Ch#183
183화
In the meantime, she was sinking back into the depths of sleep.
Feeling a sense of urgency, he laid her down on the bed and brushed the disheveled hair away from her forehead. Her thin eyelids fluttered open, revealing eyes that struggled to find their focus.
“……Did we come to your bedroom?”
Looking around the room where the faint lamplight flickered with a bewildered expression, she slowly pushed herself up.
He pressed her back down onto the cool sheets. Then, following the impulse he had suppressed ever since he found her at the spring, he thrust his tongue into her hot, moist mouth.
Startled by the rough and desperate invasion, she shrank back for a moment before wrapping her arms around his back. Feeling a shiver run down his spine at her soft touch, he greedily swept over the tender flesh inside.
The sweet moan that escaped her throat dampened the inside of his mouth. He gripped her small jaw and pushed his tongue even deeper.
As he scraped against the sensitive roof of her mouth, her head tilted back. He cupped her slender, fragile neck with one hand and felt the heavy thrumming of her pulse with his thumb.
The irregular tremors transmitted through his palm heated his body even further.
“Barkas……. I can’t breathe.”
Reaching her limit, Talia struck his shoulder with her fist.
Barely lifting his head, Barkas glanced at her messily swollen lips before moving his gaze to her eyes, where the light danced. Even in the darkness, her vivid blue eyes shimmered with moisture.
For a moment, it felt as though a cold blade had pierced through his chest. In the past, he would have considered this a reaction born of hostility. But now, he had some inkling of the true nature of the intense sensations this woman evoked in him.
He leaned his upper body over hers and pressed his wet lips against her flushed cheek.
As he toyed with her soft cheek and lightly bit her small earlobe, her slender shoulders trembled.
“Don’t…… do that. It feels strange.”
“How is it strange?”
As he stroked her narrow spine soothingly and repeatedly kissed her thin eyelids, she looked flustered before suddenly pulling him toward her by the neck. She lifted her head and bit his earlobe. In an instant, a jolt like a lightning strike bored through the back of his head.
He clenched his teeth and lowered his head, trying his best not to let out an unsightly groan.
As if playing a wicked prank, she nibbled on his ear and blew hot breath into his ear canal.
“It feels really strange, doesn’t it?”
Then, she let out a small giggle.
Barkas, holding his breath with his entire body taut with tension, lifted his head and glared at her. Then, he snatched her hair, pulling her close, and swallowed the lips that were smirking mischievously. Soon, the wet sound of membranes rubbing together echoed through the room.
Like a man suffering from a terrible thirst, he persistently delved into every corner of her mouth. He entwined his tongue with her soft one, sucking greedily, and when he licked the damp lining of her inner cheek, she let out a pained moan and ruffled his hair wildly.
Enjoying her frantic touch, he pulled at his shirt, which felt stifling against his body, as if to tear it off. The cool night air touched his heated skin, but the burning fever showed no sign of subsiding.
He threw his shirt to the floor beside the bed and climbed over her, embracing her soft, lithe body. Kissing her delicate jaw, he began to trace the vertebrae of her spine one by one through her thin nightgown.
He wanted to strip her clothes off as well, but he knew that if he went that far, he wouldn’t be able to hold back.
His wet lips traced down the sensitive part of her neck before he lightly bit her prominent collarbone. Shivering, Talia pulled his head into the valley between her breasts.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He had never experienced such exquisite torture in his life.
“Talia.”
Inhaling the sweet scent emanating from her skin, he wrapped his arms around her slender waist.
By now, his skin was drenched in sweat. His arousal, pushed to the limit, felt as if it might explode violently at any moment. What little reason he had left warned him that he should withdraw, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away from her.
“Kiss me more.”
Just as he was struggling to calm his excitement, she made her demand in a wet voice.
After a brief moment of conflict, he ultimately surrendered to her command. He tilted his head and repeatedly pushed his tongue deep into her mouth and pulled back, creating a sticky, frictional sound as if they were already coupling.
