Chapter 23: The Sovereign’s Desperate Love

“Then… will you leave the rest… to me?”

“Un-ah. I… as long as it is with you, I cherish anything. So you need not force yourself to do anything you find distasteful for my sake.”

The Emperor’s heart, which considered only Hwaun even in a moment like this, suddenly washed over Hwaun’s soul like a tidal wave. For this man, Hwaun wanted to do anything. He could do anything. Hwaun gently pushed Ihan back to sit against the headboard and reached for the fragrant oil on the side table, pouring it into his palms.

Ihan’s pupils flared with a strange, dark heat. As Hwaun thoroughly coated his fingers in the oil, he spoke with a solemnity that seemed almost out of place for the setting.

“I… want to make Your Majesty happy.”

“…….”

“That is what I wish to do….”

Having spoken, Hwaun slowly brought his oil-slicked hand behind him. Ihan’s eyes widened to their absolute limit. Before him, Hwaun—the man who would usually flush scarlet and gasp for breath at a mere kiss—was attempting to prepare himself. All because he wanted to please the Emperor.

For a split second, Ihan’s vision went dark. His ears felt muffled as if he were deep underwater. The sensation passed instantly, but when the world came back into focus, the light in his eyes was no longer the gentle warmth of before.

Hwaun didn’t notice the shift. He didn’t have the luxury. He had thought he could do it in his head, but when he actually tried to open himself, his body refused to cooperate. He had barely managed to insert a single finger before he became lost and overwhelmed—and it was at that moment Ihan suddenly closed the distance.

“Majesty…?”

“You seem to be struggling.”

Ihan’s voice was light, almost playful, yet it carried a heavy, viscous undertone of raw emotion. Hwaun felt a shiver run down his spine, but before he could even hesitate to answer, Ihan moved with predatory speed. He slicked his own hand with the oil and slid his fingers between the thighs Hwaun had been clumsily tending to.

“Ah-ugh…!”

“If my Consort is having difficulty, it is only natural that I should assist him. Is it not?”

“Maje—h-hhh…. Ah…!”

With practiced ease, Ihan pushed one finger past the entrance, followed immediately by a second. The sensation of the Emperor’s fingers—not his own—plunging deep into a place his own hand could never reach made Hwaun arch his back and tremble. It wasn’t just the depth; it was the realization of whose hand was inside him that sent Hwaun’s temperature soaring.

“Have you made yourself this wet because you were excited while taking me in your mouth?”

“Majesty, that is… mmph…!”

“Sucking on a man’s member while your own is erect, and then weeping like this after touching yourself… my Consort is truly, wickedly lewd.”

Pouring those uncharacteristic, vulgar whispers into Hwaun’s ear, Ihan gripped Hwaun’s front and began to work it. Sparks flew behind Hwaun’s eyelids, leaving him gasping with his mouth open, while a third finger forced its way through the narrow gates. The entrance was still tight, struggling to swallow three fingers, but Ihan no longer had the patience to wait.

“Ah-ut… ah…! Th-there… ah…!”

With a wet, squelching sound, Ihan’s fingers roughly worked and stretched the opening. Tossed between the pleasure from both front and back, Hwaun couldn’t even keep his balance; he rested his forehead against Ihan’s shoulder, his hips jerking instinctively. His mind felt like it was turning into mush. Just as a peak rushed toward him and he clung to Ihan’s neck, the hands tormenting him suddenly pulled away.

“Ma… jesty…?”

Left hanging on the edge of a cliff, Hwaun looked at Ihan with eyes half-crazed with unfulfilled desire. The curve of Ihan’s mouth was deceptively soft.

“My assistance ends here.”

“Ah….”

“Now… try to please me.”

As he spoke, Ihan rubbed his member—which hadn’t diminished in the slightest despite his previous release—point-blank against Hwaun’s center. Hwaun blinked several times with tear-filled eyes before biting his lip in a moment of resolve. He planted his knees and lifted his body.

Ihan’s eyes darkened to a pitch-black void of anticipation. Hwaun carefully grasped Ihan’s length, aligned the tip with his oil-slicked entrance, and began to slowly lower his hips.

