I had nothing to throw back at him, so I just glared at Varen. With his jaw hidden behind my hand, he was smiling with his eyes crinkled.
Maybe it was the moonlight, but his long golden hair shone unusually bright. His skin looked slick with moisture, and his gaze was brimming with life.
Seeing him look like he was in the best condition I’d ever witnessed made a hollow laugh slip out of me.
In the end, I was the one who raised the white flag again and pulled my hand away.
“Honestly, I don’t know why you’re irritated. You liked it when I found your erogenous zone.”
“...Don’t use that word. It doesn’t suit you.”
“Erogenous zone?”
“Yeah. When you don’t even know what it means.”
Varen tilted his head, then gently closed his fingers around my wet nipple.
Just how much had he messed with me? The swelling throbbed the moment his hand touched it.
“Ah—!”
“I do know. It means the part you get excited from when it’s touched.”
At that perfectly accurate definition, heat climbed all the way up the back of my neck.
It was a body part that did nothing for men, and yet I couldn’t believe my whole body was reacting just because he’d pinched a spot no bigger than a pinky nail.
And the strangest part was that the person calmly rolling his fingers like it was nothing was Varen.
I yanked his hand away roughly, scowling hard.
“Stop touching me. How much have you even been doing that?”
“Not sure. I didn’t count.”
“I wasn’t asking for a number.”
“And it’s vague what you’d even measure it against. Besides, you couldn’t count how many times you—”
“...Hey!”
The way he scraped at a man’s pride made me clutch my hair with both hands.
But Varen just smiled again, like nothing could touch him.
Worse, the hand I’d barely managed to pry off him was already moving again—as if he’d been kneading my hips this whole time. It was so natural I only noticed now.
“Ceryl, are you still not satisfied? You’re not getting anything out anymore.”
Varen smiled like he was pleased and leaned in to kiss me.
A light kiss like that would’ve made me jump out of my skin before. But after being pressed together so thoroughly, a little peck didn’t even register.
It was ridiculous how quickly I’d gotten used to skin contact. The unfamiliar feeling left my mind unsettled.
Since when had he gotten so shameless? Looking at his grin made a petty irritation flare up for no reason.
“You’ve got the nerve to ask if I’m ‘not satisfied’? After doing this all day, have you got any conscience at all?”
“It’s been five days.”
“What has.”
“Five days since we started sleeping together.”
I blinked dumbly at words I couldn’t process.
Varen chuckled and stroked my cheek.
“Why are you making that face? You kept falling asleep.”
“Seriously? For five whole days... we did nothing but that?”
Oh, damn it. I’d been so shocked I’d used a word I shouldn’t have said out loud to Varen. I clamped a hand over my mouth.
Then I went quiet, drowning in the shock. I knew time had passed, but five days?
Had anything happened outside while we were holed up in here? I’d come without telling Kallen—was she doing okay on her own?
Five days was a shock, but what was even more startling was my body. I wasn’t hungry, and I wasn’t exhausted.
It was probably because of the therapeutic dragon saliva he’d kept feeding me without pause.
When I stayed silent with my mouth covered, lost in thought, Varen studied my expression with worry.
He lifted a hand to push my wet hair back, then scooped warm water to wet my shoulders.
It wasn’t even particularly cold, and I was pressed up against a dragon who was basically a living heater—yet he was still worrying I might be chilled.
“Ceryl... do you regret it?”
His anxious eyes searched my face. His voice wasn’t anything like when he teased me.
He must have misunderstood my stiff reaction.
I turned the question over in my head. It didn’t take long to answer.
I shrugged lightly and asked him back instead.
“Are you okay? No fever now?”
Without waiting, I pressed my hand to his forehead. He was soaking in warm water, but I only felt the faintest warmth.
At my touch, Varen’s eyes widened a little. He looked at me quietly, then nodded.
Even with that, my nerves didn’t settle easily.
“Are you really sure? You’re not going to spike a fever again and collapse, are you?”
“No. The heat has all gone down.”
“Then is your rut over?”
“Yes. It’s over.”
“Haa... then thank god.”
Only after hearing him say it with certainty did I pull my hand off his forehead.
Then I rubbed at my temple with my fingertips. My stamina was fine, but after being dragged through repeated blackouts, I was mentally worn down.
The shock of spending five days glued together gnawed at me, but I forced myself to keep a grip on my rational side.
If I thought about it logically, it wasn’t bad.
“Regret, my ass. Three years of suffering ended in five days—so that’s that.”
If I’d pretended not to know and walked away, Varen would’ve endured three years of fever, stabbing his thigh just to hold on.
I stopped that misery in five days by paying with my whole body. That was enough.
At my words, his blue eyes sparkled. Brighter than the ripples of moonlight.
