Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: The Night He Stayed
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Beth's fingers hesitated before slipping free from Dever's hand. In place of her undeniable feelings, the hand that ducked beneath the nightstand clenched the frayed hem of her skirt with all its might.
Dever propped his chin on the nightstand. His narrowed eyes sharpened at the edges, as if testing the woman before him.
"Not like you at all."
His fingers drummed a steady rhythm on the nightstand, laced with a hint of tension.
It was true. Beth Jens wasn't herself. The carefree laughter from their walk through the woods, the pointless questions. Those sparkling dark eyes now stared off into some vague emptiness.
"You have to believe me."
Her head lifted slightly at his words.
"I have no choice but to."
Dever rose from his seat and circled the nightstand slowly, coming to stand beside her. His imposing shadow fell over her. But soon enough, that shadow began to shrink.
Beth turned to look at the man who had dropped one knee beside her. She met his gaze from slightly below.
"You know I have no choice but to trust you."
His gentle urging continued.
"Have you thought about your answer?"
Beth gazed into his eyes as if entranced. She filled them completely.
It reminded her vividly of the day they first met. The same eyes holding the same person, yet the warmth was worlds apart.
Beth nodded slowly. His eyebrow twitched lightly at the unexpected response, a hint of amusement curling at the corner of his eye.
"So, what's your answer?"
A shadow fell over Dever's face. Beth's unique scent rushed over him, tingling his senses dizzily. Soon, her warm lips overlapped his.
When Beth lifted her head again, her eyes were as calm as the midnight sea.
"Really... not like you at all."
A large hand cupped one of her cheeks. Warmth seeped through the callused palm.
As Beth leaned into it, the soft texture pressed even more vividly against him.
"Stop tormenting me like this."
At his petulant words, Beth let out a soft, faint laugh. His knobby fingers traced her smiling face as if committing it to memory.
The smooth forehead, the gently curved eyes, the flushed cheeks warm with heat, and the reddened lips brimming with even more warmth.
His dry fingertips brushed those snowberry lips several times. His throat went dry.
"How sweetly are you planning to refuse me?"
A dazed murmur lingered on Dever's tongue.
Beth cupped his face with both hands. Her small palms couldn't contain him entirely, but the way he yielded to her touch so readily made her heart flutter, as if she were offering everything she had.
When she pressed her lips to his with a bit more force, a groan like a stifled moan rumbled from his throat. Amid the back-and-forth heat, the veins bulged on the back of Dever's hand as he gripped the chair's backrest, trying to hold onto his reason.
"No."
Dever shot to his feet and stepped back a few paces. Blue veins stood out starkly along his tensed neck.
"I'll walk you back."
Beth quickly grabbed the hem of his retreating jacket. A sigh like a lament escaped Dever's lips.
Beth slowly pushed him back. His boot heels bumped against the iron bed frame after a few shoves. Beth took a deep breath, then gave him one final push with resolve.
Dever collapsed onto the bed with a thud. His eyes flickered with raw desire.
"Beth."
[Will you stay the night?]
Beth fixed him with a firm gaze. There were no regrets.
"You know what this means—"
Before his protesting words could finish, Beth deftly undid the top button of his shirt. The shirt, stretched taut over his solid frame, came loose at the top. His prominent Adam's apple bobbed sharply.
Click. The second button gave way, and the tensed muscles in his jaw twitched.
Her hand paused at the third button. Through the loosened shirt, she glimpsed the bloodstained bandage.
Beth bit her lip hard just before undoing the third. In a flash, Dever seized her waist and yanked her close. She tumbled onto his lap, and he spun her around. Her raven hair spilled messily across the worn mattress.
Dever invaded through their hastily pressed lips. Her head turned instinctively at the relentless tip of his tongue tormenting her. But before she could catch her breath, he overlaid his own.
It was a kiss incomparable to Beth's earlier one, layered with far greater heat.
In the quiet barracks, only the slick sounds of their fiercely clashing lips echoed. After tormenting her for a long while, Dever pulled back slightly and whispered.
