"Uuht..."

Her shoulders trembled as she helplessly entrusted her hand to Raniero without hesitation. As his lips moved slowly forward, Angelica was very bothered by the sound of the bathtub filling up with water and the footsteps of the attendants though she could not take her eyes off him.

Raniero's lips were red, slightly wet and shiny.

It was the ring finger of her left hand that Raniero was obsessively trying to consume. When he leisurely lowered his eyes and gazed at Angelica's hand, the wedding ring struck his front teeth.

Swallowing his saliva, he holds Angelica's finger in his mouth.

The pressure on her fingers shook her shoulders.

Seeing that, he laughed with her fingers still in his mouth as if he had not done anything yet. As he turned his head slightly before biting deeper while intertwining with the tip of his tongue, he could hear a moan resembling a cry escaping from her mouth.

"Stop, stop..."

He really stopped.

At that, Angelica quickly pulled her hand out of Raniero's mouth and hid it behind her, but feeling a strange sensation, she rubbed her moist fingers with her thumb over and over again.

While she was distracted for a moment, it seemed that there were only two of them in the steamy bathroom from inside the bathtub.

"Come here."

Raniero took off his shoes first, then untied his shirt as well.

Perhaps, it was intentional or not, although the light in the bathroom was dim. In the dim light, Angelica gazed at his perfectly sculpted chest, a few scars engraved over it.

She also carefully took off her shoes.

He enjoyed watching Angelica lay her shoes neatly on one side.

The bathtub was large and deep, so it looked more like a swimming pool than a bathtub to Angelica's. In addition, the shape of the deep-cut* bathtub also contributed to that impression. It seemed that such a structure was not possible as it was semi-circular.

[ T/N: It's like a 'step-in' bathtub! A portion of the sidewall of an existing bathtub is removed, and a watertight composite insert cap is placed over the cut-out. ]

Angelica slowly lifted her toes and dabbed them in the bathwater. Then, she stepped back like a cat that had stepped on chestnuts.

"Hot... It's hot."

Something sounded strange about her words somehow.

"It'll cool down soon."

"The water..."

Trying to refute it involuntarily, she suddenly realized who the person in front of her was and bit her mouth. Still, even though Angelica did not finish her words, Raniero could clearly see what she wanted to say. It was because there was too much water, so it would take a long time to cool down.

"Just soak your toes."

Raniero's words were shortened.

Angelica knew what the signal meant, and her cheeks flushed red. It was probably because it was near hot water... Certainly. Eventually, she carefully rolled up her dress and dipped only the tip of her toe. As expected, it was too hot and her eyebrows wrinkled slightly.

"Euu..."

He seemed more interested in staring at her than the bathtub. Such a blatant gaze at times made Angelica very shy.

Of course, she could never understand the flow of his thoughts, such as why he suddenly felt like taking a bath with her or why he showed her the Emperor's bedroom that no one knew about. As usual, she dismissed it as incomprehensible and unintelligible.

One thing was certain now, Raniero wanted to bathe with her in the bathtub.

And, until she ran away in the winter, she thought of giving herself to her villainous husband.

The water that was too hot for her, it must have been Raniero's taste. However, as she soaked her toes like this, her body was getting accustomed to the heat. She closed her eyes and pushed her feet a little deeper.

"Ha..."

When Raniero, who was watching her from the side, did not say anything, Angelica became more impatient.

His eyes rested on her little feet, then shifted to her soft calves and white knees, which, despite her months of intense training, were still smooth. The hem of her dress, which Angelica clasped around her knees, seemed to rise higher than that.

Although she was worried that her long hesitation might cause him to get bored, she could not get into the hot water hastily.

As if she was looking into the eyes of the people just a moment ago, she kept glancing to the side.

As expected, his wife was too scared.

And, as she feared, Raniero grew tired of waiting. Thankfully, he had no intention of strangling or severing her anywhere as she feared. It seemed that he just wanted her to move things forward.

Raniero first went into the water and gently grabbed Angelica's feet before her white calves slipped into the water. After all, maybe the water was too hot for her and her knuckles that grabbed the dress turned white. She rolled up her dress a little more, revealing a little more of her skin.

Digging between her knees, the water overflowed from the bathtub and began to soak her dress.