Max was seized by the feeling as if she were plummeting into a cliff in her slumber. Slowly stirring into consciousness, she hears the sound of rain, pounding hard against the windows as if to wake her up from her reverie. The man laid calmly behind her back, their slick bodies plastered to one another. Her eyelids fluttered open as she lay in his arms.

  Just how long have they been losing their minds with one another?

  The chest on her back gently shook with the man’s steady breathing. “Even if I’m almost crushing you by being so close like this…… I don’t want to part our bodies at all.”


  He gathered her closer—as if it were any possible—inside his arms, facing him. Skin created friction as they rubbed against another, the tips of her peaks having long gone sore from his constant teases. The man released a satisfied groan, tilting the woman’s head underneath him to meet his lips. He sucked on them, devouring and rolling her soft flesh between his teeth.

  Max looked up at him with swollen eyes. He looked as messy as she was; his usually cold, stern face like a polished blade was flushed with sweat, his eyes clouded with a heated gaze. His hair was disheveled as if it had gone through a storm, and his skin was laced with half-moon crescents……

  Riftan faintly smiled, seeing the light wounds on his body. “I didn’t even have a scratch on my body when I was fighting a basilisk……”


  “I-I’m s-sorry.”


  A terrible sound came out from her throat like a strangled cry. And his head dipped down again to capture her lips, sealing the voice inside. Max was quite frightened of his onyx eyes, looking at her with an indecipherable expression.

  “You’re a frightening enchantress.”


  She had wanted to implore him what he meant, but her voice could no longer come out as he kissed her flush against him again. Their slick tongues slowly intertwined with another in a slow, lazy dance.

  “I think I’ve known since the first day. That you would…… scar me.”


  His last words were so faint against her lips that she could hardly understand them. She soon sank into a deep sleep as if she were melting into warm water.

  *

  It was raining harder outside as if nature was deviously trying to make up for yesterday’s harmless drizzle. This prompted Riftan and his soldiers to delay their travel to the capital. And as he wasn’t even able to trudge across the village for inspection under the blanket of heavy rain, he spent his whole day lounging around their room for the first time ever since he moved into the castle.

  The two laid in bed stark naked, merely listening to the rhythm of the rain against the window. Most of the time, they were engaged in a passionate embrace between each other, leaving no inch of skin as they shared their warmth. They made love intensely, making Max worry if such a level of intimacy was even allowed. When they were not locked with one another, they gulped down the food and wine the servants delivered to them.

  He placed her on his lap as he fed her himself. Feeling sluggish, Max wasn’t able to feel the familiar embarrassment creep in, and instead, rested her head on his chest as she nibbled on the pieces of sweet fruit and bread with cream he brought to her mouth. At the heart-warming sight, a smile blossomed across Riftan’s mouth.

  “You’re like a little bird.”


  He gave her a sip of wine and pressed his lips gently on her bulging cheeks, feeling her flesh soft against his muscles. Riftan wouldn’t let her go even for a split second; he was like an animal devotedly taking care of its own baby. He washed her and showered her with kisses. And Max was

  captivated by his passionate and persistent love, never having experienced anything like it before.

  She suddenly had the outlandish urge to hug him tightly with her soft arms and to rub her face against his broad and muscular chest like a child. If she wasn’t so exhausted, she knew she would have indulged in that fleeting impulse.

  Not even her mother had held her this close before.

  “These grapes are delicious,” he mumbled as he pushed the fruit through her lips. Max took the grape in her mouth and popped it between her teeth, savoring the sweet juice. As some of the liquid trickled down the sides of her mouth, Riftan tasted it with his lips. His hand brushing against her cheek was gentle, but his caresses were stirring her. Soon, the thought of his damp lips delicately trailing golden kisses on her skin came to mind. Their barely parted bodies heated in tandem with the warm current inside the room.

  “Crush me with your teeth and take me in.” He stuck his tongue out long as if it wanted to fall into a pit that was her throat.

  There was some kind of language

  than words that came and went through their interlocked lips.

  Max could feel her throat chocking up, but she wasn’t complaining—didn’t want to. Now engulfed with a craze that ate all her reason, she lifted her trembling arms and wrapped them around his neck. At the next moment, her body fell back towards the familiar soft sheet again.

  As they stumbled on one another, the plate placed on the bed was knocked over to the side, the pieces of fruit spilling carelessly over the bed. Riftan continued to lick all traces of the sweet juice staining her skin as his thick chest compressed her smooth mounds. Their sweat-laced skin had long tangled with the damp bed sheets.