“Take off your clothes.”
Near the end of the wedding banquet, she was led by her nursemaid into the bridal chamber. After the maids helped her wash and she sat on the bed, her husband followed into the room a moment later. Then, to her, who was stiff with tension, he said that.
Maxi only widened her eyes. She couldn’t understand why the man who had thoroughly ignored her existence throughout the ceremony would suddenly make such a demand. She vaguely knew that something intimate occurred between husband and wife, but she had no concrete knowledge.
Her nursemaid had only said she must obey her husband unconditionally and quietly accept anything he did. Did that unconditional obedience really include taking off her clothes? As she floundered, the man, who had pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, shot her an impatient look.
“Do I have to undress you myself?”
She sucked in a startled breath. Riftan Calypse looked like a giant twisted out of steel. His shoulders seemed twice as broad as hers, his neck was long and thick, and compared to the powerfully built chest that felt almost overbearing, his waist tapered sleek and lean, calling to mind an elegant hunting hound.
She had long known he had a singular build even among knights, but facing him up close was overwhelming. She swallowed dryly. It had hurt so much even when her father struck her—what would happen if this man hit her?
“…You’re looking at me like I’m something dreadful.”
At his cold voice, Maxi flinched. He strode up to the bed and glared down at her. In the firelight from the hearth, his massive, golden-flickering body filled her vision without a gap.
“I suppose my appearance doesn’t please you in the least.”
“Ah… I—I…”
He bent toward her. Above a near-perfect face, black eyes held a chilling light. His tightly pressed lips twisted in a sneer.
“Of course some lowborn knight wouldn’t be to the taste of a lofty Duke’s daughter.”
At the hostility in his voice, her body trembled beyond control. A wife was her husband’s property. If he wished, he could beat her as much as he liked, and harsher punishments were tolerated as well. Dependent on her husband’s mercy, the thought that she had incurred his enmity made cold sweat stream down her back.
“Come here. We have something to do.”
Maxi couldn’t bring herself to ask what that something was and kept her eyes on the tips of his boots. A dark shadow fell over her. The man lifted her chin with long, rough fingers and gazed down at her with an unreadable, impassive look.
“If the marriage isn’t consummated, it’s void. Are you exercising a right to refuse?”
Caught by those unfathomable, black eyes, she shuddered. His mouth twisted.
“If you want me to put my clothes back on and leave, say it now.”
“……”
“Once I start, I don’t stop halfway.”
Maxi swallowed hard. If he simply walked out like this, her father would never forgive her. They had never had any choice to begin with. She squeezed her eyes shut and, with hands shaking, loosened her belt.
The fear of being beaten by her father was far greater than the shame of being exposed to a stranger. No. Being beaten would not be the end of it. After a far more brutal punishment, she would be made to stand here again with another knight within days. She was nothing but a tool for her father’s convenience.
In the suffocating silence, Maxi removed her ornaments one by one and set them by the bed. The crackle of the fire was the only sound in the room. She felt the man’s piercing gaze. She slipped the shoulder straps of her linen dress down and drew her arms out of the fluttering sleeves.
Cold night air settled keenly over her bare back and shoulders. She couldn’t bring herself to lower the dress further and clutched it to her chest. Then the man set one knee on the bed and tugged the hem of her skirt down.
“W-wait, just a moment…”
Before she could stop him, the fabric slipped down. Maxi grabbed for it in a panic. Annoyance flickered across the man’s face.
“Hands off.”
“W-why are you t-taking off my… clothes…”
She looked up at him, bewildered. With the fire behind him, his face was swathed in deep shadow. Unable to see his expression clearly made it all the more frightening.
“Do you want me to leave or not? Make it clear.”
Maxi swallowed back a sob. When she finally lowered her trembling hands, he yanked the garment caught at her waist and tossed it to the floor. Cold air swept down her rigid back.
“There’s no turning back now.”
A chill settled in one corner of her chest at the low voice resounding in her ear. He caressed her pale body, rigid with tension, with his hot hand embedded with calluses. As she instinctively tried to push him away, the man wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her even more strongly. A strange shiver flowed down her spine from the unfamiliar heat emanating from their touching bodies.
“P-please… j-just a little… farther away…”
She pleaded in a voice that trailed off into a whisper, but the man didn’t even pretend to listen. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to her chest. She widened her eyes in shock.
His hot lips moved over her soft skin. At that unfamiliar sensation, Maxi shuddered. Her mind went blank at the sight of a full-grown adult man sucking on her breast like a newborn baby.
“Relax your body.”
He muttered while roughly stroking down her stiff back with his coarse palm. Goosebumps rose at the damp sigh touching her skin.
He rubbed his rough jaw against her delicate skin and slipped one hand inside the hem of her clothes covering her waist. She jumped up in alarm. The man’s hand had touched a place she had never even imagined. Her lips trembled in horror.
“W-what are you… doing…”
“Hold still. If we do it like this, it will spare you pain.”
She flailed her legs in panic. A man she had only exchanged a few glances with was casually touching her most shameful part. She couldn’t believe it.
“D-don’t… p-please don’t…”
She clutched at his broad shoulders in pleading. She could feel the man’s body twitch and tremble. Her palm burned at the touch of his slick, firm skin. It felt like she was gripping iron heated in fire.
Riftan, who had been moving his lips as if to say something, soon roughly overlapped his lips with hers. Maxi’s shoulders quivered at the savage taste spreading in her mouth. While she was out of her wits, he pulled down the hem of her clothes and slipped his hand underneath. Her scream was sucked into his mouth.
“Damn it…”
A groan like a moan and a curse leaked from their touching lips. She could only gasp like a crucian carp pulled out of the water. He crept into a place on her body she hadn’t even known existed. She instinctively flailed her legs.
But she couldn’t escape, crushed by his rock-like body. It felt like she was a helpless beast wriggling with its nape bitten by a hunting dog.
“Hell, I can’t wait…”
He muttered in an impatient voice and pushed his hand in a little deeper. Maxi held her breath. The nursemaid’s advice that she must obediently accept everything her husband did had long vanished from her mind. She thrashed her body like a fish pulled out of the water. An unimaginable sensation shook her body.
“N-no…! D-don’t… ah!”
No matter how much she struggled to escape, it was useless. He kissed her fiercely while intimately caressing her body. She clutched the pillow, tearing at it.
She couldn’t believe such a bizarre act was actually happening. Her eyelids burned as if on fire, and her head spun dizzily.
I don’t know. I don’t know anything about this.
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