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Dan Se stared in consternation at her chest of drawers.  His clothes were in her room.  Her new room.  His room.  At least, he had thought it was now his room.  But she had slipped into that bed before him last night.  Possibly believing that he was going to continue to occupy this room.  But hadn’t she heard his words yesterday?  And seen him remove his clothes from these drawers?

He was still puzzled by her presence in his bed last night.

He recalled a question that she had asked him once.  And their ensuing discussion.

“Why don’t you smile more often?”

“Because where I grew up, joy was a weakness.”

“That ought not be so!”

She had sounded so indignant.  Her continued response rang out in his heart like the loud clanging of a bell.  Marking a moment as precious.  And defining a day as set apart for something important.  Unforgettable.

“Joy is strength!”

“Is it?”

“Yes!  I will prove it to you.”

And she had.  In marvelous form.  With those luscious lips of hers.  Lips which he longed to taste again.

He had enjoyed several brief moments of joy in her presence.  Before she had turned away from him.  But last night…she had crawled into his bed.  Had it truly been a mistake?  A misunderstanding between the two of them?

If it had been, then why had she asked him for help?  Had she just been so miserable that she would ask even a man whom she feared to lend her a bit of relief?

If so, was the opportunity likely to arise again?

––

Mi Sook lay on her tummy remembering her husband’s sweet, shocking words.

“I still remember the first time I saw her.  She was like a dream…A wild fantasy that only my heart could dream up.”

He had been speaking of her.  She still had a hard time believing it.  But he must have been because as he had continued his story, he had then referred to her in the second person instead of the third.  And he had outright admitted it, hadn’t he?

“You realize, don’t you, that I just admitted to liking you the very first time we met?”

And then the unfathomable words that had followed those. 

“You were an angel.”

A tear slid down her cheek as she considered him.  How on earth was she going to cross the great divide that had split them apart yesterday?  In her foolishness – in her fear – she had shoved him away.  And her feeble attempt to fix things had further repulsed him apparently.

How could Jung Sook be so certain that the man still loved her?

She felt no such certainty herself.

But she did recall his tenderness of last night.  Perhaps that was simply a revealing of his true character.  It might not have anything to do with how he truly felt about her.  He was simply a sweetheart.  Even towards someone who had injured him terribly.

She sighed deeply as she buried her cheek against her mattress.  She groaned.  The pain was becoming unbearable again.  She should have asked Jung Sook to salve her back before she left.  She mentally kicked herself for missing that opportunity.  She wasn’t willing to bare her bruised back to a servant.  And there was no way that she could smear that lotion on herself.

––

He heard her moan.  And it gave him courage. 

He knocked on the door separating their rooms.

“Mi Sook?”

Silence greeted him.

But he decided not to be intimidated by it.  If he was going to woo this woman, he was going to have to open himself up to the possibility that she might reject him.  But…if there was any chance that she truly needed him right now, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to help her.

“Do you need me?  My help, I mean.  Are you in pain?”

“Yes,” she groaned.

He wasn’t sure to which question she was responding, so he decided to take her reply as permission to enter her room.  So he slid the door open and crossed into the intimate space which they had shared for a few breathless moments last night.

He stared down at her.  She was lying on her stomach on her bed, her face buried in the mattress.

“Is it your back?”

“Yes.”

“Do you need me to rub some more cream into your skin?” he whispered.  Feeling slightly…embarrassed.  Though he couldn’t have explained why he felt so sheepish.

She refused to look at him.

Was she still upset with him then?

He sighed deeply.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to disturb you.  I’ll leave.”  He turned back towards the door.

“No!” she gasped.  And her head swung his way.

He heard the panic in her tone and turned to face her once more.  This time, his eyes collided with her own.  But he didn’t say anything.  She was going to have to make the next move.  He refused to trespass against her wishes.

“Please,” she mumbled, “the cream is there.  On the table.”  Her eyes directed him.

But, of course, he already knew where he’d left that jar in the middle of the night.  He reached for it and then crawled onto the bed.

“Do you want my help removing your shirt?” he murmured quietly.

And she turned a precious scarlet as she hid her face from his.   She’d forgotten that she’d put her shirt back on.  She was still hesitant to undress in front of him.  But…

…he’d seen her back in the middle of the night.

By lamplight.  Not in the stark light of day.

She swallowed.

“Mi Sook?” his soft voice sounded again.  “Will you let me help you?”

“I…I can do it.”  She reached down and grasped the bottom of her shirt with both hands before tugging upward as she bent her body backward.  She groaned in pain as she drew it above her head a moment later.

Dan Se privately enjoyed the peek at her body with which she’d just provided him.  He smiled inwardly.  But his lips were bent in a grimace as he commiserated with her obvious agony.  Still, he was a man.  And the sight of her naked flesh was doing strange things to him.

