Episode 56
He had always been a man who made Rose’s heart tremble. From the day they first met until now, unchangingly, ceaselessly.
Try as she might, she had no right at all; she felt so shameless that she had never once dared to speak his name aloud, and yet…….
Even so.
The truth was, she had known for a very long time.
That no matter what he did to her, that he could treat her however he pleased—the countless times she had muttered these things and granted him permission had all been excuses to justify this emotion.
If the heart she held for him had been nothing more than simple guilt, then no matter what other services she performed, she would never have been able to bring herself to mix her body with his. She would not have waited for each approaching night with anticipation.
She knew. It was an emotion not permitted to her.
Even so, just this once, at the very end, she wanted to speak the heart she should not speak.
“Then you should have come to hear it more often.”
A playful smile spread across his naturally cold face.
Following the motion of his chin, his dark, disheveled hair tickled her chest. Rose carefully reached out and stroked that hair. Unlike her own long tresses, which she could gather in handfuls at will, his hair was cut short enough to brush his forehead. No matter how she tried to collect and cup it, it would always slip through her fingers like sand.
She lost her grip on even that when Ezekiel moved down below Rose’s pelvis, nuzzling between her legs, selecting the parts where sensation was particularly acute and sucking them thoroughly.
“Rose, do you know your pulse beats here too?”
With her legs folded up, Ezekiel pressed his lips to the back of her knee.
“It’s like a song. If I listen quietly. Fast and gentle.”
A hot sensation gradually climbed up the inside of her thigh. The pressure that had merely felt ticklish around her calves or knees grew increasingly tingly and feverish as it neared her secret place.
“Mmh…….”
Wherever he lingered, it felt as though her heart pounded. Her fingers curled of their own accord. She could hardly endure the ticklish sensation somewhere deep in her belly. Rose scraped her fingertips against the bed.
Come to think of it, on the first day they had joined their bodies, he had spent a long time measuring and groping every inch of her to learn her, but now there was no hesitation in his movements. With one hand gripping Rose’s waist, he pressed against her pale skin with familiar ease, leaving marks as he pleased. Then he immediately found where he would enter and touched it with his tongue.
“Ah!”
A strange pleasure spread explosively, and an irresistible moan burst from her. At the same time, the heavy weight of the man’s arousal pressing against her leg grew increasingly pronounced. Perhaps because he was a soldier who must show no emotional agitation in any crisis, there was no way he could appear more detached on the outside, yet only before her did he fail to hide his thick desire. It was as if he were saying he wanted to enter her at once, to become one body with her just like this.
Her body, having learned through experience the ecstasy he would bestow, grew wet from within. The flowing arousal dampened Ezekiel’s lips. As he rubbed, pressed, ground, and licked upward with increasing pressure, the sound gradually grew more viscous.
“You have no idea how sweet you are.”
At the explicit words tossed out as if savoring a taste, Rose’s face flushed red.
After tantalizing her for a long while, he finally aligned the tip of his member with her entrance. He rubbed his soft outer skin roughly against hers, mixing the fluids that seeped out. Only after sweeping his large hand down his own length and slickly spreading the lubricant did he attempt to enter.
Though her sufficiently wet entrance opened to receive him, the disparity in size made it equally arduous for her accepting and him pressing in.
Slow, shallow thrusts continued. Relying on sensation, he would push in a little, but whenever Rose’s walls contracted, showing signs of pain, Ezekiel would pull back slightly and scatter kisses across her nose and cheeks to ease her tension.
Such tenderness was excessive, making her heart ache.
It was not gratitude from his excessive tenderness, nor happiness, but bewilderment that she could feel sad. Far from her heart filling to fullness, it felt hollow and empty. It was chilling.
To escape the chill that simply would not leave, Rose embraced Ezekiel. She clung to his rugged, writhing body. Because she knew she would soon long for this embrace, this body heat, she could not let go.
She wanted to be submerged even hotter.
Or perhaps to melt away completely.
“……Agh!”
