* * *
Earlier that day in the forest during lunch, Joel had overheard Captain Abe talking to his subordinate, saying things like, “It’s harder to find the path than I thought,” and “Indeed. At this rate, I’m not sure we’ll arrive before nightfall…”
So Joel hadn’t really expected them to arrive by day’s end. It was a relief that they had.
As Joel blinked in a daze, the Crown Prince leaned down and whispered in a low, quiet voice, “You’ve done well. Now go back to sleep.”
Like an obedient child, Joel closed his eyes as commanded.
The Crown Prince gave a soft smile and waited for him to fall asleep again.
But the very next moment, Joel’s eyes suddenly flew open.
“Then why… are you taking off my clothes?”
“…Ah.”
Normally, Joel would have missed the signs, but today, for some reason, he managed to sense the danger around him.
Ignoring the Crown Prince’s attempts to soothe him, Joel sat up on his own.
He clutched the loosened collar of his shirt tightly with both small hands.
The Crown Prince had no choice but to retreat, clearly disappointed.
‘Okay, I get that I’ve got a nice body or whatever, but seriously, what kind of pervy behavior is this?’
Joel shot the Crown Prince a look of exasperation before heading toward the bathroom attached to the bedroom.
Sinking into the warm water of the prepared bath, Joel let his thoughts drift.
Today had gone nothing like he’d planned.
He really needed to get the Crown Prince together with Benjamin as soon as possible if he wanted to escape cleanly—but instead, he’d spent the entire day glued to the Crown Prince’s side.
He shouldn’t have done that.
No matter how much he hated seeing the Crown Prince show interest in another Omega, for the sake of himself and the baby inside him, he should have endured. Joel berated himself harshly.
Sure, today’s mistake was born out of something as petty as jealousy, but tomorrow—tomorrow he would absolutely make sure Benjamin and the Crown Prince got together.
With that resolve in mind, Joel finished his bath and returned to the bedroom… only to find the Crown Prince already sitting on the bed, looking fully ready for sleep.
“Isn’t this my room?” Joel asked, clearly bewildered.
“It is,” the Crown Prince replied, gazing at him with a calm expression.
“Then… why are you here?”
To Joel’s wary question, the Crown Prince simply gave a languid smile.
Joel swallowed nervously.
For some reason, the Crown Prince had completely unbuttoned his pajama shirt.
Although the shirt was still on, it was gaping open, revealing glimpses of a well-toned chest through the parted fabric.
“I’m asking why you’re sitting half-naked in my room.”
“I’m not completely naked though,” the Crown Prince replied with a tilted head, sounding utterly innocent.
Technically, yes—he was still wearing the shirt.
But with all the buttons undone, it was basically just draped over his shoulders.
‘What kind of shameless nonsense is this?’
Joel looked utterly appalled.
“That’s basically the same as being naked. This is sexual harassment. If you don’t leave immediately, I’ll report you to the tribunal once the inspection tour ends.”
Yet even as he spoke, Joel failed to notice how his eyes were practically licking the Crown Prince’s exposed skin.
The Crown Prince, fully aware of Joel’s pervy gaze, leaned back slowly.
As he did, the shirt slipped open further, baring a wide expanse of muscular chest and tight abs.
His pale, taut skin—reminiscent of the famed beauty, the Empress—only made his physique even more striking.
Eyes wide, Joel stared at the exposed skin, whispering under his breath, “Damn… deadly…”
And yet he had no idea he’d said that out loud.
“I’m seriously going to report you…”
Joel mumbled a threat that carried zero conviction.
A small, amused smile tugged at the corners of the Crown Prince’s lips.
Frankly, if anyone had grounds for a harassment claim based on that intense and obviously lustful gaze, it was probably him.
After enjoying Joel’s obsessed stare for a moment, the Crown Prince slowly rose from the bed.
Then, with deliberate slowness, he shrugged off his shirt entirely.
Joel’s eyes followed the soft flutter of the shirt as it fell to the floor.
The Crown Prince now stood completely bare-chested, his powerful upper body on full display.
Joel thought he might actually die.
Back in the forest, he’d been in heat and too out of it to really take it all in.
