“I told you we could do this after dinner.”

“And I recall saying that I couldn’t wait until then.”

He was shameless. Could there be anyone else in the Mateo Empire so brazen? Ilenia looked at his stubbornness. Her right ring finger, which he had bitten, throbbed in time with her heartbeat.

“Now you won’t be able to go out. My wife is so easily embarrassed that she tries to hide even the smallest mark.”

“I can easily hide something this small.”

“Do you think I’d stop at just this?”

The hands she’d raised to protect herself were snatched away. Their fingers quickly and naturally entwined.

“Hm? Ilenia.”

It took him only a moment to bury his face between her burgeoning mounds. Taking a deep breath of her sweet-smelling skin, he quickly branded her with his teeth.

As Delphius had said, his actions did not end there. Like a puppy getting its first teeth, he began to gently nibble along her neckline. The soft skin, which had never been bruised by anyone but him, quickly turned a bruised red.

“Now you really won’t be able to go out.”

He hadn’t broken the skin. It was only a slight swelling, so it would disappear without a trace in a day or two. Just the fact that Ilenia couldn’t move right now was enough to satisfy Delphius, who grinned a mischievous smile.

“Do you think you can cover this, too?”

“Do you think I can’t?”

It was a childish argument. Despite knowing better, Ilenia accepted his provocation.

“I can just wear a different dress that goes up to my neck. A lady of Lukehardt needs many modest outfits, after all. Just for attending a concert, there are so many…”

Her calm voice gradually faded away. The thing that had made her lose her words in an instant was perfectly nonchalant. A distinct metallic click could be heard.

“What’s wrong, my wife? Why don’t you keep talking?”

It was hot. Ilenia knew what the heavy pressure in her lower abdomen was. Even more so in its raw, n*ked state. Unconsciously, she raised her gaze. It was then that she met Delphius’s composed eyes.

“Is there a problem?”

Yes, there were too many problems.

Even without looking, the sounds rising from below were merciless: the rustle of fabric and the raw friction of skin against skin. Woven between them was a steadily growing force, a pointed pressure pressing into her lower belly.

Ilenia felt a flicker of fear at the thought of looking down. Yet keeping her eyes on his unwavering gaze was no better — it was unbearable. She couldn’t even admire the beauty of his brow, which she so often stole glances at when it furrowed ever so slightly. Not now. Not when the back of his hand brushed against her trembling abdomen.

“If you’re going to keep being silent like this, why don’t you lend me a hand?”

Ilenia squeezed her eyes shut.

Her perfect husband could sometimes lose all reason. More often than not, the cause was the same as it was now. She hadn’t been able to leave the bed on their wedding night, and she still couldn’t now. Once the sun rose, Delphius’s day began, and his busy schedule left him with little time for such indulgences.

But every so often, without warning, desire would overwhelm him. There was no way to predict what might trigger it. Sometimes it happened when they were n*ked after making love; at other times, he would be fully dressed with every button fastened to his throat. Sometimes, she was forced to endure his unfounded l*st simply for looking at him. This was probably no different. Despite knowing this, she would sometimes find herself wanting to ask what it was about her that stirred him so, in the hope of being able to avoid it.

With her eyes still closed, his voice—rougher than usual—vibrated against her sensitive ears.

“Ilenia. Dinner will be ready soon, won’t it? And someone will come to announce it.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. I will meticulously follow your wish to have dinner first.”

This was him, meticulously following her wishes. Ilenia had so much she wanted to say about the contradiction standing before her. But she wasn’t foolish enough to open her mouth. The moment she did, everything would unfold exactly as Delphius intended. She could not — she must not — utter a single word.

“If you don’t open your eyes and change your clothes, everyone will see what I’ve done to your chest. You don’t want that, and neither do I.”

The hand pressing against her grew more insistent, and the sound of skin against skin grew louder and more obscene. Perhaps that was why the faint scent of night-blooming flowers lingered in the air.

She simply could not understand it:

A husband pleasuring himself in front of his wife. Even worse, he was doing so under her clear gaze while she remained perfectly sober.

He asked her for help halfway through, but when she refused, he continued alone until the end. Just one word, or even an act of force, from him would have been enough for her. Yet, strangely, he chose to honor her wishes during these peculiar moments.

Cherishing her at the strangest times. Burning with desire at the strangest times.

His rough breaths grew louder, reverberating deep in her lower belly.

“So, Ilenia. Choose.”

Even without opening her eyes, she could feel his gaze fixed on her face—unyielding, sharp enough to sting, his voice a low whisper at her ear. Each ragged exhale raised the fine hairs along her skin.

“Now, or later?”

‘What a cunning man.’

In the end, it was Ilenia who gave in. She slowly lifted her tightly shut eyelids to reveal the soft pink of her irises. The moment she opened her eyes, his desperate lips claimed hers, forcing them open in a hungry search.

The roughness of his movements proved how long he had been restraining himself. His tongue feverishly sought hers while a palm, slick with her wetness, tenderly brushed across her cheek.

Delphius reached for a small bell, the kind found in every room, and, as it chimed brightly, footsteps could be heard hurrying from beyond the study.

“You called, sir?”

The instant the servant entered, Delphius pulled Ilenia tightly into his arms. Pressed flush against him, the marks that had decorated her br*asts and bared skin vanished as though they had never been.

“Tell the kitchen there’s no need to prepare dinner. If I need anything, I’ll call for it.”

“Understood.”

Before she could lift her head from his chest, she heard the door close. Judging by the hastening footsteps, the servant had hurried away to deliver the message. Dinner at the appointed hour was out of the question.

“Ilenia.”

The voice of a devil who had at last succeeded in tempting her sank low, sweet as it coaxed her upright.

One by one, the buttons at the back of her dress were undone. She let him undo the ones she could not reach while she loosened the front ribbon. The neckline slackened immediately.

Her light skirt slipped soundlessly to the floor of the study, leaving her wearing only a thin camisole. She sat on his lap; a stark contrast to Delphius, who remained half-dressed below the waist.

The sensation was completely different to when she had been covered in layers. Now, wearing only the thinnest wisp of fabric, she could feel her pulse thrumming with startling clarity, as though he were already inside her.

As he moved to remove the camisole, he suddenly bent his head and caught the ribboned front in his teeth.

“Hht…”

His tongue spread moisture through the thin fabric, which became soaked in moments. The tight fabric exposed her n*pples in shameless detail as he bit and sucked them. Each time his blunt teeth scraped against her skin, Ilenia flinched and trembled.

But would she simply endure, being the demure sort of wife?

Her hand, which had been slowly sliding down his chest, finally closed around his semi-*rect p*nis.

“Ah—d*mn.”

The moment she gripped him tightly, he let out a sharp intake of breath. The slickness at the tip had already begun to trail down the length of his p*nis.

When her damp thumb slowly traced his length, he rasped roughly.

“I never would have thought you were capable of doing something so commendable on your own. You are truly a wife worthy of being the pride of the Mateo Empire.”

His mocking voice reverberated against her skin as he bit down on her n*pple through the wet fabric, breathing hotly onto her.

“Go on, then. Continue.”