I shoved Varen with all the strength I had, but he did not retreat even an inch, his face stiff and unyielding. He did not seem to care in the slightest that Morpha had entered the room.
If anything, Morpha made it worse.
“Goodness. You were in the middle of intercourse. Aren’t you tired at all?”
As if the situation on the bed meant nothing to them, Morpha strode across the room without hesitation.
They approached the wide-open balcony and shut the window. They rattled the warped frame several times, trying to fit it properly, but soon gave up, unable to close the narrow gap completely.
“This place is not soundproof. I will be keeping my hearing open in preparation for an attack.”
“......”
“My room is downstairs, for your reference.”
Just like when they had appeared, Morpha vanished like the wind. A sharp click followed as the bedroom door locked.
Silence settled over the room where a brief storm had just passed. I could practically hear my own heart pounding in shock.
After a moment, Varen slowly turned the head he had been holding rigid and glared at the closed door. The sight made a hollow laugh escape me.
I pushed against Varen’s shoulder and leaned back. I had already been feeling strange from the warm, heavy presence tapping insistently between my legs.
“Move, Varen. They said it carries.”
“If we’re quiet...”
“As if we’d be quiet. And how sharp do you think a dragon’s hearing is?”
“I’ll go kill Morpha. Wait here.”
“You’re joking, right?”
I tried to wriggle my hips backward while trading light words with him, but the large cushion braced against my back left me nowhere to retreat.
Varen turned his head back from the door and looked straight at me.
“Let’s continue. It felt good.”
“I’m fine already. That’s enough— mmph....”
I thought Morpha’s intrusion had killed the mood, but Varen’s body was still hot. What pressed against me was no longer just warm—it was damp.
The kiss was deeper than the pecking, birdlike kisses from before. Maybe because I had laid my honest feelings bare and felt lighter for it, the sensation was unusually pleasant.
Varen opened his jaw wide and swallowed my lips whole. Then he licked carefully, slowly pushing his tongue inside.
“Mmh... mm....”
A pleasant moan slipped from my throat. I wrapped both arms around his neck.
Each time I did, I could feel Varen’s breath growing hotter through the gaps between our lips. Still, as if restraining himself, he did not slip his hands under my clothes.
When the deep kiss finally ended, Varen pulled back. His gaze—heated even more than his breath—raked over my face.
“Haa... ha....”
I no longer tried to hide how I felt. I panted openly as I looked back at him.
We kissed the same way every time, yet Varen’s breathing remained steady. Only his broad chest rose and fell a few times.
He rested his forehead against my shoulder and let out a long, deep sigh.
“Ceryl... you should be grateful I spent my entire life in an underground prison.”
“How is that something to be grateful for? Why would you say that?”
The words instantly froze the sweetness in the air, and I frowned. I tried to meet his face, but Varen kept his head lowered as he muttered on.
“I’m a very patient dragon. I can endure it. I’ll wait until you get used to it.”
“......”
“But I can’t wait forever. So before you become my partner, adapt.”
Was that consideration—or a declaration of war?
I glanced around the shabby bedroom with an awkward expression. I wished there were something—anything—to distract me, but unfortunately the room held nothing but the bed.
And once the dam had burst, it could not be closed again. Maybe it was because the lingering warmth from carrying Varen around all day still clung to me, indulging freely in how cute he was.
Even though his body was now far too large to hold easily, I wrapped both arms tightly around his shoulders.
“Damn it, you’re cute. You’re huge, but everything you do is adorable.”
I ruffled his hair roughly. I expected him to sulk and complain about being treated like a child, but Varen only stared at me, his face reddened.
“I’m not being adorable. I’m enduring this for you.”
“That’s exactly why you’re cute.”
I kept smiling at his pouty expression. I cupped his flushed cheeks, still radiating warmth.
In response, Varen furrowed his brow and pressed his lower body closer, as if protesting being treated like a child through the thick, swollen proof below.
Several layers of fabric lay between us, but the blatant pressure made my smiling face stiffen slightly.
I cast a tense sideways glance downward—then squeezed my eyes shut at the unexpected sight.
A beat later, Varen followed my gaze. He sucked in a short, startled breath and hesitated before speaking.
“Ceryl, you...”