He explored every corner of her moist membranes, trying his best not to rub his feverish body against hers.
How long had it been? Having the sensitive parts of her mouth persistently stimulated, Talia suddenly stiffened and then let her limbs go limp.
He looked down at her, breathing heavily. Her unfocused eyes drifted blankly into space.
He let his gaze slide from her dazed face to her flushed neck, her sweat-dampened collarbone, and her chest that rose and fell rapidly.
The sensation of being pierced by a blade grew even clearer. Struggling to shake off that aching feeling, he used a trembling hand to brush away the hair clinging to her neck.
Talia, catching her ragged breath, looked at him with a questioning gaze.
“Why……?”
It was a question asking why he wasn’t going all the way.
He avoided giving a direct answer and pulled the blanket up over her body.
“You look very sleepy. Please go to sleep now.”
“……It’s because of the medicine. I’ll be fine in a little while.”
She then wrapped her arms around his back and traced the prominent muscles with her fingertips.
He carefully pulled her hand away and brought it to his lips. When he kissed each of her pink-tinged knuckles, her dissatisfied expression turned into a shy downward glance. He showered her flushed cheeks with kisses as well and held her pliant, relaxed body against his chest.
He slid one arm under her head and gently stroked her messy hair; before long, the sound of steady breathing could be heard.
Barkas looked down at her peaceful face reflected in the candlelight for a long time. It still felt as if somewhere deep inside him had been cruelly gouged out, but strangely, his heart felt full. It felt as if he had drunk strong liquor to his limit.
He pulled her a little closer. Her soft thighs, wrapped in the thin fabric of her skirt, slid between his legs. Every part of him in contact with her felt as if it were on fire, but he had no desire to pull away.
He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled her sweet scent to his heart’s content.
Would it feel like this to immerse oneself in a swamp filled with belladonna juice?
The heat tightening around his lower body remained, but the warmth filling his arms gradually made his mind feel drowsy. With his arms wrapped tightly around her, he slowly sank into the mire of sleep.
* * *
He was walking across a desolate wasteland.
Before long, an altar made of human skulls appeared before him.
Looking up, he saw countless decapitated corpses hanging precariously. Blood pouring from the severed necks soaked the earth, flowing like a river.
“This is the sin that flows in your blood.”
Turning his head at the hand grabbing his shoulder, he saw his father’s face, frozen and pale like wax.
The man repeatedly spoke, his empty eye sockets glowing blood-red.
“Our people must atone. We must pay the price for the slaughter committed by our ancestors by remaining loyal to the Empire.”
He roughly shook off the hand.
Then, the man’s hand turned into iron chains and began to coil around his body. He tried to break them, but the chains, cold as ice and heavy, tightened their grip even more meticulously.
“Why are you resisting?”
At that moment, a soft voice rang out.
Lifting his head, his eyes widened as he discovered Bernadette smiling kindly at him.
The hand that had pulled him from the grave reached out to cup his frozen cheek.
“Wasn’t life a useless thing to you? If it’s a life lived simply because you are alive…… then it doesn’t matter if you devote your life to keeping your promise to me.”
Whispering those words, the woman affectionately embraced his neck. Her snow-white arms also gradually hardened, becoming ice-cold chains that weighed heavily on his shoulders.
He soon gave up resisting.
Immediately after, the river of blood swept over him. The fishy, sticky liquid surged endlessly into his lungs and airways. He sank into the black river of blood.
Then, someone shook his shoulder violently.
Barkas snapped his eyes open, frowning at the light flooding into the back of his retinas.
A moment later, as his vision cleared, a pale face came into view.
For a moment, he sat there dazed, unable to grasp the situation, until he noticed her eyes were wet and he bolted upright.
“What is the matter? Are you feeling un——.”
“You weren’t breathing.”
She muttered in a terrified voice. After freezing for a moment, he eventually let out a low sigh.
