Chapter 223
Chapter 223
There was an emotion in Shen Si’s voice that had never been there before.
Ji Hanyi sensed it. Looking into the heavy darkness in his eyes, her heart tightened. Under his gaze, she obediently called him husband.
Shen Si drew a deep breath and bent to seize her lips. He had not kissed her for days, had not touched her for days. Now the spark became a raging fire, and he pressed her down upon the narrow chaise.
His long fingers loosened her collar. Without allowing any refusal, he cupped her and bent to kiss her there.
The painful, itching tingle drew an involuntary sound from Ji Hanyi.
Shen Si remained silent. He lifted her nearly naked body and carried her to the bed. He had already dismissed the palace attendants outside, but he had only half an hour to remain here.
It was nowhere near enough.
The curtains of the ornate canopy bed fell closed. For once, Shen Si showed her an uncompromising forcefulness. Giving Ji Hanyi no chance to speak, he pinned her wrists above her head and reached to lift his own robes.
In the dim light filtering through the curtains, Ji Hanyi stared blankly at his movements.
Shen Si’s gaze remained fixed upon her, black and fathomless. Though his free hand moved over her body with naked aggression, his noble face showed little lust. Instead, it bore a gravity that made her heart sink.
He soon pressed down over her. His voice carried the authority of a man accustomed to command. “Hanyi, endure it for a moment.”
It was not a question, nor a tender murmur meant to soothe and persuade. It was an order-an order for Ji Hanyi to cooperate.
She stared at the man above her. This Shen Si seemed more like the one she remembered. He had always arranged everything methodically around his own will, and no one defied him.
Even now, she did not dare say anything against his wishes.
He lifted her body and sealed her lips with his. A hoarse groan escaped him, but he still failed to enter her.
Ji Hanyi froze. She felt the faint tremor in his fingers. He seemed to be touching her at random, unable to find the proper way.
The man above her abruptly rose. Ji Hanyi could not help looking down, and what she saw made her tremble as well.
Instinctively, she wanted to help him. For the first time, she saw bewilderment and self-doubt upon Shen Si’s face.
But he caught her hand. What followed was difficult, yet inevitable.
Shen Si’s dark eyes watched Ji Hanyi’s body, while the turmoil within him remained unabated.
Desire still raged wildly through him. He knew this had never been a good moment. Half an hour could not begin to quench his thirst.
His face, however, remained perfectly calm. He would not allow Ji Hanyi to glimpse the slightest trace of his feelings. It was as though everything remained under his control, as though even in this, he governed himself with effortless mastery.
More than anything, he needed to conceal how forceful he had just been. He wanted Ji Hanyi to overlook it and accept what had happened as a natural course of events.
Lips pressed tight, he wrapped the quilt around Ji Hanyi’s body, now covered with red marks. Her face was deeply flushed, and he did not even dare ask whether she was satisfied.
Judging from her expression, she seemed satisfied enough.
He himself was profoundly dissatisfied. It should not have happened this way.
They should have had ample time. He should have held the initiative and driven her beyond restraint-not fumbled before her for a moment like an inexperienced boy.
Most humiliating of all was the instant Ji Hanyi had reached out to help. That had unquestionably wounded his pride.
Looking down at her, Shen Si said only, “Go to sleep early tonight.”
The flush had not yet faded from Ji Hanyi’s face. She looked at Shen Si seated beside her and could not stop staring.
Apart from the slight wrinkles her fingers had left at his collar, every part of him was immaculate. His gaze was once more cool and tranquil as a deep pool, as though he had not been the man who had just tormented her.
For a moment, Ji Hanyi almost doubted herself. Had the man who had clung to her with such urgency truly been Shen Si?
Shen Si saw her staring speechlessly at him. Her eyes, still moist from the lingering pleasure, were exquisitely beautiful. Her cherry lips were faintly swollen from his kisses, and shallow red marks colored the sliver of pale shoulder exposed above the quilt.
He bent to kiss her forehead once more, squeezed her palm, and left.
There was a reason for his hasty departure. His body had found no release. If he stayed another moment or looked at Ji Hanyi once more, he feared he would lose control.
What had happened tonight was no more than a cup of water poured onto a blazing cartload of kindling. It had eased neither his frustration nor his desire. Instead, it had fed the fire. His mind was filled with the pleasure that had surged through his head in that instant.
Ji Hanyi watched his hurried retreat for a long while before burying herself beneath the brocade quilt.
Early the next morning, she went as usual to Her Majesty the Empress. Only two days remained before she could leave the palace. The Empress no longer made her stand, but invited her to sit nearby and observe how the allotments for the inner palace were distributed.
She had not been seated long when attendants from Taiji Hall arrived that morning to summon her. His Majesty the Emperor wished to see her at once.
It was the first time since entering the palace that Ji Hanyi had been summoned to an audience with the Emperor.