The Serpent of Paradise - Chapter 49

Startled by the intrusion she experienced for the first time in her life, Anastasia tried to pull back. But as though he expected that much, Mikhail’s arm locked tightly around her body.

Her struggling made the water in the tub surge violently, splashing all over the floor, but Anastasia couldn’t pay it the slightest attention.

It was the first time in her life she had ever accepted another person in this way. The soft thing that entered deep into her mouth roughly explored inside her. It swept over the delicate flesh, then stroked the softest part with the tip of his tongue. Anastasia couldn’t think of anything.

Her body trembled as though struck by lightning. Trapped within Mikhail’s arms with every avenue of escape blocked, her body could only shake in his embrace.

Her mind went blank so quickly that she thought her soul had been stolen, yet Mikhail showed no sign of being satisfied. He finally pulled back only after Anastasia, breathless to the point of suffocation, pounded on his shoulder as though begging him to spare her.

“Haa… haa….”

Anastasia hurriedly drew in air, and her body went limp. As warmth began returning to her chilled body, languor spread through her.

Mikhail looked at the lips he freely indulged in moments ago. Her blue lips were gradually regaining their red color.

The delectable color that made him want to suck on them whenever he saw it.

He stroked Anastasia’s swelling lower lip with his thumb. When her body tensed and flinched, afraid that he might devour her again, Mikhail smiled and pointed something out.

“I don’t know when you started adding ‘Lord’ to my name again. So this is your punishment.”

As expected, he wasn’t satisfied with what happened moments ago. His hungry lips swallowed Anastasia again. Since she didn’t know what to do or how to do it, Anastasia could only follow his lead.

A different wet sound, one that didn’t come from the bathwater, echoed through the bathroom. It was the obscene sound of wet flesh rubbing and sucking against each other. Anastasia thought she only needed to remain still, as she did before. But as though this time were different, Mikhail entwined his tongue with hers.

Despite calling it a punishment, Mikhail’s actions were remarkably gentle. Anastasia gradually grew accustomed to the movements he guided her through. Before she realized it, she was moving first.

At Anastasia’s movement, Mikhail wrapped his other hand around the back of her neck and pressed her even closer to him.

“Mm, ngh….”

Contrary to Mikhail’s expectations, Anastasia didn’t flee despite the strained sounds she made. Instead, she tried to accept more of him. The sight of her small lips and tongue moving as she tried her hardest to withstand him was so maddeningly lovely that Mikhail stroked her hair as though praising her for doing well.

Their breathing grew hotter than the steam filling the bathroom.

Mikhail pulled away again. With the back of his hand, he wiped her glistening lips, wet with something other than water. Anastasia truly was an exceptional student. This must have been her first kiss, yet she became skilled so quickly.

She clung to him so desperately that he nearly lost his mind and pounced on her for real. Struggling to regain control of himself, Mikhail whispered to Anastasia, who leaned against him and panted within his embrace.

“Now, will you call me again?”

“M-Mikhail….”

“Now you’re finally saying it properly.”

Mikhail’s fingers stroked Anastasia’s cheek as color returned to it. His fingers slowly descended, brushing over her lips and caressing her chin. In the meantime, the sloshing water grew still, and color gradually returned to Anastasia’s face.

His fingers moved below her chin and stroked her neck and shoulders, which already dried a little. Anastasia flinched as though it tickled, but Mikhail didn’t remove his hand. It pained him to see that her body became thin again during the brief time he failed to look after her. It had only been a few days, yet she ended up like this. Just how little had she eaten?

In truth, moments ago, he considered taking Anastasia right then and there. Even if he failed to withstand the hunger he suppressed until now and pounced on her, Anastasia probably wouldn’t have run away.

Mikhail recalled the confession Anastasia shouted in the rain. Merely thinking of it again made him smile automatically. He knew he must look like a fool, but he had no desire to suppress the smile.

He spent the past few days agonizing over his choice. From the beginning, his reason told him that Elizabeth was the woman he should choose. Even so, the face that came to mind before he fell asleep was Anastasia’s.

Mikhail found this side of himself unfamiliar. Once he made a choice, he never looked back or harbored regrets. But Anastasia appearing in his thoughts every night felt like a warning his instincts were sending him. A warning that he was about to make the wrong choice.

Even so, Mikhail trusted his reason. But moments ago, when he heard Anastasia’s confession in the rain, Mikhail heard his reason collapse miserably.

There was no longer anyone else on the scales in his mind. The instant he heard her say she liked him, the scale itself shattered. In his heart, only Anastasia remained, smiling shyly and waving at him. And so Mikhail had to admit a rather embarrassing truth.

