After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law

Damien didn’t wait for her to give him an answer. He didn’t need one.

He ducked his head, closing the distance between them.

The water in the massive soaking tub sloshed over the edges as he leaned forward, parting his lips and capturing her left breast in his mouth.

Aria let out a sharp, ragged gasp, her back violently arching off his lap.

Her period was slated to start in exactly two days. Her hormones were currently staging a full-blown riot, leaving her breasts swollen, heavy, and exquisitely, painfully sensitive to even the slightest touch.

”Damien,” she whimpered, her hands instinctively flying up to tangle in his damp silver hair.

”I can already feel the headache fading,” Damien murmured against her wet skin, his breath ghosting over the hypersensitive peak.

He swirled his tongue in a slow, agonizingly deliberate circle, his teeth grazing lightly against her flesh. His large hands gripped her bare waist, his thumbs pressing firmly into the curve of her hips to hold her steady as he ruthlessly worshipped her chest.

Aria squeezed her eyes shut, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

It felt incredible. Her hands slid down to the back of his neck and his broad shoulders.

Beneath the wet skin, his muscles were locked into absolute, unyielding stone. They weren’t just tense; they were corded like steel cables.

The realization hit her with a sharp pang of empathy that cut right through the haze of her own arousal.

He was in absolute agony, weaponizing his own lust. He was using the sheer, overwhelming rush of adrenaline and sexual dopamine as a makeshift painkiller to forcibly drown out the migraine splitting his skull in half.

He moved to her other breast, sucking hard, drawing a loud, shameless moan from her lips.

Aria wanted to stop him. She wanted to play the responsible wife and force him to lay back. But it felt so good.

The slow, wet suction, the heat of his mouth, the gentle, bruising pressure of his hands on her waist—it was pushing her dangerously close to the edge without him ever having to touch her below the waist.

”Damien, wait, I—” Aria gasped, her hips bucking involuntarily against the rigid, unyielding length of his erection trapped between them under the water.

”I’m not stopping,” Damien growled softly, misinterpreting her plea. He shifted his grip, one hand coming up to firmly cup the breast he had just abandoned, rolling the sensitive peak between his thumb and forefinger while his mouth relentlessly devoured the other.

It was too much.

”Damien!” she cried out, her voice echoing off the imported black marble of the bathroom.

Her inner muscles clamped down violently, her toes curling against the porcelain bottom of the tub. She collapsed forward, burying her face into his wet, heavily muscled shoulder, sobbing his name as wave after wave of intense, blinding pleasure wracked her trembling frame.

Damien let out a dark, triumphant groan, feeling the tremors shaking her body.

He was breathing heavily, his own arousal straining painfully against the confines of his own skin.

He didn’t want to wait anymore.

Still holding her firmly by the hips, Damien shifted his weight, intending to lift her upward and drag her forward so he could slide his aching erection directly into her slick heat.

Smack.

Aria’s hands came down flat and hard against his wet collarbones.

She shoved him, putting all of her remaining strength into stopping him from moving her hips over his.

Damien froze, his golden eyes blown wide with confusion and unadulterated need.

”Aria,” he rasped, his voice thick with frustration, his hips jerking forward instinctively in a desperate bid for friction. ”Please?”

”No,” Aria panted, her face flushed a vibrant, beautiful crimson, her chest heaving as she glared down at him.

”What?” Damien asked, his jaw clenching. ”Did I hurt you?”

”No, you didn’t hurt me. You were amazing,” Aria breathed, gently but firmly pushing his shoulders back until he was resting against the slanted back of the bathtub. ”But I’m putting my foot down, Damien. We are not doing this.”

”I felt your shoulders,” Aria continued, wiping a stray drop of water from her chin. ” Your muscles are locked so tight they feel like concrete. Your head is absolutely killing you, isn’t it?”

Damien’s eyes narrowed. He looked away, his jaw ticking. ”I’m fine. The pain is manageable.”

”Liar,” Aria called him out instantly. ”You’re using sex as a distraction. You’re trying to flood your brain with endorphins so you don’t have to feel the migraine. It’s a very sexy coping mechanism, but it’s a short-term fix.”

She trailed her fingers gently down his wet cheek.

”If we have sex right now, your heart rate is going to spike, your blood pressure is going to skyrocket, and by the time you wake up tomorrow morning, the neural pain is going to be so severe you won’t even be able to open your eyes.”

Damien stared at her. He hated that she was right.

He let out a long, heavy sigh of defeat, his head falling back against the edge of the tub.

”You are the most stubborn woman I have ever met,” Damien grumbled, his hands falling away from her hips to rest in the water.

”And you are my most stubborn patient,” Aria smiled, sliding off his lap and moving to kneel in the water beside him. ”Close your eyes.”

Damien begrudgingly let his eyes drift shut.

Aria reached over the side of the tub, retrieving the small velvet pouch dangling off the marble side table. She pulled out a sterile alcohol wipe, quickly cleaning her fingertips before extracting three incredibly thin, sterilized silver needles.

”Deep breath,” Aria instructed softly.

She moved with expert precision. She inserted the first needle into the Jianjing point at the highest point of his trapezius muscle. The second went into the Fengchi hollow at the base of his skull. The third was placed gently at the Yintang point, right between his eyebrows.

Damien gritted his teeth, his hands gripping the edges of the tub as a sharp, brief pinch flared at the insertion points.

And then... the bottom dropped out.

The rigid, suffocating tension that had been gripping his spine and skull like a vise simply evaporated. It didn’t fade slowly; it rushed out of his body like water from a broken dam. The blinding pressure behind his left eye dissolved into a cool, rushing sensation of absolute clarity.

Damien let out a long, shuddering exhale, his entire frame slumping bonelessly against the porcelain.

His golden eyes fluttered open. The dark, tight lines of pain etched around his mouth were completely gone. He looked at his hands, flexing his fingers slowly, a look of profound, lazy wonder washing over his face.

”What...” Damien mumbled, his voice sounding incredibly relaxed and slightly slurred. ”What did you just do?”

”I unblocked your Gallbladder and Governing Vessel meridians,” Aria explained proudly, wiping her hands on a towel. ”It releases the stagnant Qi and triggers a massive dump of natural painkillers into your nervous system.”

Damien blinked slowly, looking up at the ceiling.

”I feel...” Damien paused, a loose, boyish smirk spreading across his usually stoic face. ”I feel incredibly light. My limbs feel like they weigh nothing.”

He slowly turned his head to look at her, his golden eyes entirely unclouded for the first time all day.

”Aria,” Damien murmured, looking completely blissed out. ”Am I high?”

Aria burst into a fit of giggles, splashing a handful of warm water onto his chest.

”Acupuncture drunk,” Aria corrected, leaning over to press a soft kiss to his mouth. ”You’re welcome. Now, just relax.”