Chapter 171

Enthralled by the sensation, Rezette gave a careless reply, only to suddenly flex his claws.

Elise gasped. A sharp yet cooling pleasure brushed against her peak, making her hips jerk before she could stop herself. The knowledge that he was watching her in such a disheveled state sent a tingling thrill through her, hot enough to make her toes curl.

His rough hands pushed her legs apart and held them there, his thick thighs pinning them in place. Fingers slid along the inside of her thigh, slow and deliberate. He hadn’t even touched the most sensitive part of her yet, but anticipation alone left her damp, her breath quickening as heat rushed to her ears. The folds of fabric spilling over her belly concealed the truth, though she knew he could sense it.

Rezette pressed scattered kisses along her cheek, his hand continuing its unhurried path.

“Ah… ahh…” The sound escaped her before she could swallow it down, her lashes lowering as she felt herself cling to every point of contact. His fingers were thick enough for her to feel each joint, and wherever they moved, her body felt soft and yielding. Her slender thighs quivered.

Compared to the times he had taken her with unrelenting force, this touch was gentler—yet the restraint, the fact that she was fixed in place and unable to move, made the pleasure all the more dangerous.

“It’s been… a while,” she murmured, her voice almost apologetic.

Rezette caught her heated earlobe between his teeth, his breath searing against her skin.

“This is torture,” he said, low and strained.

She gave a soft cry as his grip tightened. Every detail—the warmth of her scent, the softness of her body, the taste of her skin—pressed in on him at once. The sound of her breath, shallow and uneven, filled his ears.

It was intoxicating. His head swam, the heat inside him seething until it burned behind his eyes. He could barely hold himself back from claiming her entirely.

“They say it can be done.”

“Mm—ah…!” Elise’s breath hitched, her voice thin with both pleasure and strain.

“But you’re so small…” His tone was low, almost to himself.

He could hardly recall how he had managed to take such a delicate woman last summer. If he stayed inside her long enough, she would open to him, but at first she always struggled, blinking back her tears.

How much could they manage now? Was it greed to want her as deeply as before?

The warning engraved in his bones struck his mind like a hammer.

“Careful! You must be very careful! If there’s been bleeding, absolutely no intercourse!”

When they had stopped in Rotiara, Lady Petisson and Freya, the castle’s physician, had given him a list of strict cautions. His ignorance of pregnancy, childbirth, and even child-rearing had left them no choice but to spell it out.

When Freya learned Elise had shown signs of a threatened miscarriage, she had nearly leapt in outrage, forbidding him from touching her until after delivery. But then she had reconsidered, adding quickly:

“Of course, marital intimacy isn’t always bad. As long as it’s within safe limits—enough to reassure Her Highness with affection. Given how cold His Grace can be… tsk. But you absolutely must not, under any circumstances, push her until she loses her senses as before. Engrave this into your head and heart!”

She had gone on with a litany of what could and could not be done. Rezette remembered every word.

Just enough for Elise to be satisfied. No more than that.

Lucidity returned to him briefly, only to slip away again. In the meantime, his touch had grown rough enough that Elise came without even managing to cry out.

Her body arched in his arms, trembling, breath catching in shallow gasps.

He buried his cheek against her neck and let her pant into his skin, holding her through each shiver. Every tremor made the ache in his lower belly swell and throb, nearly breaking his restraint.

“Haa… ahh… I like you,” she murmured, voice unguarded in the haze of her release.

Half-lost in the aftershocks, she was always most honest in this state—when her body and mind had melted halfway into his.

“I like you. …And you?” Her tear-bright eyes searched his for an answer, still needing reassurance.

If a single kiss could speak more than a hundred words, then the reverse was true as well.

“I love you.”

Once the dam broke, one phrase wasn’t enough. He turned her so he could see her face, pressing his nose to hers until she met his gaze despite the flinch from her tender belly.

“There has never been anything I’ve desired more in my life,” he said, his voice steady despite the heat still coiling within him.