"If you say no, I won't."
His lips hovered near, teasing her. Dever wrinkled his nose as if to say he truly meant it.
"Really."
It was a promise hard to keep, yet one he had no choice but to honor. Strands of her inky black hair wound between his fingers. The soft texture soothed his surging impulses.
As he lifted his half-bent arm, he saw her dark eyes darting about beneath him. She looked just like an innocent deer, drawing a chuckle from Dever. Which meant he was the beast.
What had possessed her to act so boldly?
Expecting her to back down here, Dever tried to suppress the rising desire below.
Then a touch shattered his efforts, wrapping around his nape. Dever buried his face helplessly in Beth's embrace and held his breath.
A small finger tapped lightly on his hypersensitive back.
"Yeah. I'm listening."
Her voice was diligently traced over the stiff shirt. With eyes closed, Dever felt out the words.
[I]
Dever burrowed deeper into her much smaller embrace.
[you]
Her voice settled into the twitching muscles, into the scars etched across his chest.
[like you.]
Ah, Dever recalled Beth's question. That bold one about whether he trusted her.
How could I not trust you?
It was a battle he was sure to lose. He would surrender to this tiny woman time and again.
Dever slowly raised his head and rubbed his lips against her dainty earlobe. He let out a low laugh against her twitching ear.
"Can't say no anymore."
A sweet warning, a signal that the long night had begun.
His lips trailed kisses along her slender jaw, descending to her pale nape. Meanwhile, his purposeful hands calmly undid the buttons of her dress.
His lips reached her delicate collarbone, then shifted to the white slip beneath. With each touch, Beth's ribs rose and fell raggedly.
"Cold?"
As if oblivious to shame, his persistent lips stayed pressed to her skin as Dever asked. Beth shook her head. How could she be, with that strange heat climbing her spine?
When Dever's hand touched a place she thought no one else would ever reach, Beth grabbed his shoulder in haste. He kissed the hand clutching him as casually as ever, even licking her palm. Beth yanked her flushed hand away.
Dever's lips twisted playfully at her shocked expression.
"We've got a long way to go, Miss Beth Jens."
Such gentlemanly honesty only embarrassed her more.
The hand gripping her slender ankle slid slowly upward. Over her barely-there calf and fragile thigh, his thick-knuckled fingers announced their presence.
A rough breath escaped Beth's lips. As Dever bowed his head, gripping her thigh firmly, Beth could only clutch his shoulder again, as if weeping.
He pursued more relentlessly than in their kiss. Her nails raked his shoulder several times before the strength drained from her grip.
"It might hurt."
Dever whispered, stroking her teary eyes. Soon, a beastly growl rumbled from his own throat.
Beth simply held him close, accepting his invading presence within her. Her disordered breaths choked her throat intermittently.
With each of Dever's movements, the rickety iron frame of the cot squeaked loudly.
As Dever filled her completely, Beth's lips parted like blooming petals. And Dever was no man to miss the gap. Above, below—there was no place he left untouched.
"Haa."
Whenever his grasping hand on the mound below her straight collarbone grazed the peak, Beth's shoulders hunched. The breaths in his ear grew rougher by the moment.
"Beth... Beth..."
Beth clung to her fading reason amid his mindless murmurs, brimming with unfiltered excitement. No part of her remained untouched.
Dever reeled from the heat flooding his mind just as much. Dazed like he was drunk, yet his senses sharpened relentlessly. Each brush of her soft feminine form only stoked the fire below.
His taut, angry muscles rippled with every motion. Thirst that seemed on the verge of quenching yet never satisfied drove Dever ever more frantic.
With increasingly fierce thrusts, an unrestrained moan burst from Dever's lips. At the same time, strength flooded into Beth's slender arms clinging to him.
At the unbearable peak, Dever collapsed atop her. Their sweat-slick bodies aligned without gap. Ragged breaths passed into each other's ears.
"Beth... Beth Jens."
Tears clung to the tips of her trembling long lashes. Dever claimed even those with his lips, stealing her clear tears again and again.
The winter night was only just beginning.