Even without the cave’s echo, hearing it in the cave made her ears itch for some reason.
Reneb slyly scratched her ear and said,
“A little. Aren’t you cold, Sir Icar?”
“I have a lot of heat in my body.”
“That’s a body to be envious of at times like this.”
Reneb looked up at Icar and spoke. Then one corner of Icar’s mouth rose slightly.
“If you need heat, I can share it.”
Reneb, who didn’t understand the meaning right away, blinked her eyes, and Icar got up. Then he took a position behind Reneb’s back.
“Why, why are you lying here?”
Reneb blinked her eyes rapidly, confused, and Icar grinned mischievously.
“You don’t expect me to do more, do you?”
At that moment, Icar’s firm chest muscle glimpsed through his slightly opened shirt entered Reneb’s view.
The image of his naked body in the hot spring earlier came to mind.
Reneb gulped down her rising dry saliva and tried hard to shake off that image.
“What do you mean ‘do more’? You’re strange.”
“You saw.”
“What, what?”
“You peeped at my body in the hot spring earlier. I know.”
Reneb closed her eyes tightly and apologized sincerely.
“I’m sorry. I’ve committed a grave sin. If I have to excuse myself… it wasn’t intentional. I apologize once again.”
A snicker came from above her head, followed by a movement as if to change position.
Reneb stiffened her body, curling it up.
Then something hard touched her back. Reneb’s eyes snapped open.
Reneb was licking her lips,
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to satisfy your expectations.”
The vibration of his voice was transmitted through their touching backs. The warmth emanating from Icar’s broad back seeped into Reneb’s back.
“Sleep well.”
Reneb closed her eyes in relief. Soon after, the vibration came through their touching backs again.
“Sleep well.”
Thus, the long and arduous day came to a close.
(This is a time delimiter.)
The next day, Reneb, who had just woken up, wriggled her body, seeking warmth.
She had fallen asleep, so tired that she didn’t even know when, apparently.
But her view was a little… odd.
Blinking her eyes a few times, thinking she was still sleepy, did not change anything.
The sunken collarbone that made her want to follow the water.
The shirt, loosened and open, allowed a glimpse of his flawless, firm chest muscles.
It wasn’t just that.
Her body was unusually heavy, and it felt suffocating as well.
‘Now, what is… What’s going on?’
Why was she nestled in Icar’s arms?
Being careful not to wake Icar, Reneb raised her eyes.
A thick yet long and straight neck line, and a sleek yet masculine jawline.
Her eyes traveled over his red, attractive lips and stretched nose, moving upward.
And then, her eyes met his narrow eyes.
“You were awake?”
Icar slowly opened his mouth.
“A while ago. You seemed very tired? You slept very soundly.”
Reneb tried to push away from his chest.
But then.
“Ugh.”
Icar squinted one eye.
Along with the touch of hard muscles, she felt something else with her fingertips.
Huh?
“That’s a rather intense way to say good morning, don’t you think, Your Grace?”
Reneb slowly removed her hand from his chest and looked away.
“Go, good morning.”
Once again, his solid chest muscles caught her eye through the gap in his shirt.
Saliva involuntarily gathered in her mouth.
As if to mock Reneb, Icar spoke in a muffled voice.
“Your gaze seems somewhat mischievous. Is it my mistake?”
“Yes. It must be your honorable mistake.”
Reneb quickly nodded and got up, feeling guilty as if she had become a pervert touching someone else’s body since morning.
“You surely struggled to sleep outdoors, Your Grace. You kept shivering.”
“So you hugged me while sleeping?”
Reneb widened her eyes and asked, and one corner of Icar’s mouth rose crookedly.
“You kept clinging to my back. I merely put my arm around you, so don’t misunderstand.”
There was no way to confirm if Icar’s words were true or not.
She had no memory from the moment she closed her eyes.
Reneb was only fumbling with her dry lips when Icar said something incomprehensible.
“He’s here.”
Then, the sound of footsteps was heard.
Oh? Who is it?
“Wait here for a moment.”
Watching Icar’s broad back as he left the cave, Reneb buried her face in her palms.
‘Clinging to his back? Me?’
Frozen for a while, reflecting on herself, Reneb soon shook it off and stood up.
What could she do about what had already happened?
To avoid shame, she desperately needed to win in her mind.
To compose herself, Reneb washed her face with icy cold water.
As she was drying the hem of her dress, Icar’s voice was heard from behind.
“I was wondering where you had gone, here you are.”
Beside him stood a slender, handsome man with slightly dark blonde hair and green eyes.
‘His Grace.’
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
