Chapter 27
Ah.
She felt it all too vividly. The dull, heavy heat that stretched long across her lower back.
Last time, she could have insisted it was merely a biological reaction caused by deliberately rubbing their bodies together to stimulate him due to hypothermia, but this time, such a flimsy excuse would not hold. Though she could not say he had fully recovered, he had improved enough to begin preparing for a gradual return to daily life.
She intuited it. No, rather than mere intuition, the signals transmitted from body to body were far too stark.
Therefore, this was a certainty beyond doubt or denial.
This man… me this much…….
“Stay by my side.”
……is desiring me.
Hearing in words that he intended to do something to her was vastly different from feeling it directly with her body. If earlier her heart had fluttered, now her body did. As if placed under a spell, all her senses grew restless.
It felt as if his scorching body heat had transferred onto her. Her lower back burned fiercely. Her fingertips and toes twitched and skipped of their own accord, and her breathing grew ragged and shallow.
No matter how much she tried to calm herself internally, it was useless. On the contrary, the more conscious she became of it, the more intense it grew.
A large hand traveled up her waist. The man, who had come to rely heavily on the sensation of his hands in place of his eyes, would trace thickly and tenaciously, her texture.
He did so now as well. He tickled her concave belly with his thumb and stroked her with slight weight on each finger. He laid his index finger over the bumpy ridges of her ribs and traced them at length. A hand that wrapped halfway around her slender ribcage caressed her back.
“There isn’t a part of you that isn’t slender.”
Rose’s flesh was so tender and delicate that Ezekiel had to take extra care to keep the strength from his hands each time. Otherwise, he felt he might injure her skin. His hands, thickly calloused from pulling triggers and gripping horse reins, were stiffer and rougher than those of ordinary people.
“……Major.”
Rose hunched her shoulders. Trying to calm her gradually fluttering breath, her voice calling out to him was close to a faint whisper.
“Why, does it hurt?”
Rose dropped her wavering, dizzy gaze.
It wasn’t pain. Rather, this was…….
Excessive stimulation.
The man’s firm, weathered hands caressed her body thoroughly, touching her sensitive points. At his caresses, which sought to gauge her with somehow greater delicacy, her breathing faltered beyond her will.
It was different from when he had rummaged through her thoughtlessly, suspecting her of being a spy. And different from when she had used her body as a tool and means to hold him while he struggled with opium withdrawal.
Today, she was not afraid. It did not hurt. A thrill followed the trajectory his fingers drew. Her stomach tingled.
“I…… cannot breathe.”
It seemed she had forgotten how to breathe after all. Her chest rose and fell irregularly. Her heated breaths could not possibly be this rough.
“I believe I can solve that.”
Ezekiel, fumbling with his thumb to find her lips, immediately tilted his head and fitted his mouth over hers. The curves of their two lips meshed seamlessly.
Tongues entangled. Hearts mingled.
The water sloshed. It was as if she were submerged in deep seawater. The strength drained from her entire body. Ezekiel extended his arms and held the swaying Rose close.
He closed his eyes. There was not much difference whether his eyes were open or closed, but even so, keeping them closed was slightly better for imagining Rose.
Beyond this black curtain, she was there.
If only he could, he wanted to tear through this black curtain and see Rose’s face hidden behind it. He wanted to know what expression she wore as she leaned into him. He wanted to feel her fully, corner to corner, with all five senses.
But for now, that was merely an impossible wish.
Unslaked thirst scorched his throat even more. No matter how much he swallowed her, he was never satisfied. Ezekiel leaned against the tub, tilting his back, and lifted Rose to seat her upon his waist.
Startled by the sudden sensation of her vision spinning half a turn, Rose flinched slightly. In the brief moment she blinked, his face was right before her nose. But there was hardly time for any other thought. That was because Ezekiel, wrapping his palm firmly around the back of her head, delved deeply inside at once.
The man’s low, stifled groan reached her ears. As his kiss deepened, a raw sensation wedged between her thighs and prodded her parted cleft.
Suddenly, white electricity crackled.
“Ngh…….”
Rose was bewildered by the faintly sticky undertone in her own moan. While she doubted her own ears, the man’s blunt tip, swollen even larger in girth, rubbed heavily against her below.
“Major…… Major. Please wait, ah…….”
Her voice, unsure what to do, was sweet. Though her entire body was damp, the soft opening, which he could feel with the tip of his manhood, was especially slick. As if anointed with fragrant oil.
