Chapter 7
The first thing she saw was a smooth chin that caught her eye. Then, his ruffled black hair, his dark skin, and his golden eyes… Her heart skipped a beat. Swan pursed her lips and shook her head.
“Um, how did you get here?”
“I was wondering where it is that you went.”
“Ah…”
Was that the truth? He said it so naturally, as if that didn’t happen during the day, like she didn’t open the door to see him doing… that. His face betrayed nothing.
Swan scooted away and twisted her body a little from his. It was a steep mountain path, and she was standing not just on a smooth rock, but a cliff.
“I-I…”
“If you’re done with your work, then come down.”
“Alright.”
She nodded, and the hand that held onto her buttocks to support her disappeared. Her foothold wasn’t loose, so she might’ve stepped on something slippery… But when did he catch up to her?
“D-Did you follow me?” Swan asked the man.
“That’s right.”
“I didn’t know you’d come…”
“You probably don’t know that you killed my miracle.”
“I can’t…”
Swan trailed off, not having any idea what he meant. Was it possible to kill a miracle? There was a questioning look in the woman’s eyes, but the man turned away as if he didn’t see it.
The two descended the mountain without saying a word. On their way back to the cabin, Swan looked at the man’s aloof expression, and she wondered if it was only her who was being affected, that she only she was the one who blushed at the thought of what had transpired.
* * *
They ate dinner together as usual, but this time, Theo’s appetite seemed to have gotten more robust. He chewed the dry bread that he hadn’t eaten well before and ate faster than ever. Swan watched him finish his meal without leaving a single crumb from the loaf of bread.
And it was mesmerizing how he ate with discipline. He held his utensils elegantly as he cut the bread, and he always ate his meals without any scraping or bumping. He seemed to be used to etiquette since he was young. Swan watched him chew with a constant speed, but she looked down when her cheeks went red again.
At around midnight, Swan realized what had happened last night. She pursed her lips as they went to bed.
“Um. I’ll sleep on the floor.
“You don’t have to.”
“But…”
“I’ll go to the village tomorrow to get a bed. Wouldn’t it be possible to buy it? Or we could just hire a carpenter. And of course, since you’re a lady, I’ll have to let you…”
Swan lowered her gaze. He’s right. They wouldn’t be able to wait for Tom forever, even though he was a known carpenter. It would be a hundred times better to find a diligent carpenter who isn’t known compared to Tom who had drunken widows flocking to his house every day.
“Will you be alright?” Swan asked carefully.
Didn’t they need to talk about what happened earlier? She was wracked with worries. It was something that two grown adults could talk about, but it was still embarrassing to bring up. But then again, just moving forward without addressing the elephant in the room would also be a problem.
“If we wait one more day, it might be fine,” the man said nonchalantly.
Swan nodded and placed his pillow beside her. The man also laid his lean body on the bed. There was a faint light being reflected from her eyes and she slowly grew drowsy, but she was rattled awake when she worried about the solid body beside her, which she could easily touch if she so much as tossed or turned.
It wasn’t a small bed. She used to sleep beside her late mother, and when she rolled here and there, she wouldn’t bump into her mother or fall out of the bed. Come to think of it, it was because Swan was small and petite, and her mother wasn’t a man with such a bulky physique.
She thought of her slender mother, who Swan resembled very much. Her mother wasn’t so different in size compared to her, so the bed wasn’t the problem. Covered with a blanket until his chin, Swan glanced at the man. This time, it was him who turned his back to her and did not move at all.
She couldn’t sleep. The longer she closed her eyes, the more she remembered the sight she saw during the day. And at that moment, she turned around with her eyes closed, but her elbow bumped into his waist. Her shoulders flinched when he moved.
Swan twisted away to widen the distance between them as he turned to face her, but the back of his hand grazed over her backside. Swan gasped in surprise, her body stiff.
She couldn’t sleep even when she’d already turned away from him. Their positions were reversed this time, but her wrist was caught. She had no time to react when he pulled her closer to him.
The soft moonlight illuminated his sharp features. Swan stopped breathing as she looked up, and she could see her own face in his blue, glass-like eyes. Her heart pounded heavily.
With his shirt slightly open, she could see his collarbone and chest muscles, but she soon averted her gaze to his arms, feeling her cheeks heat up and her pulse fiercely beating.
“This…”
She could barely mutter out the words she wanted to say as she raised her hand to push away from his chest. His hand that had been holding onto the bed suddenly went straight under her nightgown and headed close to the place between her thighs. Startled, Swan’s hips turned over as if she had spasmed.
“Ah!”
“Stay still…”
At the sound of his low, languid voice, Swan shuddered. She couldn’t resist the hand that touched her, surrendering as the touch went closer and closer to her entrance. Everywhere he touched, it felt like he was leaving traces of a smouldering flame.
