When You Don’t Get Along With Your Husband - Chapter 36

He knows too. She has no interest in anything other than achievements made with the sword. 

 The list of lands and properties the royal family had bestowed upon House Bloom was already extensive. Except for higher titles, they had given almost everything they could give.

Yet even after becoming an adult, she had been putting it off with an attitude that showed no urgency.

It was Gideon who had started the paperwork before the wedding ceremony, wanting to quickly hand over those assets to her. So this situation too would be nothing more than a small joke to Tatiana.

Knowing this fully well, Gideon still wanted to promise her everything. If he could win her favor even with such small things, he wanted to do it as much as possible. 

 If she found out how desperate he was about this, she might think him trivial. Since they had started sleeping together, it hasn’t been easy to control himself and adjust his pace.

Gideon swiftly lifted Tatiana’s hem. His touch was incredibly rude, not even seeking permission, but his voice whispering while massaging her waist was simply gentle.

“Does it not hurt anymore?”

“…… It wasn’t really painful to begin with.”

“Then why did you cry this morning?”

“Not at all? I didn’t cry?”

“You did cry.”

When Gideon firmly corrected her, Tatiana closed her mouth with a blank expression.

She wasn’t brazen enough to deny something that had happened just hours ago. The nonchalance to say ‘I guess it was broken’ about a perfectly fine door wasn’t something just anyone could pull off.

Gideon gently massaged her waist as if giving her a massage, then slipped his fingers between the thin fabric. After carefully checking the soft sensation, he said.

“It seems swollen.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“Then can we do it tonight too?”

“……”

“Titi.”

Tatiana blinked her eyes and nodded. Then, perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed, she headbutted his chest with the crown of her head. A real thud.

Though the impact was far from light, Gideon burst out laughing. He liked her clear attitude of choosing honest answers even while wondering if it was okay.

Tatiana continued to rub her small head against his chest afterward.

Though it was just out of shyness, to Gideon it felt like a signal encouraging him. He pressed his fingertips a bit more firmly and said.

“I’ll just do this much. We’ll do the rest tonight.”

“……”

“Hmm? Let me do it.”

“……okay.”

Tatiana released the tension from her body with a swoosh, as if preparing to accept him. There was no trace of rejection in her gestures or gaze.

But when his hand moved again, she couldn’t help but scrunch her eyes and nose.

It was an expression that evoked sympathy. However, Gideon didn’t stop. Because her body was telling a different story from her expression.

The air around them grew humid, and evidence of it was spreading on the blanket. 

 “I don’t think we’ll need oil anymore from now on.”

“……This, mmh, we still need it at night though.”

“Why? What’s so different at night? Seems fine to me.”

Tatiana shook her head side to side while resting her cheek on his shoulder. It’s different. How could it be the same? We’ll be doing it properly later tonight. Gideon would never understand the difference in volume and presence.

As Tatiana kept shaking her head, Gideon belatedly soothed her. Okay, okay, I’ll use it tonight, he said with laughter in his voice.

However, even while letting out increasingly heated sounds, Tatiana couldn’t fully focus on him. She rolled her eyes around scanning their surroundings, and eventually even bit her lip firmly.

Gideon rubbed her lower lip with his thumb and asked.

“You don’t have to hold your voice back. Are you embarrassed because it’s daytime?”

“……Outside, ah, they can hear.”

“The maids don’t have sharp ears like you, Titi.”

“No, not them. Someone’s hanging from the eaves.”

Gideon paused his hand momentarily. Indeed, he had positioned guards outside the bedroom.

While he hadn’t expected her not to notice, something felt odd when he thought about it.

When playing with the maids, she was so distracted she didn’t notice people coming, but now she knows where the guards are hiding? Can’t focus on me? Am I less fun than the maids?

Gideon’s mood soured considerably as he pulled up one corner of his mouth. Yet his hands continued to caress her.

“The curtains are drawn so they can’t see anything…… If it bothers you that much, should I quickly go kill them?”

“If they need killing, hah, I’d do it myself, I won’t borrow Your Highness’s hands.”

