“…I truly didn’t mean to anger Your Highness.”

After a long moment of hesitation, Anita finally found her voice. Her trembling lips were barely able to form the words as she carefully gauged his expression. With every flicker of her eyes and motion of her hands, she seemed desperate to calm him, trying to soften the wrath radiating from him.

“I just couldn’t sleep… I thought if I kept tossing and turning, it would disturb Your Highness’s rest. I only wanted to avoid… interrupting your sleep.”

There was an air of insincerity about her forced apology. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth when he was looking at her with such sharp, cold fury. For some reason, she felt that if she admitted that she had left to avoid him, the consequences would be far worse.

At her words, Cedric’s expression eased — just barely. But then Anita made a grave mistake.

“The… Count did nothing wrong. It was probably my fault for making a noise.”

She had spoken his name out of fear that Dian might be punished because of her. The moment another man’s name left his wife’s lips, Cedric’s hand clenched into a tight fist.

“Because he was a knight. He was trying to protect the place where His Highness was, and… Hup!”

Obliviously, Anita wiggled her fingertips. Like a bird of prey snatching a lamb from the ground, Cedric grabbed her roughly. Before she could register what was happening, he threw her onto the bed and climbed on top of her.

··· ✦ ···

Her breath was instantly cut off. Her lower lip trembled and was bitten and crushed.

Then, as she startled, a foreign object pierced the opening. Afraid of the wet, warm sensation, she tried to close her lips, but it was too late. However, the object that had already entered her mouth did not tolerate her sudden defiance.

Her broad, thick tongue rampaged around her mouth like a conqueror’s hooves. It explored the roof of her mouth, firmly pressing against her frozen tongue. It grazed the tender mucous membrane here and there before sweeping meticulously through every corner, as if to assert its presence.

And that wasn’t all. The unwelcome kiss was utterly voracious. Despite barging in without warning, it wouldn’t leave Anita’s tongue alone, as if demanding something from her. With a squelching sound, their tongues intertwined, sucking and pulling with a loud slurping noise.

It felt as if her soul was being wrenched out alongside her rapidly diminishing breath. To survive, Anita gripped the man’s shoulders and pushed with all her might.

It was a futile gesture. Instead, Cedric pressed his body against hers, trapping her. He held her face in his hands and forced her head into the position he wanted.

Anita hit his solid body with her fists, then dug her nails into his skin and scratched him. She struggled to escape this atrocious act, moving wherever she could. But nothing was effective. Cedric ignored her feeble attempts to escape, continuing to kiss her until her lips were raw.

“Hah…”

He only parted his lips when Anita had lost all her strength and stopped resisting. By that point, she had been gasping for breath and could barely move a finger.

This was after he had had his fill. What could he possibly want now? Even after the sticky kiss ended, Cedric repeatedly nipped and sucked Anita’s lips several times before finally lifting his head.

‘I thought I would desire her body, but never share a kiss with her. I planned to treat her as an object to fulfil my own desires, humiliating her in the process.’

This was why he had refrained from kissing or minor touches until now, choosing instead to focus solely on plunging between her fragile thighs.

Perhaps this was even more the case because he was convinced that kissing the woman pinned beneath him would taste of distaste. But what on earth was happening? Once he had touched her, he couldn’t stop. Even amidst his confusion, Cedric couldn’t tear his eyes away from the swollen, red lips he had bitten and sucked.

“Stop it, Your Highness. Please, stop…”

Cedric was so focused that he didn’t hear the murmuring coming from below. As if possessed, he lowered his face again. Once, twice, three times. Each time, he pressed his lips against Anita’s and rubbed them together, making a light smacking sound.

Fearing that her breath would be cut off again, Anita tensed up completely, her face damp with fear. Unlike Cedric, her fingertips twitched every time they made contact, she was completely out of her mind.

This deeply annoyed Cedric. While he exhaled hot breath uncontrollably, Anita held her breath as much as possible, seemingly reluctant for him to hear even the slightest sound of her breathing. She turned her head slightly to the side and shut her eyes tightly.

‘It was funny. What was she doing? Amidst the absurdity, it felt defiant — outrageously so.’

It was truly unfair. All Anita had done was try not to oppose him. Since she couldn’t do anything about it, her only sin was silently begging for mercy and hoping he would just stop.

Cedric lifted his upper body. Feeling him move away, Anita cautiously opened her eyes. Seeing expectation in her bright blue eyes, Cedric sneered, then untied the cord around his waist.

