"Oh god!" Ceres couldn't help but moan aloud as her body moved atop Legion.
His lips and hands alternated between kissing and caressing her breasts, eliciting another wave of pleasure that made her toes curl. She was already nearing her fourth climax of the night, her body flushed and glistening with sweat. Her head tilted back as the pleasure built, her hips moving faster in rhythm with Legion's upward thrusts.
"Almost there!" she cried out, her voice thick with desire.
"Empress!"
The furious voice cut through the heat like a blade.
Ceres froze.
Her body still straddled on top of Legion, her mind barely registering what was happening as her eyes snapped toward the direction of the voice.
Standing at the entrance of her canopy, with barely contained fury blazing in his eyes, was Duke Aurelian.
"Seiryu!" Ceres snapped, rage flaring in her voice.
Seiryu appeared beside Aurelian in a blink, his expression, of course, annoyingly amused. "I told him you were busy, but he insisted the matter was important."
Ceres was too frustrated to respond. She didn't even notice how Legion, calm and composed beneath her, deliberately pulled her into a tighter embrace, planting a slow kiss along her breast in full view of Aurelian.
That small act sent Aurelian's jaw tightening further, fury radiating off him in waves.
"Can't it wait? Like, tomorrow?" Ceres asked flatly, her tone as dry as her patience.
Neither she nor Legion made any move to cover their naked bodies. Their forms were still very much joined, tangled intimately, the sheet barely draped around Ceres as if she didn't care.
"No," Aurelian bit out.
Ceres narrowed her eyes at him.
They were midway through replenishing her HP. She still needed ten more points to max out, if she tried to use any of her abilities now, the effort would render the entire session pointless. No leveling up. No progress.
And judging by Aurelian's stance, the world would end before he turned and walked away.
She could just command Seiryu to throw him out.
But something about the way Aurelian looked at her, something raw and burning beneath all that rage, made her pause.
With a tired sigh, Ceres turned her gaze back to Legion.
"Leave us for now," she said simply.
Legion obeyed without protest, though he clearly didn't intend to make it easy for Aurelian. He took his time getting dressed, slowly pulling on each piece of clothing while Ceres, ever unapologetic, simply wrapped a sheet around her bare body and sat up against the headboard.
Legion could've just teleported out.
But no.
He walked, deliberately slow, toward the exit, casting Aurelian a smug look as he passed. A small, knowing smirk played on his lips. And just before he stepped out of the canopy, he gave a slight bow to the Duke, mocking, wordless, but clear in intent.
Ceres didn't look his way.
"You too, lizard," she said to Seiryu without even turning her head.
"Gladly," Seiryu replied with a chuckle, vanishing into the air.
Now, only she and Aurelian remained.
He hadn't moved.
Still standing like a statue, his fists clenched at his sides.
Ceres glanced at him, her expression unreadable. Then she pointed toward the chair across from her bed.
"If you're here to talk," she said coolly, "then sit."
Aurelian sat heavily, clearly restraining himself.
"Aren't you going to get dressed?" he asked, his voice tight.
"No," she answered without hesitation.
"Empress!" His tone spiked in frustration.
"Duke," Ceres replied just as sharply.
Aurelian rubbed the bridge of his nose, visibly exasperated.
Aurelian exhaled harshly and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"You're completely indecent right now."
But Ceres noticed the telltale flush rising up his ears.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it?" she said, raising a brow. "Legion and I weren't finished, and yet you insisted on speaking with me. Deal with it."
"Not finished?" Aurelian stared in disbelief, eyes roaming her half-covered body, noting the faint, fresh marks left by another man.
"What do you want, Duke?" she asked bluntly.
"Let's get married." The words escaped before he could stop them. It wasn't planned, but the image of her with someone else had ignited something uncontrollable in him.
"No." Her voice was firm, final.
"You have to understand, Empress. Once we arrive at the capital, the nobles will expect me to take the throne. Spring has returned. If you want to keep your title – "
"Who said I want to keep it?" Ceres interrupted. "I've already told you my plans. I'll be traveling across kingdoms to awaken the remaining Holy Beasts and meet the Demon Lord. Staying Empress would only complicate everything."
Aurelian's fists clenched at his sides.
"So you're just going to leave our kingdom behind?"
"Our kingdom?" Ceres let out a quiet, cold laugh. "I've never been part of this kingdom, Duke. Not then, not now. Don't try to use the crown as a chain to hold me here, it won't work. And don't think appealing to the people will work either. It won't."