Gideon couldn’t help but laugh at her unexpected response. Then he whispered in her ear as if to say ‘are you really proud of that statement?’ 

 “Really? Then whose hand is this right now?”

“……”

“Is this different from that?”

“Ah! Nngh, be gentle!”

“Sorry. But have you decided to speak informally to me now?”

While teasing her with his words, Gideon once again gently stroked her skin.

Tatiana released the heated sounds she had been holding back as if spilling them out, and her body twitched, twitched before slowly melting. 

 Gideon watched the scene greedily, like looking at a delicious meal. Then he took out a handkerchief, wiped her clean, and tucked it back into his clothes.

Tatiana raised her still trembling body in surprise.

“Why are you keeping that?”

“Souvenir.”

“……Throw it away.”

She didn’t stop at words but tried to take the handkerchief from him directly. She pushed his shoulder and even climbed on top of him.

While blocking her swift and efficient hand movements, Gideon thought:

‘……This isn’t a joke?’

How many men in this world feel their life threatened while wrestling with their wife in bed? The truly fortunate thing for Gideon was that she couldn’t overpower him physically.

Things might be different if she got the sword mounted on the wall over there, but Tatiana didn’t seem to have thoughts of killing her husband yet.

Gideon firmly gripped her wrists and said.

“Stop. We shouldn’t do this. It won’t end as just play.” 

 “……”

“No violence. No pillow fights either.”

“……Not even pillows?”

“No, not allowed.”

Tatiana released the strength from her hands with a sulky face. However, she hadn’t given up on the handkerchief in his clothes.

Gideon let her take it away and laid her down beside him again. Then he fixed her clothes and hair while belatedly enjoying the afterglow. 

 His fingers moving between her outer ear and earlobe were gentle. The kisses landing on her cheeks were nothing but soft. His expression was more relaxed than usual, and joy had seeped into his eyes.

If he were someone more expressive, he might have been humming without realizing it by now.

Tatiana could feel that he was in a very good mood. But she found it strange. Because she hadn’t done anything for him.

Wasn’t that act just one-sided service in some ways? Or labor?

“Your Highness……”

“Yes.”

“Do you like doing that for me? What we just did.”

“……Did you not like it, Titi?”

“No, I liked it……”

“……”

“But this is just good for me.”

When Tatiana asked with genuine curiosity, Gideon fell into thought for a moment.

He wondered if such a question could come despite seeing the front of his pants, but they were young men and women taking their first steps into s*xual love. Everything was bound to be wondrous and new. 

 Gideon didn’t mind that Tatiana wanted to share her curiosity and questions arising from these new experiences with him. Rather, he liked it.

“Well, I’m not sure if this is the right way to express it but……”

“……” 

 “There’s a kind of pleasure that comes from satisfying my wife.”

“……”

“Does that answer your question?”

Tatiana nodded with an “mmm,” and Gideon added a very important point. 

 “I’d like to be the only man who does that.”

Of course, he would continue to be the only one in the future. Gideon had no doubt about that fact. Because he planned to kill anyone else who emerged from behind.

After thinking that far, Gideon became impossibly pleased. With an expression that looked like he might really start humming, he smiled with his eyes and asked.

“Is there anything you need or want these days? Something special you’d like to eat?”

What should I do for my wife? I can give her anything she wants. Since she’s ambidextrous, should I have another sword made? Or gift her a beautiful set of armor?

She likes lizards, should I give her one to raise freely in the castle?

Why are they all like this? Sighing as if it wasn’t easy, Gideon came up with quite a reasonable suggestion.

“Would you like to invite your friends?”

“My friends?”

“We greeted them at the party. Let’s invite them for a meal together.”

Targeting someone’s circle when trying to win their favor was a strategy with quite a high success rate. Moreover, Gideon found it interesting to see Tatiana warmly welcoming her friends.

When did that little girl who used to cry alone like a loner grow up and make friends?

Well. Come to think of it, she had a good personality since childhood. Children who grow up under excessive attention tend to develop twisted personalities, but Tatiana had no rough edges and didn’t act high and mighty.