His dressing gown split open to the left and right in an instant. Cedric thought how convenient and suitable these light clothes were for the bedroom for a moment.

Anita’s eyes went utterly dead as she anticipated what was about to happen. He looked at her with cold indifference and despair, then stretched out his hand. He grabbed her small, red ankle, revealing the ankle bone, and pulled her legs apart.

“It-It hurts. I can’t do any more… No more today.”

Spreading his wife’s legs had become a familiar gesture for him. Finally, Anita began to sob and plead. The body he had tormented just hours earlier was still a mess. But Cedric silently moved his hand between her parted legs.

“Hmph… Ugh!”

The area below was already swollen and extremely sensitive. Cedric mocked Anita, who flinched at his light touch, and tormented her further with his fingers.

He gently fondled her red, pomegranate-seed-like cl*toris, stroking it downwards. Then, whenever he felt like it, he pressed hard on it and rubbed it with his thumb as though trying to leave a fingerprint. In response, Anita’s breathing gradually became disordered.

She felt like she just wanted to die because of her body’s reaction. The sight of her struggling and gasping, unable to control the rising heat despite her cries of pain, was sordid.

She grasped the bedsheet tightly, squeezing her legs shut as she tried to endure the surging pleasure. However, Cedric seemed unwilling to tolerate this. With a loud smack, he struck the inside of her thigh, digging in his nails and crushing her er*ect cl*toris in the process. He rubbed it quickly, rolling and pinching it hard.

A white flash of fire exploded before her eyes, accompanied by a gush of wetness below. Her toes curled involuntarily and her hips jerked up irregularly. As she threw her head back and trembled, he sneered and shoved his wet finger inside her.

“You have quite the knack for lying. I almost fell for it and stopped.”

It was a brazen lie. Regardless of how Anita reacted, Cedric wasn’t going to stop. He couldn’t stop.

He roughly spread her slender, white legs and positioned himself between them, as if it were his right to do so. His p*nis was already er*ect and ready. Faced with his enormous, ugly p*nis with its prominent veins, Anita burst into tears and covered her face with her hands.

Cedric easily lifted her slim legs and hooked them around his waist. Anita hiccupped at the touch of their skin. Yet even then, she offered no resistance. Despairing, she could only hope that the pain would be slightly less severe and that she would not be humiliated further.

Cedric lowered himself and forcibly pulled her hands away from her face. Staring into her eyes, which revealed a mixture of pleasure and despair, he positioned himself against her twitching opening to warn her to brace herself.

Overwhelmed by the stark sensation of being poked and prodded, Anita could not bear to meet Cedric’s gaze. Instead of becoming annoyed at her turning away, Cedric lowered his hips and slowly began to burrow into her.

“Ah…”

Anita’s mouth opened involuntarily. Her slender limbs trembled violently. Her tightly clenched fists were so pale they looked pitiful.

He had only pushed the blunt tip in slightly. The tight constriction immediately caused Cedric to scowl.

“Why is it like this, even though I’ve already made a path?”

Cedric was about to thrust it all the way in, but changed his mind and entered her slowly. At the same time, he devoured her face with his eyes. He watched as her tears made the skin around her eyes, already red and raw, wetter.

‘It wasn’t bad to look at. In fact, just observing it made me happy.’

The pale, gleaming body being impaled by him, and the beautiful, sorrowful, tear-streaked face were both stunning.

‘This woman could shake any man to the core.’

Swelling with pride, Cedric sneered at Anita.

No matter what anyone said, she was his.

‘I won’t cherish her. She’s a woman I’ll cast aside someday, but she’s still my woman.’

She would be crushed by him, weep beneath him and be tied to him until her death; she would be his wife. She was his property and he owned her.

The reminder of that fact sent excitement coursing through his entire body. Cedric enjoyed the painful tightness as he grasped his wife’s thigh so hard that his handprints would be left behind.

In contrast to the satisfied Cedric, Anita gasped in agony. Any insertion was difficult for her. She was terrified that her stretched opening might tear at any moment, yet the man’s p*nis pressed relentlessly forward.

“Does it hurt?”

Cedric asked, letting go of Anita’s wrist. The red handprint around the rounded wrist bone caught his eye.

“Should I stop?”

He pulled his hips back slightly and asked again. His voice was gentle, as though he were coaxing a child, and he stroked her wrist tenderly.

Anita was already consumed by fear. Without a moment to think, she nodded. At that, Cedric tidied the stray hair clinging haphazardly to her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. He smiled faintly.