Under the Oak Tree

Chapter 54 – Take Me Closer (2) | 19

The sound of her moaning and his grunting filled the room. Their lips were interwoven as their bodies rolled about in the bed in an intimate dance. To her, his breath smelled like nectar—as they shared their bodies, their breathing also mingled, one breathing the other’s exhalation.

Max could feel something warm and overwhelming slowly grow from the center of her heart.

As he made eye contact with her, he demanded in a desperate whisper, “Say my name.”

“R-Riftan…” she breathed.

“Again…”

“R-Riftan…”

“Again. Say it again…”

She called his name until she lost her voice. At that moment, she felt as if she were existing to quench the heat within, to satisfy both his and her body’s demands… In that desperateness, there was no space for lectures on the manners of a virtuous woman. She was clinging onto him like an animal, digging her nails on his skin as hard as they could.

He slaughters her, and she rises back to the living. The cycle and his extreme need for her were driving Max insane.

“R-Riftan…”

Max looked up at him through hooded eyes. Mystified, she called his name, as if she were in a dream, and his name was the only one existing in the world.

*

Unfortunately, the rain dwindled away late in the afternoon and wholly halted around dawn. Max opened her bleary eyes at the mild morning sun she hadn’t seen for a long time. She wanted to lift herself up, but her limbs were too weak. As she faintly moaned at the dull pain, a hand stroked her naked back to soothe her.

“Go back to sleep.”

She gaped at his face shading her from the bright morning sun. He had woken up far before her, already wearing crisp clothing and armor. Her heart sank at the sight of this.

“Y-you’re l-leaving today…”

“I’ll be leaving later at noon. We have to get the weapons and food ready first.”

He reached for her chin and kissed her swollen lips and then slipped his hands into a white iron glove.

“I’ll come back to see you before I leave, so don’t worry and go back to sleep,” he said as he pulled another piece of armor up to his elbows and took his sword before leaving the room. Max stared at the door from where he had departed and blinked. An empty feeling swept through her heart, unconsciously.

She finally stood up and walked on her trembling legs and asked the maids for a bath. Although he had told her to get more sleep, she found herself no longer requiring rest.

“Madam, your bath is here.”

Rudis and three other servants fetched a tub filled with warm water. She weakly stepped into the water with the help of her servants. Rudis quickly washed her hair and cleaned her body with a soft sponge, and even if she were extremely embarrassed, she didn’t have any energy left to clean herself. Max kindly took Rudis’s help and sat still in the water.

“Will you excuse me for a moment, madam? I’ll go and prepare a dress with a high neck.”

A servant wiping off the moisture from her body after she stepped out of the bath asked her carefully. Max immediately flushed when she noticed the blotchy red patches on her body.

“Y-yes, please.”

When the servants left, Max cautiously stood in front of the mirror and spread open the towel around her body. Her collar bones had marks on them, and her breasts were larger than usual… also covered in pink blooms. She touched her breasts with her shaky hands, finding Riftan’s touch was clearly different from hers.

His touch felt as if he were a sculptor’s hand, and she was the clay being molded.

She wondered if the woman with littered with love marks on her skin and bright eyes in the mirror was the same person to the woman she was used to seeing; a pale and depressed girl with droopy shoulders and a hunched back. Max slowly slid her hands down her slender waist, her flat stomach, and lastly, between her thighs. Her skin felt warm to the touch, smooth and soft.

It didn’t feel as if it were her own.

“Madam, your dress is here.”

Max took her hand off her body with surprise. Although they were still behind the door, waiting for their permission to enter, she flushed as if she was caught red-handed. She stuttered in embarrassment.

“C-c-come in.”

The servants entered the room and proficiently dressed her. She wore a fancy dress with waves of green and gold with a golden belt looped around her waist. Then, she hurried out the door with her hair roughly tied with a ribbon, still wet.

Through the open windows, the fresh sunshine gently kissed her face. She breathed in the scent of the air still moist from the rain and hurried down the stairs. He promised to come to find her before he left, but she was still anxious he had forgotten and had gone already.

“Good morning, madam.”

She walked into a large hall where the servants were sweeping the floors with the windows open wide to let the fresh air in. Supervising them with a sharp eye, Rodrigo respectfully lowered his head when he spotted Max.

“Breakfast is ready. Would you like to have it in the dining hall?”

“N-no, b-before that, I-I need to see R-Riftan, I mean L-lord Calypse…”

“Lord Calypse is in the field with the knights, ma’am.”

She was about to leave through the door when she paused. What was she going to do? She wondered if she would only disturb him. As she was hesitating in front of the door, Rodrigo carefully opened his lips.