She stood up from the bed, the sheet falling slightly from her chest. Then, without hesitation, she straddled him where he sat.
Aurelian could smell the lingering scent of sex on her, proof that just minutes ago, she had been with someone else. Fury surged through him.
And yet… the moment her warmth pressed against him, his arms moved on instinct, wrapping tightly around her waist. He buried his face in the hollow between her breasts, breathing in her scent like a man deprived.
Ceres cupped his face gently.
"I'm not a good person, Aurelian," she murmured. "I'll help the people learn to stand, but I won't hold their hands."
She kissed him, slow and cruel, on the cheek, then the jaw.
"I will not marry you or anyone else," she whispered.
Her hand moved down his chest, trailing over the front of his trousers where she could feel the evidence of his arousal. She unfastened his pants, her fingers slow, until she freed him.
"Don't ever ask me that question again," she said coldly. "Because if you do, I will leave immediately."
Without waiting for permission, she aligned herself with him, and slowly, inch by inch, sank down onto his length.
"Ah, !" Ceres gasped as Aurelian suddenly gripped her hips and thrust upward, burying himself fully inside her.
Aurelian hissed through clenched teeth, trying to control the overwhelming sensation threatening to undo him.
"I told Legion this too," Ceres said as she began to move, slow. "You can claim my body. But no matter what you do, no matter what you give me, you will never have my heart."
She brushed her lips near the corner of his mouth, teasing, taunting, while riding him with steady rhythm.
"And you will never be the only one. But I will be the only one," she added, her voice like silk over steel. "If you ever touch another woman again… you will never touch me."
It was a one-sided deal. Aurelian knew it. And yet he followed her like a man in a trance, like a beggar who'd been given a taste of something he could never own.
She was making him choose, the throne, or her.
And the cruelest part? She let him taste what it would feel like to choose her.
Their rhythm quickened, the pleasure building with every movement. Aurelian clung to her as if he might shatter. If this was what it meant to beg… then he'd beg for the Empress for the rest of his life.
"Hmmmm!" Ceres gasped as Aurelian stood abruptly, still joined with her, and lifted her effortlessly in his arms.
She clung to him instinctively, her breath hot against his neck. He didn't speak. He didn't need to. He carried her to the bed like a man possessed.
Once he laid her down, he hovered over her for only a breath before claiming her fully, moving with an intensity that bordered on desperation. Every mark left behind by another, he replaced with his own. A bruise on her shoulder became his. A red flush on her neck, his mouth found and branded again.
"Faster!" Ceres commanded, her voice ragged. "Hhuhhh!"
She arched her back beneath him, the heat of her skin glowing against his. There was no pride left in Aurelian, not tonight. Only hunger. Only the need to see her like this, drowning in pleasure that he give.
"How are you so cruel?" he asked, his voice raw as he kissed her harder, moving deeper, faster, like she demanded.
Ceres pulled him in by the hair and kissed him back, biting down on his lower lip with just enough force to sting. Her fingernails dragged across his back, leaving red trails in their wake.
"So you only blame yourself," she whispered darkly, "and not me… if I ever stab you in the back."
"More," she moaned, her voice trembling. "Almost there."
Aurelian didn't hesitate.
He gave her everything.
Threw away the weight of his title, the throne that haunted him, the expectations of a kingdom, and surrendered to her. Every movement of his body was a vow. He belonged to her. But she… would never belong to him.
This wasn't like the other women he had known. This wasn't about claiming. This wasn't conquest.
It was devotion.
Knowing that it was him who made her tremble, that it was his name that broke from her lips, that her flushed skin and wild eyes were because of him, that was the only reward he needed. That was the pleasure. That was the agony.
Then it happened.
He felt it.
She was close, so close, and he chased her to the edge without slowing, without mercy.
And when she shattered beneath him, when her body arched and she cried out.
"Oh my gosh!" Ceres moaned, trembling violently.
Her entire body glow.
Aurelian froze for a moment, breath caught in his throat, as the light pulsed under her skin, soft and radiant, like magic itself responding to her pleasure. She looked otherworldly. Untouchable. Divine.
And that vision alone undid him.
He followed after her, burying his face in her neck as he reached his peak, groaning her name against her skin like a man breaking open from the inside.
And in that moment, he knew:
This woman, this Empress, had ruined him.
Completely.
And no one can save him. Not even himself.