The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 144

144. Just Hold Me for a Moment

“……Pardon?”

I was surprised by his sudden request to lie down and repeated my question.

“That’s how I can give you a water massage on your back.”

Ah, right. A water massage.

“Are you really going to do it?”

Is my back even worthy of such treatment?

It felt a bit awkward to ask after already taking off my shirt, but how many husbands in the world give their wives a water massage on their back?

And that husband is the Emperor?

Without further hesitation, I laid down.

Lying face down in front of His Majesty the Emperor, in front of my husband, was quite embarrassing. But today was an especially hot day, and I needed to cool down.

“Forget about other places; please just focus on my back, okay? Just my back.”

Out of concern, I indicated the area where he should pour water.

“You worry about everything. As if I would be doing a water massage and… Never mind, I shouldn’t say it.”
Rinel cupped water with both hands, dipping them into the stream, and then mercilessly poured it on my back.

“Ugh……!”

The stream water inside the cave was much cooler than the water outside, probably because it didn’t receive direct sunlight.

“Are you okay? How is it?”

“It wakes me right up; it’s so cool!”

The tingling sensation that traveled to my toes made me lift one foot at a time while lying down, and Rinel’s deep laughter echoed through the cave.

Rinel poured water on my back several times and rubbed it back and forth with his large hands.

“Heeu……!”

A groan escaped my lips from the cold water that seeped into my bones.

“While we’re at it, should I wash your hair too?”

Rinel’s hand gently rubbed the back of my neck as he asked.

“No. If my hair is wet, the wild strawberry expedition team will think they were summoned by His Majesty and tortured with water.”

“Is my image that bad? To the point where I’d be misunderstood as waterboarding [a form of torture] the Empress?”

“Wow, you thought it would be a good idea? I’m more surprised that you even considered that!”

I burst out laughing.

Then he put his hand in the stream, scooped up water, and flicked it at my face.

“Ugh! Ehehehe.”

I squeezed my eyes shut at the splashing water, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Looks like you’re having a lot of fun. Should I make you laugh more?”

I barely stopped laughing at his ominous question.

“No, I’ll pass.”

Rinel seemed to pour water on my back again without saying anything, then suddenly put his hand inside my armpit.

“Ah, hahaha, what are you doing? It tickles!”

“You need to wash here to feel cool.”

Unlike his calm voice, his hands scrubbed my armpits.

Did ‘Do you want to laugh more?’ mean he would make me laugh like this?

I twisted my body from the ticklishness,

“Eopupu-pupu!”

And plunged my chest straight into the stream.

The moment my eyes met the bottom of the stream, his hand lifted my waist.

As a result, he was the one who put me in the stream, and he was the one who lifted me out.

If he hadn’t held my waist, I would have completely fallen in.

“I accidentally washed your hair too.”

He squeezed the water out of my wet hair as if he were wringing laundry and barely held back his laughter.

“What are you doing?”

When I glared at him with a scowl, he stopped laughing silently.

“Cover this up a bit.”

He said seriously and personally put my arm to my chest.

Then he looked at me, smiled, took off the shirt he was wearing, and wiped the water off my face and body, saying,

“Don’t look at me. You look so alluring when you’re wet like that.”

Then who told you to wash my armpits?

If you hadn’t tickled me, I wouldn’t have fallen into the water up to my chest and gotten completely wet like this?

After putting on my slip, I was about to say something to him, but his lips blocked mine.

Forgetting to put on my clothes, I accepted his kiss.

His softness, which had been exploring my mouth freely for a while, slipped out.

He gently pressed my lower lip with his finger and whispered.

“Even though you fell in the water, it’s still hot here. I like it……”

The heat in my body, which had cooled down because of his lips, rose again.

“Why are you wiping me with Your Majesty’s shirt? The shirt is all wet.”

“I can’t wipe you with your shirt, can I?”

“Your Majesty should wear one more layer than me.”
A person whose body is always cold.

“The sunlight is warm, so it’s okay.”

It wasn’t warm; it was hot enough to burn my skin, but it seemed to be a comfortable level for him.

“You want me to see my wife wearing only her uniform without a shirt? What if the buttons on the uniform come undone!”

He exclaimed in surprise as if the gap between my uniform buttons was a catastrophic event.

“Put on your clothes. I want to fasten the buttons, but my hands are too frozen to do that.”

He put my shirt on my arms and said.

Only then did I remember Rinel’s hypothermia curse and quickly grabbed his hand.

“I can’t believe it! Your hands are completely ice cold!”

I exclaimed without realizing it.

I wasn’t angry at him.

I was angry at myself for forgetting that he was a person cursed with hypothermia and continuing to let him put his hands in the cold water.

Even if I had forgotten about it for a moment, he must have felt very cold while giving me a water massage, right?

He endured it and kept putting his hands in the cold water to give me a water massage.

And he even used his shirt to wipe me.

Why is this man so devoted to me…….

“What are you doing?”

“It’s cold.”

I took my shirt and put it on his arm.

“So you’re telling me to wear your shirt?”

The sleeves of my shirt got stuck when they went up to his elbows.

“It doesn’t go up any further……”

“I’m fine. You’ll catch a cold; put it on quickly.”

He took the sleeve of my shirt that was stuck on his elbow and put it on me.

Why don’t you worry about your own hands that are about to get frostbite?

I put on my shirt, took his hands, blew warm air into them, and glanced at him.

“Hoo~. Why did you get your shirt wet?”

I couldn’t help but make a ‘tsk, tsk’ sound.

Rinel’s cheeks, who was looking down at me, flushed.

“Do you feel a little warmer?”

It wouldn’t be enough with this, but I asked because I was worried, and he nodded obediently and lowered his gaze.

“Why? Are your chest cold too? Well, you’ve been shirtless since earlier, so it must be cold.”

I blew warm air on his chest too.

His chest muscles twitched, and his abs below them hardened.

“Can I… can I hold you for a moment?”

Rinel asked as if pleading with a voice mixed with a dry cough.

Why would you even ask such a thing?

Without hesitation, I hugged him tightly with both arms.

“Ah, so you had these circumstances.”

His lower body was fighting a war alone.