“About what?” His voice was eerily low, and a warm hand held her cold shoulder.

She felt comforted and protected as he held her delicately, like a fragile flower, the same way he’d held her during their first night. His hand traveled to her cheek like he wanted to console her, and then touched her behind her ear. She felt his face come nearer and smelled his cool scent. His kiss on her upper lip changed to a deeper one in an instant, and he seemed to be persuading her to talk to him.

“I thought that you already knew,” Ilyin spoke after a silence after their lips had parted.action

“You think of me as someone who would search you behind your back,” Aden spoke in a dull voice.

While his response seemed instinctive, it also seemed like a white lie. Aden would’ve investigated Ilyin before accepting her as his wife. “You would want to know about me, the same as I wanted to know about you,” she replied.

Ilyin didn’t feel hurt, as she had listened to what others had to say about the Duke of Biflten. The rumors had been like scary stories told around a campfire at night and she had heard them even before she’d dreamt of their first night together.

“Were you curious about me?” Aden laughed.

Her affirmative answer was swallowed in a deep kiss, and the kiss felt more urgent than before. Aden drank her up like someone who had finally found an oasis in a desert, and his kiss told her that he wouldn’t allow anyone else near her this way. Ilyin felt herself go limp.

“Then, how about this?” Aden whispered to Ilyin as she crumbled on the bed, “I will ask you to tell me a secret of yours every day.”

Her husband’s breath tickled her shoulder as he left red marks down her neckline again. His lips trailed on her shoulder and licked her collarbone. Ilyin felt the bed on her back, and she thought he was the only one with heat in this room. She felt warm near Aden, and he covered her face with a hand. She felt another warmth from the lower parts of her body and knew what Aden meant as he brushed her neck with a finger. Ilyin flushed.

“Will you tell me?” He breathed softly against her hot cheeks.

She knew that he wanted to know how she knew about the avalanche, and Ilyin lowered her gaze in the darkness. Aden’s hands and lips were caressing her body while she hesitated, and she felt him cup her bre*st. Ilyin let out a low moan. His hands were powerful, but Aden didn’t force himself on her. He fingered her n*pple, and while she was still wearing clothes, she could still felt his touch arousing her.

Slowly, he undid the ribbon of the gown so that he could put his hand under her clothes, and she gasped as his hands roamed on her bre*sts. However, she still couldn’t open her mouth to tell him what he wanted to know.

Ilyin knew that she was being loved. There was no one around them to see yet Aden was gentle with her, regardless. She knew him to be fierce and strict but he showed another side of himself when he was with her. Ilyin knew that this was a privilege. Aden had treated her this way even before she’d told him about the avalanche. She knew that he was taking care of her as much as he could.

“I don’t know whether you will believe me,” Ilyin spoke as quietly as she could, but the darkness let her words ring. She could sense that Aden struggled to hear what she said. His kisses were oncoming as if he was showing her how much patience he had. His hands shook with desire as he stroked her hips and then her nether regions. Ilyin’s body shook along with her voice, “I had a dream.”

Aden’s hand stopped caressing her, but only for a moment before his touch became deeper. His lips were on her bre*sts now while his hand gently pressed down where she was wet, and he gently asked, “You saw the avalanche in your dream?”

“Yes.” Ilyin quivered, although his voice had sounded calm, he did not respond to her answer.