The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 356: Second puberty?

ERIS

The bath was less a tub and more a subterranean pool, carved from a single slab of dark, volcanic stone. Steam rose in thick, aromatic clouds, curling around the ice-encrusted pillars that supported the vaulted ceiling. The water was a perfect, bone-deep warmth, yet even as I let it soak into my aching muscles, I felt the familiar, localized chill of Soren behind me.

He wasn’t rushing. For once, his energy wasn’t a frantic storm; it was a slow, steady tide. He held a wide-toothed comb of polished bone, gently working it through my damp hair. His fingers followed each stroke, running through the strands with a tenderness that felt almost reverent.

"How was your first day, Empress?" he murmured, his voice vibrating through the water and into my spine.

I leaned my head back against his chest, closing my eyes. "It would have been great if I didn’t have to nurse the physical presents you left me. Every time I stood up in my office, I felt like my legs were going to betray me."

Soren’s hands stilled for a second. He leaned down, pressing a lingering kiss to the side of my neck, right over a mark that was still a vivid, bruised plum. "I couldn’t help it," he whispered against my skin. "The way you looked on our wedding day... I’ve never seen anything so right."

He set the comb aside, his breath hitching slightly. "I promise to be gentle this time. No desks. No rough handling." He punctuated the promise by darting his tongue out to lick the shell of my ear, a move that sent a sharp, treacherous spark straight to my core.

His hands slid forward under the water. The contrast was startling, the water was hot, but his palms were a soothing, crystalline cold. He cupped my breasts, his fingers splayed wide, fondling them with a slow, rhythmic pressure. He squeezed gently, his thumbs finding my nipples and brushing over them until they peaked against his touch.

I let out a shaky breath, but as I turned my head to look at him, I frowned.

The chill radiating off him was different tonight. It wasn’t just the ambient cold of a winter-born mage; it felt sharper, more concentrated, like the edge of a fresh-cracked glacier.

"Soren?" I reached up, my hand finding the side of his face.

He looked flushed, his cheeks a high, healthy rose, and his eyes were bright, terrifyingly bright. But there was something else. I let my hand slide back, my fingers catching in the bright hair at his temple.

"Did your hair get longer?" I asked, my voice laced with genuine confusion. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

He blinked, considering the question for a moment. "Maybe? It’s been growing pretty quickly lately. I had Aldric trim it just before the wedding, but it feels thicker now."

I caressed the strands. They were soft, like heavy silk, and notably longer than they had been even two days ago. He melted into the touch, his eyes fluttering shut as he nuzzled his face into my palm. He kissed the center of my hand, his lips lingering there before he pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around me in the water.

He was acting like Bjorn, needy, oversized, and prone to invading my personal space with zero hesitation. But where the wolf was just a beast, Soren was something far more irritating and, ultimately, more charming.

I looked at him, the words caught in the back of my throat. I think I love you. The thought was a terrifying, jagged thing. Could I even say it? After everything, how had I ended up anchored to him like this?

Soren didn’t give me time to dwell on the existential crisis. He surged forward, his body completely enveloping mine in the warm water. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing in so deeply it sounded like he was trying to pull my very soul into his lungs.

"Your scent," he growled, his voice dropping into a register that made the water around us ripple. "It’s driving me crazy."

I let out a dry, skeptical laugh. "What scent, Soren? It’s just the bath oils. Pine and cedar, just like every other night."

He shook his head, his hair damp and heavy against my skin. "No. It’s different. It’s more sweet. Like Sun-warmed fruit and something... wilder. It’s enticing. It’s making it hard to think."

He sounded serious. There was a hunger in his voice that went beyond simple lust; it was something biological, an instinctual pull that seemed to be vibrating through his entire frame.

"You’re just making things up to pounce on me again," I muttered, though I found myself tilting my head to give him better access.

"I’m not," he insisted, pulling back to look me in the eye. His pupils were so dilated the blue was nearly gone, leaving only thin rings of glowing sapphire. "I’m serious, Eris. You smell like... home. And my next meal."

Before I could protest his poetic nonsense, he moved. He lifted me out of the water in one effortless motion. My legs wrapped around his waist instantly, a reflex I was beginning to loathe, and his hands caged my seat, holding me firmly against him.

"Soren—"

"I know," he smiled, a quick, flashing thing that was more predator than emperor.

He stepped out of the pool, water streaming off our bodies and splashing onto the heated stone floor. He didn’t bother with towels. He carried me straight back to the massive bed, the furs cool and soft beneath my back as he laid me down.

As he hovered over me, the candlelight caught the planes of his body, and the sense of wrongness, or rather, differentness, returned tenfold.

He seemed taller. His shoulders looked broader, the muscle more defined and corded than it had been before. And there was a sheen to his skin, a faint, iridescent shimmer that looked like frost caught in moonlight.

"Am I imagining things?" I whispered, my hand trembling as I touched his chest.

Or was it a second puberty?

His skin was cooler to the touch now, but it felt harder. It wasn’t the hardness of muscle alone; it was as if there were a layer of structural ice just beneath the surface, reinforcing his frame. His eyes were glowing with a steady, pulsing light, brighter than I had ever seen them.

Something was changing.

"You’re so beautiful," he murmured, his voice a low thrumming sound.