Scarlet's Restraint
"Hnn... hoo... aah..."
"...Hah... hah... haa..."
The moment she climaxed, she collapsed into my arms. I could feel the soft, flattened sensation of her breasts against my chest and the labored sound of her breathing right against me. Compared to the beast-like moans she let out when I drove her over the edge with my fingers, her orgasm now felt strangely restrained—like she was savoring the pleasure... or desperately trying to suppress it. It left me a little puzzled.
Still, that wasn't the most pressing issue right now. I'd already come inside her twice.
"Hoo... haa... I know what you're about to say, but I told you, didn't I? Once I've decided on something, I never give up."
Her voice reached my ear, as if she'd noticed the subtle expression on my face.
"I'll get what I want, no matter what... even if it means you end up hating me."
She didn't really want me to hate her, but that stubborn declaration showed which side she valued more. Having once been the sole recipient of someone's affection only to be cast aside, she cared above all else about keeping me by her side.
"..."
Maybe this meant I hadn't given her enough emotional security yet. The fear that I might leave one day still lingered deep in her heart, so she was trying to bind me to her like this. Even though the stigma had lost its power as a restraint and she'd technically escaped prisoner status, her position remained ambiguous. The team leader had even threatened to dispose of her, so it was only natural she'd feel anxious.
And yet here I was, worrying only about myself again.
"I won't hate you. Like I said before, I don't hate you, Scarlet. I mean it."
Instead of continuing to fret pointlessly over contraception I couldn't do anything about right now, it seemed better to focus on this moment—helping her feel my affection and giving her a sense of stability and certainty.
The moment I thought that, my priorities shifted instantly, and the words I had been about to say changed as well.
"..."
The first thing was...
"Scarlet, there's something I want to ask you."
It was about the strange behavior she'd shown right at the end.
"It looked like you were forcing yourself to hold back your climax at the very last moment... Was I wrong?"
"Huh...? Me? No way..."
"..."
She was terrible at pretending not to know. The way her voice trailed up at the end of the question made it painfully obvious.
"That's not it... I really did feel good... I want to do it again right away, you know?"
I felt the same. ...No, that wasn't the point. She was clearly hiding something from me.
"You didn't do that last time when I used my fingers. I clearly saw you trying to suppress your orgasm at the end."
"...I can't say. No, I won't say."
She refused outright, and quite brazenly at that. So there really was a reason. Even so, to me—who could hear her inner voice—it was only a feeble resistance.
"...It's useless."
'I absolutely... can't say...'
"...!"
Her reaction was exactly the same as Harpy's back then. Honestly, it caught me off guard. This wasn't exactly the atmosphere for that kind of thing while we were still naked, connected, and basking in the afterglow.
Usually, even if someone refused to speak out loud, their inner voice would still reveal the reason. But Scarlet's inner voice was stubbornly silent, just like her attitude. What that pointed to was...
The answer she didn't want to give me was actually a memory or trauma she didn't want to face.
...Why?
She had clearly longed for someone to hold her like this and give her affection for so long. Yet when that moment finally came and she reached her first climax, she still tried to suppress her emotions. I had only asked gently out of curiosity, but now I wondered if I'd touched on something I shouldn't have. Even so, I couldn't just back down.
"Kyaa?!"
She had been lying on top of me with her eyes squeezed shut, trembling in the afterglow, so it wasn't hard to flip our positions while she was off guard.
"Wait, kuh... aah?!"
Realizing she was now pinned beneath me, she tried to flip us back, but I had already recovered enough to get hard again inside her. A single shallow thrust was enough to stop her.
"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I won't force you to speak."
"Then why...?"
"But it's a problem if you keep forcing yourself to hold back when you could be feeling good. From now on, I'll be the one moving."
"Ugh... aah, no... don't..."
Schlick...!
Clench...
I pushed into her once shallowly, then once deeply. Her insides, loosened after one orgasm, accepted me without much resistance. The white semen I'd already pumped into her twice was pushed out in a rush.
"...Just let yourself come."
"No, ugh... I said no...!"
Plap plap...!
Slap slap slap slap slap slap...!!
I spread her thighs wide to keep her from escaping and thrust my hips hard. Her expression crumbled with every passing second. Even though she kept resisting sharply, the rapid pistoning left her no chance of success. The only result was that her breasts swayed lewdly and the tightness inside her became even more intense.
