Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 30: Bathing together

Ruth’s heart skipped a beat at Luciana’s words. Didn’t she just say she had forgiven her? Why did she change her mind all of a sudden?

"My lady, please have mercy; I only meant it as a joke. It’ll never happen again," Ruth cried, continuously repeating the same phrase, but Luciana didn’t even look in her direction and waved at the guards to drag her away.

When they were left alone, Luciana turned to look at her new visitor.

"What do you want?" Luciana asked Prince Nicholas, her tone laced with a hint of anger.

"That’s one interesting way to welcome your husband when I brought something to appease you," Nicholas said. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"What is it?" Luciana asked unenthusiastically; she wasn’t interested in playing with him.

"Bring her in," Nicholas said. Three maids entered the courtyard supporting Dora.

Luciana’s eyes became teary as she rushed towards Dora; she hovered over her worriedly with a hint of heartache on her face.

"Is it very painful?" Luciana asked her, giving her all her attention. Nicholas looked at the scene with a hint of jealousy in his eyes. ’Just look at how worried she is; if he were in the same situation, would she be that worried?’

"No, my princess, you must not worry about me. Please help me thank the eldest prince on my behalf; I had only received 10 lashes before he arrived to free me," Dora said; even at this time, she was still trying to make Luciana have a good impression of Nicholas.

Luciana raised her gaze and unwillingly stared at the man whose gaze had never strayed from her ever since he arrived. She must admit, the Nicholas she knew would never change his decision halfway, but he had gone to the disciplinary bureau and brought Dora back to her; she should be grateful.

"Thanks to His Highness for returning my maid to me. If there’s anything this servant must do to repay you later, please let me know; if it’s within my strength, I’ll do it," she said.

"Anything?" He asked, and Luciana nearly swallowed her words back, seeing how his piercing gaze intently searched her face, but in the end, she could only nod.

"Yes, Your Highness, anything," she answered.

Even though Nicholas didn’t like how she was addressing him in such a formal way, hearing her say ’anything’ put him in a good mood.

"I will keep it in mind," he said and walked towards her inner chambers.

"I will wait for you," he said and entered as if he owned the place. ’Maybe he did own the place.’

Princess Consort Luciana instructed the maids to follow her as they brought Dora to the servants’ quarters. She called Esther and told her to wipe Dora’s back with lukewarm water.

"What exactly happened today at the empress’ courtyard?" Luciana asked, and Esther hurriedly narrated everything she had seen and heard earlier today, with Dora weakly interjecting in a few words where necessary.

Dora gritted her teeth and endured the pain from all the bruises she gained from the beating as Luciana applied ointment to the bruises. She also gave Dora some pain relief tonic so that it could help her bear with the pain.

"Have some rest; I’ll check up on you in the morning," Luciana said and walked out.

Luciana approached her chambers and remembered Nicholas was still there. After hearing Esther and Dora recount everything that happened, Luciana decided that if Nicholas didn’t give her any trouble tonight, she would also try and tolerate him. Besides, it was already a miracle he wasn’t interrogating her.

Because even though she wasn’t from Florendel, the fact that the king of Florendel had allowed her to take the place of her daughter was already a huge conspiracy on its own.

She raised her hand and sniffed the large sleeves of her dress, and she could smell the faint scent of medicine and ointment on her clothes. She also felt sticky from all the sweat after running around, so she decided to take a bath in the out-bath house before going to join him.

The out-bathhouse was outside her chambers and was built in a way that the corridors leading to the bathhouse were linked to the corridors in front of her private chambers, so she could walk the corridors without being seen by someone standing in the courtyard.

Luciana entered the bathhouse, and instantly, her shoulders naturally relaxed, seeing how inviting it looked with steam rising on top of it and how large it was; it could fit 6 people, and there might even be enough space left. After everything that happened today, she hoped she could relax in the tub for a while and think.

Luciana took off her clothes and was about to step into the tub when someone jumped out of the water, pulling her into a warm, hard, and wet chest.

"Aahhhh!!" Luciana screamed bloody murder and tried to wiggle out of the person’s embrace with all her might when a hand covered her mouth and held her in place.

"It’s me," he said, and Luciana calmed down a bit after recognizing the voice, relaxed, and stared up at his face.

"Wh... What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be waiting for me inside my chambers?" She asked nervously, seeing how her naked body was pressed onto his almost naked body. She felt as if her heart was going to jump out of her throat seeing the intimate situation they were in.

’To think that after she had chosen to bathe in the out-bathhouse because she knew he was in her chambers, she had still run into him here? Could he be thinking she had deliberately come to find him and was pretending?’

"I didn’t know you were here; I just wanted to take a bath, and I..."

Her words got stuck in her throat seeing how deep his gaze had become as he stared at her. The steam had dissipated somewhat, and she could make out his features from the light coming from the lamp.

She blushed when she realized where her hands were. Her palms were placed flat against his warm chest, and when she tried to shift them away, it was as if she was rubbing her hands on his chest. Luciana thought he could hear her loud heartbeat by now.

"You... Aren’t you supposed to be inside? What are you doing bathing?" She asked again, trying to mask her nervousness when he didn’t answer her first question.

He pressed her body closer to hold her in place when she tried to create space between them. Luciana panicked seeing how brazen he was acting.

"Thanks to someone, I couldn’t bathe like I wanted to. So I decided to rectify that by taking a real bath this time," he said. Luciana knew what he was talking about when she screamed earlier because she met Tiger. At that time, she noticed he had rushed out of the bath because of her.

"So? You are not planning on escaping from me, are you? Let’s have a bath together," he added.

"Wh... what?" Luciana stammered, staring at him in horror.