Chapter 2 #5
“What’s the matter?” He acted as if sleeping together in the nude was the natural thing to do.
Not knowing where to look, Maxi swallowed what she had wanted to say and managed only a hesitant whisper. “G-Good night.”
Riftan gave no reply. As she watched the fluttering pulse in his muscular neck, Maxi drifted off to sleep.
—
Maxi awoke to something pressing down on her chest. Feeling suffocated, she blinked her eyes open, only to find that a tanned, muscular arm completely blocked her vision.
She raised her head slightly. Riftan was fast asleep, his head buried in her hair.
Memories of the previous night came rushing back and she blushed.
Under the blanket, they were tangled in a naked embrace, his long and sturdy legs intertwined with hers. He hugged her tight, like he might a favorite pillow.
Maxi had never known such an affectionate embrace. Not even her own mother had held her with such warmth. As her eyes roamed uneasily around the room, it occurred to her that she should find something to wear before he woke up. If he found her like this, he might…
Burying her face in her hands, she recalled how she had writhed in his arms. How could she face him again? She would rather throw herself out the window. A proper lady would never have acted the way she had.
Her nursemaid had made things crystal clear: She was to stay as still as a corpse when submitting to her husband’s will. That was her duty as a wife.
The heat of shame spread across her cheeks. Far from being corpse-like, Maxi had writhed and moaned. Would he not think her a wanton, unseemly woman?
Anxiety washed over her. She could not let him see her like this. After cautiously freeing herself from his arms, she searched under the bed. Dressing like a proper lady might not be possible, but she could at least cover her nakedness.
She discovered a tangle of clothes piled on the floor in the corner of the room.
She desperately grabbed for them, but they were just out of reach.
Not daring to wander about the room naked, she leaned over the edge of the bed with her arm outstretched.
But instead of inching forward, she was yanked back.
“What are you doing?” Riftan asked, observing her through half-open eyes.
Maxi turned to him, surprised. She had thought he was still asleep. When she tried to break free, his arm wrapped around her waist and nimbly rolled her toward him, pinning her under his body.
“R-Riftan…It’s m-m-morning…”
“Yes, it’s morning. I was dying, waiting for you to open your eyes.”
He pressed his lips to her eyelids as he spoke, and she startled under the ticklish sensation.
A mischievous smile spread across his face, and he continued to shower her face and ears with light kisses before proceeding to her neck.
His lips were like the tickle of a butterfly’s wings. Flustered, Maxi pushed his face away.
“P-Please d-don’t…Let me p-put on s-some…”
“Do you know how much I had to restrain myself the entire night?”
He brought her hand to his lips and slipped one of her fingers into his mouth. As his tongue savored her, she blushed to the tips of her ears. Had her hands always been so sensitive?
“If you knew how I felt every time you blush,” Riftan muttered as he nibbled on her fingertips, “you would never blush again.”
Unable to bear the embarrassment, she hid her hands under the blanket. Riftan’s brows twitched, and he snatched the blanket away.
“Why are you trying to hide?”
Maxi curled up to hide her nakedness. “Th-The sun has r-risen! It’s so b-bright…”
“All the more reason to let me see. I want to admire you in the light of day.”
He pulled at her bent legs. She was embarrassed to the point of tears. It was hard to believe she was in bed with a man in broad daylight, when just the day before, she had been cowering in her father’s castle.
Riftan’s hand roamed over her shoulders and breasts before gliding down past her waist and settling between her thighs. His fingers slid easily into her, where she was still wet from the night before.
“Maxi…How was last night? It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“R-Riftan…”
“You felt good, didn’t you?”
She would die of embarrassment before she answered that question. His fingers began to move dexterously in that most intimate of places.
“For me, it was heaven. Do you know how hard it was for me to leave you three years ago? I wanted to throw the Dragon Campaign to the dogs and stay with you. It was agony for me to rise from your bed, though I knew you must have wanted me gone….”
Maxi’s eyes went round with surprise, the shame of her nudity forgotten. A crooked smile appeared on Riftan’s lips, and he grazed the tender skin below her collarbone with his teeth.
“I still feel the same way. When I’m with you…I can’t hold back.”
He nipped the nape of her neck, and his fingers pushed in deeper. Maxi reflexively squeezed his arm with her thighs, drawing out a satisfied moan from him.
“It’s your bad luck, being married to a man like me.”
