YM778.TV Chapter 4
A blush crept across her face, “Do you think you can take off your robe?” she asked, trying to be polite.
“Sorry my queen, I believe you have to do everything. You see, the arrows were found to be poisonous, it rendered movements for my upper body quite difficult and painful,” his baritone voice has no traces of the excitement he felt when he whispered those words.
“Then, may I request for you to lay on the bed please,” she blushed profusely. “It will be better, I think,” she added.
“Of course my queen,” he was surprised by how the nearness of her excited him, and how the prospect of being touched by her made him hard.
Damn it, he had his way with women. Numerous women in his tribe would need only the slightest hint of invitation for them to join him in his bed.
So why is he behaving like a teenage boy who was about to burst from nothing else but a simple contact? He cursed the gods and his irrational feelings for the queen as he lay there, hoping she won’t notice the outline of his already painful erection.
.....
The queen tightened her robes, realizing she was wearing nothing else but her nightgown underneath. The silky material of her robe and nightgown made her realize how naive she is, she has worn her usual sleepwear before her conscience bothered her and made her knock on his door to check on him.
Her fingers trembled as she unrobed him, exposing his well-chiseled abs and fine-lined chest, and... and... she hurriedly took the blankets and covered his lower body.
She has never seen a man’s body before, and she is unsure if it’s supposed to be like that. The tiny shorts he wore underneath was painfully tight and the outline of what was underneath was bulging and pressing against the cloth.
“I’m sorry my queen, I wasn’t dressed properly. I didn’t realize that you would check on me,” the knight explained, though there was no trace of apology in his voice.
He said the words so casually that she felt like he was somehow teasing her to look down again. She blushed, thinking of how dirty her mind has become.
“It is fine,” she said as she regained composure. She started cleaning his wounds with some cloth dyed with the antiseptic.
His body was thoroughly scarred, she noticed, it was filled with battle scars from the many battles he had fought. She wondered how many of these scars were once fatal wounds.
He felt her stop and hesitate a bit as she looked at his chest and abs, he wondered if his body was reprehensible to the queen’s sensibilities. It’s not a secret that she has been overprotected all her life inside the castle walls.
“I have been a warrior for my clan ever since I can remember. Even as a kid I have been subjected to thorough training. So my body has become covered with scars, some due to battle but mostly were inflicted on me through training from our elders,” he explained, hoping that what he said can somehow make his body look less unattractive to the queen.
“It’s not ugly. Your body is beautiful, the scars are like artworks that adorned it,” she blushed as she realized how much she said just now. Truly, they should have included in her studies something about etiquette in dressing a wound.
At that moment, it took everything in his power to hold himself back as she said the words. All he wanted was to pull her a bit closer to him, to finally get rid of the small space that separates their bodies.
He wanted to kiss her, make her feel breathless as he showed her more of him. Did she really just describe his body as beautiful? Ahhh, that just made things more painful for him to bear.
That poor part of him has been trapped in such tight constraints and the one he has always fancied has told him exactly what he wanted to hear. Was she that clueless as to how much she affects him so?
She finished changing the dressings of his wounds and placed all the used materials in her basket. She was about to climb off the bed when she felt strong hands hold her shoulders in place.
“What? What is it?” she asked, her face as red as ripe tomatoes, her body felt warm from the sudden contact.
He was shocked at what he had just done, surely he must be out of his mind to casually just touch the queen. He let her go swiftly, “I just wanted to thank you, my queen.”
She gulped and felt blood rush into her veins, her heart beating faster for the few seconds he held her. She tried to dismiss the thoughts from her head, surely she was the only one giving color to his actions.
“I should be the one to thank you, for saving my life. I would have been a corpse by now, if not for you,” she said, smiling softly at the one who saved her from death’s grip.
“You don’t have to thank me, my queen. I am your knight, it is my duty to protect you. And I will continue to do so in the future,” he assured her, all the while stopping himself from grabbing the queen again and behaving like a fool.
“Every person’s life is just as important as mine. Your life is as important as the queen’s so don’t risk it so carelessly,” she castigated him, her robe slipping a bit as the tie come undone.
He cursed the gods again, just already being so close to her has been enough torture, why do they have to show him those soft milky shoulders he can never be allowed to touch.
She hurriedly tied her robe again and climbed down the bed. “Good night, Dominus.”
“My queen,” he called on to her before she reached the door.
“Yes?” she turned to face him.
“You are wrong. Our lives don’t have equal importance. Your life as the queen is a thousandfold more important than mine or any in the kingdom. That is why you were assigned royal guards to protect you. Because your life matter more than ours,” Dominus reminded her.
“Then even if we lay our lives for you, we should do it without hesitation and with disregard to our safety. Even if we use ourselves as human shields, you shouldn’t let yourself feel any guilt. This is your role as the queen, to be protected so you can rule,” he added, hoping she understood his words.
Her lips trembled from hearing it. She turned her back to him again and closed the door. She leaned against the door when she reached her room, her shaking knees finally gave in from under her.