Chapter 55

I felt irritation rising.

If someone hadn’t suddenly come in, I would have at least scolded them.

First, I stood up from my seat.

Then, without even looking back at the flowers and gifts Alpheios had left behind, I walked out of the parlor.

I spoke to the maid waiting ahead of me.

“Could you prepare the bath water immediately? I want to wash before Riorem arrives.”

My plan to wash before Riorem’s arrival didn’t work out.

Riorem arrived at the mansion before I could even finish bathing.

He had run to the mansion without even taking a carriage, and upon hearing I was washing, he immediately came upstairs to the bedroom.

He seemed to want to ask what had happened between Alpheios and me.

But when he actually saw me leaning in the bathtub, Riorem didn’t say a word.

He simply drove away all the maids attending me and took off his outer clothes.

Still wearing his shirt with jewel buttons, Riorem approached me.

“Are you already done washing? I don’t see Hanyu.”

“I just wanted to freshen up briefly, so I told them not to bring him. I planned to finish before you came back.”

Riorem’s jaw tightened firmly. It was clear he thought something had happened.

I smiled and leaned on the bathtub.

“Isn’t it something to be angry about rather than worried? Your slave, who shares your bed, met another man without your permission.”

“How could I say such a thing? How dare I.”

“How dare? Riorem, I am your bedroom slave, aren’t I?”

Riorem’s lips moved slightly.

It was amusing.

When he served me by sucking my body, he had no problem calling me a slave.

Yet now, after he took me, he couldn’t bring himself to say those words.

Anyway, Riorem was still my master.

So as a slave, I had to soothe my master’s mood.

I reached for Riorem’s shirt.

As soon as I unbuttoned one of the turquoise buttons, his neck stiffened rigidly.

“There was nothing for you to worry about.”

“How do you know what I was worried about?”

“You thought that since he tried to violate me where we weren’t alone, he would certainly do it where only the two of us remained. Isn’t that why you rode here on horseback in a hurry?”

Riorem didn’t deny it.

I leisurely unbuttoned it further. It looked good to see his pale neck exposed, stiffened by tension.

“But he did upset me. He said some things that deserved reproach. So I was going to scold him… but a knight stopped me from even speaking to him.”

I stroked the back of Riorem’s neck with my wet fingers.

Sliding along his prominent bone, his Adam’s apple twitched sharply.

His pants, hidden under the bathtub, must have moved in the same way.

“What… disrespect did that man commit?”

His voice barely escaped, sounding hot and agitated.

His low voice made me laugh unconsciously in delight.

Taking that as a signal, Riorem’s arm, which was resting on the bathtub, slipped into the water.

His hot hand grabbed my thigh.

I continued unbuttoning while speaking.

“He even asked me to become his wife.”

Riorem’s eyebrows twitched.

Seeing his cold, hardened face, I realized one thing.

“Not surprised, huh.”

It was unexpected.

I knew Alpheios was running around demanding that Riorem give me to him, but I never thought he’d bring up marriage.

Anyway, my country was already destroyed.

There was no way a defeated slave like me could become a princess.

I naturally thought Alpheios would just make me a maid.

So I was quite surprised by the proposal.

Therefore, Riorem’s reaction meant one thing.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it. Hmph, guess it’s not true.”

Just as I opened my mouth, my fingers spread my labia. I rolled my eyes.

Regardless, Riorem calmly spoke.

“It was a few days ago.”

“When? You never told me…”

“Why suddenly did that man get so provoked?”

Riorem pressed his lips tightly together.

But somehow I felt I knew the answer.

Because the muscles and veins in his exposed lower abdomen were twitching.

I could plainly feel the excitement he was swallowing.

“He noticed that.”

To the outside, Riorem looked the same as usual.

So I wasn’t sure how Alpheios had noticed that he had slept with me.

Anyway, he must have sensed Riorem’s change, and from that point on, he began to pursue me more aggressively.

Even making absurd marriage proposals like that.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Must have been quite a sight… suddenly, huh, Alpheios… proposing marriage.”

“Not very entertaining, I suppose. He suddenly started causing a ruckus with knives drawn.”

That remark made me truly burst out laughing.

Well, he was the man who was jealous, claiming it was special treatment that I, a slave, did not forcibly take Riorem.

If he had known we even shared a bed, he surely would have gone on a rampage.

Riorem’s gaze stuck persistently to my lips curled with a trace of laughter.

When I looked up and met his eyes, he asked,

“May I kiss you?”

Instead of answering, I tightened my grip on the hand I had resting on his chest.

The moment I scratched down his skin with my nails, Riorem covered my lips.

Even as my flesh was bitten, I thought how ridiculous the question was—“May I kiss you?” Where else would one ask such a foolish question?

His thick tongue pushed inside, rubbing and tickling my own tongue until it coiled tightly all the way to the root, trapping it completely.

Now that I think about it, Riorem’s kiss was very much like accepting his manhood.

It went so impossibly deep and rubbed insistently inside—really the same.

“Hmm, mmm…”

Hot saliva filled my mouth.

I wasn’t sure whose it was exactly, as my mouth was already more filled with Riorem’s than my own.

His tongue, soaked with mixed saliva, surged deeply as if invading my throat.

Only a slight amount of saliva and breath passed down my throat; everything else was swallowed by Riorem.

While his tongue rubbed my delicate membranes, a finger entered the hole submerged in water.

His long finger, calloused, penetrated deeply at once.

Though shallow compared to where his manhood could reach, it was a spot that felt plenty pressured.

His finger prodded my vaginal wall as if unsatisfied.

He probably didn’t like that it didn’t reach the uterus.

I squeezed his finger tightly as if soothing him.

A sharp inhale of breath was sucked into Riorem’s mouth.

While his tongue was swallowed, the finger slipped outwards.

The nerves that were scratched caused my hips to jerk involuntarily.

Then Riorem’s lips curved softly.

He was definitely smiling.

I couldn’t even voice a short protest.

His finger was probing the roof of my vagina, teasing every sensitive spot relentlessly.

“Ump, uhng, ut.”

Sounds like sobbing were caught in my throat but inhaled between Riorem’s lips.

I was literally being ravaged by Riorem from top to bottom.

His tongue and fingers messed me up inside.

The heat inserted into my mouth and the growing stimulation between my legs gathered tightly in my lower abdomen, beginning to fill my body.

Splash, splash.

Clear water, unstirred by oils, continuously struck the bathtub.

Some of it splashed onto the walls and soaked Riorem’s pants; some mixed with my own fluids, becoming sticky.

Then the hot energy filling my lower body floated up.

Reflexively, I clamped my thighs together.

The sensation of my body igniting spread instantly, melting up to the top of my head.

I squeezed his fingers tightly, my breath pouring harshly down my throat.

Then the heat rising to my crown burst suddenly.

I couldn’t even make a sound.

Maybe I couldn’t even breathe.

My vision went pure white.

My entire body soaked in dull yet sharp pleasure and finally melted away.

“Haa, ah!”

Then suddenly my breathing cleared.

Riorem released my lips.

The arms holding my waist withdrew.

I gasped, collapsing back into the bathtub.

The rippling water splashed lightly, tickling my chest.

The next moment, the water rose to my collarbone.

A man with his pants halfway down had gotten into the tub.