"Hnn... hah...! Aah...! Ugh...!"
...I was right. So that was why she'd insisted on moving herself. Once again, I could see her trying to forcibly suppress her rising climax, but that wouldn't work anymore. In this position, I held complete control over when to stop.
Thrust thrust thrust thrust thrust thrust...!
Squelch squelch squelch squelch...!
"Aah... haaang...! No...!!"
Unlike me—who had already come three times and could now somewhat endure the urge—she had only just started to loosen up and was far too sensitive to resist the pleasure skillfully.
"...!!"
But I hadn't expected what her "no" actually meant.
Fwoooosh...!!
"...Hah, hot...!"
"I told you... it wouldn't work..."
In that instant, I felt her body temperature—and the heat wrapping around my length inside her—surge like it was burning. The heat didn't stop there. Flames had spread in a circle across the floor around us.
From that moment on, something more important than the defenseless woman in front of me had appeared. I quickly pulled out of her scorching insides, frantically beat the blanket against the floor to put out the fire, and only then turned to look at her.
She was hugging the yukata to her body, glaring at me with a thoroughly sulky expression.
"...I hate you."
"..."
Feeling guilty, I instinctively reached out to touch her face, but...
"...Ugh..."
For some reason, she squeezed her eyes shut and shrank away, leaving me puzzled once again.
"Scarlet...?"
"Ah... no, this is... I mean..."
For a moment, she had looked genuinely frightened. No, she was pretending otherwise, but her eyes were definitely trembling with fear.
When I gently placed my palm against her cheek, her reaction became unmistakable. She jerked her face away from my hand, squeezed her eyes shut again, and started trembling.
There had to be a reason.
Since I had carelessly triggered her bad memory, I decided to wait properly this time until she opened her eyes on her own.
"..."
"Can you tell me now?"
She hugged the yukata tighter once more, then finally leaned her face into my still-extended hand and slowly parted her lips.
"I told you... my body was made to match that person. My ability... sometimes activates on its own depending on how strong my emotions are."
Just like I had conditions for my own ability, hers had conditions too—and they were tied to her mental and emotional state. She could usually control it so that her ability wouldn't activate even when her emotions rose to a certain level. But once, overwhelmed by the joy of receiving affection, she had accidentally ignited flames in Gabriel's bedroom and burned the tips of her golden hair. She had been slapped hard across the face and thrown out, then ignored for an entire month.
Ever since then, she had developed the habit of desperately suppressing her climax at the very last moment, only allowing herself to feel as much pleasure as she could safely control.
"I'm sorry... I really didn't know."
Even overflowing with happiness could make her lose control of her ability. Thinking back, I remembered how small flames would flicker around her body whenever she got annoyed or angry. At the time, I had thought it was just a threat, but if it was truly uncontrollable, it was an incredibly inconvenient power.
If physical pain or pleasure counted as triggers too, then when I had fingered her so thoroughly earlier, it wouldn't have been strange if an explosion had occurred. The thought sent a chill down my spine.
"So that's what happened..."
I didn't know what to say. Forcing herself to suppress her climax right at the end and being satisfied with that... If someone told me I had to hold back right before coming and be content with just leaking a little, I'd probably go crazy from frustration.
Was there really no solution? I wanted her to feel as much happiness as possible, but her own ability was holding her back. The improved dog collar or the team leader's ability-blocking might work, but neither of them was here right now.
"..."
No... there might be another way.
"Let's go outside."
"Outside?"
What had suddenly caught my eye was the open-air hot spring visible in the courtyard.
Splash...
She slowly lowered herself into the warm water. Once I followed and sat beside her, she glanced at me sideways. I had been the one to suggest coming out, yet I hadn't touched her right away, so she probably found it strange.
Actually... I felt too guilty for pushing forward even after she said no and making her relive that painful memory. While I was wondering how to apologize, an awkward silence stretched between us.
Splash...
"Scarlet...?"
Whoosh...
Drip drip... plop...
Suddenly, she stood up in the bath. I thought she might be going back inside and quickly grabbed her wrist, but she wasn't trying to leave. Instead, she turned her back to me, then slowly bent forward at the waist.
"...You don't need to apologize anymore. So hurry up."
Presented before me was her rear—flushed bright red from the hot water—like a ripe peach rising from the bath and offered toward me.