Supporting and lifting her hips, he slowly slid his lips downward. A light touch at the edge of her jaw, then a kiss, and he traced down along the muscles of her neck.
At the point where her chest swelled softly, he buried his lips once more and inhaled deeply.
“You smell of flowers.”
It was only natural since they were in the same bathwater, yet for some reason pleased, the man pressed the tip of his nose firmly against her chest. Her wet hair tickled her sensitive skin. Rose trembled lightly at the tingling that swept past.
“……You smell of it too, Major.”
“The scent on you is sweeter. It must be because your name is Rose.”
Rose lowered her gaze. That name was merely a pseudonym Akenaus had given her for convenience. She did not resemble a rose in the slightest.
Her round, erect nipple grazed his chin. He took the warm, wet nipple into his mouth and sucked.
“Hah…… ah!”
The stimulation was intense. Unable to endure, Rose twisted her body and inadvertently grabbed the shelf. The soap that bounced off in her panic plummeted below the water’s surface.
*Plop.* Even though the sound of it falling was quite loud, he did not pause, remaining wholly absorbed in exploring her breast.
“I’m scared, Major, wait…….”
Frightened by the continuous floating sensation of her hips rising, Rose thrashed about. Even though he held her lower back tightly so there was no chance of dropping her, from her perspective as she was gradually pushed upward, her position seemed unstable.
Already, the awkward construction of the tub was growing unsatisfactory. The bathroom, slippery in all directions from overflowing water, was ill-suited to fully savoring Rose.
Ezekiel pressed her firmly against him, fitting her flush against the hard ridges of his abdominal muscles, and rose.
“My neck. Hold on tight.”
It happened in an instant. Carried by his wide strides, she had only swayed a few times before Ezekiel brought her to the bedroom. Every motion of crossing the room precisely and laying her upon the bed was concise and swift.
Rose looked up at the dark silhouette. It was a figure she had faced many times before, yet somehow today it felt exceptionally unfamiliar. The man, fumbling to ascertain her position by feeling her face, clutched a handful of her hair and pressed his lips firmly against hers.
“It makes me furious anew that I cannot see this. How reddish must your hair be? Is it truly as I saw in my dream?”
“……A dream?”
“I once glimpsed your red hair in a dream. But I awoke so quickly that I scarcely saw it.”
Recalling the texture and color that had brushed flutteringly against the bridge of his nose, he brought his face to her hair.
A rich floral scent filled his inhalation. He breathed in the fragrance deeply and exhaled two more times. But information limited by sight was only half-complete, no matter how thoroughly he scrutinized it.
There was so much he was curious about.
His lips traveled to Rose’s forehead.
“Then, is your skin moderately tanned? Or is it so pale that veins show through?”
Next were her eyelids. He kissed above her trembling eyelashes.
“Are these eyes clear green like fresh spring foliage, or deep green like mature leaves? Is the shape of your eyes aloof like a cat’s, or round like a puppy’s?”
The man’s lips traveled down her nose bridge and paused at the tip of her nose.
“Is this nose long or short? Your face is so small that I cannot quite tell by touch.”
He lightly sucked the center of her protruding upper lip.
“Your lips…… all I know is that they’re soft.”
Even after the brief kiss, his lips hovered around the edge of Rose’s lips at a perilously close distance.
His yearning to picture her face was so fervent. Rose turned away slightly.
“……If you imagine me in such detail, you may be disappointed. I am not such a great beauty.”
“When did I say I was curious about whether you’re pretty?”
He seemed like a man determined to cut Rose off at every turn today.
“What I’m curious about is you.”
“Hah…….”
He overlapped his body with hers. He continuously pressed and rubbed their skin together, never allowing distance to form between them. At the soft pressure of her chest and stomach being pressed down, Rose trembled despite herself. She could not move. The bed rocked, bearing the weight of two.
“From now on, I will sense you. I will listen with my hearing, feel with my touch……”
Though it seemed he was merely fumbling by relying on sensation alone, everywhere he touched, grasped, and caressed, sparks seemed to fly. There was not an inch that did not arouse her.
“If touch is insufficient, I will smell with my nose; if smell is not perfect, I will taste with my tongue.”
……Smell? Taste?
“What? Just now, ah, what did you……”
“From your head to the tips of your toes, thoroughly.”