Chapter 48
‘How much time has passed?’
In a room filled with darkness, only the sound of firewood burning was heard.
‘Nnngh…’
It had been a long time since she last lay down, but Rose could hardly fall asleep.
‘Damn, it’s so… cold. I feel like my feet are frozen.’
The cold air coming in from the window above the sofa was icy enough to pierce the flesh. It was so cold that it felt like the wind was blowing through the entire stone wall.
Rose turned her head and looked at the bed.
The area around the fireplace, where Maxim was lying, looked warm and cozy, like a round tent filled with warmth.
‘I can’t do this.’
Eventually, Rose crept to the edge of the bed so that Maxim wouldn’t wake up.
The bed facing the warm fireplace was quite large as he had said earlier, leaving plenty of room for her to lie down on.
Fortunately, Maxim kept his eyes closed and didn’t move. Seeing his even breathing, it was clear that he was sleeping soundly.
‘Let’s warm up a bit before he wakes up and head back to the sofa!’ But as soon as she lay down in bed, those thoughts completely vanished from her mind.
Rose’s body melted and became one with the bed.
‘Ah… I will live now.’
Regretting not coming earlier, she pulled the blanket up to her neck.
‘Mmmm.’
Rose, who couldn’t sleep, opened her eyes. She thought she closed them for a short time, but the firewood that was burning earlier had dwindled a lot.
‘Oh?’
Seeing that the wall facing the window had turned blue, it seemed that dawn had already come.
‘How much did you sleep?!’
Rose came to her senses.
She looked very carefully behind her back, hoping he was still asleep. Fortunately, Maxim was sleeping peacefully, lying on his side.
Rose turned around very carefully to not make a sound and looked at his sleeping face. It was her first time looking at him so closely, so her heart pounded as if she was doing something secretive.
The blue light of dawn outside the window fell on him, and his face became clearer.
‘His eyelashes are very long.’
Rose was surprised to discover an unexpected fact, seeing that he was breathtakingly handsome.
‘You’re fine as long as you don’t open your mouth.’
Remembering the upsetting venomous remarks he said to her, she wanted to hit his forehead with her finger.
‘Still, you saved me a lot… You even granted all my unreasonable requests…’
Was it because it was early in the morning that she felt those useless emotions? Suddenly, a strange impulse began to stir in her. She wanted to kiss his lips.
‘I must be crazy.’
In her head, she was screaming to go back to the sofa right away, but Rose’s face was getting closer and closer to his.
The moment she came close enough to feel his breath tingling her face, Rose’s last reasoning tenaciously grabbed her and managed to stop her from doing nonsense.
But at that moment.
Maxim’s eyes fluttered open like a golden sun rising in the dark.
‘…!’
Rose and Maxim looked directly at each other, less than a cheek of distance between them.
Unlike her purple eyes, which fluttered with embarrassment and bewilderment, Maxim’s golden eyes were holding her gaze persistently.
“Why don’t you keep doing what you were going to do?”
Rose’s face heated up at the words that came out of his mouth. It was as if she was caught doing something bad and vicious.
Even if she threw herself into the burning fire, she knew her body wouldn’t burn as much as it was due to shame now.
“I… I-”
As Rose tried to pull herself back, Maxim put a hand on the back of her nape and pulled her towards him. He raised his upper body and kissed Rose’s lips.
Their slightly pressed lips parted after a moment, and then he whispered playfully as if teasing her.
“Did you want to do this?”
With her eyes widened in surprise, Rose twisted her head to get out of his grip.
“N-no, is…”
‘What reckless thing was I trying to do?’ Along with the shame, great regret came.
However, Maxim did not give her a chance to escape. Holding Rose’s waist, he laid her back on the bed. He supported his body weight, placing his arms on each side of her body and whispered as he looked down at Rose from above.
“If you try to attack someone who is sleeping quietly, you have to take responsibility until the end.”
If it had been a joke the kiss from before, this time, he seriously pressed his lips together and entered through her gaping lips.
Gasp! Rose’s body stiffened as she felt a tongue enter eagerly through her slightly open mouth. His tongue, both soft and hard, pierced deep into her mouth and pushed inside mercilessly.
Amid a kiss so intense that she couldn’t even breathe properly, Rose clasped the bedclothes tightly.
Gently sweeping her lips, pulling them, pushing his tongue with force, and rolling it around every corner of her mouth until it meets her tongue and tangles them together in a fierce battle of warm breath and mixed urges… A strange feeling flickered inside Rose’s mind.
“Haaaa- aahhha… haa…”
When his lips set her free for a moment, Rose gasped and breathed heavily. Maxim buried his lips in her neck as if he was inhaling Rose’s smell deep into his lungs.
After biting her earlobe slightly, he slowly descended along with the neckline, biting and sucking the white, sensitive flesh, until he reached the collarbone.
