Chapter 10

Andrea’s sweeping retaliation and purge moved forward without pause.

The Blanc family had every last piece of private property confiscated, and those who had helped Fabienne escape her designated place of confinement were executed.

The families that had tried to mobilize their private armies in defiance of his raids were dealt a political death blow, and Prince Henry, the second prince, was stripped of his royal status.

Edwin, who had recovered Nina’s body, dissolved the Daily Minerve from that point on.

Go on, then. You can’t stay working in the shadows forever. Build a proper press outlet now. Come out into the open and show what you’re capable of.

With Andrea’s full backing and encouragement, Edwin and Roso soon officially established a new newspaper and expanded it to include branch offices.

Every member of the Minerve was forced to reconsider the political utility of the press and the moral standards that should govern it.

An eye for an eye.

They came to understand that biting without restraint and fighting to win at any cost, or resorting to slander and incitement, was not the only way.

Roso watched the old office being torn down and nudged Andrea’s elbow.

“Don’t go thinking you’ve got the press completely in your pocket. Don’t expect us to take your side unconditionally from here on out.”

Edwin shrugged his shoulders and added with equal swagger.

“The new paper will compete on the basis of fairness and common sense. Even if it’s Your Highness, we’ll criticize what deserves criticism.”

Andrea smiled at his friends with easy composure.

“Fine by me.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Parnelli, unable to read the room and stubbornly insisting on having his status as a relation-by-marriage recognized to the very end, was removed from his post as director of the Royal Arts Institute and barred from society, and was thus forced to accept Riley’s final position on the matter.

The king was not particularly fond of Riley, but the trauma of having been pushed around by the Blanc family for so long ran deep, and the current queen’s family was no more distinguished than the Spencer viscountcy Riley had reclaimed, so he did not oppose the match strongly.

After half a year of preparations, Andrea and Riley were married, and they soon departed for their honeymoon along the mild southern coast.

The place had no shortage of things to see: walking paths lined with olive and lemon trees, an emerald shoreline at the foot of the cliffs, heathland forests beyond the hills, and honeysuckle arbors trailing sweet fragrance.

But……

The two of them were, in truth, rather more absorbed in something other than the beautiful scenery.

“Mmh…… hah……”

Andrea had been pressing kisses along the line of her slender neck and shoulders when he flipped Riley over without warning.

Finding herself face-down in an awkward position, Riley flushed with embarrassment and squirmed.

“Ah…… th, this……! This isn’t right!”

“What do you mean it isn’t right. It is.”

He pinned her resistance down with ease and pressed his weight over her from behind, kneading her br*asts freely, which had grown a little fuller thanks to proper care over the past months.

Her pale skin yielded and shifted under his hands, and when her pink n*pples were crushed between his rough fingertips, Riley let out a soft m*an.

He knew her body far too well by now. He was playing her like an instrument, coaxing every sensitive spot with practiced ease.

“Mmh, this position is a bit……”

“What’s wrong with this position.”

He sucked teasingly at her earlobe and murmured low.

“Everything ‘Captain Alain’ does, let’s try it all. Hmm?”

“……”

Captain Alain was her greatest weakness, so she went quiet, and Andrea, clearly wanting to keep teasing, pressed soft kisses along her small, round shoulders and down her back and murmured on.

His hot breath must have tickled, because her pale back kept flinching.

“I learned a lot from Captain Alain, after all.”

His laughing lie made her ears flush red. Every place his lips passed seemed to bloom with heat.

“Hft.”

She hunched her shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut, but the sensations being written into her body only grew sharper.

His hand, which had been pressing at her peak, began to knead her entire br*ast, sending a slow, deep pleasure through her until her whole body felt languid.

The most shameful sensation of all was the friction pressing against her backside.

“Mmh……”

The hot, already-firm length threatened against her slick folds, nudging and prodding, then sliding back and forth between her pressed-together thighs.

Riley let out a drowsy m*an and arched her hips without thinking. The arms braced against the bedding were losing their strength, and she kept wanting to collapse.

