He pulled the lace taut and the flesh that had been trapped poured free. Even lying down, her chest held its round shape, and Jiho squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and moved his hands faster.

“Mmm…”

Perhaps because the pressure crushing her ribs had finally lifted. Haein let out a pleased m*an and flailed her arms. Her slender arm caught around Jiho’s neck and pulled with what little strength she had.

Such a slight force, and yet Jiho was helplessly dragged in. The soft place his fingertips had just grazed pressed against his face.

Jiho bit back a curse and lifted only his eyes. The sight of her sleeping face, breathing softly, snapped the last thread of reason in his head.

“Hey. Open your eyes for me.”

He barely managed to push himself upright, then grabbed Haein’s shoulders and shook her. Her neat brows drew together, and then her eyes opened, unfocused.

She had been facing Jiho even in her dream just moments before, so it took her a beat longer than usual to recognize reality. Haein blinked slowly, then jolted awake and shot upright.

“Ugh.”

“Ah…”

Their foreheads collided with a thud, and both of them groaned at the same time. Already dizzy from the alcohol, and now with a headbutt hard enough to redden the center of her forehead on top of it, Haein couldn’t pull herself together at all.

She noticed her half-undone clothes only after the pain had faded somewhat.

“What…”

Haein looked back and forth between the corset and Jiho with a flustered expression. Jiho caught her gaze and a crooked smile crossed his face.

“What. Did it look like I was doing something terrible to you while you were asleep?”

“No, that’s not what I…”

“If I had, at least I wouldn’t feel so hard done by. You kept whimpering like you were uncomfortable, Ms. Lee Haein. I only responded to that.”

“…I’m sorry.”

The coldness in his voice made Haein drop quickly to her knees and bow her head. That, in turn, was what actually caught Jiho off guard.

He had only said what needed to be said, and yet the woman was carrying on like a condemned criminal. It made his chest feel tight. He had grown up from a young age saying exactly what he thought without watching others’ reactions, and people like this gave him the sensation of hives breaking out just from looking at them.

But while he felt that psychological resistance, his body kept responding with blunt honesty.

“That’s enough. Sit comfortably.”

He hadn’t known where to look since the corset had been slipping this whole time. It wasn’t his first time spending a night with a woman, and while he hadn’t been as reckless as the rumors suggested, he was no stranger to the experience.

Even so, looking at Haein’s body made every cell in him react with a strange and unsettling sharpness. The weight of the robe’s front panel shifting made Jiho push his hair back and lift his knee off the bed.

Part of what gleamed beneath it caught Haein’s eye as well. Haein blinked her wide eyes.

It was her first time seeing another person’s genitals directly, but even the brief glimpse was enough to make her feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. Jiho felt her stare and tied the robe sash shut with a rough hand.

“What, are you suggesting we face each other and put on a strip show?”

“That’s not it, but…”

The way Jiho was moving, he looked ready to walk out of the room entirely. Haein’s heart grew urgent and she carefully reached out and caught the cuff of his robe.

“W, we… tonight is our wedding night…”

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid. But Haein had a desperate reason to hold this marriage together. If Jiho turned his back and walked out, leaving her to spend the night alone here, word would certainly reach her father.

The invisible eyes and ears that had surrounded her since childhood had always stayed silent nearby, then reported everything in full to her father without fail.

Maybe it was the alcohol still lingering in her. She was saying things she never could have said with a clear head. Looking at his face, still as a statue, her heart beat loudly.

She didn’t even dare swallow, so she only bit her lip, and then suddenly a shadow fell over her face.

The back of her head met the bed. Jiho had her caged between his arms and moved his lips.

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

Shouldn’t it be Jiho who would regret it, not her? In every sense, this marriage was a terrible deal from his side.

Besides, the two of them had married today. In truth, even if Jiho had done whatever he wanted to her while she slept, Haein probably wouldn’t have said a word. She had grown up being taught that such things were simply to be expected.

Jiho’s manner of asking for her opinion felt unfamiliar. Not once had anyone around her, family included, ever asked what Haein wanted.

“…Yes.”

The moment her answer ended, the corset that had been draped over her body disappeared. Before she could even feel the faint relief of it, a burning gaze landed on her chest.

She reflexively wanted to cover herself, but she pressed her hands down and held still. Even without experience, she could read the heat in Jiho’s eyes clearly.

He seemed genuinely aroused by her, yet for some reason, Jiho was not crossing the final line. Haein took a deep breath and looked up at Jiho above her with dark, steady eyes.

“Tonight… I want to spend it together.”

Her lips trembled. Her voice cracked at the end, betraying the complicated feelings inside her. The moment she barely finished the words, Haein witnessed a flash pass through Jiho’s eyes.

“Hh…”

The soft flesh of her chest spilled between his fingers. The give of it, softer and fuller than he had imagined, made the veins in Jiho’s neck stand out.

His gaze caught the woman’s half-parted lips. His hesitation was brief. He lowered his head and took her small, full lips into his.

He coiled his tongue around the flesh that had gone rigid with surprise and coaxed it gently, then dragged it across the roof of her mouth. The m*an that escaped was swallowed between their pressed lips.

“Mm…”

The breathless sensation made Haein curl her hands into fists with nowhere to put them. Their tongues moved against each other and their saliva mingled freely.

To ease the tension locking her body stiff, Jiho rubbed his thumb and index finger along her earlobe and pressed his lower half against her in a slow, deliberate grind.

His hardness pressed against her inner thighs and between her legs. Jiho settled himself between her naturally parting thighs.

“Nngh…”

He pressed his index finger firmly into her n*pple and Haein arched her neck back with a m*an. The sound stirred something low in him, and Jiho slowly lifted his head.

As his lips pulled away, a thin silver thread stretched between them, then snapped.

Jiho ran his gaze once over his lips, slick with saliva that belonged to both of them, then let it drift down to her chest, rising and falling heavily.

He pulled down the fabric covering her chest. The flesh, flushed pink as though it had been suffering all this time, filled his palms completely.

“Looks like everything you’ve ever eaten went straight here.”

The tips of Haein’s ears burned red. Her unusually large chest had long been a complex of hers, but more than that, it was because a tingling ache had been building between her legs every time Jiho touched her.

It was a sensitive place. She had never gripped it firmly herself, so she hadn’t known. That being seized there by someone, squeezed hard enough to feel like bursting, could feel like this.

“And why is your skin so white?”

Jiho let out a short laugh and went in search of his target. The n*pple, reddened from stimulation, was drawn between his well-shaped lips.

The warm, slick membrane latched onto it and applied pressure. Haein’s toes curled. Her hands, unable to find anything to hold, only clawed desperately at the sheets.

Slurp, pull. Each time Jiho’s cheeks hollowed, wet sounds filled the air. Like a child nursing, Jiho greedily drew the fruit-like flesh as deep into his mouth as it would go.

He took the other side in his hand. Her chest yielded under every squeeze, soft as kneaded dough. With each breath he drew in, Haein’s particular scent came through strongly.

The pure, clean body scent, the kind that might come from a child not yet fully grown, heated Jiho’s already flushed mind even further. Red handprints streaked across her white skin.

Both n*pples were rolled with his tongue, crushed between his teeth, and raked with his nails. Jiho lost himself completely, exploring her chest like a man possessed, driven by the need to leave marks on her body.

“Hng, nngh…”