Chapter 14

The man, sensing that, smiled beautifully.

It was still a smile beautiful enough to steal a person’s very soul.

And in truth, Ailey did lose herself in it.

“Ailey.”

“…….”

“It’s all right.”

When she showed no strong sign of refusing, the man who had been toying with Ailey’s chest naturally kissed her neck and slipped his hand inside her dress.

Her thigh was caught firmly in his large yet careful hand, and the garter belt holding up her underclothes came undone with a soft click.

“This piece was sponsored seventy-six years ago by the great master of the arts, Lord Ben Mark…….”

“And the sculpture to the left was lent by the Holy Kingdom…….”

Right beyond the wall beside them.

From the room across, the clear voice of the docent introducing the pieces echoed through.

Only then did Ailey’s senses snap sharply back.

“W-wait a moment.”

If the people in the next room were to discover this scene…….

‘That would be an even greater disaster.’

Thinking that, she began to squirm and tried to push away the man who had lowered himself to his knees before her and was rubbing his head lightly against her stomach.

“Shh, Ailey.”

“What?”

“If you make noise, we’ll be found.”

Which was exactly why she was trying to stop him from doing something that would make her make noise……

But before she could even say those words.

“Hngh!”

The man slipped fully beneath her dress in one smooth motion.

Ailey, who had never in her life dared imagine letting someone beneath her skirts, widened her eyes like a startled rabbit.

“W-wait…….”

When she looked down, she could see the shape of the man beneath not only her dress but even the petticoats he had lifted without hesitation as he moved in.

She could feel his breath near her thighs and the place between them.

“Ailey.”

His voice calling her name in a murmur sounded distant amid the rustle of fabric.

Then, something warm and soft pressed repeated kisses along the place where her garter belt had been.

“Ah, hngh…….”

A damp tongue slid upward as though drawing a long line there, heading toward her underclothes.

The moment she felt that wet, soft flesh over the slightly damp fabric, all the fine hairs over her body stood on end.

‘I, I shouldn’t let this happen…….’

“The next piece is a series depicting the Holy Kingdom’s forgotten ruins, the Golden Temple.”

“According to legend, the ancient Holy Kingdom extended its influence all the way to the Southern Continent, and built temples there as well…….”

“But now it remains only as legend…….”

“For whoever finds it, half of the relics recovered from the ruins will be given as reward…….”

At some point, the docent’s words from the next room, jumbled and overlapping, no longer entered her ears clearly at all.

It felt as though all of her other senses, hearing included, had been cut off by the heat rising straight to the crown of her head.

“Th-there, hngh…….”

The only thing she could feel clearly was the sensation of the man buried between her legs, attending to her through the thin cloth with repeated, insistent motions.

What had been troubling the soft, raised mound there now shifted to the little sensitive peak that had already begun to harden, touching it with careful, circling motions.

Each time tongue or teeth brushed over it, a sharp tremor ran up to her fingertips.

The whisper of reason telling her she should push him away had vanished long ago.

This was the first time Ailey had ever realized that her body was this weak to pleasure.

“The sculpture beside it is also extremely precious…….”

Even the droning sound of the docent’s voice, and this entire situation itself, was beginning to stir a strange excitement in Ailey.

How improper, to be doing something so indecent with a man she had met only for the second time in the Imperial Family’s Inner Palace.

And to be unable to stop, even with so many people gathered in the next room.

‘……It feels like the kind of improper dream an adolescent boy would have.’

Could it really be a dream again this time?

The moment she thought that, a sensation a little sharper and more direct than before followed at her most private place.

The man had pushed aside the thin fabric barely covering her and was now touching her bare, tender skin directly.

“Hngh!”

At once, Ailey clapped both hands over her mouth to stifle the sound that nearly burst out.

If she made even the slightest bit more noise, the people in the next room might notice.

Even while hidden inside the dress, the man seemed to notice Ailey’s movement and laughed.

The vibrations he created sent a shudder through Ailey’s lower body until it almost felt numb.

Hot, heated breaths kept filling the space between her legs.

Soon, the man parted the long vertical slit and pressed his tongue tightly inside her.

“Hng, hngh, hng…….”

Rustle, rustle.

The openly suggestive sounds scattered into the rustling noise of the many layers of dress she wore.

Broken sounds that could not become words slipped from between her small lips.

Grabbing tightly at the shape of the man’s head beneath her dress without realizing it, Ailey unconsciously spread her legs as he guided her.

“Ah, hng…….”

Each time the sensitive peak was worked over and the inner folds were slowly attended to, a piercing pleasure shot up past her chest to the crown of her head.

The man’s lips, savoring her as though tasting a pearl found among grains of sand, were tearing apart her reason.

Whenever his almost ravenous tongue moved through her as though memorizing each fold one by one and drew a long line downward along her inner softness, strength left her legs on its own.

At last, when her legs truly gave way and her weight sagged downward, the man’s tongue reached even deeper, as though pleased.

“Ah……!”

Even so, the man was firmly supporting Ailey’s legs with his shoulders so that she would not collapse completely.

Because of the man beneath her, lifting her from below while intent on her most private place, Ailey remained trapped against the wall in an awkward posture that was neither standing nor sitting.

Then the movement of the man’s tongue drove Ailey all the way to the edge of a cliff.

The dizzying, distant sensation of falling from a great height without any support shook her mind.

The overwhelming urge she had felt before came crashing over her again.

“Ah……!”

It was just as she threw her head back at the rough peak overtaking her that the docent’s closing remark entered her ears.

“Now then, before we move on to the next exhibition room…… if anyone happens to require a rest.”

Gasp.

A breath caught in her throat without her meaning it to.

Could this room really be a reception room meant for resting?

‘What if people come in here?’

Just as Ailey hurriedly tried to retreat backward.

Clench!

The man, whose hand had already been full of the soft flesh of her hips, suddenly drew her sharply down over his face with force.

“Hngh!”

Then, in an instant, the man withdrew his tongue, licked over her sensitive peak once with the tip, and caught it lightly between his teeth.

She felt the small, taut pearl-like flesh taken in a sharp bite.

It was like a stroke of lightning.

“Hng, hngh, ngh!”

Splash.

She felt something spill out in a rush.

The repeated bolts heated both her mind and the center of her body at once.

There was nothing Ailey could do except collapse over the man’s face against the wall, cover her mouth with both hands, and pant.

“……No one? Then we shall go directly to the next exhibit…….”

A rumble of movement.

Along with the docent’s voice, she heard the people moving away.

‘Good heavens.’

Even then, Ailey could do nothing but tremble, unable to think of moving.

“My goodness…….”

Only after that sigh escaped her did she feel the renewed touch below and realize that the man still had not come out from under her dress.

‘Oh?’

Was it not over?

Why again…….

“Ah, ngh! W-wait, just, just a moment……!”

When Ailey pushed weakly at the man’s head with hands drained of strength, this time he obediently withdrew.

His face emerged from beneath the rustling dress, wet.

His shining platinum hair, and even his long, thick lashes.

“……!”

The moment she saw that face, Ailey turned bright red and began to stammer.

The man licked his still damp lips and smiled again with a smile that looked as though it did not belong to this world.

“Don’t worry, Ailey.”

“W-worry?”

“This time, absolutely.”

I’ll make sure you know it isn’t a dream.

Whispering that, the man dipped his head back in again.

Ailey’s lips parted helplessly as a stifled m*an escaped.