The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!

Rex opened his eyes to darkness still present in the room.

He didn’t move right away. He’d been doing it long enough, lying absolutely still in the first few seconds of waking, that he’d stopped asking himself where it came from.

It was just what he did, a quick scan of his surroundings before anything else. The inn had a low wooden ceiling and only one window, through which the sky was just beginning to lighten from black to dark blue.

Somewhere outside, birds were doing their exploratory, uncertain chirping, which led up to the full dawn chorus.

Rex saw that Nerith slept on his chest.

’Look at her...’

’She looks all innocent after begging me to go all rough on her...’ Rex laughed softly. ’...in the end, not a single woman can resist a good rough fuck from me.’

’Next time... I need to really see the woman’s personality to prevent that I didn’t rape the wrong woman, but it’s still fun and disturbing that I love it so much.’

’Even if there was a trauma in it... I can just slowly manipulate it until she replaced it herself, like how this druid does it.’

’A good fucking plan of manipulation indeed.’

She’d ended up there sometime in the middle of the night, her head just below his collarbone, one hand loosely fisted on his abs and pecs.

The amber leaves were perfectly still, flat against her hair the way they did when she was deep asleep and not processing anything at all. Her breathing was slow and fairly regular.

[NERITH SYLVARUNE — MAXIMUM BOND REACHED: 100/100]

[FIRST MAXIMUM BOND BONUS: +1000 ENERGY POINTS]

[CURRENT ENERGY BALANCE: 7000 ENERGY POINTS]

Rex read the notification twice. Not because he had to check it, but because the number deserved a moment’s consideration.

"That Dream Walk skill I purchased for one-time use... at least I get cashback for it. It was a significant location, and the circumstances leading up to it were more compressed than usual."

He thought about that for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, and then he thought about the Key to the Underlayer and the entrance to the canyon, which was now about a six-hour walk from where he lay, and then he thought about Elizabeth Von Starlight and the particular geometry of her situation that made her the most efficient next target, given the current variables.

And all these matters he thought over systematically and slowly, as he thought over most things, while Nerith slept on his chest.

’Good shit.’ He didn’t want to be disturbed this morning.

About twenty minutes after that, Nerith stirred. First, it was the amber leaves with a slow, gradual awakening that came before any physical movement, a warm orange-gold settling into them as her consciousness returned.

Her hand flexed slightly against his chest in a reflexive tightening, and then she became still again, exhibiting the particular behavior of someone who has just realized exactly where they are and is contemplating how to respond to that information.

Rex waited.

"You’re awake," she said, her voice rough from recent sleep, and she kept her head down.

"I’ve been up for a while," he replied.

There was a pause. She was doing the amber-leaf suppression thing, which was getting less and less effective as Rex had seen her leaves enough times to know the exact pattern of movement she used when she was trying to look calmer than she was.

"How long?"

"About an hour... and you just stayed right here."

"You were asleep peacefully," he said, as if that explained everything and was all there was to it, which it was.

There was no point in disturbing a sleeping person unless he had some immediate need to move, and he’s not going to lie on this one, but her position had been comfortable enough.

Finally, Nerith raised her head and looked at him, hair falling loose, her face a mixture of composure and something much less composed. The leaves had found a steady, warm motion, the slow amber waves he thought of as hers finding something more significant than she’d intended.

"I... uhhmm... Good... morning," she said with an embarrassed look. "Last night was intense..."

"Yeah... good morning to you too, my little flower," he said.

She looked at him for another moment, trying to find something in his face that she clearly couldn’t, which caused her expression to shift to the faint, slightly rueful look of someone who has accepted a situation they are unsure how to categorize.

She sat up and pushed her hair back and looked at the window. "We’ve got to be downstairs before Elizabeth,"

Rex nodded. ’Probably.’

"So we should get up."

"Whenever you’re ready."

She gave him a look that contained several things at once, and then she got up.

Rex spanked her ass one last time.

SPANK!

"Ahhnn! R-Rex..." Nerith turned back just to cover her ass. "Please refrain..."

"Just a little check."

Nerith shot him a look that conveyed a mix of emotions, none of which were fully formed enough to articulate. She retrieved her robe from the chair and turned away from him to put it on, signaling her desire for physical distance after the last several seconds.

