Chapter 45
***
A strong ray of sunlight slipped under her eyelashes.
Louise grunted and turned, her whole body screaming in pain from the slightest movement.
But the sting of the sun in her eyes was unnerving. She'd been like that yesterday, too, and Pauline would worry if she overslept.
She couldn't help it, so she lifted her heavy eyelids.
The man's face loomed in front of her like an afterimage, no wonder she had been up all night for two days straight.
Louise blinked, trying to regain her vision or wake up, but the man's sleeping face was still there.
His dark lashes were tightly closed, as were the red lips, and the sunlight broke over the smooth, blemish-free skin.
It must be a dream. Louise concluded easily.
The man in her dream seemed quite nice.
No sharp words, no judgmental glances, no pushy hands.
There was even an unfamiliar humanity in his disheveled hair, and Louise let out a weak sigh. In real life, he was a cold-blooded man who could be pierced with a needle and not draw a drop of blood.
She glanced down to see that his thick shoulders rose like a mountain of strength, and the muscles of his chest bulged beneath.
Swallowing hard, she lowered her gaze and spoke.
"Why am I staring now after the heavy night?”
Louise raised her gaze again.
The pale golden lenses fluttered and folded in the morning light. It was definitely a dream.
He didn't answer, and she kept looking. She gazed past his ribbed abdomen, and further down.................. as if she hadn't seen it.
A chuckle drifted past her ears.
"Louise."
The voice was so vivid that she shook her head, then felt a hand grab her thigh.
Ah, Louise blinked in surprise.
"I told you, I'm overly healthy. If you look at me with those lickable eyes in the morning, I'll be all over you in no time."
"What?"
Louise asked, dumbfounded, as Caius sat up. She should be dreaming, please, but the heat of his approach on the bed in the morning light felt so real.
A tickling sensation of heat penetrated.
"I think I can do what I couldn't at night," the man concluded playfully.
Are you sure this isn't a dream?
As Louise let out an inward moan, there was a knock on the door.
Tab.
The man was still holding her by the leg. Louise was so startled that she flopped around like a fish that had just been caught.
"Madame, are you still not feeling well, may I come in?"
"Pau, Pauline, wait..................."
Caius raised his voice, looking down at Louise, who somehow managed to shake him off and struggle to her feet.
"Come back in an hour."
Needless to say, it was a long time before she answered.
"..................Yes, master. I'll be back in an hour."
Louise covered her flushed face with her hands, but Caius only leaned back and watched her leisurely.
Louise wobbled to her feet.
"I, Your Highness. It's morning, and all the hired hands are awake."
"They'd be fine if you'd be quiet, is that difficult?"
He clamped his palm hard over her lips, which were about to utter a sound. She jerked her head up, grimacing.
"Get your hands off me."
He simply removed his hand and pressed his lips to hers. Lust, still raw from the long night, hot in his mouth.
The real man was not sweet.
His touch was fierce, his breath was scalding hot, and his lower body was an animal. A beast, no doubt.
But Louise found herself licking her lips and moving her hips furiously against him, and she felt pathetic and ashamed of herself.
****
Pauline knocked on the door again after more than an hour had passed.
Tab.
Louise had finished her morning grooming alone to hide her even more disheveled appearance.
Oblivious to her miserable mood, Pauline tried to hide the smile that leaked from her lips.
"You're up late.................. aren't you, madame?"
Louise couldn't help but blush.
She hadn't had a night of lovemaking, as Pauline had misunderstood, but it was all the more embarrassing because it wasn't.
The spark that had passed between her and Caius that night had been nothing more than raw lust, not based in the slightest bit of affection.
Pauline coughed.
"I thought the master didn't drink................ last night."
"Alcohol, not much of anything."
Louise unintentionally gave a barbed answer. Pauline couldn't help but laugh.
"In fact, Chetkin has been calling for the master since dawn, and he's been looking for him."
Chetkin would be the servant in charge of Caius.
Louise swallowed a sigh. The last thing she wanted more than anything was to be known as the golden couple of the manor.
Everything in the world was going Caius’s way. If he succeeded half as easily, he wouldn't need her anymore.
"If I leave my wife and have another woman out there, it will soon be known, and I don't want that."
This was a man who cared so much about what others thought of him that he hated her so much that he couldn’t stand it, and he would endure the misery of sharing their body heat and breath for it.
Even a fool could see that her existence was only half-heartedly valued by such a man, who was willing to make any sacrifice to regain the throne.
"If you don't like me, you can divorce me after my father's death, but how much longer will an old man live?"
He had said that from the very beginning.
Pauline must have misunderstood Louise's silence.
"Alas, my lady, you are very tired again today. We have an appointment in the afternoon, but would you like to rest a little longer until then?"
Louise nodded her head in agreement.
It was hard to look at the amused faces of her employees. It was hard to feel mocked, even by people who knew nothing about her.
After Pauline had tucked her in and left, Louise flopped down on her bed.
She buried her face in her pillow and breathed deeply.
There was no escaping the scent of the man who had been in her bed.
****
Parma, Imperial Palace.
Emperor Karl had been briefed for the second time about the rioters in Zagreb.
The mob demanded two things.
One, the dissolution of Dietred, and the other, proof of the prince Leopold’s lineage.
Even though he couldn't see the riot outside his window, the golden eyes that scanned it were anxious.
It had been more than twenty years since he had usurped the throne from his brother. He had fought hard to build a better empire, but all he had left was a national debt, poverty, and mobs.
The Emperor, not yet fifty, looked much older than his years, as if his many worries had made him look like an old man who had already accepted the day he would die.
The priest's small voice finally ended the emperor's long wait.
"..................I apologize, Your Majesty, the mark has not manifested."
-Clang!
The wine glass in the emperor's hand shattered against the marble floor.
"He’s been past the age of maturity for so long, I thought it would respond this time!"
The fiery emperor turned first to the innocent priest.
"Well, it is so exceptional that even I am not sure..................."
"Get lost!"
The priest hastily retreated backward as if grateful for the dismissal.
Prince Leopold, who had been straightening his robes beside him, took notice and quickly jumped to his feet.
But the old emperor was more agile than he looked.
"You useless bastard!"
The Emperor's calloused hand snatched at the prince's immaculate wrist. He felt nauseous at the sight of his son's flesh, gleaming white as his sleeve came undone.
Heidenberg imperials were required to prove their bloodline at the age of maturity.
The imperial priest would pour holy water over their wrists, and after a moment, a bluish half-moon-shaped spot would appear.
But for some reason, the spot on Leopold’s wrist, which had been present on the emperor, his brother, his father, and his grandfather, did not appear on his son. He had tried many times in vain.
It was a damned coincidence that Hyreth's industry was faltering at a time when Galicia's capital was being overrun by the tide.
The people wanted an authentic Heidenberg now.
"So, whose filthy blood did you receive?"
The Emperor growled, and Leopold's cloudy golden eyes flickered with unease.
***
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