“Ugh…!”

It was Ihan who groaned first. Hwaun’s body was nowhere near relaxed enough to receive him fully. Even when they took their time, Hwaun always struggled with the initial pressure; today, without the proper time, the sensation of being stretched was absolute.

Hwaun couldn’t even make a sound; he just hung his head and trembled. Because of the position, even though he had only taken in the very tip, a suffocating pressure surged through him. It felt as if his very internal organs were rejecting the intrusion. Unable to pull away yet unable to sit further, Hwaun simply gripped Ihan’s shoulders with white-knuckled hands.

“Shh… breathe.”

It wasn’t easy for Ihan, either. Hwaun was so tight it felt as though he might snap Ihan’s member off. But unfortunately, that agonizingly sweet constriction was exactly what pushed Ihan past the point of reason. He gripped Hwaun’s pelvis with both hands, whispering soothingly, though his eyes shone with a dangerous, predatory light.

“It was you who provoked me to be this madly excited….”

“Majesty…?”

“So do not resent me for being too much to handle.”

“What—ah-ugh…!”

Before he could finish, Ihan forced Hwaun’s body down. The massive, hot weight plunged into Hwaun all at once, driving deep as if pushing past every internal barrier. Hwaun’s head snapped back as a scream-like moan tore from his throat.

Hwaun’s body convulsed like a small animal pinned in place. A searing heat flooded his insides, burning like a branding iron, but what made it harder for Hwaun was the realization that it wasn’t just pain he was feeling.

Hwaun’s tensed member wept a thin fluid. The sight of Hwaun, impaled and shivering while spilling his own seed, was far too erotic. Ihan couldn’t wait any longer. He lifted the slender body and slammed it back down, thrusting upward with his hips.

“Ha-ugh…! Majesty, no… no… stop…! Ha-ah…!”

Even though they had just begun, pleas for him to stop spilled uncontrollably from Hwaun’s lips. It felt as though Ihan’s presence didn’t just fill his stomach, but reached all the way to his throat. Their union was always deep, but this was beyond anything he had ever felt.

“No… Majesty… too… too deep… hhh-ng! Ah, it is too deep… ah…!”

“Huu, endure it. I cannot… ugh!”

Hwaun’s body fluttered like a doll as he was impaled repeatedly. A violent pleasure, indistinguishable from pain, made a wreck of him. As the pace quickened, Ihan seemed to grow even larger within him.

With every downward thrust, the shape of the member protruded against Hwaun’s thin abdomen. Ihan watched that protrusion with the eyes of a beast on the hunt before covering the spot with his large hand and pressing down firmly.

“St-stop…! H-ah…! Majesty, inside… something is wrong… ha-ah!”

Hwaun let out a string of cries, no longer knowing what he was saying. As Ihan’s member repeatedly forced open the internal barriers, reaching for depths that shouldn’t be reached, a wave of fear hit him. It felt as if his body would be shattered beyond repair.

“Hhh! Ah! Ha-ut…!”

But what scared Hwaun even more was the fact that he didn’t hate it. The sound of Ihan’s ragged breath, the soaring temperature of their bodies, and the fact that this man was so excited he couldn’t even be considerate—he loved all of it. He felt that even if he were torn to pieces and consumed right here, he wouldn’t mind.

The tears at the corners of Hwaun’s eyes finally spilled over. At that same moment, his vision cleared for a fraction of a second, and he saw Ihan’s eyes, drowned in passion.

I made this happen. That face of Seong Ihan, that look in his eyes, this wild and immense excitement—it was all because of Yeon Hwaun. As that realization hit him, a flame erupted in the depths of his soul and consumed him. Hwaun wished Ihan would hold him this roughly, this completely, forever.

“Majesty….”

Hwaun wrapped his weak arms around Ihan’s neck with everything he had, seeking his lips with a clumsy desperation. Ignoring how his body was being tossed by the rhythm, he bit and sucked on Ihan’s lower lip with a frantic urgency. He wanted to do everything in his power to express his heart. He wanted to show Ihan just how much, how deeply, he loved him.