She looked up. "Co in."
The door opened, and Larus entered carrying a tray laden with fresh fruit, small pastries, and a pot of that milk tea he’d made for her before.
Heena set down her pen, looking at him with raised eyebrows. "Why are you doing this? There are servants for this. You don’t need to carry things yourself."
Larus smiled as he set the tray on the table beside her desk. "Well, I thought that by doing this, we could have so alone ti together. I wanted to spend ti with you."
Heena’s lips curved into a teasing smile. "Oh my, isn’t this the sa person who told very seriously that he wouldn’t et before the wedding? Sothing about tradition and propriety?"
Larus’s face turned red. He looked down, suddenly fascinated by the tea tray. "Well... I thought the marriage was only one day away. But now it’s five days, and I was just... slightly lonely in the palace."
His voice was almost plaintive, like a puppy left alone too long.
Heena felt her heart do sothing strange and annoying in her chest.
Then suddenly, a mischievous thought hit her.
She winced, clutching her forehead dramatically. "Agh—"
She groaned, letting her body sway slightly.
Larus’s eyes went wide with alarm. He rushed forward imdiately, his hands cupping her face gently to look at her.
"Your Majesty! What happened? Are you alright? Should I call the physician—"
Heena’s eyes glinted with mischief.
In one smooth, practiced motion, she grabbed his wrists and ’pulled’—using his own forward montum against him.
The world spun.
Suddenly Larus found himself sitting in Heena’s chair, and Heena was straddling his lap, her hands planted on the armrests on either side of him, effectively caging him in.
Their faces were inches apart.
Larus’s eyes went comically wide, his face turning bright red. "Y-Your Majesty—what—"
"Gotcha," Heena said with a wicked smile.
Larus stared at her, his brain clearly short-circuiting. His hands hovered in the air, not quite touching her waist but clearly wanting to, completely uncertain about what to do.
"You... you tricked ," he said, sounding almost betrayed.
"I did," Heena agreed cheerfully. "You were too easy."
"That’s—that’s not fair! I was genuinely worried!" Larus protested, his face getting even redder. "You can’t just fake being hurt to—to—"
"To what?" Heena asked innocently, leaning slightly closer. "To get you alone? To see how you’d react? To test sothing?"
"Test what?!" Larus squeaked, his voice going up an octave.
Heena studied his face carefully—the genuine concern still lingering in his eyes, the blush spreading down his neck, the way his hands trembled slightly in the air, clearly wanting to touch her but not daring to without permission.
Heena looked at him carefully and said, "Of course, to test if you are capable in that aspect."
Larus’s face turned completely red as he stamred, "You—you are a woman, at least act like—"
"Like what?" Heena interrupted, looking at him with amusent. "You don’t like it like this?"
Even though she was teasing, her hand was already moving restlessly, tracing patterns on his chest through the fabric of his shirt.
Larus looked at her, his face completely flushed, eyes slightly becoming hazy, as he covered his mouth with one hand and said breathlessly, "Your Majesty, please—"
Heena’s hand slipped beneath the fabric of his shirt, and she paused, genuinely surprised.
’Damn.’
The abs were ’literal’ abs. Not like those overly muscled gym types with hard, bulging muscles. No, these were firm yet not stone-hard—smooth, defined, with just the right amount of resistance. Like touching warm marble that had been perfectly sculpted.
Heena couldn’t even find the right words to describe the feeling. Her hands moved over them again and again, exploring the defined ridges.
Larus’s face had turned an even deeper shade of red, his breathing becoming shallow.
Seeing this, Heena’s expression beca even more playful. She looked at him and said with a wicked smile, "Hmm, what happened, Your Highness? Feeling troubled?"
Her other hand moved to his face, fingers tracing slowly along his jawline, sliding up and down, making him shiver.
He squird slightly. "It—it tickles—"
"Oh, really?" Heena said, her smile widening. "Well then..."
Her hand moved higher on his chest, and when her fingers brushed against his nipple through the thin fabric, she saw his entire body tense. His expression turned even redder, his eyes squeezing shut.
’So this is his sensitive spot.’
Heena’s face beca even more mischievous. Her lips lowered slowly toward his, the distance between them shrinking—
’Knock knock.’
Heena groaned internally.
After two knocks with no response, she thought whoever it was would just leave. That was the proper protocol—if you knock and get no answer, you leave. Basic manners.
She was about to kiss Larus when suddenly—
The door opened.
And then Heena rembered: ’Oh right. These old bastards have forgotten what manners are.’
She turned around, her expression shifting from playful to absolutely murderous as she looked to see who had dared interrupt.
It was her so-called husbands.
Well, not all of them. Four of them stood in the doorway—Kieran, Adrian, Damien, and Raphael. Lucian was apparently elsewhere.
Heena had to wonder: ’What the hell? Do these bastards always travel in packs?’
Okay, she accepted that they were all married to the sa woman in this world, that they had so kind of collective arrangent. But that didn’t an they had to move around like a gang preparing to jump soone.
’Do they even go to the washroom together?’
Heena looked utterly irritated at being interrupted, but she still sat up straight and fixed her shirt with sharp, precise movents.
Larus turned completely red with embarrassnt. His clothes had beco disheveled, and he tried desperately to cover himself and make himself appear tidy. Yet the redness on his face hadn’t disappeared at all—if anything, it had deepened.
The four consorts’ eyes imdiately fixed on Larus.
Heena looked at them with visible irritation. "What are you doing here?"
Kieran just stared at Larus without blinking, his expression unreadable but clearly displeased.
It was Raphael—the quiet one who usually stayed silent—who spoke up this ti.
"Your Majesty, we have a eting scheduled. You called us here."
Heena paused, then rembered. ’Oh. Right. The strategic planning eting.’
She looked at them with continued irritation, then deliberately turned Larus’s chair around so it faced the wall, completely hiding him from their view. She leaned against her desk, creating a barrier between Larus and the four n.
"Still," she said coldly, "don’t you people have basic manners? When you knock and soone doesn’t answer, you should ’stay outside’."
Raphael’s eyes widened and he imdiately fell silent, clearly regretting speaking up.
Then Adrian spoke carefully, "We know the rules, Your Majesty, but—"
He paused, clearly choosing his words cautiously.
"—you were the one who told us that after knocking twice, if we didn’t get an answer, we could enter your office."
Heena rubbed her head in slight irritation.
’Right. That was what the previous Celeste had ordered.’
The original Celeste had been such a workaholic that when she was deep in concentration, she wouldn’t even notice a bomb going off. So she’d given explicit permission for the consorts to enter after two knocks to ensure important matters weren’t delayed.
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