Pherenike - Chapter 56

The man’s moist breath settled on her skin. Lips that had momentarily slipped inside her thigh now crawled up the other side, as if he was suppressing his own desire.

He bit into Pherenike’s thigh as he climaxed. Just a few days before, he had buried his nose in her wrist to do the same thing.

His come gushed in his grasp, some of it splattering onto her shin. Pherenike furrowed her brows.

“It got on me too.”

“Yes.”

“It’s dirty.”

“I told you getting dirty is good.”

Abandoning the courteous tone he had in front of Kybellaune, Actor’s attitude drastically changed. It was ridiculous for a man who buried his lips under a pregnant woman’s skirt to pretend to be decent towards her in the first place.

His black hair tousled the white folds of Pherenike’s chiton as he rose.

“…to do this to someone asleep.”

“I like the face you make when you dream.”

“…”

“It’s always filled with such unguarded belief.”

Afterward, he casually wiped the queen’s legs with a blanket, then cleaned his hands and his center. He was extremely indifferent, a complete contrast to the acts he had just committed.

All this had started after Deucalion came to Lykke. Before that, he had treated his pregnant wife like she was barely worthy of his reach up in the clouds.

On a certain autumn night, after a feast for the second prince in the palace, Actor went to the queen’s bed and climbed over his wife who was already in bed.

He didn’t penetrate her that night but went through most of the motions. He left her in an uncomfortable climax and sullied her chest and stomach with his release at the end. He didn’t say a word all night, despite Pherenike’s questions.

In the morning, he apologized.

He looked very polite in front of Pherenike, and asked for forgiveness for his disrespect last night.

It was ludicrous. Pherenike had no choice but to forgive him. After all, she was a woman who had become a wife instead of being a plaything in bed.

From then on, it happened once every few days. Fortunately, Actor never pressured her as he did that night.

Instead, he defiled her hands a few more times, and later, he didn’t even do that. He satisfied his lust without touching Pherenike’s body at all. He just gazed at her as she slept.

Actor wasn’t the kind of man Ino suspected, ruthlessly pushing down upon his pregnant wife. He was just peculiar in a different way.

Pherenike couldn’t even clarify this to Ino. It seemed less grotesque to let her believe they were intimate than to reveal the truth.

Because the reason behind his behavior was Deucalion, and it typically manifested in such a way. There were no words that could be spoken to a woman who claimed to have raised him since he was an infant. Describing these acts as ‘the king protecting his wife’s body’ was also inappropriate.

Even on days when Actor Nicandros didn’t lay a finger on her, he still tainted her. His seeds didn’t need to touch her for her to sometimes feel as if she was drenched in it.

It was a peculiar feeling. Watching a large man nuzzle the tips of a woman’s fingers or toes, indulging himself with a stoic expression. Should have been disgusting, but strangely, it wasn’t. Pherenike assumed she had grown numb to her disgust for Actor Nikandros due to their extensive physical entanglement.

In a way, it was convenient, not having to engage physically. It felt like someone else’s issue.

Actor carelessly threw the s***n-soiled blanket to the floor. After straightening his disheveled clothing, he raised his large body. His broad back casted a shadow in the light. He walked past the crackling hearth to a jar filled with water.

His silhouette flickered beyond the light as he washed his hand. Pherenike watched him, blinking sleepily.

Returning to the bed, Actor took a wool cover hanging over a chair and draped it over her. Only then, did Pherenike curl up a bit more inside the wool after feeling the chill.

“The wife maintained your dignity well, still kicking the blanket away like a child.”

“…You made the blanket unusable.”

“I thought you didn’t use it.”

His reply was shamelessly candid, but accurate. Before he had misused Pherenike’s blanket for his own purposes, she had already kicked it away with her feet.

Now, Actor looked at her as one might look at a child.

“…Will you sleep here tonight too?”

“Until you give birth to the baby.”

Her question about tonight was met with a far-off answer. He settled next to her. Pherenike sighed in annoyance.

“Nobody can harm me anyway. You don’t need to personally guard someone else’s bed like a sentinel…”

“You could get harmed.”

“Are you saying you’re watching me?”

“I suppose I need to protect you from Pherenike Vassilios.”

After her pregnancy, he had become quite talkative. And most of it was this casually frank.