Chapter 217
Chapter 217
After a few more courtesies, Shen Si led Ji Hanyi away. Jiang Xuan watched their retreating figures, then entered Ninghui Hall.
The painting lay quietly on the rosewood table. Even without color, the orchid seemed alive. Beside it were more than ten preliminary sketches. Jiang Xuan paused.
He rested a hand on the paper and silently sat in the pearwood chair behind him, studying the work for a long time.
Meanwhile, Shen Si hurried Ji Hanyi along by the hand. His stride was so long she could barely keep up. At last she whispered, “Marquis, please slow down.”
Only then did he realize his impatience and ease his pace.
The distance was short. Once inside her room, he pressed her against the door and covered her with kisses.
His kiss came like a violent storm. Gripping her chin, he forced her lips apart and refused to let her turn away.
The carved door dug painfully into Ji Hanyi’s back. Her head was tilted, her mouth unable to close, her chin held in a humiliating posture. Shame flooded her. She had never experienced such a fierce, urgent kiss, and it hurt.
The wet sounds between them made her heart race. Palace servants stood beyond the door. If word reached the Empress, would she be lectured about propriety again?
Her hands pushed against Shen Si’s chest but could not move him.
A large hand closed around her waist. Still kissing her, he guided her toward the bed.
Panic rose. Hearing his heavy breathing and seeing his dark eyes, she understood what he intended. She pushed harder, but he caught her wrists and pressed her down onto the soft bedding.
Her eyes reddened from his kisses, and a shy flush covered her cheeks. The sight only strained his control further.
He was no saint immune to temptation, nor did he intend a marriage that existed only in appearance.
From the beginning, he had wanted both Ji Hanyi’s body and her heart.
Even when desire burned through him, he had never meant to force her or reveal the full extent of his hunger.
Now he pressed against her through their clothes. Feeling her body go rigid, he knew she understood everything.
Shen Si buried his face against her fragrant neck and kissed the tiny mole there. Then he cupped her face and looked down at her. “Hanyi, we are husband and wife.”
“Do you dislike my kisses?”
Ji Hanyi did not know how to answer.
She understood what his kiss meant.
She simply was not prepared, and Shen Si had never told her she must be.
She could see desire in his eyes, the same urgency Xie Yuheng had sometimes brought into her room.
But immediately afterward, Xie Yuheng had always become another person and left without looking back.
At first Ji Hanyi had not understood. Later she realized he did not like her; he had only needed her body. That was why she resisted. Even when he left her untouched for half a year, she preferred it. She could never forget the sickening aversion.
For a long time, she had hated intimacy itself.
But this was Shen Si, wholly different from Xie Yuheng.
He had given her protection and a peaceful life. In others’ eyes, he had elevated her beyond anything she deserved.
She did not dislike him. His kisses did not disgust her. She simply could not understand what he felt for her.
Was it affection, or only need for her body?
She knew only that even if events had departed from what she imagined, she could not resist him if he wanted her.
She hesitated. Before she could speak, his fine kisses returned. His low voice was sensually hoarse as he kissed from her nose to her lips, dark eyes holding hers. “Hanyi, you need me too.”
He covered her eyes with one hand. Hot breath and damp kisses traveled downward while his long fingers unfastened her collar.
Ji Hanyi trembled and tried instinctively to stop him. He caught her hand.
Drawing a deep breath, Shen Si slipped his fingers beneath her skirts and kissed her neck.
He knew every sensitive place on her body. He wanted to give her the greatest pleasure, to teach her that her body desired this and she need not reject it.
He had noticed her shyness. Nothing about her resembled an experienced married woman; she was more conservative than he imagined.
He could even sense her aversion.
But her body was sensitive and soon softened like spring water. Her naturally tender eyes became irresistibly alluring. Seeing her curl into his arms, he knew she was close. He kissed her lips. “Hanyi, don’t hold back.”
Ji Hanyi had lost all sense of time. She no longer turned away from his kisses. For one moment, she even craved them.
She wanted his mouth elsewhere on her body.
This self was a stranger to her.
Wave after wave surged over her, rising into a violent tide.
Tears shimmered in her eyes. Dreamlike and unsteady, she clutched Shen Si’s robes and buried herself in his arms while the gentle aftercurrent of pleasure erased everything else.
Shen Si looked down at her. Her clothes were disordered, skin snow-white, cheeks flushed with spring, eyes filled with stars. She looked fragile and pitiable.
Though he remained unsatisfied, her satiated expression satisfied him.
While she still floated in the afterglow, his eyes deepened. He lifted her skirts and moved closer to her deepest place, intending to give her pleasure beyond forgetting.
So she would never forget.
So she would want him again.