Through hard-won experience, Aquila had come to a conclusion.
A single night with this man left her body “fine” for, at most, a day. If she moved violently, the time seemed to shorten further.
Ten to twelve hours, maybe.
Roughly half a day.
Wetting her dry lips, Aquila made her offer again.
“If you let me try to kill you during the day, you can do whatever you want to me from night until morning.”
“…Why do you think I’d accept that?”
Noce asked in a flat voice.
“I’m fine with things just as they are.”
His hand touched her face. Fingers slid slowly down her cheek and along to her collarbone. Resting there, rising and falling with her breath, that hand could at any moment seize her breast—or rip apart the bandage around the wound.
And in her current state she had no strength to stop him.
But instead of flinching, cornered, Aquila pulled up the corner of her mouth.
“Noce.”
“—!”
“You said you don’t have a hobby of taking women who don’t want it.”
She spoke his name for the first time. Staring straight up into those alien golden eyes widening by degrees, Aquila gambled the biggest gamble of her life.
“How was it the day before yesterday—when you held me?”
“…Hah.”
“Every time I cried… you seemed to like it quite a lot.”
Assassination was her specialty, not seduction. Honestly, she wasn’t very confident… but she was secretly reassured by the savage look that glowered down as if to devour her.
“Do it again. The thing you like.”
One lax leg lifted and hooked behind his waist.
She had almost no strength, but the way she drew him in herself was an obscene signal, like a temptress.
He couldn’t hold back; he seized and devoured her lips.
“Mm—!”
Their heads twisted; their mouths sealed with no gaps. His tongue moved like a serpent, rubbing rough against the tender inside of her mouth and sucking.
If moments ago had been a wet kiss to pass on his saliva, now she was being taken. It felt like her tongue-root would be yanked out, and then that same tongue was grinding deeper still—Aquila’s throat let out a low sound.
But she no longer pushed him away—she pulled him closer.
The thigh he already held fell open. With nothing left to block him, his body pressed hers down completely.
Through cloth, she could feel how hard he was—stark and obvious.
Ah. Of course.
How unfortunate—and fortunate—that this man was the kind of madman who got aroused even by a woman who vowed to kill him.
A chill glimmer passed through Aquila’s half-lowered red eyes.
I don’t expect this to go easily.
He was a monster with a reputation foul enough to reach even inland. She hadn’t seen his full strength yet, but the pressure that set her on edge every time told the tale.
But in the end, human or animal, things adapted. A man like this would let down his guard at least once with the woman in his arms. And she did not mean to miss that opening.
By any means necessary.
She had to make it back alive—with the new information she’d gained here, and with blood taken from his heart, to bring to her family…
“Good. Sounds fun.”
Lifting his lips from hers, he rasped in a rough voice:
“Blood from my heart is an instant cure. All powers begin in the heart.”
“…!”
Aquila’s eyes shone brighter at the confirmation shot. But Noce wasn’t finished.
“But accepting like this, so easily, annoys me.”
He raised his hand and felt along near her shoulder—the place that had taken the bullet.
Confirming that the poison reaction had left only faint blotches and the wound itself hadn’t worsened, Noce licked his wet lips.
“We start the game tomorrow.”
Then—he suddenly hoisted her thigh high.
“?!”
Not only her thigh—her hips and lower back lifted into the air, and Aquila jolted in alarm.
“W-what are you—!”
Fwip.
Her trousers—loose around her waist—were yanked down in an instant and tangled at her knees. She stared, aghast, at him raising his head between her legs.
Taking in her flustered face, Noce smiled, pleased—and a little angry.
“Tonight, we only use your mouth.”
“What do you— hnh?!”
He buried his face in her sex. The long tip of his tongue speared through layered folds, lapping at the sensitive flesh hidden within.
The sudden stimulus made Aquila start.
“Ah—hn! Wait… ngh! That—doesn’t mean anything…!”
“How could it not.”
He spoke around her clitoris in his mouth, words bubbling.
“When you like it this much.”
“Haa—!”
Aquila sucked in a breath at the shiver that ran up her spine and twisted her waist. But with her hips lifted and her pants binding both legs half-off, there was no way to escape.
As a sweet musk rose and she began to grow damp, he smiled with his eyes long and languid.
And while his fingers stroked softly over the plumped pearl, he said:
“You’re right. I like the way you cry.”
“Mm—hn….”
“I like it so much it makes me crazy.”
“Mm! S-stop… ah—!”
A long finger pressed into the tight entrance within and pried it open. That gap, which had learned the pleasure of taking a man, welcomed his finger and gently clenched.
Ha—he sighed, staring, transfixed, at that lovely sight.
“The truth is, I came to say something serious, but your cold words put me in a mood.”
“Th-then don’t talk—to there— ngh, ah…!”
“So I thought I’d hear a sound I like.”
He drew out the finger slick with her juices and slowly licked it up, then smiled at her face gone completely blank with shock.
“You’ll cry pretty for me, won’t you?”
“Y-you insane— ahng! Aa— ah!”
He bit her sex. Parting her with his fingers, the tip of his tongue drove in. With that rough, thick invasion, Aquila’s hips jumped and a sharp moan tore free.
She grabbed at his hair, trying to push him down and away, but his sharp nose buried so deep it pressed her clitoris; all she could do was clutch at his hair.
“Ah—ah! Nn— s-stop— ngh! Don’t eat—!”
Slurp.
She could feel his tongue shamelessly thrusting in while sucking at something all at once. Aquila shook her head.
He had tasted her with his mouth last night too, but then she could at least avert her eyes. Now everything was indecently visible.
His face working her with his tongue; her own body flinching and rocking wantonly; his eyes looking up at her ruined, disordered expression.
Suddenly his thumb scrubbed her clitoris again, rough. With her pearl battered and her depths sucked, she could no longer hold out. The fast-climbing pleasure drove her to the edge—and, as he wanted, she broke with a sob and went over.
“Haa—ah!”
Just like that, lifted in the air.
He held her spasming legs tight. And he drank all the honey that burst out below like a flood.
Slurp, sip—!
“U-ugh… ngh.”
Each hard pull set her sex ablaze. Mind emptied, panting, Aquila weakly pushed at his still-busy head even after the peak had passed.
“Stop… enough….”
“Why?”
He wet his throat with what streamed from her, then licked up a bead that had dripped where he hadn’t managed to swallow. Watching her flinch again, he buried his nose back into the bright thatch.
“We’re just getting started.”
“……!”
In those eyes slick with golden ecstasy and hunger, Aquila lost her words.
She had let herself forget that this madman was far madder than she’d planned for…
***
For once, a night sky full of stars with not a cloud in sight.
On deck, the officers were gathered—Siobhan, Milena, and the rest.
“Everyone here?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
Siobhan’s eyes rested on Milena, standing awkwardly off to one side among the officers. Milena, who had failed spectacularly at the underboss’s order to “bring the human to the galley,” flinched and glanced away.
“T-the boss told me to leave. And the human suddenly took a bad turn…”
“…I see.”
Thankfully, Siobhan didn’t press her. While Milena quietly exhaled in relief, he spoke in a blunt voice:
“Then we’ll say what we learned from the prisoner.”
“Not waiting for the boss to come?”
“…He probably won’t be coming out tonight.”
“True enough…”
“Ahem…”
With slightly abashed faces, the officers gazed out to sea. Amid the hush of gentle waves, faint moans threaded the air. Too far and too soft for ordinary humans to hear—but they were all beastfolk with sharper senses, so it couldn’t be helped.
Face reddening, Milena muttered:
“Let’s put that cabin door back on already.”
“A good idea.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.