The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 345: Check-in

Awareness returned to me in the form of soft, repetitive pressure.

I was drifting in that heavy, dreamless sleep that follows total exhaustion when I felt it... a feather-light touch on my forehead. Then my cheek.

A soft, lingering press against my eyelid, followed by a fleeting warmth on the tip of my nose. They were reverent kisses, tender and agonizingly slow.

I didn’t need to open my eyes to know who it was. Only one person in this entire frozen empire would dare to treat my face like a canvas for his affection.

I blinked groggily, my vision swimming until Soren’s face came into focus. He was hovering over me, looking for all the world like an overgrown puppy, his blue eyes bright and a hopelessly wide smile stretching across his face.

"Good evening, Your Majesty," he murmured, his voice a low, honeyed vibration.

I groaned, my hand moving with the structural integrity of a wilted leaf as I reached up to grab his jaw, physically halting his next descent toward my chin. "...Soren?"

He leaned into my palm, trying to bypass my thumb to plant another kiss on my wrist. "Mmm?"

I squinted at him, my brain finally clicking into gear. "Are you done already? With the councils? The ministers?"

He grinned, the movement shifting against my hand. "Done? With my duties? For now. I was missing you, so I decided to pop in for a little visit."

I let my hand drop, staring at him with a dry, skeptical look. "Pop in. To the Imperial chambers. Where I am trying to recover from your... ’enthusiasm’."

He ignored the jab entirely, his eyes roaming my face with a hunger that made my skin prickle. "You were sleeping and looking so tempting. Like a stray ember. I couldn’t help but have a taste."

"A taste?" I asked, my voice flat.

"Or two," he said, leaning closer until his nose brushed mine. "Or a hundred."

I pushed his face away weakly, my strength still a distant memory. "Leave me alone and let me sleep, you insatiable beast."

He caught my hand mid-air, his fingers interlocking with mine before he pressed a slow, deliberate kiss to my knuckles. "But I just got here, Eris. And the bed is far too cold without you in it."

I watched through half-lidded eyes as he stood and began to shed the weight of his office. The formal, heavy robes of the Emperor were cast aside with a careless flick, hitting the chair in a heap of silver and fur. He stripped down to a simple linen tunic and dark trousers, looking less like a monarch and more like the man who had haunted my dreams for three days straight.

He climbed back into bed, the mattress dipping under his solid weight. Without a word, he pulled me toward him. I was wearing a thin, silk nightdress... light enough to feel the immediate, radiating heat of his body. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He wrapped himself around me completely, his arms caging me with a gentle, terrifying strength. I felt his chest press against my back, his face burying itself in the crook of my neck, inhaling as if I were the very air he needed to survive.

We settled into a comfortable silence, our legs tangling beneath the furs. For a moment, it was just the sound of our breathing and the crackle of the dying fire.

"Did you hear?" Soren’s voice was muffled in my hair, vibrating against my skull. "Everybody knows what we did."

I let out a long, pathetic groan, squeezing my face into the pillow. "Don’t remind me. I’m already planning my permanent retirement into the walls."

He laughed softly, a rhythmic thud against my spine. "You’re embarrassed."

"It’s YOUR fault!" I snapped, the heat in my cheeks rivaling the hearth. "My reputation is completely tarnished! I was the Tyrant of Solmire. The Witch Queen who burned her enemies alive. Now I’m just... the woman who kept the Emperor from his council for three days."

Soren seemed to consider this, his thumb tracing the line of my hip through the silk. "Well, in comparison to being a war criminal, I think ’the Empress who screamed her husband’s name’ is rather tame. Humanizing, even."

I paused, the logic hitting me with an annoying accuracy. "...Fair point."

"See?" he said, sounding far too pleased with himself.

"Still your fault," I muttered, trying to wiggle away from the possessive heat of him.

He didn’t let go. If anything, his arm tightened around my waist, pulling me so close there wasn’t a whisper of air between us. "And I’d do it again. Every single second of it."

I sighed, my body betraying my pride as I relaxed into him. "Of course."

We lay there for a long time, the silence stretching out into the night. But as the minutes passed, a strange, buzzing energy began to claw at my insides.

It wasn’t the usual ache of my muscles. It was deeper. My fire was stirring, an agitated hum beneath my skin that felt like static electricity. Despite Soren’s cooling presence... his innate ice magic usually acting as a balm, I couldn’t settle. I shifted, my legs twitching, my skin feeling too tight for my bones.

"What’s wrong?" Soren asked immediately, his hold loosening so he could look at me.

"I don’t know," I said, frustrated by my own body. "I just feel... restless. Like my fire is agitated. It’s not dangerous, just uncomfortable."

Soren went quiet, his brow furrowing in thought. He looked toward the heavy velvet curtains blocking out the night. "Should we go outside?"

I blinked at him. "Outside?"

"I’ve had you trapped inside this room with me for three days," he said, a rare note of guilt coloring his tone. "And the fire in you is a wild thing, Eris. It doesn’t like being caged, even in luxury. Maybe the cold will settle it."

I considered the idea. The thought of the crisp, biting air felt like a physical craving.