Chapter 33.1

“I just woke up. How can I keep sleeping if you touch me like that, Yernia?” Cassian rasped truthfully.

He seemed unfamiliar to her, especially when he had just woken up.

Yernia had never regarded Cassian’s face as innocent as an angel as he gave her a hooded stare.

They had been friends for twelve years, and she found it amazing that there were still some things she didn’t know about him.

“When did you wake up, Cassian?”

“I woke up when you started touching my chest.” He replied in a husky voice.

“Why would it bother you? I simply touched it.”

“Do you like it that much?”

Yernia peered at Cassian between her lashes and asked shamelessly,  “Can I touch it one more time?”

Honestly, stroking his bare chest with her palms felt amazing.

Yernia wasn’t interested in Cassian’s body at all, but she suddenly felt something soft hardening between their bodies.

“You can touch my chest as much as you want all morning.”

“No.” Yernia spread her hands on his chest and kneaded him carefully as if he was made of clay. “I think I’m fine with this.”

She continued working hard but then a strange thought crossed her mind.

Wouldn’t she come across as a pervert?

As soon as she caught herself, Yernia lifted her hands off him and stole a glance at Cassian’s blushing face.

Why was he so willing to offer his chest for her hands to touch if it embarrassed him, anyway?

“Sorry, Cassian. I didn’t realize.”

“You can touch me as much as you want.”

“I didn’t touch your chest because I’m interested in you. I just thought it felt amazing underneath my palms.”

“You can have me all to yourself. I rather like your touch, Yernia.”

Yernia expected him to be shy when he admitted this, but his words reflected the exact opposite.

She thought about asking him why, but she skipped that instead.

It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Yernia just felt strange every time she looked at him on the bed.

Grabbing Yernia’s cheeks, Cassian stroked her closed eyelids outward with his thumbs to remove the tiny boogers in her eyes.

Cassian greeted her good morning and added, “Did you sleep well, Yernia?”

He felt so different from the previous Cassian who used to break into her house early in the morning to complain in her face, “Did you just wake up now?”

Why did he have to sound so sweet or was she still half asleep?

“Yes. Good morning, Cassian.”

She felt strange saying that to him.

***

Yernia felt betrayed at what happened between her and Cassian last night.

After learning about proper guidance from her new husband, Yernia wrote a letter to her family the next day, asking them if they were serious.

It turned out that Cassian was right all along.

“I was about to tell you by the time you married.” Her mother said. “It was unfortunate that I missed the timing for some reason. You  must have felt so betrayed.”

“How can you not tell me, mother?”

Nothing would have changed if the Countess did or not, but as a guide, it was something she should have known.

Yernia would be busy with many things after her marriage to Cassian, so she had no time to meet her family and talk about guiding.

That was the reason why she asked them in her letter in the first place.

Feeling betrayed, Yernia hadn’t answered her mother’s letter back.

“What are you thinking about, Yermia?” Cassian asked as he poked her hand and it brought her to the present.

At that moment, she realized that everyone was looking at her.

It appeared like the food had arrived before she knew it.

As the wife of the Marquis, it was only natural for Yernia to join meetings with Cassian.

However, it was kind of difficult to adjust  here.

“Oh, no. It’s nothing, Cassian.”

Yernia smiled awkwardly as the ladies and gentlemen around her cut their steaks.

She couldn’t wait to eat her food as well.

When Yernia picked up her knife to start eating,  Cassian took her bowl to chop her steak himself.

Yernia allowed him to since he did this for her all the time.

While she was drinking water, a woman decided to open her mouth and say something awful.

“I see that the Marquis seemed more thoughtful than I expected since you are cutting her steak yourself.”

Yernia realized that everyone was cutting their own steak, and no other husband but Cassian had cut his own wife’s steak for her.

She felt somewhat self-conscious about the noblewomen in this gathering since they were known to be strict in upholding the rules in the Society.

For her,  it was even more so.

She just turned into an adult and just got married, too.

“Cassian, let me do it myself. You can just cut your steak.”

“Don’t mind her. She’s just envious of us, Yernia.”

It would have been better to change how she usually called Cassian considering the seating arrangement, but calling him ‘husband’ or ‘honey’ made her frown.

She hated how hard it was to utter them.

“You don’t have to be self-conscious. Just be yourself. As usual.”  Cassian whispered to quell down her anxiety.

Yernia whispered back. “I feel awkward because I’m not doing anything.”

“You can cut my steak or something.”

“Don’t you think that’s even stranger?”

They should have cut and eat their own steaks from the start but Cassian was unwilling to return her food.

Yernia clutched her knife and cut Cassian’s steak rather than staying still.

She seemed to relax as the time passed gradually, and she often responded or participated in conversations while eating at the same time.

As Yernia chewed her food, she heard a cracking sound, and some aristocrats turned their heads in her direction.

Was she not the only person who could hear it?

What was that?

Was it a rock?

The more she chewed, the louder the sound became.