With her no longer scared, she just didn't look at where her hand rested, but let her gaze explore around curiously, from his wide shoulder, down his strong arms, towards his firm chest, before trailing down along his V-shaped waistline...

She couldn't help but gulp, but why, she didn't know.

Drayce observed her face and thought, 'Is she blushing?'

He could only guess it through because he couldn't see her cheeks as they were covered by the veil. Drayce held her other hand too and placed it on his chest as well. He pulled her a little closer and asked, "Does it feel different?"

She blinked, feeling puzzled about what he was talking about.

He clarified, "Standing close to me and touching me like this, does it make you feel different?"

'Different?' she repeated in her mind. She paid attention to how close she was standing to the bare-chested man.

She heard him talking again. "Or maybe it feels good?"

She had no words to say as she didn't know what she was feeling. Definitely, it was something different, but she didn't know whether it was good or bad. She felt her heart beating a little faster, so she concluded it must be bad.

'My heart beats fast like this after my nightmares or when I feel something bad will happen. This touching must definitely be bad.'

Though her conclusion was negative, she found herself unwilling to pull her hands away. This strange attraction made her puzzled even more.

"How does it feel?" Drayce asked again.

She felt scared of something that she couldn't understand and replied, "I... am not sure… Your Majesty."

He could guess her confused state of mind. She was never close to any man, nor had she seen anyone like this. Moreover, through their interactions since their marriage, it seemed like her shallow understanding regarding the affairs of people made her take some teachings to her strictly by the word without understanding the meaning beneath, just like a pure-hearted child. At this moment, her purple eyes were shaking; she must feel like committing a sin.

Before he could say a word, she spoke in haste, "L-Let me help Your Majesty take off your remaining clothes." She wanted to finish this lesson faster and get away from this man as soon as possible.

'Remaining clothes?' Drayce looked down at his pants. Though he had been in front of her without his shirt, he always kept his pants on. He didn't wish to scare the girl by letting her lessons advance like this.

Still, Drayce let her hands go to see what she would do. As expected, the naive woman moved her hands towards his pants after a slight pause from thinking about how to take it off. She saw a small golden button at the top of his pants and figured all she needed to do was repeat what she did earlier with his upper garments.

Just as she reached out her hand towards the button, Drayce stopped her hand before she could even touch him. "I will do the rest."

'Did I upset him, and he doesn't want me to help him now?'

Seeing the emotions fleeting through her eyes, Drayce made his tone gentle as he explained,"One at a time. My Queen can learn the rest later."

Seren could only nod.

"But for this much help, my Queen deserves a reward from me," he said with a small smile.

She looked at him, puzzled. 'My servants do this simple task several times a day for me, yet I don't reward them.'

"It's fine, Your Majesty—"

Before she could say a word further, Drayce pecked on her veil over her cheek, and she froze in her place. She felt the warmth of his moist lips through that thin layer of veil and felt heart skip a beat before thundering back, as if it's going wild inside her chest.

For the past seventeen years, she could not remember a single time anyone had done such an intimate gesture with her.

A peck on her cheek was something she had never received in her lifetime. During the rare times she sneaked out of her tower, she had seen parents doing this with their kids, and they looked happy together, but it never happened with her.

Martha, she was her nanny and the closest person to her, yet she had always preferred to take the difference between their social status when it came to showing her care to her lady. A royal lady and her servant, that's how Martha made it explicit to her. She remembered Martha hugging her whenever she cried when she was a kid, and she remembered Martha hugging her back when she returned before her marriage, but never ever did she do this with her.

Seeing her shocked, Drayce decided to give her time and went towards the adjacent room attached to theirs to change into his night robe.

When Drayce returned, he found her still standing in the same place.

"My Queen, we should sleep now."

His words pulled her out of the daze, and she looked at his lips that had just brushed against her cheek a while ago. He could clearly see through her what she was thinking. Her eyes were like a mirror reflecting her most honest thoughts; they never hesitated to show whatever she felt.

"My Queen, do you want me to do it again on your other cheek?" he asked.

"Huh? No...I am sleepy," she said before hurrying towards the bed.

Drayce smiled. He knew what he was doing was working in the right direction. He was affecting her, and this time, it was not fear.

Seren slept on one side of the bed with her back facing Drayce, shutting her eyes tightly as if trying to fall asleep as fast as she could.

Drayce got inside the same quilt and lay on the other side of the bed. He stared at her back and then the unusually wide distance between them. She had cornered herself near the edge of the bed, leaving a gap in between large enough so that one more person could sleep comfortably between them.

Drayce looked at the ceiling with an inward sigh.

To cover that small distance between them in bed, it will take him a lot more time.