the Villainess they took for granted

(Adrian)

Adrian’s control shattered at the sight of her.

She lay exposed on his bed—golden, pale, and agonizingly beautiful.

So beautiful it hurt to look at her.

Yet behind the burning desire, the sharp ache of bitter suspicion remained.

Did she lie like this for Cassian?

Did she give herself to him the same way she is offering herself to me now?

The thought tasted like poison.

It made his grip tighten on her waist.

It made his kisses darker, harsher, taking her mouth with a punishing intensity that demanded total surrender.

If she was playing a game—if this was all a calculated bid to secure his imperial favor—he would still have her.

He would break through every defense she had until there was nothing left between them to deny.

He parted her legs, crowding between her thighs.

Marian gasped as his large, warm hand slid down her inner thigh, fingers brushing over the soft hair at her core.

She was wet. Slick and warm.

When his fingers slid lower, testing her entrance, Adrian felt her body instantly tighten around his index finger.

Marian let out a high, breathless moan, her head tossing back against the pillows, her golden hair spilling across the dark sheets.

”Adrian—”

”Shh,” he breathed against her neck, his thumb finding her sensitive center, rubbing in small, deliberate circles.

He knew women.

He knew the subtle signs of pleasure, the feigned gasps, the practiced movements of those who simply wanted to please a lord.

Marian had no practice.

Her body quivered violently under his touch.

Her hips jerked instinctively toward his hand, completely undisguised in her raw, unpolished reaction.

He inserted a second finger, probing deeper.

His hand stalled.

Adrian froze.

Deep inside her slick, narrow passage, his fingers met a firm, unyielding barrier.

A tight, unbroken resistance.

Adrian’s breath hitched in his throat.

He drew back slightly, looking down at her face.

Marian’s eyes were tightly shut, her lower lip caught between her teeth, her cheeks burning crimson under his gaze.

She was biting back a soft whimpering sound, her hands clutching frantically at the bedsheets beneath her.

Adrian looked down at his hand, then back at her slick entrance.

There was no mistake.

He knew what the hymen felt like. He knew the resistance of an untouched woman.

Marian had never done this.

Not even with Cassian.

The realization struck him like a physical blow, temporarily driving the air from his lungs.

He had been with other women during the years they had been apart. Those encounters belonged entirely to the life he had lived after Marian walked away from him.

But Marian—

Marian had loved Cassian.

She had chosen him.

They had been engaged.

Adrian had assumed that Cassian had shared this part of her life.

He had been wrong.

And the knowledge should have made him certain of her.

Instead, it made the question worse.

Why had she given herself to him now?

Because she wanted Adrian?

Or because she wanted the Emperor?

Adrian still couldn’t tell.

Whatever that meant, Adrian could examine it later.

For now, he would take what she was giving him.

--

(Marian)

Marian opened her eyes slowly, panting.

The sudden pause made her look up at Adrian.

He was staring down at her, his dark eyes ablaze with an intensity that made her breath catch.

There was no gentleness in his jaw, no hesitation in his frame.

”Adrian?” she whispered, her voice small and trembling.

She felt utterly exposed. Naked.

The heavy silence stretching between them made her chest ache with a sudden wave of vulnerability.

Adrian didn’t offer comforting words.

Instead, his hand came up, gripping her jaw with firm, possessive strength, tilting her head back as he leaned down to sink his teeth gently into one of her rosy, heaving nipples.

”Ah!” Marian gasped, an electric shock of sharp pleasure shooting straight to her core as he bit and sucked the sensitive pink peak.

Before she could recover, Adrian shifted his weight, aligning his thick, rigid shaft against her slick, swollen entrance.

He didn’t ask. He didn’t offer her an escape.

With a deliberate, unyielding push, Adrian drove forward.

He hit the barrier, paused for only a fraction of a second to feel her body stretch around him, and then pressed firmly through.

A faint tear echoed in the quiet room, followed by a sharp, choked cry from Marian’s throat.

She gasped, her fingers digging wildly into his broad shoulders as he buried himself all the way inside her.

Below, a small smear of crimson stained the pristine white sheets beneath her pale hips.

Marian was completely his.

In a way no one else had ever possessed her.

--

(Adrian)

The sheer, overwhelming surge of possessiveness that flooded Adrian’s veins was terrifying.

She was his.

Every inch of her porcelain skin, every golden strand of hair, every tight, unblemished inch of her core—she belonged to him.

”Marian,” he groaned against her ear, his breath hot and ragged.

He did not give her time to dwell on the sting.

He began to move, pulling back slowly before plunging deep into her again, establishing a heavy, relentless pace.

The pain in Marian’s eyes quickly shattered, replaced by a dark, intoxicating haze of sheer pleasure.

Her legs slowly drifted upward, wrapping tightly around his waist, pulling him deeper into her wet, scorching heat.

”Ah—Adrian!” she moaned, her voice ringing out in the quiet room as his thrusts rocked her entire body.

The sound of her calling his name shattered whatever restraint he had left.

Adrian picked up the speed, his thrusts growing deeper, harder, driving into her with a fierce, possessive rhythm that made the heavy mahogany bed frame creak.

His hands dug into her soft hips, tilting her up to meet every punishing stroke.

Every time he slid inside her, her tight, virgin walls contracted around him, milking his length with a breathless, instinctual grip that drove him insane.

He leaned down, capturing her lips in a deep, wet kiss, tasting her moans as he hammered into her again and again.

”Look at me, Marian,” he rasped, pulling back just enough to lock his eyes with hers.

Marian looked at him, her blue eyes blown out, glistening with tears of pure ecstasy, her porcelain cheeks flushed bright red

’You are mine’ he wanted to say, but he didn’t. Instead he kept driving deep into her sweet spot.

”Ahhhh...” Marian sobbed out, her head tossing back into the pillows as her peak rushed toward her. ”Adrian—yes! Right there—!”

Her body suddenly stiffened beneath him.

Her inner muscles clamped down around his shaft in a violent, crushing orgasm, her toes curling into the sheets as her body quaked from head to toe.

The intense, tight milking of her climax broke Adrian completely.

He let out a low, guttural roar, driving himself as deep as his body could go, spilling his hot, heavy seed deep inside her pristine cavern.

He shuddered over her, holding her tightly against his chest, his heart thumping wildly against hers as the world faded into absolute silence around them.

--

Tbc

AN: i think it’s high time we get to this. Also given how much adrian wanted her and he is the emperor, why else should he wait? Practically, his personality is not screaming i love you and we walk under the sun holding hands happily. Lol. So yes, this is the natural progression. No matter how I see it, there’s no other way and no other path things will lead to but this! So don’t think I wrote the smut just for the sake of it. Haha