“I'm sorry for frightening you.”
Wrapping his arms around her faintly trembling shoulders, he gently stroked her stiff back. She finally released the breath she'd been holding and buried her face against his chest.
Through the thin fabric of her nightgown, he could clearly feel his heartbeat—faster and more erratic than usual.
"You really... looked like a dead man. You didn't move at all."
"It only appeared that way from the outside."
Patting her lightly, Varkas turned his gaze toward the window.
The sun had already climbed high into the sky. Perhaps the exhaustion from the long campaign had finally caught up with him; ever since returning to Laedgo Castle, he had been sleeping in later than usual.
Drawing a deep breath, he tried to dispel the lingering sensation of cold, sticky blood that still seemed to cling to his body.
"When I lived at the monastery, I underwent training to control my body's responses to their absolute limits. Because of that habit, I occasionally fall into a sleep so deep it's almost like suspended animation."
"So... you were just sleeping?"
She looked at him skeptically.
Cupping her pale cheek in one hand, Varkas brushed away the moisture gathered at the corner of her eye with his thumb before answering calmly.
"Yes. I simply slept deeply for the first time in a long while."
"You're really all right? There's nothing wrong with you...?"
"Nothing at all."
At his firm reply, the rigid tension in her shoulders eased ever so slightly.
She let out a long sigh and muttered,
"You nearly made my heart stop. You weren't moving at all, so I touched you, and your body was ice cold... I couldn't even hear you breathing..."
He quietly gazed down at his grumbling wife.
Her damp eyelashes drooped low, shimmering gold in the light. Beneath them, her blue eyes stood out all the more vividly against the reddish skin around them.
Lowering his head, he leaned closer to look into those eyes.
Anyone would panic if the man sleeping beside them suddenly stopped breathing.
Why, then, did such a perfectly ordinary reaction leave his chest strangely warm?
Pressing a kiss to the tip of her slightly flushed nose, he whispered,
"Were you afraid I wouldn't wake up?"
"...Of course I was. Why even ask something so obvious?"
Looking away awkwardly, Talia muttered in a sulky voice.
Had this been before, she would have vehemently denied it.
Yet now she admitted it honestly.
A dull ache tightened deep within his chest.
At the same time, a trace of doubt crept into his mind.
What could have happened over the past six months to change her this much?
Had she gone through something so difficult that she'd decided to rely on him again?
As he studied her with suspicious eyes, the tense woman suddenly pressed herself tightly against his bare upper body.
Varkas stiffened.
Even through the thin nightgown, he could clearly feel the soft fullness of her breasts. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she tilted her chin up at him provocatively.
"...If you're going to kiss me, hurry up."
Feeling his thoughts evaporate in an instant, his gaze fell to her lips.
The relentless kisses from the previous night had left them fuller than usual.
The crimson flesh, like flower petals crushed beneath careless hands, filled his vision. The icy chill coursing through his body vanished instantly, replaced by a scorching heat that spread until sweat beaded across his skin.
Holding her gently by the chin, he lowered his head.
Their warm, damp breaths mingled sweetly together.
He pressed his lips lightly against hers, rubbing them softly back and forth before sliding his tongue into the narrow, moist warmth of her mouth.
She naturally climbed onto his lap and wrapped her arms tightly around his back.
The swollen hardness between his legs was pressed firmly against her soft thighs, pulling painfully at his lower abdomen.
Not once did the thought of pushing her away cross his mind.
Varkas wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her even closer.
How long they remained like that, he couldn't tell.
When his arousal reached its limit, he forced himself to pull away and carefully put some distance between them. Just as he moved to climb out of bed, she caught hold of his arm.
"Why... aren't you going all the way?"