Carlos Ivan looked at Ines, urging her to agree. Ines quietly met his intense gaze. A few seconds of tense silence passed.

In the end, no words of agreement came from her lips.

“My answer is the same.”

Ines’s voice was firm, leaving no room for compromise. There wasn’t even a sliver of space for negotiation. Carlos’s expression darkened at her unwavering stance.

The internal storm he had been barely controlling suddenly surged, threatening to overwhelm him.

The thread of his reason snapped.

‘You need to have a child.’

At that moment, Catalana’s advice echoed in his ears again. Like someone under a spell, that single sentence kept circling in his mind.

His eyes, cold as the abyss, were fixed on Ines.

“You don’t want this, you don’t want that.”

Foolishly, because of her lofty pride, she insisted on staying at the bottom, like in a gutter. But he could no longer stand by and watch. What could he do? He had no choice but to pull her up, even if by force.

Carlos exhaled a low breath and slowly closed and opened his eyes. As his eyelids lifted, Ines’s face came into view.

“You want to keep your pride until the end…”

Carlos’s murmured words were so cold they were almost painful. Tilting his head slightly, he moved forward and picked up the cane Ines had left by the head of the bed.

“The Claudia family is extinct, and your parents and siblings are all dead. Even though you’ve become queen, no one treats you accordingly.”

Instead of being treated as a queen, everyone looked down on her. Even a child had thrown a stone at her face.

The heavy cane rolled lightly in his hand like a feather.

“With the disgrace of having been with another man and ending up limping, your social reputation is worse than a rat living in the gutter, yet you still cling to your pride.”

There was a hint of mockery in his low, murmuring voice.

“Shall I tell you how to truly protect your pride?”

Carlos placed the cane back in its place and looked at Ines again. Then he slowly stepped toward her.

Ines unconsciously stepped back, sensing a change in his demeanor. But her limping steps could not match the strides of someone strong enough to survive on the battlefield.

Carlos moved faster than Ines and was soon close to her. He lifted her chin with his rough fingers.

“Have my child.”

As soon as the word “child” left his mouth, Ines’s eyes widened. She blinked, wondering if she had heard wrong. But seeing him repeat the same words, she realized he was serious.

“Have my child. Then I’ll make that child my heir.”

“Suddenly telling me to have a child, what on earth…”

Just moments ago, he had been belittling her pride, and now he was telling her to have a child. Ines couldn’t understand why the conversation had taken such a turn.

“If you have my child, no one will dare look down on you anymore. You won’t have to compromise your pride by watching others like today.”

Finally understanding why he wanted her to have a child, Ines let out a hollow laugh. She found it somewhat absurd. The person claiming to protect her pride was actually the one crushing it the most.

With a distorted expression, Ines replied.

“Do you realize that what you’re saying and doing right now is what’s undermining my pride? I’m not a tool to bear your heir. I have no intention of having a child.”

Ines spoke her mind with a stronger tone than ever and shook off the man’s hand holding her chin.

“If you’re done talking, please leave. I’m tired. I want to rest.”

Ines turned away from Carlos and limped away. Or tried to, until a rough hand grabbed her wrist.

“Do I look like I’m asking you?”

Carlos, looking at the hand Ines had thrown off, murmured lowly.

“It seems you still haven’t grasped your situation.”

Reflecting on it, he realized he had been too lenient with Ines all along. That’s why she maintained this attitude to the end. Look at her now.

Even when given a chance, she raised her head defiantly and resisted. Carlos tilted his head slightly.

Then, pointing somewhere with his finger, he made sure his naive wife understood her place.

“That dress, worse than trash, represents your position, and this damn cane is your reality.”

His unfiltered, harsh criticism continued.

“In the past, you dismissed me as insignificant and coldly abandoned me. Now, I have become a king, and you have become my wife.”

“……”

“In other words, you belong to me.”

With those words, Carlos wrapped an arm around Ines’s waist, closing the distance between them instantly.

The situation had changed from the past when he felt honored just to hold her hand and treated her like a princess. He had pulled Ines down from the heavens to the depths where he was. Carlos brushed his thumb against her cheek, her body frozen.

Ines was now practically his possession, something he could take whenever he wanted and discard when he tired of it.

As he pulled her closer, the hardness of his body pressed against the gap between her thighs. Carlos’s fiery eyes spread like wildfire. Her innocent gaze and still fair, delicate skin made him ache beneath her.

In silence, their eyes locked in the air. His calloused, rough fingers traced her soft lips.

Ines squirmed as if trying to escape his grasp, but she stood no chance against Carlos’s strength.

“Carlos, let go…”

Just as she was about to plead with Carlos to release her, his lips descended upon hers.

“Mm!”

It happened in an instant. There was no time to defend herself. Because her mouth was open to speak, his soft tongue invaded her mouth.

It was hot and ruthless. His tongue moved violently, exploring every corner of her mouth like someone quenching a long thirst.

Unable to withstand Carlos’s weight, Ines’s back arched. If he hadn’t supported her with his hand, she would have surely fallen backward. She slowly opened her eyes, which had been tightly shut. His fiery gaze seemed to devour her.

Ines felt overwhelmed, as if she were prey about to be devoured by a wild beast.

Like someone who had forgotten how to breathe, Ines held her breath.

She squirmed to escape the man dominating her mouth, but nothing changed. When Ines, reaching her limit, pounded on his chest, his lips finally parted from hers.

It was like a mercy granted just before she suffocated. As he slowly withdrew his lips, a thin silver thread stretched between them.

“Ha, ha…”

Finally freed from him, Ines gasped for air like someone who had just been pulled from the sea. Carlos, in a voice softer than before, reassured her. He seemed slightly calmer.

“Breathe, Ines.”

Carlos murmured, brushing his thumb over Ines’s saliva-slick lips.

“It feels like it’s our first kiss.”

As he said, this wasn’t their first kiss. On the day they promised to be together forever, they had kissed on a sparkling lake.

“But back then, it was more…”

Gentle. He had been careful, as if handling a fragile glass ornament. But now it was different. She felt like a herbivore caught by a predator.

Carlos, realizing what Ines hadn’t finished saying, chuckled softly.

“What did I do back then?”

His hand gently caressed her wet lips, her slightly reddened cheek, and then her soft earlobe. Sunlight-like strands of hair slipped through Carlos’s fingers.

Each time he touched her, Ines’s eyes trembled slightly. It felt like she was momentarily transported back to the past.

“Did I do it like this?”

As if his thirst wasn’t yet quenched, he captured her lips again. This time, it was incomparably softer and more tender.