This was the first time he had ever let someone into his heart.

Before they knew it, only the sound of water dripping could be heard in the bathroom. Anastasia lowered her head deeply, unable to answer. Mikhail gave a bitter smile, cupped Anastasia’s face in both hands, and carefully lifted it as though telling her to look at him.

“Anastasia. You said you like me.”

“….”

“Do you know what you’ll have to accept by saying that?”

“I know. I’ll probably become your… mistress, won’t I?”

“….”

“But I… thought I would be all right with that.”

Anastasia revealed the true feelings she buried deep in her heart. She knew how much condemnation a mistress had to endure.

Even so, Anastasia thought she would be fine with it. She didn’t dare ask him to cherish her. He didn’t even need to pay as much attention to her as he would a dog he kept. She merely wanted to be included in his future. As long as he didn’t abandon her and continued to keep her by his side….

“So… could you please take me with you too?”

What frightened her most was everyone leaving with him and being left behind alone. She spent her entire life alone, yet now the thing most familiar to her had become the thing she feared most.

“I don’t know how to do anything, but if you teach me, I’ll work hard. I won’t be able to do as well as Natasha, but I’ll get better if I practice. I don’t need any wages. All I need is somewhere to sleep and something to eat. So could you please take me too? I won’t ask you to eat with me. I won’t bother you by asking you to teach me things either. If you just speak to me once in a very long while, that will be enough.”

As Mikhail listened to Anastasia plead, he felt devastated instead. What Anastasia feared wasn’t the judgment of others, but loneliness.

Mikhail raised a hand and brushed back Anastasia’s wet, disheveled red hair.

“As I thought, you didn’t know, Anastasia.”

“What?”

“I think you need to know exactly what you’ll have to accept.”

Mikhail stood and removed his wet shirt, which clung to his body. Beneath the light, his finely sculpted yet solid body was revealed. Not knowing what was happening, Anastasia merely blinked as she watched him. After removing his shirt and shoes, he muttered, “I don’t intend to take you right now,” then stepped straight into the bathtub with Anastasia.

As he entered, the water that rippled around her chest instantly rose to her neck. Mikhail leaned languidly against the bathtub, which was originally prepared for him, and pulled Anastasia, who was curled up in confusion, toward him.

Suddenly finding herself straddling his body, Anastasia struggled in embarrassment. But Mikhail easily wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her onto his thigh. Through the thin fabric, she could feel his body with startling clarity.

“Anastasia. Open your hand.”

His terribly deep voice whispered in her ear.

Mikhail gently took Anastasia’s wrist and guided it toward him. With Anastasia’s palm, which didn’t know what to do or how to do it, he made her stroke his neck and chest. Then, the moment he guided her lower….

“…!”

Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, Anastasia’s body jerked violently. But Mikhail firmly pressed her hand against him and whispered, “You can’t be startled. This is something you’ll have to get used to.”

At the voice tickling her ear, Anastasia felt a tingling sensation spread down her spine. A languid moan escaped her without her realizing it.

“From now on, always. By my side.”

At the first future together he ever spoke of, Anastasia closed her eyes.

***

It was deep into the night when Mikhail emerged from the room carrying Anastasia. Natasha, who waited outside the entire time at a loss over what to do, quickly examined Anastasia’s condition when Mikhail appeared.

Anastasia was fast asleep in Mikhail’s arms, wearing his bathrobe. Perhaps because Mikhail was so tall and broad, Anastasia looked as though she were bundled up in a blanket inside his bathrobe.

Still carrying Anastasia, Mikhail headed toward the annex. He entered her room and carefully lowered Anastasia from his arms onto the bed as though she were made of the most fragile glass in the world.

“Mmm….”

But sensing the warmth that held her disappearing, Anastasia frowned and slightly opened her eyes. Her eyes remained heavy with sleep, as though the entire day exhausted her. Even so, Anastasia grasped the hem of Mikhail’s clothes and spoke in a small, murmuring voice.

“…Don’t go.”

“That’s a dangerous thing to say.”

He sent her safely back to her own room, biting his lip because he didn’t know what he might do if he kept her in his. Yet now she was telling him not to leave. If he remained beside Anastasia like this, his patience seemed likely to run out very quickly.

Mikhail sat beside the bed and covered Anastasia’s face with his hand as though telling her to close her eyes. He felt her long eyelashes flutter beneath his palm, tickling it.

“Just sleep tonight.”

As the tickling beneath his palm gradually slowed, Mikhail thought.

He wanted her to simply fall asleep tonight.

But from now on, she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep so easily.