’m more comfortable with my way.”
“By your way, do you mean running away like a frightened rabbit after the act is over?”
He had not wanted to corner a woman who already looked unstable, but an edge rose in his voice on its own.
Fortunately, instead of shrinking back, she responded by raising her thorns.
“Who said I was frightened? I simply prefer efficiency.”
In the bluish darkness, his arrogant Imperial Princess lifted her head stiffly.
“I will come when I want, stay only as long as I want, and leave. While we are doing that act, you may do as you please, but after that, I will do as I wish!”
He sent her a crooked gaze with his arms crossed over his chest.
Seeing her bluff even while her shoulders trembled, a cruel impulse surged up for an instant.
He could handle her as he pleased as much as he wanted.
He could forcefully keep her in bed, and he could unleash his desire as much as he wished.
But he also knew that if he yielded to that savage impulse, he would wound her so deeply it could not be undone.
He slowly closed and opened his eyes.
The blue eyes that had constantly provoked him since childhood were glittering in the darkness like shards of broken glass.
Looking straight into those eyes, he asked.
“Is that truly what you want?”
Something like hesitation passed over her pale face.
However, she soon stubbornly pushed out her chin.
“Yes.”
Varkas quietly looked down at her, then twisted his mouth.
“Then it seems I have no choice but to wait until you want to stay in my bedroom longer.”
Perhaps it was unexpected, because confusion entered her eyes.
“That will never happen.”
“That remains to be seen.”
Varkas answered calmly, snatched his trousers from under the bed, and quickly put them on.
Then he draped the khal hanging on the wall over his shoulders, lifted her together with the blanket, and carried her.
A scream burst from her mouth as if she were startled by the sudden action.
“D-don’t! I can walk on my own!”
He ignored her words and stepped into the brightly lit corridor.
She immediately hid her face inside the blanket.
Varkas let out a small laugh at the sight, so much like a caterpillar hiding inside a cocoon, and soon strode down the corridor.
The servants passing through the corridor looked at him in surprise, but he did not care.
Varkas walked straight to the front of her bedchamber, supported her back with one arm, and twisted the doorknob.
As he entered the room, she finally poked her face out.
When her moist, reddish eyes and tangled golden hair came into view, his throat tightened stickily and an intense thirst rose.
Suppressing the desire to press his lips to hers at once, he set her down on the bed and bent one knee before it.
“When do you think you will want to enter my bedchamber again?”
“How would I know that?”
“Tomorrow?”
“I said I don’t know!”
He frowned.
If she did not come, he could come to her.
But he was not certain whether it would be right to pressure her that way.
She wanted to choose for herself.
If that was the only way this absurdly frightened woman could feel at ease, then he had to follow it.
He wound her hair, shining like golden glass, around his fingers and carefully stroked it.
“I will wait.”
The light rippled in many colors over her blue irises.
He quietly looked into her violently trembling dark pupils, then slowly added.
“Come to me when you want to.”
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