But now, seeing it in full clarity, it felt like some kind of divine revelation.
And then, that threateningly muscular chest began to move closer.
Joel had a brief, terrifying thought: ‘Am I the one moving toward him, unable to suppress my desire?’
But no—it was the Crown Prince who was closing the distance.
Now standing right in front of him, the Crown Prince gently wrapped his arm around Joel’s slender waist.
Joel gulped again.
“W-w-w-what exactly do you think you’re doing right now…”
“You said you’d report me, didn’t you? So I figured, if I’m going to be reported anyway…”
The Crown Prince’s voice dropped.
“I might as well do something worth being reported for.”
And with that, he scooped Joel up into his arms.
His body, honed through years of martial training, moved with strength and ease.
But even without those muscles, lifting Joel wouldn’t have been difficult—he was just that light.
Joel’s mind tried to keep up.
‘What exactly did he mean by “something worth being reported for”?’
But he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
The next thing he knew, his back was touching the cold sheets of the bed.
The crown prince, who had laid Joel on the bed, sat down between his spread legs.
With unhurried fingers, he began undoing the buttons of Joel’s pajama shirt, one by one.
“Y-Your Highness.”
“Call me by my name.”
Joel’s shirt fell open to either side, revealing his milk-white skin and his nipples, red as ripe cherries.
As he looked into the prince’s eyes, which were beginning to shimmer with desire, Joel felt a shiver of dread.
“But… how could I dare?”
“It’s fine. I permit it. Go on, call me ‘Lord Carlyle’.”
When Joel hesitated, too timid to say the name, the prince whispered, “If ‘Lord Carlyle’ doesn’t roll off your tongue, you can even call me ‘Carlyle, that son of a bitch’.”
He seemed to intend it as a joke, but his voice was so excessively sensual that Joel couldn’t find it funny at all.
After a long hesitation, Joel finally whispered in a tiny voice, “…Lord Carlyle.”
The prince’s eyes curved approvingly, and he pressed his lips to the back of Joel’s hand.
“Y-Your Highness. But we shouldn’t be doing this…”
“I said, call me Lord Carlyle.”
The prince was now removing Joel’s bottoms.
Flustered, Joel tried to grab hold of his trousers, but the prince immediately warned, “Don’t,” and removed Joel’s hand.
Although his grip wasn’t particularly forceful then, Joel felt an intense sense of intimidation and could only let his hand be guided to rest meekly on the bed.
The sensation of the cotton shorts sliding down along his hips, over his thighs and calves, was eerily lewd.
The prince effortlessly stripped off the trousers Joel had been wearing and tossed them behind him.
Then, it was time for him to remove his own clothes.
As the prince became completely naked between his legs, Joel trembled, completely flustered.
He was so tense he couldn’t even think about closing the shirt that was spread wide open on either side.
Soon, the prince grabbed Joel’s ankles and lifted them high.
Now, only a thin layer of underwear covered Joel’s private parts.
Joel felt the heavy mass of flesh pressing against his buttocks.
‘What do I do? What on earth should I do?’
Joel desperately tried to think with his feverish, sluggish mind.
It seemed the prince was indeed intent on spending a second night with him.
But was it really okay to sleep with him like this?
While the terrified Joel was thinking this, the prince, who had now covered Joel’s body, took Joel’s small, red nipple into his mouth.
It was those adorable nipples that had never left the prince’s thoughts.
He began fervently lavishing attention on them, rolling them in his mouth and licking them with his tongue.
His tongue was unbelievably hot and soft.
A dizzying pleasure assaulted Joel.
Letting out a strange moan, Joel recalled the night in the forest when he had first been with the prince.
The overwhelming pressure he felt when he took the prince’s member to the root was still vivid.
The prince hadn’t been satisfied with just stuffing his enormous phallus deep into Joel’s belly; he had gripped Joel’s waist fiercely to prevent escape and thrust into Joel’s depths from various angles.
At a speed fast enough to chafe Joel’s entrance raw.
If it weren’t for the prince’s pheromones, which had an aphrodisiac effect, Joel might have passed out from the pain.
He couldn’t guarantee that the prince wouldn’t violate him in the same way this time, too.
* * *