‘Ah…’
As he caressed and kissed her neck, Rose’s body twisted, feeling a strange tickling in her lower back and an unusual tension in her stomach.
As if that was the proper answer he was looking for, Maxim felt even more stimulated, pressing his solid, muscular, legs against Rose’s fine, slender ones. A low groan drowned inside his throat as he continued harassing Rose’s soft skin.
Feeling his robust body pressing her onto the bed, Rose felt like she was going to suffocate from the weight, but at the same time, she felt drowsy and her body felt like melted chocolate.
It felt better than she thought to be held in his hot, wide arms, so Rose thought it would be good to just leave her body in his touch.
‘I can’t do this… I can’t… I… no…’
Maxim lightly glanced at Rose as he untied the ribbon on her chest with his teeth.
Although the room was tinted bluish due to dawn, her face was clearly dyed red in heat. He smiled as if satisfied and became bolder.
It was good. So good, her body trembled slightly.
For the first time, Rose felt nervous and excited about kissing and feeling another’s body. It was a sensation she had never felt, even when she believed she loved Cassiax.
It was that dangerous.
Rose was convinced that if she stayed like that a bit longer, she would not be able to resist the temptation to embrace Maxim tighter and touch his body.
‘It’s not a sin to do this. I’m married to him anyway. We are a couple.’
While Rose was making such rationalizations, Maxim untied almost all the laces of her clothes. At that moment, his breathing deepened more than when he went down her neck.
“I hope you will also faithfully play the role of a fake wife.”
Maxim’s words came to mind clearly. Unlike what had been melting it until just now, something sharp and pointy dug into her heart.
She decided not to deny her duties as a wife, but now she felt more afraid than at the beginning.
To him, such a relationship may be dismissed as a trivial matter, but she wasn’t able to do that too.
To have such a good feeling meant that she already had private feelings inside her heart.
After establishing such a relationship, everything could get complicated. If so, it was clear the ending wouldn’t be neat and clean.
‘No… No.’
As Maxim’s large hand reached inside the skirt and caressed her thighs, Rose came to her senses.
“I-I… I can’t do this with you!”
Rose turned her head coldly and shouted.
Maxim’s hand stopped and he looked into her eyes. Unlike just now, Rose’s eyes were shining firmly.
“Are you serious?”
“Please. Stop.”
“Do you really want to stop?”
“I mean it.”
It was a clear rejection.
Maxim’s eyes turned cold faster than hers. He immediately pulled himself away from Rose and got up from his seat. A cold wind blew in the place where his large body was pressed.
“Maxim…”
Rose’s eyes were fixed on his back as he jumped out of bed.
A wound slightly longer than a snake at his waist was visible.
‘It’s not a small wound, so why didn’t I see it before?’
Rose moved her head forward to take a closer look. It looked like a cut, or more like a burn. It looked like it had healed from a long time ago, but it was clear that at the time of injury, he had been seriously injured.
‘Did he get hurt during the war?’
“This wound, why…”
Rose instinctively tried to reach for his wound, but Maxim coldly avoided her touch.
Fully dressed, he walked to the door, sweeping up his messy black hair.
“Where are you going?”
He left the room without saying a word. Rose pulled her knees to her chest and curled up her body.
‘I thought everything was going well, but why does it feel like everything is getting worse?’
It’s been a long time since the morning came, but the Crown Prince’s Palace was still as quiet as dawn.
Cassiax and Sasha were lying in bed almost half-naked. As she slowly drew a circle with her lips on Cassiax’s chest, Sasha said in a charming voice.
“What will happen to me when Your Highness gets married?”
Cassiax smiled.
“Are you even jealous?”
“Huuumm… No matter how insignificant my status is, I am still a woman.”
At such a cute statement, Cassiax rushed to cover Sasha with kisses. He looked down at her with eyes telling her not to worry.
“How would you compare a boring woman like that to a cute Sasha?”
“Really?”
Sasha raised her pretty lips slightly and smiled shyly. The Crown Prince seemed to be in a good mood today, so… should she be bolder and ask more questions she was so curious about?
“Um… Who was that young lady named Rose who went to the North?”
The moment he heard Rose’s name, Cassiax’s face hardened in an instant. He stared at the ceiling with cold eyes as if pondering his thoughts, then spat out.
“A stupid, immature daughter of a rich family.”
“…Is it true that she almost became Your Highness’ companion?”
At Sasha’s cautious question, Cassiax clenched his jaw. It seemed as if he was biting his molars tightly.
“Stupid b*tch.”
A short swear word escaped his mouth.
“But is her family that amazing? I, too, have heard a lot about the Etoile family.”
Sasha didn’t stop asking questions while looking at him.
——
The chapter was going so well until trashy character #1 and #2 appeared. I feel bad for you guys, we had such a good chapter until they appeared lmao
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