My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 50
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 50
Chapter 5. Secrets (7)
It was merely the continuation of a kiss.
Breath came and went in uneven rhythm.
Even when Celia hurled a pillow at him midway through, he caught it with a smile before quickly losing his composure. He pressed himself against her as though quenching a parched thirst.
His touch was never anything less than deliberate.
“Celia.”
Unknown sensations filled her, while discoveries yet to be made left their mark across her skin.
Lucius treated her as though she were melting ice cream on a summer’s day—hot, sticky, and impossible to resist. Each time her body twisted from the unbearable tension, he only pressed deeper.
“Ah…….”
Celia drew breath in desperate gasps. The air took time to reach the depths of her lungs.
Hot, ragged breathing filled the space between them.
“I’ll do my best, but…… I might not be skilled enough.”
Tears born of reflex gathered at her lashes.
“As you know, there’s nothing in this head of mine.”
“Mm……!”
“So this is our first night ceremony, in a manner of speaking.”
Crude bastard. To say such things at a time like this.
Celia released her grip on the bedding and pulled him close, her nails raking across his skin.
Lucius swallowed her quickened breaths and slowly lowered his body onto hers.
“……!”
The pain Celia had remembered did not return, yet the strange sensation of something entering where nothing should pressed upon her still, leaving her breathless.
Lucius did his best to ease her adjustment. Only when her sharp, ragged breathing steadied did he begin to move.
It was overwhelming.
The harder she clung to him in her struggle, the more difficult it became. Her gasps tore from her throat, raw and uncontrolled, and his reason shattered with a single sound.
In the surge of pleasure, she left deep scratches across his back and arms.
The powerful rhythm swept her away easily—and him along with her. His muscles swelled prominently, and each time his sweat-slicked body collided with hers, she trembled.
The lingering waves of sensation spread slowly through the remainder of the night.
***
In truth, there was a night far more dreadful than their first night ceremony, which had already ended so badly.
Their real first night ceremony, after the lie was exposed.
That night was a nightmare in every sense.
“My lord! This is a duty!”
“You performed the first night ceremony falsely—what guarantee is there this time will be different!”
“His Imperial Majesty himself has commanded that we confirm the harmony between House of Windmere and House of Brickwell!”
Celia sat on the bed with her knees drawn up, her ears plugged with her fingers against the jeers of the insufferable white-robed priests. Their shouts made her skull ring.
It was Lucius who had placed her here, even as she threatened to die before they crossed the threshold.
She didn’t trust his promise to handle it, but after sunset, they’d been hollering like this—and she’d long since abandoned all hope and wanted only to flee.
“Fat pigs bloated on tax money, their voices swollen as their bellies.”
The idea that they would watch to confirm the consummation was so repulsive it made her skin crawl. Each time their shouts bled through the door, her shoulders flinched.
“My lord!!”
“There is nothing difficult about this. In the old days, it was always done this way!”
Fan-shaped light leaked through the gap in the door. Celia lifted her head, following the illumination.
There stood Lucius, his face set in an expression she’d never seen before, locked in confrontation with the priests.
Fury had made the veins in his neck stand out, his jaw clenched so tightly it cut a sharp line. His eyes held that familiar intensity, yet something about them was different from when he looked at her.
Right. He was furious too.
‘I don’t care about the first night ceremony itself. As long as it’s not with Lucius…….’
Since everyone else did it, she had no objection to spending a night with someone. The problem was that someone was Lucius.
‘It’s just a contract marriage anyway. We’re divorcing in three years.’
So why did she have to do such a thing with him?
Her eyes stung—not from humiliation or hurt, but from the sheer degradation of the moment itself, the impotent fury at having nowhere to direct it.
How much longer could this possibly drag on?
Already exhausted, she was imagining grabbing one of the priests and screaming back at them, throwing them out herself.
Click. The door closed. Celia’s head snapped up reflexively.
She dropped her weakened hands and stepped to the edge of the bed. Her eyes darted up toward him anxiously, and her lips parted unconsciously.