Rex sat up and reached for his shirt.

"So," he said, in the same tone he used when he was opening a conversation he already knew the shape of. "Apollo...?"

Nerith’s hands paused at her sash for half a second. "What about him?"

"He did confess to you at that waterfall, and you literally rejected him outside this room," Rex laughed.

"You heard that too," she said. "Well... it’s no surprise how sharp your ears are."

"I heard enough," Rex said.

She finished tying the sash and turned around. Her hair was still loose, the amber leaves sitting at their morning level, unhurried and warm.

She looked at him with the expression she used when she had already worked through something and was presenting the conclusion rather than the process.

"Why are you asking that...?" she said.

"I don’t know." Rex looked at her. "I’m just curious about what you’re going to do with it."

She paused for a moment, then walked over to the small mirror on the dresser. As she began to pull her hair back, her hands moved through the familiar motions with the focused attention of someone who used the task to find a place for her gaze.

"He was honest with me," she said. "He deserved an honest answer."

"And what was the honest answer?"

She glanced at him in the mirror. "You already know what it was."

Rex remained silent, allowing the moment to stretch between them. He knew she was on the verge of saying it, and she was aware of it too; pushing her wouldn’t hasten the revelation.

Nerith set her hands down on the dresser edge and looked at her own reflection for a moment.

"Come on now." Rex said.

She turned away from the mirror and looked at him directly, embodying the version of Nerith that emerged when she had made a decision and was determined not to downplay it.

"Y-you know why," she said. "And please stop teasing me..."

Rex pulled his gear on and didn’t rush to fill the space.

"Say it," he said.

Nerith held his gaze. The leaves had gone to the slow gold wave, the color they turned when her channel had registered something significant and decided it was worth anchoring to.

"Since the gorge incident," she said, "when I was holding on and the crack was happening... the person I was hoping to see wasn’t him."

"But..." She looked at Rex with the composed expression of someone who had made peace with a decision before announcing it. "It was you."

"Maybe that’s why my feelings for you are stronger now..."

The room was quiet for a moment.

Rex looked at her. Not with the warmth that another person might have shown in this moment, nor with the softness that her words invited.

Instead, he regarded her with the steady, direct attention that was uniquely his—present and unpretentious.

"Should we tell him?" Rex said with a smug look. "His druid harem has been stolen."

Nerith exhaled through her nose, "Please don’t..."

"I want it to be like Aisella and Talyra, where both of them are secretly yours..."

"Hmm?" Rex raised his eyebrows. "You want it like that too?"

Nerith nodded while she picked up her staff from where it had leaned against the wall all night. "Just make sure to not let Apollo know about this."

Rex watched her.

"Are you not going to tell him yourself?" he said.

"No," Nerith said, and the firmness in it was not forced. "I don’t want him heartbroken or anything..."

"Why still care for that fucking bum?" Rex laughed.

She looked at him. "I don’t want to make him all sad and depressed again..."

"Hehhh... even though you were brutally fucked at night next to his room."

"Ugh..." Nerith’s face began to flush, and even her leaves changed color.

Nerith studied his face for a moment, using the particular attention she reserved for things she was still trying to fully understand. Then she shook her head slightly, and an almost-laugh that was characteristic of Rex escaped her before she could suppress it.

"You’re impossible to please," she remarked.

Nerith finished getting ready just to close her distance with Rex by giving him a hug and giving a long look at his face. "Even though I know you’re not really a good guy..."

"But still... what you gave me... it makes me want to experience new things."

"In the end... plants do intend to bloom differently, and I want to bloom differently as well."

"Good to hear it." Rex gives her a rough French kiss, and Nerith closes both her eyes to enjoy it because she’s not going to feel this again for a long time because of the last day’s expedition.

After that, she moved toward the door and stopped with her hand on the handle, looking back at him over her shoulder. The morning light from the window caught the leaves in her hair and turned them the color they were when she was somewhere between settled and uncertain, which was gold at the tips and amber at the roots.

"I love you, Rex..."

Rex nodded. "I know."

"Now... let’s go focus on our real task!"