But as his eyes embraced that sad back, the sight of it did other odd things to him.  His heart convulsed in compassion for her.  He wanted to bend over and kiss that bruised skin instead of smearing it with a cooling salve.  However, he resisted his sweet impulse and began to smother her angry flesh in the soothing cream.

She tensed several times as his fingers, gentle as they were, contacted her pained flesh.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. 

After he’d uttered that same phrase five times, she cut him off.  “Dan Se, no.  This isn’t your fault.  You’re just trying to help me.”

“It is my fault,” he grumbled under his breath as his fingertips continued to slide lovingly down her skin.

Forgetting that she was half-naked, she twisted to confront him suddenly.  But the shocked expression that flowed over his face as his eyes took in the beautiful sight of her bare front made her gasp as she hurried to press herself back into the mattress.  Her heart now thudding, she grappled for breath.  But she couldn’t seem to find any for a little while.

Then she felt his cool fingers sliding over her back again.  More hesitantly, it seemed.  So she remained silent.  As did he.  After another minute, he seemed to relax, and those patient fingers continued to smooth the cream into her troubled flesh.  She sighed in relief as the medicated balm began to soothe her frayed nerves.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He had mortified her.  By seeing her undressed. 

“Please…don’t be embarrassed,” he finally uttered as his hand rested lightly against the base of her back.  “You’re…beautiful,” he breathed.

And her stomach did a wild somersault.  Her eyes flew open, and she stared at the opposite corner of the room. 

Dan Se thought she was beautiful?

She felt like bursting into tears again.  But such weakness was beneath her.  She had to stop weeping like some weak-willed ninny. 

What was it about this man that seemed to touch every sensitive spot in her heart…until her tears came to cleanse it?

He took her silence for disapproval.  Or discomfort.

“I will leave you now.”  He paused.  “Unless you need me to apply this anywhere else?”

Was that a hopeful note that she detected in his voice?

Her thighs were smarting too.  Dare she ask him…?

“Mi Sook?  What about your legs?”

“He did hit me once on my calf,” she responded.  Starting with the most innocuous spot.

“Would you like me to apply some of the cream there?”

“Yes…please.”

He pulled the covers away from her waist and down to her feet.  He began to rub the cream into her calves.  Secretly reveling in the experience.  Her skin was so smooth.  So soft.  He wanted to keep touching her.

He breathed a secret prayer of thanks that he had been permitted to touch her again today.  Yesterday he had despaired of ever again having such an opportunity.  And then last night had happened.  And now…this morning.

As his fingers reached her knee, he was tempted to slide his hand up her thigh.  But she was still wearing her pantaloons.

“Anywhere else?” he queried.

And she knew that she had been presented with an opportunity.  A chance that she might lose if she refused him.  He was not averse to helping her.  Even though he’d left her bed last night.

Was there any chance that Jung Sook had been correct?  Had he simply been afraid of inadvertently hurting her in his sleep?

She lacked the courage to ask him.  But she discovered that she was brave enough to slip her pants off. 

“Can you pull the sheet up to my waist?” her soft voice sounded tentatively.

He did as she requested.  Then he watched her struggle to remove her pantaloons.

“Can I help you?”

She swallowed.  Her heart was racing now.  Before she could lose her nerve, she nodded her head.

He pulled the covers back.  Careful not to disturb her most intimate of undergarments, a thin layer of cloth that covered her bottom, he slid the silky fabric of her pantaloons down to her knees.  And gazed down at the purpled bruises mottling her smooth thighs.  He winced as his eyes took in the damage caused by her father’s rod.

He swallowed as he dipped his hand into the cream again.  He bit his lip as he fingers found the top back of her knee.  Then they slid upward, smoothing the lotion over her thigh.  He tried to touch her as delicately as possible.  This area must not hurt as badly as her back had, for she didn’t flinch once as he ministered to her legs.  He sighed with relief when he was done.  Though his fingertips did miss the feel of her silky skin beneath them. 

He pulled her pants back up to her waist before drawing the covers up over her back.

“Would you care for some breakfast?” he queried finally after setting the jar of cream back on the table. 

He turned to face her again, but she was still hiding from him, her head resting in the opposite direction.

Before she could respond, her stomach gave a definite vote for some sustenance.  Embarrassed by her rumbling tummy, she grunted.  And admitted grudgingly, “I am quite hungry.”

She hadn’t eaten since dinner last night.

“I will return shortly with a tray for you.”  He paused as he climbed off the bed and retrieved his clothes from a drawer.  Then, “Try to rest in the meantime.”

Then, before she could even thank him, he was gone.

And she was left to relive the memory of his hands sliding along her skin.  Despite the pain those sensitive fingers had disturbed in her bruised flesh, she had enjoyed the comfort of his touch.  She longed to feel it again.