“The priests…….”
Lucius came to stand beside the bed.
On it lay Celia in her nightclothes, her face worn with exhaustion as she stared up at him.
He reached up and wiped his dry face with one hand. As his eyes disappeared beneath his palm, his expression became unreadable.
“The priests won’t come in.”
It was what she’d been waiting to hear, yet the mood between them did not shift.
The terms had changed, but their situation had not.
Both had much to say, but words that hovered at the corners of their mouths never emerged, and the silence stretched on.
“Even the Emperor has stepped in,” Lucius said, breaking the quiet.
His voice cut through the stillness.
“We can’t avoid this time.”
Celia’s face visibly drained of color.
The two of them were accustomed to barbing each other with words, but this time, as if by agreement, they fell silent. Now that an imperial decree had come down, another lie would leave them truly without refuge.
Celia found herself cursing what little remained of the Emperor’s hair for his persistence in matters of other people’s nights. The sound of something rustling made her glance over.
Lucius was removing his gloves.
She had never seen him remove them in her presence, so this was the first time she looked upon his hands. The skin beneath the gloves was rougher than she’d expected. Along the straight, neat lines, knuckles stood out prominently, and the veins ran clear and vivid—nothing merely beautiful about them.
“……Lie down.”
“Don’t command me.”
Moonlight seeped through the window into the bedchamber. The silver touched the floor first, traced the outlines of the furniture, caught in the curtains’ folds, and never reached them.
The heat accumulated through the day dissipated, and the air between them grew taut. The silence was such that a single breath seemed enough to make the night respond.
Celia breathed steadily. Though she already knew she had to accept it, her heart still stood at the threshold. The bedchamber suddenly seemed far too large, then abruptly suffocating in its closeness.
What came after was predictable.
There was no justification for refusal. A brief struggle of wills passed quickly.
The man who showed no particular kindness to her proved no exception this time.
“Uh!”
His careless hands hurt, and Celia’s shoulders tensed.
His clumsy touch made her cry out more than once. His fingers fumbled without finesse to open her, bringing only pain, and when they probed deeper inside, her body trembled of its own accord.
He seemed to hesitate at times, but she could no longer think of anything at all.
When she felt she’d reached her limit, he slowly undressed.
She understood what that meant. Hoping only that all of this would pass quickly, Celia accepted him.
With her eyes squeezed shut, only the sensation of him inside her came through with clarity.
“Cry instead.”
She never learned why he said it.
Almost at once, a thick finger pushed past her clenched teeth.
Celia bit his flesh deliberately, wanting him to know some portion of the pain she felt.
When the night finally passed, not a single finger’s strength remained in her body.
She wanted to push away his hands as he wiped her clean, but the hope that his touch would disappear all the faster kept her still.
As she fought the urge to throw a towel at Lucius while he cleaned himself, sudden anxiety crashed over her.
She worked her lips several times before finally finding her voice.
“This is supposed to be about having a child, isn’t it.”
Lucius, who had been moving his arms in silence, lifted his head slightly.
“What if I become pregnant?”
Her anxiety poured out raw and unfiltered.
At the exhaustion in her voice, he hesitated briefly, then gripped the towel tightly and answered low.
“There’s contraceptive medicine.”
What was he…… Celia had started to sit up on the bed when a sudden ache in her lower back sent her crashing back onto the covers.
“Stay still.”
He pressed down on her shoulder.
The feel of his bare hand on her skin still felt foreign and unpleasant.
‘Contraceptive medicine?’
If such a thing were discovered, neither the Emperor nor the two ducal houses would let it pass.
‘But why does he have something like that?’
He must have obtained it in secret. It hadn’t come through the physicians of the palace, so he’d gone to considerable trouble.
She had no idea. Exhausted, Celia pulled the covers over her face. Simply surviving these breathless moments was miracle enough.
The moment her eyes closed, consciousness began to fade. As it did, she caught Lucius’s voice one last time.
“-this night will never become a stain upon your life.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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