Her heart was beating rapidly. She looked at him with a quivering gaze as his hand met with her folds. Pushing away the hairs that thinly veiled her most secret place, his long fingers finally touched her lower lips.
“Huk…”
Goosebumps rose along her spine, and she moaned when the fingers bent as if they were searching for something. She bit her lips, trying to control the faint groan that accompanied her hot breathing. Reflexively, she pursed her lips as she looked up at the man. Just the same as during the day, he was still indifferent.
It was when she was looking into his apathetic eyes that his thumb began to rub her stiff, hardened pearl. Her hand that tried to push his chest away now grabbed his shirt.
“Uh, huk… Hnng!”
The lips that she had been biting now opened wide as she moaned, her head leaning back as she shuddered from the tingling she felt from her lower body. She couldn’t understand what it was that she felt, but she was so lost in it.
“Ah, aaung!”
As she gripped his shirt tightly, she opened her crotch wide. She didn’t open it because she purposely did so, but the sensations grew stronger every time she rolled her hips and opened her legs wider. Swan’s hands trembled as she clutched his shirt, her entrance tightening every time he stroked the nub.
“Ha, ah, unng…!”
As the place between her thighs grew hotter and tighter, she moaned the same time the man rolled his fingers over the entrance. Then, her back arched the moment the man inserted a finger inside of her.
“Hnng…!”
She swallowed as she shook her head. It was a place that she didn’t even think about before. As a matter of fact, she didn’t know it felt this way when it was touched. The only person who could have taught her about it was her mother, but she had passed away long ago. It was strange how the part that she used only for normal bodily functions could feel like this. What a strange place. It was this man who appeared from the horizon who taught her.
‘This is how a man makes a woman.’
Every time his finger dug into her entrance, she was reduced to tears. She gazed at him and shivered as that foreign finger pushed deeper inside. The hand that was still gripping his shirt trembled helplessly.
“Ah, aang, heuk! This, it’s impo… sibble… to go deeper…!”
As he pushed into her inner walls, it felt like her insides were getting messed up. She was being ruined from the inside out. Truthfully, Swan was very frightened, and she shook her head as her back arched more. The man’s other hand that held onto her hip grabbed it and abruptly pulled her closer.
“Aah!”
As if possessed, she shrieked, then whimpered as she looked up at him. Under his disheveled fringe, there was an unreadable look on his eyes that made it seem like he was thirsting for something. The man, who had a pained expression on his face, started taking off his shirt, and Swan could only stare.
Her heart was frantic. As he untied the front of his shirt, her eyes immediately gravitated to his muscular chest. It was broad and full, even though it wasn’t a woman’s chest. Embers seemed to have lodged themselves deep in her throat, which was very dry.
His abdomen, then, was revealed as his shirt opened, and it was also firm and smooth. Swan blinked as she stared at the muscles. She saw it several times while she had changed his bandages, but somehow, his abdomen became brand new under her gaze. The muscles were dark and smooth, as if they were evenly divided into compartments.
Swan tried to control her expression by biting her lips. It was weird that she responded to everything as if it were her first time seeing it. His body was truly incomparable, but it was just a human body after all. She saw it already when he was unconscious. She even touched him, too…
Nevertheless, everything became new once again to her. Breathless, she felt as though her heart was going to leap out of her chest.
Because she found it hard to keep her eyes up, her gaze lowered, but the pant leg that wrapped around his right thigh was wrinkled, like there was a long, thick rod right there. Swan stared at the man with hazy eyes as the man reached down.
Dazed, she didn’t know what to do as the man suddenly became nude as he lowered himself, and his riveting solid chest muscles met with Swan’s soft breasts.
Swan jumped up reflexively to move away from him. But as the distance between them widened, he pulled on her ankle, which made Swan slip and hit her forehead on his firm chest.
“Ah…”
After she hit her forehead, she quickly raised her head to see his eyes, dyed with a deep blue hue. It felt like she was going to die because of how fast her heart was beating from that penetrating gaze. It was almost to the point that her chest was hurting, making her wonder if she’d gone sick.
“U-um… Sir Knight…”
Barely being able to finish saying two words, she tried desperately to control her pulse. Underneath her unkempt locks, her eyes glistened with tears. With her breath stuck in her throat, her flushed face felt as though it would burst from the heat.
Swan bowed her head, shying away from his blue eyes. But now, her gaze was stuck on his red lips. For the sake of regaining her senses, she tried to turn her head so that she wouldn’t see, but she just couldn’t take her eyes off those soft, beautiful lips that were unlike any other man’s.
“Sir Knight. Sir Knight, I-I…”
No longer being able to bear it, her panicked gaze settled on his chin.
“…If you don’t like it, spread your legs.”