The veined member that had been slowly seizing its chance finally thrust in, filling her completely. Her head spun from the pressure pressing deep into her belly, and her breath grew short. Rose writhed in the onrushing shudders.
“What is it? Today, your inside feels deeper than usual.”
Perhaps her body knew too. This urgency to join with him more deeply if today were the last. This desperation to keep him inside her for a long, long time.
The blunt tip of his length scraped across her sensitive spot. Once, twice, three times. With the repeated stimulation, her pleasure gradually built.
For a moment, a small climax arrived.
“Ah, wait, hah…….”
Her inner walls gripping him tightened sharply. At her honest reaction, Ezekiel’s reason grew clouded. With each deep, pounding thrust into her depths, moans that tantalizingly stirred his bloodlust shattered into fragments.
“Rose.”
Ezekiel called her name. Though she was unable to control her senses and was simply tossed about dizzily, Rose gathered the last strand of her reason.
“Hah, yes…….”
“Rose.”
He called again. His voice was somehow much deeper.
“……Yes.”
“Rose.”
“…….”
Rose opened her half-lidded eyes. And she met Ezekiel’s feverish eyes hovering near her face. His dark pupils, filled with rapture, could not follow her face and stared askew at some point off to the side.
Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine.
Those eyes—who were they looking at right now? And what image were they imagining?
The woman he called so earnestly must be the woman of fantasy with red hair and green eyes.
That woman was…….
“Wait just a little longer, Rose. I’ll be meeting you soon.”
……It wasn’t me.
It was an instant. Before she could even compose herself, her vision swelled and tears plopped and streamed down. Rose hurriedly turned her head to the side. She did not want him to see these tears right now.
Holding Rose, damp with beaded sweat, tightly in his arms, Ezekiel increased his thrusting speed. Though the rift between her body and heart was so vast, Rose was newly surprised that an overwhelming climax could still arrive.
Neither her body nor her heart was under her control.
It was as if she were not herself.
What of this man? Would he wish for tonight to pass quickly, or to linger slowly?
“Rose, are you tired?”
“……No.”
“You seemed too still, so I called out. What time is it? Has midnight already passed?”
She felt as though her inner thoughts had been read. Swallowing the throbbing pain, Rose shook her head.
“……Not yet.”
Through the curtain-drawn window, the stars flickered strangely, but she ignored them, pretending not to see.
“Today is not yet over.”
When the sun rises, he will undergo surgery.
If only this night, this ‘today,’ would not pass.
“Yes, a long night is welcome.”
Even after spending himself deep inside her, rather than withdrawing, he rocked his hips three or four more times. The fading afterglow kindled anew.
“Rose.”
Ezekiel pressed his forehead against Rose’s.
“I just need you by my side.”
It was a common promise. Words any lover would say, an expression of the heart and a natural expectation held for the other.
But to Rose, it was not natural. It was the most difficult promise. The answer she could not return was bitter.
He probably could not even guess what her silence meant. Until now, this man had never once doubted her. He had always sent her trust and faith.
To such a man, Rose had always lied. The more she looked back, the more wretched and trivial her traces seemed, and at times she felt not just shame but mortification.
“Rose, promise me you’ll stay by my side throughout the surgery.”
She was relieved that a request she could at least answer had returned.
Rose pulled his sweat-dampened nape close and whispered her answer.
“I will.”
This alone she was confident about. She was glad she did not have to lie. As long as she could be by his side, she would go nowhere and guard him.
Two hearts beating at the same speed lay slanted together, overlapping.
Rose gathered her languidly draped body. The end of long, sticky lovemaking was usually a sleep like unconsciousness, but today was different. She endured the pouring fatigue, keeping her eyes open until the very end.
Eventually, Ezekiel’s eyes slowly closed behind his eyelids. Rose held her breath, pretending to sleep, and traced and re-traced the beautiful contours of the man’s face.
Until the moon waned and the night light faded.
And until the dawn brightened the sky pale once more.