This chapter contains explicit scenes.

Chapter 5 – Unforgotten Memories

“A little… it’s going to hurt a little.”

The movements from his fingers finally halted after some time, to which felt like eternity to Max. In her limp tiredness, she took a long exhale, her rigid body couldn’t resist any longer. Riftan took ahold of her clothes and pushing one arm under her waist, lifted it above her head.

Their hot bodies made contact. Only then did she realize that his body, as well as hers, was slick with sweat.

The man’s back glistened gold in the dim lighting. It suddenly occurred to thought that she was sneaking into a blacksmith’s forge and saw a golden statue. Would this be the sight when you pour boiling liquid from the furnace over a body? her thoughts echoed unanswered as her whole body melted, feeling as if it was drowned into a pot of gold.

“Breathe. Take a long breath.”

He whispered roughly in her ears, incomprehensible to fully understand in the moment as her back trembled upon his touch on her skin. In an unconscious effort, she spread her legs and clung for life to the man’s hard forearms. Then his lower body sank heavily between her parted legs.

“Ack!”

The dull pain came before realization of what was happening dawned in. Max struggled fruitlessly with fear as the man trapped her underneath him with their locked lips. She was unable to escape; her heart was crushed against his strong chest as he pushed deeper into her body. She could only cry, raking her fingernails without mercy all over his forearm.

“Oh, it hurts… it hurts…” she howled.

“It’s because you’re too narrow…”

Tepid sweat trickled down from his neck and fell over her face. As she unconsciously bent her body to get out of the pain, he shivered faintly and firmly grabbed her waist with both hands. Deep wrinkles were set in his forehead as he did so.

“Please… stay still…” an unexpected plea came from his lips.

But Max was only swallowed by the intense agony that wracked her body. “It, it hurts… it hurts…!”

“Fuck! Don’t move, please… ugh!”

She could feel the man’s body shivering and for a moment, she stopped breathing. He hugged her waist, his hold tight on her that she felt she was going to break and began to move as if he could no longer bear it anymore. She groaned at the sharp pain that came.

Every time his body shifted; her own body shook like a helpless boat on a raging river. Her mind grew more and more muddy as time ticked by. What are you doing to me? The sheets she clenched with her hands felt as if it were on the verge of tearing.

“Oh, fuck…”

Max couldn’t fathom how much time had elapsed before he uttered a strangled moan and drooped over her. He breathed hard under her body, billows of hot steam rising in the process. The man’s shoulders still moved erratically as with his heaving. As she noticed all this, a strange sense of loss struck Max. She looked up at the ceiling blankly, her eyelids shaking. What just happened?

“Why… are you crying?”

Only after being questioned by the man did Max realized tears were falling from her lids. As she tried to hide her face in a hurry, she felt his moist tongue run over her cheek. She instantly tried to turn her face away. But this only led him to clasp her face and grasp it so that she wouldn’t be able to escape him.

“Don’t avoid.”

An intense, incomprehensible gaze bore to her from his dark eyes, and it made goose bumps erupt on the skin of her back. As he said this, he placed his lips over her temples and cheekbones wet with tears.

“You’re my wife now. Like it or not, there’s no turning back.”

Then he pulled her hair and forced a kiss. Repeatedly, she had to accept helplessly. Time passed without her knowledge…

That fateful night, she couldn’t count how many times they repeated it. After losing consciousness, she woke up past noon. By then he had already left for the expedition, and the nanny told her that the priest had identified the virgin blood on the bed and announced that their marriage was successful. Such was the rite of passage for marriage.

That was all that happened between them. She lost her virginity to him, and he left for the Lexos Mountains on behalf of Duke Cross. Never had it occur to Max that they were a couple. She felt the same on this moment when they finally faced each other after years…