Strictly speaking, Rezette had more than he lacked. Born strong and lucky, he had gathered every rare and glittering treasure life had to offer.

Even if he were to cast aside that entire hoard, he would gladly spend the rest of his life holding only this woman in both hands. Nothing else mattered.

“Of course, you don’t feel that way,” he said quietly.

To Elise, there must be countless things more beautiful than him—her family, her rich homeland, her splendid castle. He had once begged her to abandon them all for him, even at Norella’s fallen harbor.

He often remembered what she had shot back at him then: “If that happens, I’ll spend my whole life in hell, resenting you. Wasting it on hatred.”

Even now, he still hadn’t decided whether Argan was truly a place worthy of her.

“No matter how I try to see it,” he murmured, “this place doesn’t suit you. I’m not picking a fight, Elise. But even just being here, in this body…”

He had expected her to turn cold. Instead, she was strangely quiet.

Without speaking, she reached up and brushed aside the black strands falling over his brow.

The tenderness in her touch melted the tension in him like ice under sunlight. Grasping her trembling hand, he spoke all at once.

“So if you must be hurt and tired,” he said, his voice low and rough, “then do it by my side. At least where I can see you.”

She said nothing.

“Better to be unhappy with me, Elizaveta.” The words sounded cruel, but the command in his voice wavered, softening into something almost fragile. That plea, distilled in his tone, sent ripples through her heart.

He whispered that he loved her again. And again. As if every other word had deserted him, leaving only that one behind.

The lingering heat of her climax still colored her cheeks. Her lips parted and closed with thirst before she finally lifted her head.

“There must be a way for me to be by your side without being unhappy,” she said.

His brow furrowed. “What?”

“Say you came here for that. That you came not as my enemy, but as my husband.”

When her meaning sank in, his blue eyes widened.

Sensing the rare opening in her softened heart, Rezette seized it without hesitation.

“I’ll live however you command,” he said.

Her gaze wavered. “How could you know what I’ll want…”

“If you want a husband, I’ll be a husband. If you want a knight, I’ll be a knight. If you need a weapon, I’ll gladly be one. All you have to do is decide.”

“And if I want you to be a good father?” she asked.

He hesitated, but only for a moment. “…If that’s what you ask.”

It wasn’t a lie. He didn’t know what made a good parent, but there was no reason he couldn’t try. Elise could already tell he intended to improvise his way through it.

“Even half of the love you have for me,” Elise murmured, her voice tinged with shy hope. “It’s our baby, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Rezette replied without hesitation.

The answer came easily, though the thought of giving away even half of that love felt daunting. He kept that part to himself, unwilling to dampen the joy lighting her smile.

“…On the way here, I kept thinking of you,” she said softly. “You’re not someone who says pretty words, yet there wasn’t a single day you left my mind…”

Her fingers traced the straight line of his nose, then the curve of his lips, as though committing them to memory.

This was the man who had taken all her firsts—from her deepest self outward—and before him, she could be utterly honest. With him, she could lay bare her love, her resentment, her struggles, and her longing without shame.

Before Rezette, she had never been allowed to shed her armor. She had never been able to admit she was tired, never been able to stop pushing herself past her limits.

With him, she didn’t need to prove her worth. She could be a princess… or simply a shameless woman surrendering to pleasure.

The crushing weight of responsibility that had pressed on her shoulders seemed to lift all at once.

Letting her emotions carry her, she found herself drifting toward the man before her.

“…I really do like you,” she confessed at last, unable to contain the swell in her heart.

Breathless, Elise leaned in first, brushing her lips to his. 

“I love you too,” she whispered.

His eyes widened for a heartbeat before closing, surrendering to the tickle of her breath and the soft, feathery warmth of her mouth.

It was the first time she had confessed with such unguarded sincerity.

I love you.

This woman loved him.

He could not pretend he hadn’t known, yet the truth still felt unreal.

She loves… me.