Maxi was convinced that she was the inadequate half in their marriage. Like her father said, this marriage was a great fortune that she did not deserve. Why, then, did Riftan think she was unlucky? But the question slipped away as her thoughts grew hazy, eclipsed by the heat kindling within her.
She panted, squeezing the fingers moving vigorously inside her. Riftan’s feverish gaze surveyed her body from head to toe and Maxi found herself unable to look away from him. His fingers withdrew and were immediately replaced by the deep thrust of his length.
“Ah…!” He let out a savage growl and bit her earlobe. “You’ll be the death of me, damn it.”
Maxi clutched tightly on to his iron-hard shoulders, feeling like a prey animal that had been captured by a hound. His grip dug into her thighs, spreading her legs to the very brink of pain, and he started to move steadily.
Maxi tried to stifle her moans as Riftan moved with the smooth, gentle cadence of a slow-flowing stream.
But before long, he abandoned his restraint and began to move wildly over her and within her.
At length, he climaxed and slumped onto her, his body a sweaty heap.
She gasped for air, his hot breath brushing her forehead.
“I could do this for days.”
“You’re h-heavy…”
If he wanted to, he probably could pin her to the bed for days.
Seeing the stricken look on her face, Riftan playfully bit her ears. “You taste so good here too.”
After nibbling on her reddened earlobe, he dug his tongue into her ear. She shuddered at its wet touch.
“R-Riftan…!”
“If not for that accursed lizard, I could have bedded you every day and every night. We might have had children of our own by now!”
“N-No more! Stop…Ah!”
Ignoring her protests, Riftan continued to brush his sweat-slicked body against hers while he teased her ear. Drained from the endless marital duties, Maxi was shocked when Riftan shifted himself between her legs again.
She almost burst into tears and was considering trying to faint when someone knocked loudly on the door. Riftan froze.
“Damn you! What do you want?!”
“Time to wake up, Commander!” The loud yell carried through the door. “The sun’s high in the sky! How long are you going to lounge about in bed?”
Riftan threw a fierce look toward the door as if he could see through its thick wood. “Didn’t I tell you I’d gut you alive if you disturbed me again? Do you have a death wish?”
“Can’t you contain yourself until you’re back home? We must leave again for the capital as soon as we reach the estate!”
“Delaying things by a day or two won’t be the end of the world! Stop whining!”
“Commander!”
“All right! I’m coming, I’m coming! You ruined the mood, you little bastard!”
Riftan ran a hand through his hair, and Maxi stiffened as he spat out a string of creative expletives that she had never heard in her entire life.
He sprang up, his features tense with annoyance. “Get the carriage ready! We’ll depart soon.”
In response, the man behind the door stomped away to obey the order.
Riftan let out a deep sigh and looked down at the floor. “I shouldn’t have brought those bastards with me….”
Maxi watched him silently.
“Wait here,” Riftan said. “I’ll find something for you to wear.”
She nodded, her pale face peeking out from behind the blanket. As Riftan gathered his clothes from the floor, he frowned at her.
“Why the waterworks?”
Maxi did not know how to answer.
“Speak. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but I’m not a patient man.”
How could she not have noticed her husband’s red-hot temper? But she could not say that, could she?
“Y-Y-Your m-m-men outside kn-knew,” she stammered in a timid voice.
“Knew what?”
“W-W-What w-we were d-d-doing in th-this r-room…”
Her cheeks were on fire. Riftan had been staring intently at her, but the corners of his mouth suddenly twitched upward. Much to her disbelief, he burst into boisterous laughter and clutched his stomach.
“R-Riftan!”
“You really do drive me mad.” Almost choking with laughter, he lifted her and the blanket and sat down with her on his lap.
For someone with such an intimidating presence, he had an extraordinarily innocent and boyish laugh.
His chest still shaking with mirth, he nibbled on her shoulder, which was already dotted with the marks of his passion.
“My sweet, innocent lady. Of course they know what we did. My men are not half-wits. They know what happens in the bedroom when a husband and wife are reunited after three long years.”
“B-But…”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We are married, and that’s what married couples do. It’s only natural.”
Natural? She knew the duties that were expected of a wife in the bedchamber, but what she had shared with him last night felt anything but natural. And was “shared” even the right word? Had it been an act of giving and taking?
Her thoughts surprised her. Was it not just a rite she had to endure if she was going to bear a child?