When You Don’t Get Along With Your Husband - Chapter 20

Gideon, watching Tatiana absorbed in his body, still had a subtle expression. His feelings were equally ambiguous.

It’s nice that she seems to be more comfortable with him… but this seemed too comfortable.

He felt irritated because he couldn’t sense any lustful thoughts from Tatiana. So he decided to just act on that irritation.

“You really seem to like my body, wife.”

“… Ah, yes, well.”

“I’m curious about your body too.”

“What?”

He smiled crookedly and looked somewhere, his gaze directed towards Tatiana’s chest.

Huh? Why is he suddenly looking there?

Tatiana rounded her shoulders like a turtle retracting its neck. But she honestly felt a pang of guilt.

My reaction right now, it seems quite unfair, doesn’t it? His Highness might… feel wronged?

Gideon pointed out that fact precisely.

“What’s this? You touched all you wanted, but I can’t?”

“A woman’s chest doesn’t move when you flex it. You don’t seem to know that.”

Gideon didn’t hide his expression that said, ‘You’re kidding me.’

Of course, this was his first marriage and he hadn’t been with a woman before. But surely he wouldn’t be ignorant of even that much?

As he narrowed his eyes and smirked, Tatiana pouted. Even so, she lay down properly on the bed and subtly pulled the blanket up over her neck.

But the blanket was neither black nor Valter’s olive drab. This wouldn’t conceal her from him either at night or during the day.

Gideon clung to Tatiana and whispered in her ear.

“Not allowed?”

“No. It’s not appropriate in this situation.”

Tatiana had been unfolding a body anatomy chart in her mind until just now.

Do you know how many bones there are in a human body? About 206 for an adult. Tatiana was really only thinking about that. But if it suddenly leads to this flow, who’s going to take responsibility for my beautiful first night?

Tatiana frantically searched for excuses in her mind, but she knew well that these were all just pretexts. She never had any romantic notions about a beautiful first night anyway.

She was just a bit embarrassed to immediately say, ‘Sure, go ahead and touch.’ It might seem like she had been waiting for it too eagerly.

But Gideon asked again, even though she was making a troubled expression.

“Really not allowed?”

“No.”

“Then when will it be allowed?”

“……”

“Why are you silent, Titi?”

“Ugh, I told you not to call me that. It gives me goosebumps. If you must use a nickname, call me Tania.”

“I don’t usually listen to what others tell me. If I’m told not to do something, I want to do it more.”

“Are you boasting about having a bad personality right now?”

“No, just for your reference. This is the kind of person your husband is.”

“……”

“You look like you’ve been scammed into marriage.”

As if. I never expected you to have a smooth personality or noble character in the first place. If the rumors were few, they wouldn’t have reached my ears!

Tatiana opened her eyes primly, and Gideon, while chuckling, showed his palms in surrender as if to say he’d stop here. And then he really did back off cleanly.

Saying she should relax since he wasn’t going to eat her.

Tatiana felt even stranger when he backed off so neatly.

What is he thinking? They’ve already kissed, and there’s been quite a bit of skinship on the bed. But nothing that could be called more than that.

However, Gideon often looked at her with moist eyes.

After staring like that for a while, when he turned his head away, you could see his jaw and lips unconsciously tense. Enough to make his easy retreat seem puzzling.

But Tatiana thought that her own psychology was just as hard to understand as Gideon’s.

In a fight, when one side takes a defensive stance, the other side, while suspicious, launches an aggressive offense. Because if you don’t, there won’t be a winner.

Was this the same in bed? The more Gideon restrained himself, the more he backed off saying he wouldn’t do it if she disliked it, that it was okay, the more curious she became about the night activities she had no interest in before.

Sometimes she even felt anticipation.

It was like her body and mind were slowly opening up, like a soldier disarming. Through several experiences, she felt reassured that this person wouldn’t do things she disliked.

But anyone who has been greatly scammed would know.

Real con artists usually keep their promises very well at first. They never miss a repayment date, give generous interest, and are even gentle.

Only after gaining as much trust as they need from the other person do they… properly backstab with a large sum of money.

So it wasn’t yet time to conclude that Gideon controlled his desires well or that he was a man with a simple s*x life.

The reason Tatiana couldn’t suspect this far was because she had never been greatly scammed, and it was her first time marrying a person instead of a sword. And because she was still young.

Tatiana moved a span closer to Gideon, who was now neatly closing his eyes and preparing to sleep.

She felt like this night was ending too soon. So she wanted to talk a bit more.

She hadn’t become very close with the maids yet, and the only people Tatiana could have proper conversations with in this castle were the knights and Gideon.

Since she was practically banned from entering the barracks in exchange for getting a personal training ground, effectively, only Gideon was left.

He had the obligation to keep her company whenever she was bored… Of course, there was no such obligation.

Gideon seemed to know that Tatiana was staring at him even with his eyes closed. He said with a bitter smile,

“Stop staring at me and let’s sleep quietly, wife.”

If I backed off halfway, you should also have the manners to restrain yourself.

If you keep rustling around next to me trying to get attention, the prey would eventually be eaten by the predator.

But she was more of a lioness in cat’s clothing than prey, so she hesitated for a while with a lingering look. Then, as if realizing she was being clingy, she nodded obediently and pulled up the blanket.

Gideon glanced at her from the corner of his eye, smiled bitterly once more, and asked,

“Wife, how are you finding things these days? Are you very bored perhaps?”

Tatiana turned her shoulder towards him.

“No, not particularly…”

She had lived similarly at Duke Muller’s estate. Exercising every dawn, practicing her father’s swordsmanship only to hit her limits repeatedly and throw down the sword.

She had also giggled with the maids, but those were mostly meaningless conversations.

The reason that Tatiana was waiting for his visits every night these days was just… well, probably because it was fun.

Gideon brushed aside Tatiana’s purple bangs as she rolled her eyes. He also lightly stroked her smooth forehead with his thumb.

“You’ll be busier from now on.”

“Why? Do I have something to do?”

If you looked, there was a lot. The royal family is allocated a budget called privy purse every quarter. It was a kind of dignity maintenance fee, and its use was up to the individual.

Some royals had conducted educational projects, while others had built embankments or bridges over rivers and named them after themselves.

Gideon didn’t want to burden Tatiana with such responsibilities or obligations. After all, not all royals throughout history had been involved in national projects.

However, now that she had become royalty, Tatiana had to show her face at public events. There were countless unavoidable events and parties.

“Tomorrow night, there’s a regular party hosted by the royal family.”

“……”

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to attend this time. I was planning to wait until the interest died down anyway. But we can’t postpone it indefinitely.”

“……”

“It will be quite a tiring event, will you be okay?”

“… Why would it be tiring?”

Her only experience with a big party was her debutante, but Tatiana had often attended small social gatherings held at noble mansions.

She couldn’t lead conversations proactively. Her main interests were too different from those of noble young ladies.

But that had never been a big problem. People generally like it if you just listen well to their stories. However, that scenario was only possible when it didn’t matter if she acted as the fifty-third pillar at the party.

She was the main character of this party.

Gideon whispered as if to remind her of this fact,

“I told you, didn’t I? For a while, everyone will be staring only at you.”

“……”

“It’s not a metaphor. They’ll probably be counting how many times you drink water that day.”

Gideon frowned as if displeased even as he said it himself, and Tatiana also grimaced, thinking, ‘Why would they count that?’

“Then what should I do? Should I perform a sword dance in front of people?”