Chapter 50
***
".................. I can get down.”
Louise replied a beat too late, then swung her right leg to the left.
She had learned from Michael how to get off a horse without a stepping stone, but the emotion she'd just felt was so foreign to her that her foot shook.
Caius pulled Louise, who was falling off-center, into his arms.
"Louise, what do you think you're doing, falling and getting hurt?”
".............I'm sorry."
Louise apologized stammeringly, as if she had done something unspeakable. It was hard to look him in the face. Caius looked stunned.
"You've got to stop being so timid. You're a Countess now, and you need to realize that if you get hurt, you're making everyone else's job twice as hard."
The sobering advice fortunately sobered Louise.
"I'm sorry, my leg just felt weak."
Caius sighed and pulled both horses to their feet, then mounted himself. Then he held out a hand to Louise.
"Hold on tight, I'm pulling you up."
Contrary to her assumption that he was going to put her on the back, Caius sat Louise down in front of him and hugged her, then took Gloria's reins and set off slowly.
The man on her back was hot, and his arms around her were so firm that she didn't even feel the cold wind that had been slapping her face the entire ride.
"Aren't you frustrated that I'm blocking your view?"
Instead of telling him that she was uncomfortable, Louise made up some other excuse, and a ragged laugh escaped his lips.
"What did you say again..................... how you can block my view, Louise."
She spun around, only to find the man's chin touching her forehead.
A gust of wind ruffled his hair. The familiar scent of the man's body wafted past her nose.
It was then that Louise realized what Caius and Michael had been talking about: the upright posture with a straight back. Still, she crouched down and leaned a little deeper into his embrace, not wanting to obstruct his view, and Caius spoke menacingly.
"If you don't want us to turn around and go straight to bed in broad daylight, you'd better stop moving."
Behind her back, the man's heart pulsed healthily.
Louise sighed with a flushed face. She fervently hoped her heart didn't beat any faster than that.
***
"I thought you didn't want to wear fur indoors."
A week later, Caius scolded Louise when he saw her wearing fur over her chemise.
Despite the bluntness of his tone, the soft-spoken man's light golden eyes were amused.
He didn't seem like the kind of man who would smile at the mere sight of fur, but maybe things were going well outside.
Louise was inwardly relieved; she had a favor to ask of him, and she had dressed with the utmost care.
"My new chemise is too thin and I'm cold. The tailor says it's the fashion these days."
"Here, take them off."
Before Louise could comply, the man snapped the lid on a nearby oil lamp and turned it off.
The room grew even darker.
Only then, as she removed the fur, did a faint smile tug at the corners of the man's mouth.
"Shall I give the reward to the tailor, or to you?"
"Give it to ..................."
Louise said, lowering her eyes. Caius grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer.
His lips went straight to the cute ruffled bustline. The act of tracing the rounded curve with his lips felt so natural now.
Hot lips soon trailed up the nape of her neck, grazing the flesh. Moist tracks were drawn across her skin, which was still barely flawless thanks to his kisses.
To her sensitive ears, she thought she heard a rustling sound.
"What do you want?"
His voice was a whisper, and his hot tongue lazily lapped at the nape of her neck.
Louise jerked her chin up at the tickling sensation, but kept her voice as nonchalant as possible.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to go with Miriam to Melk, to the parish hall."
Caius straightened up calmly and clicked his tongue.
"That far, and that's all you learned from your last outing with Miriam?"
Louise looked up into his cold eyes and added nervously.
"I'll take Pauline with me, and we can have a guard."
"Don't do that, take Michael with you."
"Michael's busy."
Louise quickly said no.
She still practiced horseback riding with Michael, just less frequently. But the more Louise learned about Michael, the more uncomfortable she felt with him.
He was very perceptive, and she could not learn a single thing without him reporting it to her husband, and going out with him would defeat the purpose of this trip to Melk.
Louise deliberately hunched her shoulders, letting her chemise slip to one side. Her white, slender shoulders gleamed in the dim light.
It was a trick Madame Dichen had taught her, and she hoped it would work. Thank goodness the room was dark enough to hide her flushed face.
Caius smirked at Louise's seemingly transparent intentions.
"Is ..................Michael still that uncomfortable?"
"Yeah. Miriam is scared of him too, he always makes such a scary face."
Louise let her other shoulder drop in defiance.
The chemise now hung close to the most curvaceous part of her body. At the touch of a finger, it would slide off, revealing her luscious body.
Caius’s burning gaze clung to the exposed white flesh.
Caius moistened his dry lips and muttered.
"I wish there were more things you could ask me to do."
His head lowered slowly in a leisurely appraisal. Despite his slow movements, the thirst in his golden eyes was vivid.
As soon as their lips overlapped, a curling tongue invaded her mouth, deep enough to touch. Their lips met and crushed together passionately.
They spontaneously collapsed onto the bed and tangled. No longer accompanied by deathly pain, their lovemaking was hot and long.
****
His face, shadowed by his hair, was as handsome as ever.
Her heart pounded every time she met his sweet gold eyes, and her pulse raced through her body as they kissed.
"Ah................"
Louise assumed it was all just a natural reaction to the physical act, something she hadn't felt before, buried beneath the pain of the unfamiliar act.
"So when do you want to go to Melk?"
Caius pulled away, burying himself deep inside Louise.
Aside from a small bead of sweat on his forehead, he looked remarkably normal. Only Louise, pinned to him, was panting with a crimson face.
"Huh, soon.................., as soon as possible."
"Tomorrow?"
The man asked and kissed her at the same time.
His tongue, probing every nook and cranny, seemed to have no intention of listening to her answer.
It scraped the roof of her mouth, delving deep, pulling the hidden flesh of her tiny mouth toward his and sucking it until it tingled. Their hot breaths filled the closed distance.
Louise blushed, and after a long moment, she nodded.
"Tomorrow, too, ah..................good."
"Yes? Here?"
The man, who should have gotten the message clearly, asked shamelessly, feigning ignorance.
"Uh, that's..................."
His movements intensified.
Louise couldn't think as he picked up speed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and swayed wildly.
"Mmm, ah, Your Highness.................."
"Say yes. I’ve done you a favor. I deserve a little pleasure, too."
"Please, because I have to wear, um, thin, useless clothes because of you....................."
"Didn’t it make you feel pretty?"
This was a man who said she was neither a dog nor a cat, but he was trying to be nice to her, and Louise couldn't think of a way to refute his mean-spiritedness.
Sparks seemed to fly wherever they touched. She struggled to keep herself from squirming, but it was impossible.
"Oh, ah.................."
Caius made eye contact with Louise, who was shaking beneath him, and rubbed her forehead affectionately.
"Tell me, Louise. Come on."
Her eyes glazed over with fever.
It was not fair.
One moment she's being coddled like a puppy, and the next she's a traitorous Ermoli.
Her stupid body was too busy reacting to him, her stomach tightening and her chest heaving.
Caius's tongue flicked over her breathy lips.
"You like it?"
***
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Lili (Tuesday, 17 September 2024 08:26)
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