“Be quiet.”
“...You said you didn’t want this unless it was rut. So you were just shy after all.”
“I said be quiet.”
When did it become like this? Cold sweat trickled down as I realized my own lower body was just as swollen as Varen’s.
My mind was in chaos, but my body—having already experienced this kind of stimulation once—responded enthusiastically.
My mouth went dry, like my secret diary had been discovered. Words tumbled out in a ramble, barely passing through thought.
“What, you think only dragons have instincts? I’m a man too, and I also... that, I mean....”
“......”
“If you keep grinding like this and I have no reaction, wouldn’t that be weirder? That’s why I told you to move away earlier. So if you get it, then just....”
“Ceryl, close your eyes.”
At his words, I lifted my gaze instead of lowering it. When I met those clear, lucid blue eyes, I bit down hard on my lip.
Looking into Varen’s excessively pure, transparent eyes made the anxious, tangled thoughts in my head feel as though they were being stripped down to something simple.
Tension gathered in the air as our gazes tangled thickly. Afraid he might hear my pounding heartbeat, I breathed out as quietly as I could.
Varen slowly traced my face with his eyes. His intent gaze, as though unwilling to miss a single detail, made it hard to control my expression.
After a moment, he spoke in a voice rough with impatience.
“If you don’t want it, you can push me away. But if it’s just awkwardness... then close your eyes.”
The weight of his voice sank into my chest like stone. I swallowed dryly, turning his words over again.
If I pushed Varen away now... or if I closed my eyes instead....
Either choice led to an obvious outcome. And selfish as it was, I couldn’t choose either.
In the end, I pulled Varen into my arms. Burying my face against the back of his neck as he followed without resistance, I muttered in an embarrassed voice.
“Can we... just hold each other?”
“......”
“Just this much... this is okay....”
This really was my limit. The maximum threshold of what I could allow myself to give Varen.
The dragon’s breath against my ear felt like boiling steam, and the lower bodies rubbing through our clothes were growing steadily wetter for reasons I didn’t want to think about.
In the past, I would have panicked and shoved him away—but simply holding him like this was already a massive step forward for me.
Of course, Varen did not look satisfied.
“Just holding each other... you’re serious?”
He lifted his upper body and looked at me again. In that brief moment, his neatly handsome face had twisted miserably.
“Ceryl, are you trying to torture me?”
“What?”
“This is harder to endure than having my claws pulled out or my tail cut off.”
“...Why do you say things like that?”
For a moment, Zed’s words from months ago surfaced in my mind—the claim that I was the cruelest human in Alberian.
Seeing my flustered expression, Varen let out a very, very deep sigh. It sounded as though he had dragged it up from the depths of his core, the air growing hot as {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} if he might breathe fire.
“Fine. If that’s really what you want... I understand.”
His reluctance was obvious in his voice, but Varen approached only as far as the line I had allowed.
He pressed our bodies back together and wrapped both arms tightly around my upper body. The constricting strength nearly knocked the breath from me, but I had no right to complain anymore, so I stayed silent.
As time passed, the sensations pooling below grew sharper. Even through multiple layers of fabric, I could clearly feel Varen’s movement rubbing insistently against me.
The bigger problem was that my own body reacted the same way each time. When it did, Varen whispered into my ear in a voice full of spiteful amusement.
“You said we’d just hold each other. Don’t stimulate me.”
I was about to snap back and ask who he thought was doing it, when I sucked in a startled breath at the pressure pushing firmly upward.
Unsatisfied with merely pinning me with his weight, Varen began to rub slowly against the thoroughly damp fabric.
It was the same thing he had done in the forest when he lost himself to arousal. Back then, I’d taught him as a last resort because I couldn’t stop him otherwise.
Now he was doing it sober.
“H-hey, wait....”
“Ceryl, don’t think so hard.”
With that single sentence, Varen cut straight through my turmoil. I squeezed my eyes shut and buried my face against his shoulder.
Right. Spending the whole night pressed together like this, soaked and restless, would be ridiculous—and it didn’t seem like it would calm down anytime soon. It would probably be better to let him release once and get him to sleep.
Besides, we’d already done it once in the forest.
Even if the situation now was a little—no, a lot—different.
