Seren found herself waking up in her husband's comfortably warm embrace. Not bothering to open her eyes, she further snuggled into those arms like a baby, as if wanting to go back to sleep but...
"Good morning, my Queen."
Hearing Drayce's manly voice, still slightly hoarse from sleep, made her smile under her veil. It was the kind of sound she'd want to hear first thing every morning. She opened her eyes, wanting to greet him back, but she forgot that thought when the wonderful view of his bare muscled chest welcod her.
That should have been normal given the difference between their physiques...but, to her surprise, she realized she was snuggling her face against his naked body with her hands even feeling him up.
"Are you finally awake?"
She heard his voice again, his tone with a hint of amusent, and imdiately, she retracted her hands and moved her face up to look at the expression donned by the owner of that chest.
As expected, he was staring at her as if he was holding back a smile, and she blinked at that handso face, sowhat distracted before she found her gaze trailing downwards from his face towards his chest.
Recalling the fact that the man in her bed was naked, Seren was so flustered she tried to escape from his embrace.
"W-Why are you not wearing clothes?!" she asked, as if accusing him of sothing wrong he did.
He could no longer keep his smile, and an amused laugh escaped his naughty lips. "Is my wife the only one allowed to sleep without clothes on?" His gaze deliberately moved down from her face to her bare chest, mirroring what she did to him earlier.
As their movents caused the blanket to move down a little, she realized sothing and moved her gaze down to look at herself. Realization hit her, seemingly causing all the blood in her body to rush to her head.
"Ah!!!" She imdiately yanked the blanket to cover her bare chest. "W-Why am I not wearing clothes?"
The sun was already up, and the curtains were drawn, allowing the sunlight to brighten the entire bedchamber. It made everything clear for both of them to see--the clothes were strewn about, their mutual nakedness, the love bites on their skins, everything.
Though they had been intimate before, they did it in the dark and she was more used to seeing her body during her morning bath. For him to see her like this and vice-versa in broad daylight, she was yet to get accustod to such experience.
"Why? Is it so surprising?" he asked, as being naked didn't matter to him.
He moved closer to her and wrapped his hand around her waist, pulling her close enough to have their naked bodies pressed against each other.
The flustered woman exclaid. "D-Dray! What are you doing?!"
Her reaction didn't stop him. Instead, a playful smile appeared on that handso face, showing how much he was enjoying this mont with his adorable wife.
"To think of it, I realized just now that I have never seen my wife without her clothes on. How disgraceful for a husband. Seems like we need to redy this failure of mine."
The way he looked at her, she was sure he was up to no good and she tried to push him away, hoping that would change his mind. "D-Dray, it's late... We slept for a long ti...You need to go, or else you will be late for the court session--"
"I am the King. Who would dare complain even if I am late?"
"Still, I...I need to get up," she insisted, trying to get away from his hold. To be naked in the darkness was her current limit--as a dignified lady, she's yet to prepare her ntality for sothing as obscene as to be seen naked with Dray during the dayti.
Drayce didn't wish to force her to do what she didn't want and eventually let her go. "Fine, but you should get more accustod to this level of intimacy with , my Queen. Next ti, I won't let you go so easily."
'Next ti, I won't be naked anymore,' Seren corrected him inside her head, but on the surface, she obediently nodded to what he said.
But since Drayce could see through her, he simply smiled. Her innocence could never hide her cute little sches.
"Stay in bed longer if you wish to. I will get up now," he inford her and stepped out of bed without waiting for her response.
Seren let out a squeal as she imdiately looked the other way. She didn't have the guts to look at her husband's naked body.
"I don't mind if you look at ," Drayce said as he picked up the torn clothes he had thrown on the floor last night.
"But I mind," Seren replied while still looking the other way.
"Then next ti you have to stop him from tearing my clothes. If you won't, later I won't wear any."
"Fine," she agreed, and as she waited for him to bid her farewell, or at least ask a servant to bring a robe to cover his body, she found herself confused to hear no other sound from him.
She peeked at him with one eye open to check what he was doing but found her chamber empty.
'Did he leave already?'
She looked around carefully, and upon making sure she was on her own, Seren gave out a sigh of relief.
-------
Drayce and Seren started their work that day with improved moods, which was so obvious in the way they treated their subordinates that those people too were affected and beca more spirited. The people of the palace were in a happy mood, and such was the case until the two royals had their midday al together in the King's residence, only to receive unexpected news as soon as they stepped out of the dining hall.
Slayer bowed to them, seemingly having waited for a while for the King and the Queen to co out. "Greetings, Your Majesty the King and Your Majesty the Queen. Pardon my rudeness, but I bear urgent news from the Obsidian Palace."
Drayce paused without a change in his expression. Slayer continued to keep his head low as he inford them, "His Excellency King Theron has returned to the palace with an injury on his royal body."
"What? How could that be?" Seren asked imdiately. Her mind jumped to her recent abduction, and she felt agitated, wondering if those hooded people targeted the previous king too. "What happened?"
There was a montary worry flashing in her husband's red eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly, as if the news didn't matter to him.
Slayer's response luckily denied her wild speculation.
"His Excellency left his knights behind and wandered off their camp in the forest when a wild boar attacked him--"
"Make sure the royal physicians do their work properly," Drayce interrupted Slayer as if he didn't wish to hear more and looked at Seren. "My Queen, shall we?"
"But Dray, are we not--"
"Don't worry about it," he cut her off and gestured for them to start walking.
Despite her reluctance, she quietly walked with him in that hallway and glanced at Drayce once in a while. Before getting the news, he was happily talking to her, but now, his silence made her feel uncomfortable. He felt cold and distant, his face bearing a cold expression that made her not dare talk to him.
She could feel that though Drayce implied that he didn't care for his father, deep inside him, the news of his father's injury bothered him.
They finally stopped at the hallway connecting the King's Palace and the Queen's Palace. Seren gathered her resolve and looked at him. "Dray, are you sure we should not go visit His Excellency?"
"My Queen," Drayce started, his eyes staring at sothing in the air, "you must have heard about my past from Grandmother. Do you think I still need to be worried for such a man, to the extent of going there personally when it's not even life-threatening? He's a swordsman like . His body is strong despite his age. Do you want to go there and fake concern?"
Seren didn't know what to say to him as she knew he was upset with his father. It was a difficult decision to not side with Theron without offending Drayce, and at the sa ti, it was hard on her conscience to side with Drayce as she knew the truth of their past. She felt sincere worry for her father-in-law and felt bad for him, knowing how much pain he had gone through.
"I understand," was all Seren could say and turned to leave.
While walking in the hallway, she wondered if there was a way to reunite these father and son who had grown distant from each other despite their real feelings.
The news of King Theron being injured had reached everywhere within the Royal Palace of garis, even to the distant Crystal Palace of Great Lady Theodora.
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