The Sub Male Lead is Burning with Jealousy - Chapter 2 Part 12
A child benefits from seeing their parents in love. But how could every family be perfect? Parents are human too, and they need to be happy themselves to be affectionate towards their child. Anais knew she couldn’t give love properly if her own heart was barren.
She planned to find her own happiness in this situation and give affection to her child. The only reason she maintained this marriage was for the child’s status.
Anais inadvertently thought of the children she had seen in her dream. They were just figments of her imagination, yet she wondered if her child with Rahil would look like that.
‘They should be happy.’
She believed that as long as the parents maintained a basic level of trust, even in a loveless marriage, the child could be happy.
“Anais.”
They had left the ballroom and had been walking down the corridor for a while. She wasn’t completely familiar with the palace’s layout, so she wasn’t quite sure where they were heading.
Their destination for the night was the Empress’s palace. Since the ballroom was in the main palace, they would need to take a carriage back to the Empress’s palace.
“It’s getting late. Let’s head to the Empress’s palace.”
At Anais’s words, Rahil’s face suddenly turned bright red. Anais looked at him quizzically. It was their wedding night, and they had agreed to conceive a child, so sharing a bed was expected.
‘Are you really okay? After all, I’m not Angelica.’
People react differently, but typically those who have someone they like are not keen on getting physically close with others. Anais thought this would be especially true for Rahil, a sub male lead from a romance novel.
‘Is he embarrassed because he’s a v****n?’
Given Rahil’s long-standing affection for Angelica, Anais was certain he was inexperienced. As for kissing… she wasn’t sure. He might or might not have kissed Angelica. The vow at the restaurant threshold wasn’t in the original story, after all.
“Uh, I’ll, I’ll have a servant prepare the carriage!”
Covering his flushed face with his palm, Rahil turned to summon a servant, who quickly responded. Anais looked around and walked over to a bench, sitting down. Rahil came near her but didn’t sit.
“There’s plenty of space. Please sit.”
The bench was long, with plenty of room. Rahil hesitated slightly before sitting at a slight distance from Anais. He seemed relieved that her mood had improved significantly.
‘It seems I’ve put out the immediate fire.’
“When we get to the Empress’s palace…”
“Huh?”
Startled by her sudden question, Anais gently began to speak.
“Let’s share a bed in two hours. I’m really tired right now. I want to take a bath and rest a bit.”
“O-okay.”
Ideally, they would postpone their first night together to rest, but that wasn’t an option. Not consumm@ting the marriage on the first night could be a point of criticism. This was true even for ordinary nobility, let alone the Empress. So Anais hadn’t even considered delaying it, as it would complicate things for her.
Despite her arbitrary decision to rest for two hours, Rahil readily agreed. Anais had expected him to be angry for her making such decisions on their first night, so she felt relieved.
“Feeling better now?”
“I wasn’t angry in the first place.”
She had glared a bit but didn’t really vent her feelings. Probably.
Rahil didn’t argue; he just smiled. Slowly moving closer to her, he gently took Anais’s hand.
‘What’s this? We’re married, sure, but why does this physical contact feel so natural?’
Originally, Rahil was so shy he couldn’t even properly hold Angelica’s hand. That’s why he lost out to Theodore and wasn’t taken seriously as a man.
‘Ah. Is it because he doesn’t like me?’
Anais easily accepted this reasoning, but for Rahil, it was different. His heartbeat, which had already quickened just by sitting next to her, now seemed to race at holding her hand.
Unexpectedly, he didn’t mind the contact with her. He didn’t know why, perhaps because they were married, but he felt a flutter in his heart….
‘That can’t be right.’
Stealing a glance at Anais, Rahil noticed she appeared calm, perhaps relieved, and somewhat unburdened. They had left the ballroom, and now, barring the impending consummation of their marriage, the difficult parts seemed over.
‘Now I have to, well, do that with Anais.’
Rahil was not ignorant about s****l matters. He had received basic education and had done some research himself, remembering how Anais adamantly refused any pain and insisted it would be a breach of contract.
His racing heart must be due to the anticipation of their upcoming intimate moment.
Holding Anais’s much smaller hand in his, Rahil contemplated. Her hand felt slender and soft.
Having never comfortably welcomed the touch of a woman other than Angelica, he found this feeling novel. He had never held a woman’s hand in this manner before.
My wife.
It was as if Rahil’s instincts were whispering to him that she was a person he could trust and shower with affection without worry. Perhaps it was the fact that they were now married that made the physical contact, the way he treated her, and the feelings he had kept hidden, feel natural.
She is my wife, after all. A partner with whom this intimacy did not feel awkward.
Of course, he was the Emperor, and an emperor sometimes has to think about politics even in bed. There were times he had to be a comrade to the Empress, and times they turned their backs on each other.
But Rahil believed he could trust Anais. Why he felt such a baseless conviction, he couldn’t say.
It might be because he faced disapproving glances from her for swearing love to a woman who was to become his friend’s wife. Although some of what she claimed was unjust to him, he didn’t think any of her assertions were excessively unreasonable.
‘So…’
I can trust her. With that thought, Rahil smiled.
