“Do you like what you see?”
Unlike the red-haired girl next to her, Marianne had a lot of confidence in her looks. After all, she took after her mother, a top-selling prostitute in the brothel, when it came to facial and physical features. This was proven as the men in the brothel and even the male servants in the Dragonherz mansion occasionally ogled her. In fact, over the past three years, she had even received several confessions and even marriage proposals from her colleagues, all of which she had, of course, refused.
Funnily enough, even though she had probably received the most confessions from employees at the Dragonherz mansion so far, she didn't consider herself to be the most popular or the most beautiful person. In her eyes, there were four women, she considered to be more gorgeous than herself.
Firstly, there were the two Dragonherz ladies, Lauren and Clara. For obvious reasons, they wouldn't be romantically approached by the staff.
Secondly, there was the former High Priestess and High Elf Fran who had stayed in the mansion until last year. Typical, almost clichéd, for an elf, her beauty wasn't something that Marianne could put into words. But in her eyes, Fran was certainly even more attractive than the blonde mother-daughter pair. Marianne had almost deemed Fran to be the most stunning person, were it not for the last one.
Rina. Though, in her case, it would be cuteness rather than gorgeousness.
In the Dragonherz mansion, the red-haired girl would probably be the one to get the most marriage proposals and confessions. Well, would be. Had the Young Lady not been glaring at the people who showed signs of wanting to approach her, Rina would have gotten more confessions.
Back to the topic at hand, Marianne was delighted, when she saw how Rina's eyes were drawn to her breasts, which were barely concealed by her highly provocative underwear. Even though her chest was not as big as Clara's, she was still confident in it and was sure that the girl beside her would react to it. After all, Rina had always shown in the past that she was weak for... the spicier parts of a woman's body, especially the chest area. The fact that the red-haired girl was still as flat as a chopping board certainly also played a part in this.
And indeed, as if to confirm Marianne's thoughts, Rina's eyes were glued to the barely hidden fruits in front of her. In fact, she came very close to grabbing them. Fortunately, or unfortunately (?), she was just able to regain her composure just in time before she could do anything that could be considered sexual harassment. Though, 'composure' might have been a bit of a stretch, because as soon as she looked up at the grinning brunette, Rina finally realised what she had been doing the whole time and turned around a split second later, blushing of course.
“Fufu... you don't want to look anymore?” Naturally, Marianne was delighted and spooned the girl next to her again. This time, however, the hug was much closer, and she made sure that her chest was pressed against Rina's back. “See? Staying like this isn't so bad, is it?”
“...”
When Marianne got no reaction, she grew a little annoyed and, in response, let her hands wander all over the younger girl's bare skin, leaving only the clothed, more dangerous parts of her body alone. For some reason, though, after harassing the younger girl like that for a while longer, she got even more irritated. “Seriously, why the heck is your skin so soft... it's unfair... Well... it feels nice to touch, so I consider it a win.”
Meanwhile, Rina was still distracted by the soft feelings on her back, so she needed a few moments to recover from it. And only when she finally did, was she able to truly digest Marianne's words, which she couldn't help but doubt. Because of said doubt, she placed her hands on top of the brunette's that were currently around her belly. She then moved her hands around so that Marianne's hand slid over her skin.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“R-Rina!? W-what are you suddenly doing?” Not expecting Rina to do that, Marianne started to panic inwardly. 'T-this is bad! H-have I accidentally turned on some weird switch? Have I turned her on!? S-shit, Lady C-Clara will kill me if I go any further than this... should I just risk it?'
Naturally, Rina wasn't turned on or anything like Marianne had thought. She just did what she had done, because she wanted to see the brunette's reaction. “Marianne... do you really like touching me like this?”
“Eh!?” Hearing the weak, uncertain, and even slightly trembling voice, Marianne almost instantly calmed down from her earlier inner turmoil. “What do you mean?”
Rina moved her and Marianne's hands up and down her stomach again. “You said, my skin was nice to touch... do you truly think so?”
Because the brunette was still half confused and half concentrating on the feeling on her palm, she answered before her own brain could even register it. “Mhm... I love it... if I could, I wish we could stay like this for the rest of my life...”
“...”
Only after a while did Marianne realise what she had said and blushed as she cursed herself for answering so rashly. Her only salvation was, that she was currently lying behind the redhead. That way, she could hide the fact, that she was blushing like a ripe tomato and therefore maintain the image of a 'cool, mysterious beauty, who was not shy of aggressively pursuing her love'. At least she liked to think that she had such an image in Rina's mind.
Though, whether or not Rina actually viewed Marianne that way was a question for another time.
Back to the current situation, after hearing the words of the hugging girl, Rina somehow felt, that those words were the truth. The fact, that she could feel Marianne's fast heartbeat on her back, had certainly played a large part in her assumption.
'Marianne has told me several times, that she loves me... and I still don't believe her... but what if these are her true feelings?'
She shook her head to get that thought out of her mind and tried to turn her attention back to the brunette. However, her head movement had caused her hair to sway in front of Marianne's nose, tickling her.
“Hahaha... Rina, please stop, your hair is tickling me.”
“Oh, sorry,” Rina said before falling back into her thoughts again.
She knew that her beloved mistress back home loved her. And she understood very well, that that blonde girl was someone very prone to jealousy. Having experienced her fair share of (unrequited) love herself, Rina also knew that witnessing the target of her affection cuddling with another girl was bad for her psyche. So much so, that even harming herself, like cutting her arm shallowly with a knife, would even ease that pain.
That was why she had decided, that it was unacceptable for her to let herself get almost raped again, like in that shabby house five years ago... at least as long as Clara seemed to love her. But what about something that was much less intimate, like the hug she was getting now? Besides, it wasn't like she and Clara were lovers or anything.
Rina thought about it for a while, but as she still couldn't find an answer, she just gave up thinking about it and asked Marianne one last time instead. “Are you sure that Clara has agreed to this? I know, it's not my place to say it, but she doesn't seem like someone who would be okay with it.”
“Yes, I'm sure... well, it's not like she let it slide for free this time...”
“... What does she make you do?” Rina wasn't sure how she should feel about them making a deal with each other without her knowledge.
“It's ~ a ~ secret ~.” Unfortunately for Rina, Marianne just brushed off the question and instead tightened her arms.
So, with no other choice but to accept the current situation, Rina's sighed loudly and gave in, not reluctantly, if one might add. “Fine... we can stay like this for the nights of our stay.”
“Yaaay...” Marianne was about to snuggle even closer to the girl in her arms but was unfortunately interrupted before she could do so.
“But nothing too dirty, okay?”
“Hmm?”
“L-like I said, we can stay like this... but doing more than this is bad... so keep it at this level, okay?”
Marianne had initially intended to do nothing more risqué than what they were already doing, so her answer to the condition presented to her was a no-brainer.
“It's a promise, I won't do anything too lewd to you.”