Varen smiled like he couldn’t help it and leaned his forehead against mine.
“Ceryl, will you spend the next rut with me too?”
Next. Just hearing it made darkness close in front of my eyes, and I squeezed them shut.
I should have cut him off cleanly and said I’d never do it again, but I knew myself too well.
If the same situation happened again, I’d make the same decision—again and again.
The real question was whether my body could endure it.
“I haven’t thought about it. Does it come often?”
“Yeah. Every other day.”
“What are you talking about? How does a rut come every other day?”
“...Once a week.”
“I’m asking Ordin.”
“.......”
“Why lie when you’ll be caught immediately?”
Varen’s face turned sulky in an instant. He pressed his stubborn mouth into a hard line.
At his ridiculous reaction, I finally burst out laughing.
“A weak human put up with that much for you. Aren’t you being way too greedy?”
“That’s why I said I’ll do it only once a week.”
“You said it was five days straight. Dragon punk, my whole body hurts right now.”
“That can’t be true. You weren’t hurting.”
Honestly, nothing hurt. We were both beginners, so I expected blood, but there wasn’t a single place that was actually injured.
When I lay down on Varen’s bed the first time, I was nothing but terrified. But as time passed... a different sensation took over.
“Well... it wasn’t only pain.”
I muttered it in a voice that practically crawled along the floor, and Varen’s gaze sank low.
The fingers that had been kneading my hips tried to slide between the curve without warning.
Before he could do anything, I caught on and snapped my eyes wide, sharp and firm.
“Tsk. No. Absolutely not.”
“Why not.”
“Because I said no.”
“Just one more time. You kept falling asleep, so we couldn’t even talk.”
“Hey, in that situation, how would anyone talk? Think about it from my side.”
Varen’s expression stiffened as he rolled his eyes around.
“Think about it from my side” was about the gap between a human and a dragon, and—
“...Ceryl, if you wanted to be the one to—”
A scene flashed through my mind like lightning. I shook my head hard and threw it away.
Sure, later on I’d... gotten used to things. But I couldn’t inflict that kind of pain on Varen—pain that would feel like being split in half.
Telling him not to say pointless things, I grabbed both his cheeks like I was pinching them.
I expected him to complain that it hurt, but Varen just rested his face obediently in my hands. His jawline was so sharp I hadn’t noticed before, but the cheeks I could actually grab were unexpectedly soft.
When I kneaded him like slime, Varen’s lips puffed out in a sulk.
“You said your rut was over. And your head is still full of nothing but that, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. All I can think about is having you in bed.”
“...Enough.”
Of course he learns words like that fast.
But how could I blame him for picking things up quickly? It was my fault for drinking cold water in front of a kid like him.
I let the crude word go in one ear and out the other, then tapped his protruding lips lightly.
“Stop acting cute. It won’t work on me.”
“I’m not acting cute. Dravergh don’t do that.”
“Then what’s with your mouth.”
“...I want to kiss you.”
Varen naturally tilted his head and came closer.
His gaze up close, the brush of his nose every time he spoke, the hot skin holding me—none of it felt awkward.
Maybe that was why. There wasn’t any real reason, any excuse.
But even the lips that blended into the end of our whispered talk felt natural.
***
In the dark corridor, Lightstone embedded here and there lit ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the floor beneath our feet.
Walking together through a place like an anthill, Varen pressed his body against mine.
“Ceryl, where do you think you’re going.”
I waved him off, lightly ignoring the complaint that dripped with sulking.
“I need to check on the kids. I’m worried about Kallen, and I want to make sure Rami and Miya are okay too.”
“They’ll be fine without you.”
“Why do you keep saying that? Aren’t you worried about them?”
“I want to be alone with you.”
I stopped short and looked at Varen. The disappointment in his eyes stole my words.
I could barely handle things as they were. The road ahead was pitch-black.
He’d always had a bit of separation anxiety, but after five days of being stuck together—
I’d taken everything from this naïve kid. First love, first kiss, first night—every last one.
...Do I have to take responsibility?
At the sight of me drowning in turmoil, Varen bit down hard on his lip, then spoke in a low, gloomy voice.
“Ceryl, don’t tell me... you’re still bothered by the fact I have a fiancée.”
I’d completely forgotten until he said it. My face gave me away before I could manage it.
A headache hit me out of nowhere. I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a pained sound.
At my reaction, Varen grew restless, bending down to meet my eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. The only one I love is you. And you love me too.”
Love. It had become a strange, awkward word to me now.
I scratched at my cheek in discomfort—and then a harsh sound scratched at my ears in the dark corridor.
“...Huh?”
I turned my gaze straight ahead.
In the darkness, the sound of wind was drawing closer.
