/
“Huu…… Your, highness?”
Renato blinked his eyes and breathed in as he felt the warmth suddenly move away from him. Khalid with a stiff expression came into his blurred vision. The man’s face looked both perplexed and angry.
“What, haa, what’s wrong?”
Did he move away because I did something wrong, or because he didn’t like it? Or is he angry because I insisted on a pheromone shower?
When confirming that Khalid’s expression was not good, Renato’s heart pounded because of a different reason from before. Renato became anxious, forcibly raised his exhausted body and stumbled.
“……Please be careful.”
Only then did Khalid come to his senses and hurriedly stretch out his arm to support Renato. After sitting Renato down so that he would not fall, Khalid gritted his teeth again when Renato’s scent tickled the tip of his nose. When he smelled Renato’s body odor mixed with his pheromone, his still unabated desire ran wild in his heart.
“Hu.”
Khalid took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down without Renato noticing. Contrary to his rationality saying he had to stop here, his instincts were constantly screaming at him to lust for Renato. His hand holding Renato’s shoulder became stiff.
“Ugh, your highness?”
Noticing the air around him became momentarily fierce, Renato cautiously called out to Khalid. It wasn’t a mistake. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint how, but Khalid’s state was obviously somewhat strange.
“Are you okay? Is there any problem……”
Along with a voice filled with worry, his hand moved. However, Renato’s hand could not reach Khalid. The man tilted his head back and avoided his touch.
“……!”
Renato’s eyes widened when Khalid avoided his hand. His heart sank even more compared to when he saw Khalid’s stiff expression a while ago.
Khalid was just as perplexed as him. With a startled face, he quickly opened his mouth as Renato looked at him with an astonished expression.
“This, uhm, it’s not like what you think. It’s not that I hate it, but my state is a bit strange right now……”
Trying to explain that he did not avoid Renato’s touch on purpose, Khalid could not finish his words properly and twitched his lips. He didn’t know what to explain to Renato. After pondering for a moment, he let out a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry, I think it’ll be a bit dangerous if I touch you now, Your Imperial Highness.”
Khalid suppressed the pheromone that ran wild and frankly revealed his condition. He decided that it would be better to talk openly rather than create strange misunderstandings with needless excuses.
“Me?”
“Yes, I’m a little excited because of the pheromone shower…… I also just pushed you too hard a while ago, Your Imperial Highness.”
……Excited? Because of me? Renato pondered over Khalid’s words and pursed his lips. He felt strangely elated when knowing that the man was excited because of him. His heart, which had been beating fast before, was now pounding as if about to explode.
“Anyway, that’s the reason, so I’m going to cool my head off for a while.”
Feeling a sense of crisis that there would really be an accident if he stayed here, Khalid got up. The body odor mixed with his own kept stimulating his instincts, so his excitement couldn’t subside. However, he couldn’t get out of bed. A hand suddenly reached out from behind, grabbing Khalid’s wrist.
“Please, please don’t go.”
“Didn’t you hear me just now? My state right now is a bit…… It’ll only take a moment. The cold winds will cool the heat down……”
Before Khalid could finish his words, Renato shook his head to refuse. With a determined expression, he looked at Khalid.
“If you’re excited because of me, uhm, I can take responsibility, right?”
“What…… You shouldn’t talk about taking responsibility so recklessly.”
Khalid held back a sigh and said with a serious face. He knows what happened to me, but still talks about taking responsibility so defenselessly like that? Khalid felt a headache coming up. It was at this moment that Khalid realized Renato’s untainted innocence could sometimes be a deadly poison.
“But I didn’t say so without thinking……”
Renato looked up at Khalid with a wronged expression. He plucked up his courage to say so, but when the man reacted like that, he felt discouraged. It was as if Khalid was drawing a line that no more than this could be done. All of a sudden, his stubbornness acted up.
“Can’t you just be with me? I don’t want to be alone.”
Renato gave strength to his hand holding Khalid’s wrist and sent an earnest gaze. He would never normally do something like this, but the tipsiness that remained gave him courage.
Khalid froze as he saw Renato clinging to him. He could see Renato’s tear mole, wet with perhaps sweats or tears, on his red-hot skin under the slightly drooping eyes. At that moment, a strange hunger rose, making saliva pool up in his mouth. He gulped down the saliva, his throat rumbling.
“Haa, seriously……”
Khalid roughly swept his hair and sat back down. Then he hugged Renato and leaned over. The two sank down on the bed sheet.
“Are you doing this knowingly, or are you brave like this because you don’t know anything?”
