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The skin of her neck where his lips touched, and the wetness of her private parts where his fingers brushed, were all so soft. Enough to make him lose his mind.
“Strange. You seem even wetter than before.”
“Hng. Ah, no...”
As he thrust a finger into her twitching opening, a pleasant moan escaped her lips again. She took in everything he fed her with eagerness.
Ray let out a short laugh as he watched the woman raise her arms to cover her face, but he ruthlessly pushed her hands back down.
He needed to see her face.
“I can excuse myself for reacting because you were gripping and shaking mine, but what about you?”
“Ah, ah!”
“I guess you liked touching me.”
As he whispered into her ear, the woman twisted her hips and released another flood of moisture, as if affirming his words. Ray had reached his limit.
He spread her tightly closed thighs and positioned himself.
Rose gasped as he pushed himself into the narrow entrance.
Ray wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed her lips soothingly. Her opening was so tight that it clenched even around just a finger. He felt as though she might get hurt if she were too tense.
“I don't think... it'll fit,” the woman panted and murmured, even though he had barely managed to insert the tip.
“You're my wife. Why wouldn't it fit?”
As if he hadn't heard her, Ray gripped and kneaded her breasts.
“It's okay if you bite me.”
“No, that's not it, ah!”
As he rolled his tongue over her nipple, the woman was unable to continue speaking, lost in a haze of moans. In that gap, Ray pushed his member inside.
“Relax... a little.”
“Ah, Ray...”
The woman clung to him, calling his name as if sobbing.
Ray grit his teeth, loving the way she tightened her arms around his neck and clung to him as if he were the only thing in the world.
If he didn't restrain himself, he feared he might pierce through her in one go.
“It's okay.”
He soothed her with a conscience-free lie and pushed deeper. Even to his own ears, his impatient voice lacked sincerity.
The more Ray teased her with his lips, the more her body opened up. The moment he felt the soft inner walls, a surge of arousal hit him.
He wasn't some green youth who had just started growing a beard; he let out a hollow laugh at himself.
“Ah, ung! Wait, hng, just a moment.”
“Ha.”
Letting out a suppressed groan, Ray reached down and rubbed her wet clitoris.
Then, he pushed as deep as possible into her slick interior. It seemed pushing all the way in would be difficult.
As Rose let out a loud cry of pleasure, Ray held his breath. He felt as if he were going crazy.
“Good girl.”
Barely regaining his reason, he kissed her rounded forehead, and he felt the visibly tense body relax.
As Ray attempted to move slowly, Rose grabbed his arms.
“Don't move...”
Ray laughed irritably at her voice, which was thick with moisture.
Whether his wife was doing this on purpose or he was simply out of his mind, everything she said only served to heighten his arousal.
“If I don't move, do you want me to stay like this forever?”
“The feeling... ah, it's strange.”
Seeing that her voice, which sounded almost like a whine, felt cute to him, Ray concluded that sex truly made a person insane.
The anger he had felt toward his rambling wife had vanished without a trace.
“It's okay.”
Muttering, Ray thrust himself back in, and Rose arched her back with a moan.
“Because I feel strange too.”
As he began to move his hips slowly, the wet sounds of their bodies colliding and the creaking of the bed filled the bedroom.
As did Rose's incessant moans.
It was a sound that drove him mad.
Burying his face in his wife's neck, he completely succumbed to a pleasure so intense it felt almost violent—something he had never experienced before.
No matter how much he drove himself into her, it felt as though this thirst would never be quenched.
He had truly become strange.
And for some reason, that frightened him.
* * *
It was a night where she fell asleep as if fainting.
Rose couldn't even remember when she had drifted off.
She only woke up after her maid, Joan, entered and woke her with an embarrassed smile. When she checked her body in surprise, she found herself dressed quite neatly.
And the man was already gone.
Soaking in warm bathwater, Rose sat blankly, trying to regain a sense of reality.
Of course, it didn't require much effort.
There were red marks all over her body, and her muscles were aching. It was a night she couldn't forget even if she wanted to.
As Rose tried to cover herself by pulling her knees close, the sound of splashing water echoed in the bathroom.
However, Ray Crawford's behavior last night had been so strange that it felt like a lie.
