Thank You For The Confinement, Grand Duke! - Chapter 57.1

My body was burning up.

I knew why I was in this state. Even though I was aware, the thirst that scorched my throat and the heat that fueled the fire within were too much to bear. As my feverish voice quietly calls out to Enfrise, he must be looking at me with pity.

“Just a moment. I’ll get some medicine…”

This fever wouldn’t be cured by medicine.

The slight fever I had last time couldn’t be subdued by it, so why would now be any different? I knew a quicker way.

If our lips met, I believed this heat would subside.

With that thought, I instinctively moved. As I raised my torso and clung to his coat as he tried to leave, he didn’t notice and staggered slightly as he tried to stand.

“Oh.”

His arms, which seemed lean but were solidly muscular and substantial, wrapped around me. Even if we fell onto the bed, it wouldn’t hurt, but he still took care to hold me.

I felt the heat rise even more.

“… Don’t look at me like that. If you do…”

What kind of eyes was I giving him right now?

Was I mocking the foolishness of having been oblivious to such an obvious truth until now? Or were my eyes dazed from the fever?

His face contorted with awkwardness, but something flickered in his eyes. His golden irises sparkled in the darkness like waves of gold. It was shining so beautifully through my blurred vision that I reached out to touch him unwittingly.

How could he be so beautiful? So mesmerizing that I wanted to look at it… How long would it take before I tire of this?

Maybe I’d never get tired of it for the rest of my life.

The touch of his skin on my fingertips felt almost cool. Perhaps because it was a stark contrast to my burning body. The chill made me feel better and I smiled faintly.

“It feels cool…”

Hoarse words spilled out without my intent.

Perhaps the fever has broken the filter in my mind. After all, I’ve been like this recently. Whenever he was involved, I lost my reason and became emotional… to the point where I couldn’t even see my own foolishness.

“…Uht.”

Enfrise bit his lip so hard in an attempt to hold back. He bit it so hard that dark blood began to seep into his deep-colored lips.

Blood.

The sticky scene behind my eyelids became vivid once more.

I shook my head, trying to forget it, but the image wouldn’t fade away. Then, I looked up at Enfrise as if clinging to him, staring at the liquid spreading over his white teeth before impulsively pressing my lips against his.

“….!”

He didn’t push me away, but he didn’t respond either. He just looked at me with eyes filled with confusion and desire, as if he didn’t know what to do.

Instinctively, I knew. He was holding himself back again.

‘You…’

He didn’t want to hurt me, the one he loved. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to hurt me, or rather, he wanted to possess me, even if it meant inflicting pain. He must be tormented by such contradictory emotions.

As always.

“Hu… ah…”

Our lips parted slightly. Was it just because our lips merely touched? The heat didn’t subside at all. The warm breaths between us mingled and then dissolved into thin air while the heat inside my body still scorched my inside.

If only he would accept me, it might be easier. If he wanted me as much as I wanted him, if only a little more…

With a feeling of regret, I gently tapped his lips with the tip of my tongue.

Let me in. Accept me.

As if to say that.

As his arms tightened around me and the strength left his reddened lips, I seized the fleeting moment before my tongue slipped into his mouth.

“Mm…”

I trembled in his arms.

More heat escaped from my body than before, faster and fiercer. At the same time, a chill ran down my spine. As I moaned and shivered, he could no longer hold back and grasped my chin.

The tender flesh that I had let in without knowing what it was the last time, pushed into me. Unlike the man who had been as impenetrable as a fortress moments before, even though I desperately wanted it, he seemed like a completely different person now.

Had he finally let go of his hesitation, or had instinct ultimately won over hesitation?

He explored me fervently with his tongue as if he were a fierce conqueror, his eyes tightly shut, determined not to miss a single spot. His actions seemed almost desperate.

He wanted this with me. He had been holding back this desire.

He wanted me this much.

He was so cute that I couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

Despite this, the magic energy that had been building up inside me was draining away, leaving a mix of chilliness and a different kind of heat entangled, making my senses swirl. What kind of heat was this?