They say first experiences are frightening. After mixing bodies once, she seemed to fall so deeply that she could barely control herself. 

Rihana found herself thinking about wanting to have s*x with Raiden while eating, while sleeping, and even during sword practice or while escorting the Emperor.

Part of this was because Raiden hadn’t touched a single strand of Rihana’s hair for over a week since she had helped him climax with her hand. 

Contrary to her expectation that he would pounce on her the very next day, Raiden didn’t lay a finger on her body. Not the next day, nor the day after that.

At first, she thought he was being considerate because she had been in too much pain. But on the third day, when the discomfort below had completely disappeared and Rihana told Raiden she was all better, she expected him to come at her that night. When she saw him fall asleep without a care, she thought something was wrong.

After pondering alone, she eventually asked Letia for her opinion when they met at the training grounds.

“What did you say?”

Letia, who had been in the middle of sword practice, looked at Rihana with surprised eyes and asked. Rihana stood to one side of the training grounds, glanced at Raiden who was standing guard over her, then whispered to Letia again so he couldn’t hear.

“Do men usually not sleep with the same person twice after sleeping with them once?”

She had racked her brain for days, but couldn’t come up with any other conclusion.

“Captain, did you sleep with Marquis Casian?”

“That’s ridiculous!”

Rihana shouted without realizing it. Then, startled by her own behavior, she glanced at Raiden before quickly whispering in Letia’s ear.

“Absolutely not.”

“Then why are you asking that?”

“…Just… curious.”

“…”

Letia stared at Rihana with a face full of suspicion. Then, seeming to think of something, she gasped and asked her.

“Don’t tell me you slept with that slave…?”

In an instant, Rihana’s hand covered Letia’s mouth.

“Letia…!”

She whispered as quietly as possible, then when she made eye contact with Raiden, who was standing at attention on one side of the training grounds staring at her intently, she panicked and dragged Letia to the opposite side. 

Only after putting considerable distance between them and Raiden did she remove her hand from Letia’s mouth and speak.

“Keep your voice down, everyone will hear.”

“You slept with him? With that guy? Really?”

“…”

“Wow, amazing. When I asked to borrow him, you made such a stern face. How was it? Is he big? Is he good? Let me borrow him too, please?”

“Don’t say such ridiculous things.”

“What, you want to keep that handsome guy all to yourself?”

“Be quiet. Just answer what I asked.”

“What… Oh. He won’t do it with you again?”

“…”

Nod. Rihana belatedly nodded her head.

“Maybe he felt burdened because it was my first time? Or when we tried to do it a second time, I said I didn’t want to because it hurt too much. I did help him with my hand though…”

“Wow, you even did it with your hand?”

“Listen seriously, Letia.”

“Okay, okay. I’m just surprised that you slept with a man for the first time. And with that insanely handsome guy too.”

“…Why won’t he do it with me again?”

“Do you want to do it again?”

At Letia’s counter-question, Rihana hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.

“Wow, the innocent Countess Ariella has finally awakened to s*x, awakened indeed.”

“I’m being serious.”

“Why don’t you ask him directly?”

“How could I do that?”

“What’s so difficult about it? You can ask something like ‘Why won’t you sleep with me again? Was I that bad?'”

“…I don’t want to do that.”

“Why?”

“It would hurt my pride.”

“Geez, you have so many things that hurt your pride… But is he good? Is he big?”

When Rihana repeatedly nodded her head, Letia’s nostrils flared as she began getting excited.

“Let me borrow him too!”

“No.”

“Ah, why?!”

She didn’t want to show Raiden’s n*ked body to anyone else. Not his firm abs, not his ridiculously large pink member. She wanted all of it to be seen only by her, touched only by her. 

With equally strong emotion, she hated the thought of someone else’s hands touching him. Seeing how she even came to dislike the Duchess who might have touched him before her, she definitely seemed to have developed a possessiveness that hadn’t existed before.

“Don’t tell me you’ve developed some ridiculous feelings like liking him just because you slept with him once?”

“…That’s not it.”

It definitely wasn’t feelings of affection. Though she had never experienced proper love, comparing it to her past feelings for Casian, this feeling toward Raiden was certainly different. 

Just seeing him… no, just thinking about Raiden made her lower abdomen tingle and made her wet below.

Heat. If she had to put a word to her current state, that would be exactly it. So this was definitely different from feelings of affection.

“Anyway, what you’re worrying about right now is that you want to screw that slave who shines just by standing there again.”

Though the language was crude, it was accurate, so she nodded once.

“Why worry about such a thing?”

“…Huh?”

“Just tell him to screw you.”

“…Scr…!”

“He’s a slave anyway. Just do whatever pleases you as his master, why worry about it?”

“…”

“Whether he’s a guard slave or bedroom slave, he’s still in a position where he has to follow the captain’s orders, so just screw him.”

“But…”

He’s not my slave. Rihana’s lips twitched at the fact she couldn’t bring herself to say. That he was the Duchess’s bedroom slave, that the Duchess had asked her to protect him when she fled into exile – these were secrets she couldn’t tell Letia. 

Not knowing the situation, Letia blamed Rihana’s personality and spoke to her in a firm tone.

“Spread yourself in front of him. Then he’ll try to screw you on his own.”

“Spr-spread…”

Rihana’s face turned bright red. Though she had been exposed to countless er*tic novels and heard countless stories of experience through Letia, this was her first time directly experiencing s*x with her body. There was no way she could casually spread her legs in front of Raiden.

Yet even at this moment, seeing Raiden receiving all the knights’ gazes from afar made her wet below. Rihana finally swallowed her dry saliva and carefully asked Letia.

“How do you do it…? That… spreading.”

* * *

Raiden’s jewel-like beautiful eyes shook precariously. It was because of Rihana, who had dismissed the bathing attendants as soon as they returned home and asked him to wash her instead.

Why was this woman acting like this? 

Raiden fell into contemplation. He hadn’t intended to lay a hand on her in the first place, but ethics went out the window the moment she saw her fiancé fooling around with the Princess. 

His own mother had suffered so much from his father’s women that she eventually chose death. Though he hadn’t directly compared Rihana to his mother, seeing her fiancé entangled with the Princess at that party had made Rihana seem precarious, and wanting to make her forget such things, he had ultimately laid hands on her.

Though his attempt certainly hadn’t come from bad intentions, the result had still made her into a bad woman who fooled around with another man while having a fiancé, and from that guilt, he had resolved not to touch her anymore.

Of course, he knew that the Empire’s concept of chastity was completely different from his country’s concept of chastity. Even so, there existed men and women who naturally treasured purity, and he only realized after the fact that Rihana was one of those people. 

He had devoured that precious first time by taking advantage of her moment of weakness. Since it was something he would never have done normally, he naturally regretted it. It was probably because his mind and body had weakened before the great task ahead. 

Rihana might be regretting it too, so he also pondered how he should compensate her afterward.