He was too...
Savage.
Yes, Rose thought it was complete savagery.
The gaze and touch that poked and prodded her with obsessive persistence, and herself, disheveled and pathetic beneath him.
Just thinking about it made her face flush and her lower body tingle, causing her to splash the water aimlessly.
Does he even think of her as a wife?
Inwardly, Rose had come to believe that he might be considering a divorce.
In an Orturan noble family where an heir was necessary, the reason for not sharing a bed with one's wife was obvious.
He probably wanted a clean divorce.
But only when their bodies entwined did he seem to truly want her. Even if it was merely a fleeting, shallow desire.
She felt miserable for feeling a slight sense of relief at that fact, yet she wondered what gave her the right to think such things.
After finishing her bath, which had been complicated by various thoughts, the least welcome news of all awaited her.
The head butler informed her with a troubled expression that her father had visited unannounced.
“I knew this would happen. That's why I suggested inviting him once, even if it was just a formality,” Agatha said with a sigh.
“I'll meet him alone. There's no need for you to see him.”
“He said he only wanted to see the Madam anyway. That he just wanted to check if his daughter was living well.”
If anyone heard that, they'd think he's a truly doting father.
Rose sneered inwardly as she entered the drawing room where her father was waiting.
“Why are you here?”
It was the first time she had seen her father since the wedding.
He looked like he had lost quite a bit of weight since then, making him feel like a stranger.
“My, Rose. Is that the first thing you say after seeing your father for the first time in so long?”
Elliot, who had been scouring the massive drawing room of the ducal residence, clicked his tongue and turned his gaze toward his daughter.
“To me, you were always someone I saw after a long time, so this isn't surprising.”
Rose gave a perfectly dry response and sat on the velvet sofa, smoothing out her skirt.
“And you came without an invitation.”
“I need an invitation to see my own daughter? So, you're a Duchess now, is that it?”
Elliot clicked his tongue and sat on the sofa opposite Rose.
“You must have forgotten whose thanks you owe for living so lavishly as a Duchess. Well, you certainly look healthy.”
As a Duchess, indeed.
Living lavishly.
The Orturan people would never consider Rose a proper Duchess.
Her father seemed unable to see the situation clearly. She wondered how he had succeeded in business with such judgment.
“I suppose you don't read the newspapers at all.”
At Rose's words, Elliot wore a cryptic smile.
“Rose, that's just the Orturan people being dramatic. These people are terribly prone to exaggeration.”
Crossing his legs and leaning back into the sofa, he let out a long sigh.
“The moment something happens that deviates slightly from their expectations, they act as if a natural disaster has occurred. It's a very rigid country. They say the systems here are changing, but the core will never change.”
The greasy aura that always made him look like an unpleasant businessman vanished for a moment.
“Living in this country must feel difficult. I know. No one knows it better than I do. But, Rose.”
With the mask-like smile gone, her father's face looked more unfamiliar than usual.
As did this serious attitude.
Rose instinctively realized that these words came from her father's experience of surviving while drifting from one country to another.
“But in Orturan, in the end, status is everything. Even if the world changes, this country will not. So, even if they attack you now, as long as you live as the Duchess of Crawford, they will eventually succumb to you.”
People who threw a fit just because someone drank Holy Water, and yet he spoke of them succumbing; she couldn't imagine it.
“Terrible, isn't it? But there's nothing easier or more comfortable than that. Moreover, they are so conservative that they wouldn't even dream of divorcing you.”
Her father paused for a moment and scanned Rose from head to toe.
“It would be even better if you got pregnant quickly. To think the next Duke of Crawford will be my grandson... the grandson of Elliot Davis.”
His face grew hazy, as if he were lost in a sweet dream. Like someone on drugs.
Then, in an instant, his expression hardened and he bolted upright.
“However, your husband is blocking me. Far from opening more paths, he's blocking the ones that were already there! Does it make sense that I can't even secure one government project? People less capable than me are taking them one by one. You'll have to persuade your husband.”
The only thing that didn't make sense was her father's attitude.
Rose knew well that her father was a shameless man, but she hadn't realized it was to this extent.
How could he demand this so boldly, when he had been a father who was worse than a stranger to her?
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