The First Patriarch: Streaming My Cosmic Harem

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: So?

When he finally broke the kiss, the silence in the room felt heavy, charged with a sudden shift in gravity.

Their breaths were completely mingled, hot and shallow, hanging in the dim space between their lips.

He looked up into her dazed golden eyes, his expression soft but carrying a strange, intense weight that made her pulse skip a beat.

"Who are you?" Azriel asked quietly, his voice a low, grounded rumble that seemed to cut right through the lingering haze of their passion.

Rosalind blinked, staring down at him as if he had suddenly lost his mind.

Her breathing hitched, and a small, confused frown creased her porcelain forehead.

Her furry white ears perked up, twitching slightly in the quiet air.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her tone caught between amusement and genuine perplexity.

"What kind of question is that?"

"I asked, who are you?" he repeated, his thumb slowly sliding up to gently trace the sharp, elegant line of her jaw, tilting her face just a fraction closer.

"I am Rose," she said softly, her voice uncharacteristically vulnerable as she looked down at him.

"Rosalind."

"No," Azriel countered, his violet eyes locking onto hers with an earnest, loving intensity that seemed to pin her soul down better than any Aether magic ever could.

"You are the Crimson Duchess of East. The Matriarch of the House of Bastet. An elite powerhouse who can flatten mountain ranges with a flick of your wrist."

He let his hand slide down to the back of her neck, his fingers tangling gently into her white hair.

"You are the one who gives the orders, the absolute authority who leads tens of thousands of warriors to the battlefield without flinching. You are the sovereign who rules the entire Eastern region of the Empire. So tell me..." A lazy, teasing warmth bled into his gaze.

"...why is a legendary figure like that getting so stressed out just because she’s a little late for a few boring paperwork meetings? Who has the right to scold you?"

Rosalind opened her mouth to argue, a sharp defensive retort rising to her lips from sheer habit, but the words died completely in her throat.

She looked at him, her golden eyes widening as the sheer absurdity, and the profound truth, of his words washed over her.

"You should take a break, Rose," Azriel murmured, his voice incredibly gentle, dropping into a soothing cadence as he flexed his arms to pull her slightly closer, burying her chest against his.

"You can’t just spend your entire life carrying the crushing weight of an empire on your shoulders without ever taking a moment to just breathe. Let them wait. Let the world turn without you for a few hours."

He looked up at her, a warm, completely unbothered smile playing on his lips, the smile of a man who didn’t care about kings, empires, or goddesses, but only about the woman currently resting in his arms.

The fierce, untouchable Matriarch of the Bastati Clan stared down at him, her heart hammering violently against her ribs.

For centuries, everyone had looked at her through a lens of fear, duty, high expectations, or political ambition.

To her subjects, she was an immortal shield, to her enemies, a walking natural disaster.

Nobody in her entire existence had ever looked past the terrifying title, cupped her face, and told her that she was allowed to just stop.

That she was allowed to rest.

Slowly, the rigid, lingering tension that had stayed coiled in her shoulders for decades completely drained away.

Her white tail stopped its restless swaying, settling softly against his leg.

Her cat ears relaxed, flattening backward in a gesture of absolute surrender.

A beautiful, genuinely happy smile broke across her face, completely transforming her expression from a lethal warlord into a breathtakingly radiant woman.

The sheer purity of it caught Azriel off guard.

Leaning down, she closed the remaining distance and rested her forehead gently against his, closing her eyes as she let out a long, contented sigh.

"Sure," she whispered against his lips.

"So... what exactly are we going to do instead?"

Azriel flashed her a wicked, lazy grin.

Instead of answering verbally, his hands gripped her soft waist.

With a sudden, fluid roll, he flipped their positions.

The sheets rustled violently as he shifted her onto her back, his body looming directly over hers as he claimed the dominant position.

He leaned down, catching her lips in a light, teasing kiss before slowly sliding his lower body down.

As he retreated, his length smoothly slid out of her tight, pulsing warmth.

Rosalind let out a soft, breathless moan at the sudden emptiness, and a messy mix of their combined fluids and cream slipped out onto the satin sheets.

Before she could question him, Azriel flopped over to the side, sinking back into the plush pillows.

He pulled the heavy silk comforter over both of them, looked at her, and said, "We are going to sleep."

Rosalind blinked, a look of utter disbelief crossing her face as she propped herself up on an elbow.

"Azriel, it is already afternoon."

"So?" Azriel countered, completely unbothered.

He shifted closer, burying his face right into the deep, heavy valley of her soft breasts, rubbing his cheek against her warm skin before planting a soft, lingering kiss right on her cleavage.

"Do you actually want to get up right now? Give me the real answer, Rose."

A sudden thrill ran through her, and her furry ears twitched as she felt his breath against her skin.

"N-no..." she murmured, her voice losing all of its regal authority.

"Then let’s sleep," he mumbled sleepily, nuzzling deeper into her soft valley and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist like a clingy koala.

Looking down at the shameless man getting completely comfortable using her chest as a personal pillow, Rosalind couldn’t help but chuckle.

The fierce Crimson Duchess completely melted away.

She wrapped her slender arms around his shoulders, pulling him flush against her body, and rested her cheek softly against his messy hair.

Closing her eyes with a serene, genuinely happy smile, she let herself drift off, completely forgetting about the rest of the world.