She gave me a careful look, studying my face with an intensity that made the air between us thicken. My gaze locked onto hers, and for a moment the atmosphere crackled with something I couldn’t name — a heat that had nothing to do with temperature. The charge between us was so palpable I could have sworn I saw our breath mist in the space between us, though no such thing was visible.
Lady Yuan lowered her gaze. The motion was soft, almost demure, but there was nothing demure about the effect it had on me. The gesture was sensual in a way that bypassed thought entirely, hypnotic, and something within me stirred — not in my groin, but deeper. From the core of my soul, a power rose like a mountain pushing through earth.
’Is it the Oath doing this?’
Granted, I felt like I wanted to rush straight at her and bury my cock inside her until neither of us could stand. That part was certainly me.
I knew I was a pathetically and perpetually horny motherfucker, but this was different. I hadn’t felt desire like this toward anyone before — not this specific, not this consuming.
Lady Yuan was beautiful, yes. She embodied that eastern fantasy ideal we read about in cultivation novels: porcelain skin, delicate features, the kind of face that launched thousand-Chapter wars. Her fox ears and tail elevated her beyond even that canonized standard. She was an ethereal jade beauty, the kind of woman poets ruined themselves trying to describe.
But she was also sensual. Everything about her form hid beneath the flowing silk of her kimono, which somehow made it worse. I could trace the subtle line of her cleavage where the black tapes of her dress held the fabric together, and the tattoo — that flower-like mark — peeked out again where her collar had slipped. She hadn’t noticed, or perhaps she no longer cared.
Instead, her attention was fixed entirely on me.
I sensed a hesitation in her, a tremor... not of uncertainty, like an uncalm rush of something. Then she leaned back towards the metal rod of the bunk and slowly spread her legs, looking away as a soft blush bloomed across her pale cheeks.
"Lord Cade... please." Her hand moved between her spread thighs, the gesture unmistakable.
But something in me balked. A furrow creased my brows.
"No."
Her expression shifted instantly — confusion bleeding into something that looked almost like hurt. Before she could speak, I moved toward her and caught her hand in mine.
"Oath or not, a woman of your caliber..." I searched for words that wouldn’t sound ridiculous. "To be allowed inside you is the greatest honor. The least I can do is show you what love feels like first."
I pulled her gently toward me by her captured hand until her face hovered just before mine, close enough that her breath warmed my lips.
’Damn. That actually sounded pretty good.’
Her eyes had gone wide, frozen. She stared at me like I’d just handed her a sacred text she didn’t know how to read.
No matter how prettily I’d framed it, what I’d essentially said was: I’m not skipping foreplay.
Slowly, I leaned toward her. She remained perfectly still, watching... waiting. My lips hovered above hers — a breath of distance, a question. The same way she’d offered herself, I offered this: a choice.
Then, gently, I closed the distance.
The first touch was soft. Just the press of lips to lips, chaste almost. But the shiver that ran through her was anything but chaste. Lady Yuan trembled against me, her whole body vibrating like a plucked string.
I released her hand and settled my palm against her slender waist, feeling the warmth of her skin through the silk. My other hand cradled her jaw, tilting her face just slightly as I deepened the kiss.
Her lips parted for me slowly, uncertainly. When my tongue slipped between them to curl against hers, she made a small sound — surprise, or pleasure, or both. Her movements were clumsy, unpracticed, but she tried to follow my lead with an earnestness that made my chest ache.
All of this felt strange to her. I could tell it was a foreign territory she was navigating by instinct alone.
’Her first kiss?’
It had to be.
And if this was her first kiss, didn’t that mean she was also untouched below?
’She just offered that to me? Just like that?’
She’d said someone of my caliber. Was Lady Yuan naive, or had she seen something that convinced her I could truly help — something that made her willing to give away something this precious?
I gripped her tighter and lifted her onto my lap, settling her weight across my thighs. She trembled at the shift in position, her gaze dropping away from mine. The blush had spread from her cheeks down her neck now, and she seemed incapable of meeting my eyes for more than a moment at a time.
A laugh threatened to escape me, but I held it in.
’God. She’s adorable.’
"Lady Yuan," I said softly, my voice rough. "Was that your first kiss?"
She glanced up at me through her lashes. "A kiss? That is what this is called?"
I blinked.
’She doesn’t even know what a kiss is.’
Suddenly everything made more sense. The casual way she’d spread herself open for me, the offer made without hesitation — she didn’t understand the weight others placed on such things. She hadn’t been raised with those values, those meanings.
"I have only ever studied how to move, how to maximize my body for combat and train with the sword," she said quietly. "I was never privileged to learn such things. Everything I know of intimacy, I read in my grandfather’s journal."
A small, pleased smile curved her lips — a smile that made her beauty almost painful to look at. She touched her chest, pressing her palm flat over her heart.
"If this is what a kiss feels like... then I owe you my life, Lord Cade. There never came a day when I believed I would experience what was written in grandfather’s journal. He described these acts as Heavenly — things that confused fate itself. He called them the apparel of love."
’Good lord, Mr Reincarnator. What the hell did you write in that journal?’
I squinted at her. "Was that where you learned about the Oath?"
She nodded. "In grandfather’s journey, he used it often to secure allies who were indebted to him for their help."
I nodded slowly, processing this. Then, carefully: "Did your grandfather have any male companions?"
She shook her head. "No. He had eight companions, all women, who later became his eight wives. Their descendants became the eight family branches of the clan."
’Ah. Mr Reincarnator, I respect you.’
So this harem business — someone had walked that path before me. Suddenly I felt more confident, though I certainly wasn’t going to settle for something as measly as eight.
Lady Yuan looked at me, something building behind her eyes. She hesitated, her teeth catching her lower lip for just a moment before she spoke.
"Lord Cade... would it be permissible to do that again? This... kiss." A strange light kindled in her gaze. "I want to do it again."