Whichever it was, the crime was still bad. Khalid suppressed the desire surging up to the top of his head and buried his face in Renato’s neck. Perhaps because of the heat, the stronger body odor compared to usual clouded his reason again.
This is driving me nuts.
Desperately resisting the urge to open his mouth and sink his teeth into Renato’s nape at any moment, Khalid rubbed his lips against the soft skin. The slightly heated skin was terribly seductive. Closing his eyes, he deeply inhaled and then exhaled. Then, he felt Renato’s body flinch because of his lips.
He reacts like this with just this much, how the hell would he take responsibility?
Smooch. Kissing the soft earlobe, Khalid felt the body in his embrace tremble with just a little stimulation and let out a chuckle. This was why he couldn’t touch Renato.
In Khalid’s eyes, Renato was a child just getting to know the world. They only had a five-year age gap, but the experiences accumulated in their lives were primarily different. So he had to be careful.
Toward someone who was new to everything they did together and with whom he might have to part after three years, Khalid didn’t know how far he could go and how much he could dye with his own color.
In particular, whenever looking into the eyes filled with trust and hearing the voice carrying faith in him, Khalid’s heart once again became heavy.
In the distant future, if we no longer have any kind of relationship, who will feel the void more?
His red eyes darkened as if night had fallen. He didn’t intend to deny being attracted to Renato now. If he didn’t have good feelings toward Renato, he wouldn’t have had this desire in the first place.
But he wasn’t sure if this feeling was love. There was a difference between simply liking and being deeply in love. Entangling the bodies together was an act that could be done without any romantic feelings.
Being attracted by pheromones, out of political maneuvers, a moment of fleeting impulse or a sense of obligation…… Even if many people did not love each other, they spent the night together with consent. It was even more so for unions created by political marriages.
Whatever the marriage’s reason was, the couple would have their duties as companions. That was also why he asked Renato, who offered to make a contract through marriage, if he could fulfill them.
If Khalid couldn’t resist his impulse and embraced him now, Renato probably would willingly offer himself. Khalid knew that he felt a strong sense of duty toward this marriage. Renato was more serious and sincere with the marriage than anyone else. And Khalid didn’t want to act impulsively even more because of that.
Not because of duty or a sense of responsibility, but something more……
Feeling the greed burning in his heart, Khalid secured the arm hugging Renato. The more he thought about his relationship with Renato, the more his dark desire grew.
“Your highness?”
Renato called out to Khalid with a small groan when the pressure on his body became stronger. Then, the man’s large hand began to pat him on the back.
“You must be tired, so let’s sleep.”
“……Are we just going to sleep?”
“Of course?”
“I…… uhm.”
Renato hesitated, unable to continue speaking when Khalid clearly intended to put him to sleep.
The breath touching his neck, the warmth tickling his ear, and the body touching him were all as hot as a fireball. Will we sleep just like this? Is that okay, though? Maybe I should do something?
Possessed by a subtle sense of duty, Renato hesitantly raised his hand and stroked the black hair in front of him. Then, with a click of the tongue, a heavily suppressed voice came back.
“Please don’t provoke me, because I am enduring it with all my might.”
“But you don’t have to endure……”
“Those dangerous words are also prohibited. Why are you behaving so fearlessly from earlier? Do you really want something big to happen?”
“What……”
He treats me like a child who doesn’t know anything again. Renato’s voice became sullen. He knew Khalid was trying to endure for his sake, but somehow he felt rejected.
“I know everything I need to know. I also looked up in the books……”
“Books don’t explain everything. Theory and practice are completely different.”
Fucking books. Khalid sighed, not knowing how many times he had wanted to burn all the etiquette books that Renato had read.
“That’s true, but I’m saying this to mean that I’m prepared and ready for it myself! You keep treating me like a child that doesn’t know anything…… You said you had no ex, experience as well, your highness.”
Feeling emotional, Renato uncharacteristically raised his voice, expressing his dissatisfaction. The man’s thick, dark eyebrows wiggled because of his protest.
“What and how did you prepare? How much do you know about an Alpha and a Beta sleeping together? Please tell me how much you are ready for this.”
“Pardon? Ugh.”
Renato dazedly asked back when hearing the slightly sharp question, then let out a short groan. Khalid’s hand just glided down his spine line and tightly grabbed his buttock.
“Ah, what are you……”
“I mean, is this place also ready to accept my thing?”
As Renato raised his waist up in surprise, Khalid drew his face closer and asked in a growling voice.