Chapter 131
It felt as though she had become a fish caught in a tightly woven net.
When she instinctively flailed her arms and legs to escape from the bed, Varkas gently pressed down on her body and cupped her cheeks with both hands.
“Shh… It’s all right.”
Warm breath brushed over her sweat-damp eyelids.
She felt her frozen body melt in an instant.
However, her mind remained hardened with tension.
She twisted her head to the side and barely pulled her upper body out from under the blanket.
“The moon… cover it.”
Then, like a drowning person reaching toward land, she stretched her arm toward the window, but long, firm fingers slipped into her hair.
Immediately after, her head was pulled back, and her lips were covered by hot mucous membranes.
She could no longer think of anything.
All that remained in her mind was the sensation of tongues tangling together like flames.
Thalia held his shoulders tightly and let out an excited breath.
“Lift your waist.”
When she unconsciously obeyed his instruction, the thin hem of her dress slid down.
Their two sweat-slick bodies created a strange friction in the narrow gap of the blanket filled with hot air.
Would it feel like this to sink into a bubbling swamp?
It felt as if the bones and muscles in her entire body were melting away.
Thalia sobbed softly and rubbed her soft body against his smooth, steel-hard flesh.
At that moment, she felt the fabric tangled at her waist roll down below her hips.
When even the last curtain blocking the space between them disappeared, the mind that had been melting like candle wax suddenly stirred with alarm.
She spread her thighs wide so that her bandaged leg would not touch his body.
Then, craning her neck to check whether her leg had been revealed outside the blanket, Varkas seized her face and forced her to look at him.
“Do not let your attention wander elsewhere.”
Blue eyes holding the moonlight filled her vision.
Thalia forgot even how to breathe and counted the silver fragments nestled in his eyes.
His gray-blond hair, glowing bluish, gently tickled her forehead.
While she stared at his face as if bewitched, a hot hand slid down her body.
His eyes remained fixed on her face.
When Thalia realized that Varkas was carefully observing her reactions, intense shame overwhelmed her, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
It was the wrong decision.
When her vision was cut off, the sensual touch caressing inside her body became even clearer.
But as she endured that intense sensation, unable to dare open her eyes again, a damp sigh moistened her eardrum.
“Open your eyes, Thalia.”
The gentle voice was like a weapon.
At that moment, she knew he was trying to cut away and take even the last handful of her heart.
Once everything had been taken from me, what will become of me?
“Look at me.”
Unable to resist his persistent urging, she eventually lifted her eyelids again.
At that moment, he pushed into her body.
Thalia tightly gripped his white, sculpture-like shoulders.
At the pressure filling her abdomen completely, her head bent back on its own.
He pressed heavily down on her and wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes with his thumb.
Then he persistently looked into her clouded pupils.
It was a gaze that seemed to be searching even the deepest part of her soul.
Dizziness rushed over her as if her retinas were being dug into with something sharp.
But he did not allow her to look away.
Varkas firmly gripped her head and moved his waist slowly.
The inside and outside of the body captured by him felt as though they would soften and burst like overripe fruit.
Thalia unknowingly murmured words of pleading.
She did not even know what she was begging for.
Their sweat-damp bodies released humid steam under the blanket, which was like a hot bath.
It felt as though even her brain would evaporate.
“Varkas…”
Moans close to sobs kept bursting from her throat without pause.
The creaking of the bed, the sound of wet skin rubbing together, and her heart pounding as if it would explode mixed into it.
She felt as though she would go mad.
Her mind and body, everything, were collapsing.
And Varkas was watching it happen.
A blade-like gaze poured down over her cheeks heated as if burning, her wet eyelashes, her lips spilling excited breaths, and her unfocused eyes.
In the end, unable to bear it any longer, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his smooth shoulder.
The sound of him grinding his teeth reached her ear, and the deepest part of her body was mercilessly crushed.
She raised her fingertips along the delicate curves of his muscles, which glowed white beneath the moonlight.
The tips of her nails, trimmed short so she would not hurt him, slid over his sweat-damp skin.
Rough, uneven breaths poured down over the crown of her head.
She did not know how long she barely clung to her fading mind.
The movements that had continued at a steady rhythm suddenly became urgently fast beyond measure.
Flustered by the unpredictable stimulation, Thalia bit the nape of his neck without realizing it.
At the same time, a violent explosion erupted inside her body.
She trembled all over and clenched tightly around him.
Overflowing tears soaked her cheeks and neck.
She felt warm fingers caress her wet cheek.
It was a touch like a hand gripping her defenselessly exposed heart.
Overcome by a strange dizziness, Thalia squeezed her eyes shut.
Then, at some point, she seemed to lose consciousness.
Thalia, who had been tossing and turning to escape the stifling heat, woke from the force gripping her waist.
The scenery of the bedroom, surrounded by bluish light, entered her blurred vision.
After blinking blankly, she became aware of the warm body temperature behind her and flinched, turning her head.
She saw Varkas sleeping soundly with his cheek buried in the pillow.
She carefully raised her upper body and silently stared at him.
The pure white moonlight slid down over his delicate cheekbones and illuminated the nape of his neck, where bite marks remained.
She almost tried to touch it with her fingertips without thinking, but curled her fingers back.
She did not want to disturb his peaceful night.
Thalia slowly lowered her feet from the bed.
Because the moonlight was bright, it was not difficult to distinguish objects.
She found the horribly crumpled dress in the corner of the bed and pulled it over her head.
After dragging the wrinkled hem down, she lifted her head and saw the full moon lighting the black sky beyond the large arched glass window.
The pouring moonlight seemed as though it might blind her.
“Do not go.”
As she looked up at the night sky like someone out of her mind, she felt warmth behind her.
Thalia shuddered under a sharp thrill.
Varkas wrapped the cool blanket around her and leaned his face against her temple.
“Just stay here tonight.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
She felt she should push him away.
But she could no longer remember why she had to.
Ever since she first met him, she had longed for this embrace.
She had wished that he would hold her warmly and not let her go.
Then why am I fighting against my own wish?
Thalia, trembling helplessly, finally nodded.
“…Fine.”
“Tomorrow too.”
“…Yes.”
“And the day after that.”
As she nodded as if bewitched by something, he led her back to the bed.
Warm arms wrapped firmly around her lukewarm body.
After hesitating briefly, Thalia placed her hand on his waist.
For an instant, a trace of satisfaction seemed to pass over his impassive face.
Thalia lifted her head to study him, then soon buried her forehead in his broad chest.
***
The Season of Wind was also drawing to a close before they knew it.
Varkas, who had been reading through a report in his office, turned his head at the lingering sensation brushing his cheek.
Beyond the wide-open window, a blue sky so vivid it made his eyes sting spread out.
While his gaze was briefly taken by the sight, several streams of cool wind scattered the documents on the desk.
As if annoyed, he picked up a paperweight and pressed it over the parchment, then rose and closed the window.
At that moment, glittering golden hair entered his eyes beyond the glass window.
Varkas lowered his gaze.
Thalia, wearing the newly completed white outer coat, was walking through the garden with her nanny.
Each time the harsh wind roughly swept past her flushed face, her golden hair fluttered long like a bird’s wings.
He narrowed his eyes and watched her for a while.
The sight of her wearing the fur of the magical beast he had hunted gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.
Though he had been fasting all morning, his stomach felt full.
However, before long, displeasure raised its head.
She had been visibly drooping for several days.
Had she not made his nerves stand on edge by even developing a low fever at dawn?
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