This was shameless and indecent, so why did it feel so terribly languid?

Was she actually…… looking forward to this?

The center of her body was already melting.

Riley grabbed the hand that had slipped between her legs and was doing things down there. But she could not stop his fingers from moving as they pleased.

His index and ring fingers parted the soft flesh and traced slow, smooth circles, and her lower belly pulled with a strange, aching tension. Something between a clench and a restless stirring deep inside.

“Ah.”

His rough hand, now thoroughly slick, stroked up and down at leisure before beginning to grind softly against the swollen peak.

“Ahh.”

Riley’s hips jolted.

Her hands tightened on the bedding. Her belly clenched with a heavy, aching pull, and she wanted to scratch at some itching place deep inside.

Reading her thoughts, Andrea’s length began to nudge against that slick, wet place. Transparent, slippery wetness flooded out and ran down Riley’s thighs.

“Mmh…… you say you don’t want it, and yet you want me so desperately.”

His fingers, which had been circling without entering, slid inside like a generous gift, smooth as a snake.

The moment they entered, her walls clenched urgently around them, pulling greedily at the intruders.

Andrea let out a rough breath at that maddening sensation, and by then her hips and backside had already begun to rock in small, helpless movements against his fingers.

Her pale backside pressing against him made it harder to hold back.

Even so, he could not give up the pleasure of making Riley desperate, and he kept up his taunting to the very end.

“You must have been so curious, looking at all those *rotic picture books and drawing them, our innocent little miss. Or should that be ‘shameless’ rather than ‘innocent’?”

His hand, working at her needy folds, was soaked through with her slickness and dripping from the wrist down.

The air in the room grew thick with a heady scent.

“Hmm? Tell me how it feels.”

He gave her pale skin a sharp smack and kept pressing for an answer, even nibbling at her small earlobe.

“Aht.”

How did it feel? She had been curious about this position, but it was far more indecent than she had imagined. And yet, as indecent as it was, or perhaps even more than that…… it felt good, and that was the truth.

Being on all fours like an animal while his fingers played with her, and already feeling this much…… if the real thing came in……

The thought alone made Riley clench down there, flushed and giddy. Her whole body was tingling and throbbing beyond endurance.

Hurry up…… do something…… please……

But she could not bring herself to beg out loud.

The sight of her deep-pink folds, slightly parted and spilling wetness, made Andrea’s vision swim. He had no more patience left. He pulled his fingers free and pressed his straining c*ck inside with urgent force.

“Ahh.”

“Hng.”

Stars burst behind both their eyes.

The tight friction and depth sent a shiver crackling up both their spines.

The ridged surface of his length began grinding against her sensitive inner walls, and Riley let out a low, pained m*an.

But after spending the entire previous night tangled together in fierce abandon, their movements now were somewhat more unhurried, savoring it like dessert.

The slow, rolling rhythm continued, the wet sounds steady and rhythmic, the scent of arousal deepening throughout the room.

The shadow of the curtain drifted and rippled over Riley’s white knuckles clutching the bed sheet.

Thinking what a languid and indecent afternoon this was, Andrea thr*st into her greedily, angling this way and that.

His length drove deep, dragged against every surface on the way out, then split through the joined flesh and pushed back in.

“Ahh.”

Thud, thud.

His hips grew more forceful, crashing over her like a wave and pulling back, again and again.

One hand crushed her swaying br*ast, the other gripped her hip firmly.

Where their sensitive flesh ground together, sparks seemed to snap and crackle. He felt it spread like an electric current down his spine and into his limbs, and Andrea ground out something close to a curse.

“Ugh, this is going to kill me.”

The hot, ridged walls clinging to his c*ck and squeezing and pulling at him were vivid enough to make his spine go cold.

It felt like riding a wave, or being pushed to the edge of a cliff with no way to tell if he would fall.

Breathing hard, Andrea began to pick up speed, driven by something urgent.