Chapter 2

“I’m cold,” I said.

He sounded offended. “I only promised to protect you. I did not sell myself.”

I had just opened my mouth to argue when the other shadow guard returned.

He stopped dead at the sight of us standing by the bed, clearly tugging at opposite sides of the blanket.

Then, to our complete shock, he walked straight to my shabby little bed.

The man I had been arguing with nearly shouted, “Brother—”

The older one ignored him.

He stepped out of his shoes and started climbing onto the bed.

I hurried forward and grabbed his sleeve.

“Your outer robe has to come off,” I said. “It’s dirty.”

The room froze again.

Behind me, the younger guard’s teeth ground together loud enough for me to hear.

“You’ve gone too far,” he hissed.

But through the black cloth covering his face, I saw the tips of the older man’s ears turn red.

And then, obediently, he removed his outer robe.

The floating words exploded.

Oh my God.

Shadow guards really are something else.

Those shoulders, that waist…

Honestly, his body looks even better than the hero’s.

The hero always looked too fragile anyway.

I sniffed once, lifted the blanket, and climbed in beside him.

He lay there stiff as a plank, but he was warm. Warmer than my husband had ever been.

I wasted no time pressing my icy hands and feet against him.

His breathing deepened just a little.

I closed my eyes in bliss.

The younger guard stood beside the bed for who knew how long, then stomped off in a huff.

When I woke the next morning, I found myself sprawled across the older guard’s chest.

That really was not my fault.

I used to sleep that way in my husband’s arms too.

I must have mistaken him for my husband in my sleep.

He seemed to have been awake for a while, but he had not moved at all. He had just been staring straight ahead in silence.

The moment he noticed I was awake, he gently eased away, put on his black robe, and left.

I had slept well, so I worked hard that day, turning over two whole acres of soil with a strong back and a light heart.

That evening, after sunset, I stood in the yard and shouted toward the roof.

“Come down and warm my blankets!”

After a while, the same man from the night before appeared.

Without a word, he removed his outer clothes and climbed into bed.

I was delighted.

For the next several nights, it was always him.

The floating words gradually noticed something strange too.

This woman has no shame.

Can’t she tell he doesn’t want to?

The younger brother’s temper is tougher, so she keeps bullying the older one.

Are you all focused on the wrong thing?

What I’m focused on is the fact that she really is just sleeping.

With a body like that, how is she not touching him?

My eyelashes fluttered.

That gave me an idea.

I reached out and placed my hand right on his stomach.

His eyes widened at once. He sucked in a breath and caught my wrist.

I could not move that hand anymore.

But I still had the other one.

So I placed that one on him too.

A muffled sound slipped from his throat.

At once, a figure dropped from the roof outside.

“Brother, what happened?”

Even through the veil, I could feel the older man’s face burning hot.

He steadied his voice and answered hoarsely, “Nothing. I hit my leg.”

I happily rubbed his stomach twice more before wrapping my arms around his waist and snuggling into him to sleep.

The younger brother was furious.

He reached for my arm. “Did you just take advantage of my brother? Why are you so close to him? Get away from him, you shameless woman!”

I looked up at him.

“Then why don’t you warm the bed for me instead?”

He went silent.

Above me, his brother’s low, husky voice sounded again.

“It’s fine. Go back up.”

The floating words nearly laughed themselves to death.

Everyone jokes online, but in real life who wouldn’t want a gorgeous man with a perfect body warming their bed?

The older brother is so obedient.

Now I want to bully him too.

I slept soundly in his arms that night.

But his heartbeat grew louder and louder.

I raised a hand and patted his chest.

“Stop beating so hard. It’s noisy.”

For the next few days, I slept better than I had in my whole life.

Only sometimes, from the ceiling beam, I could hear this constant grinding sound, as though a rat were gnawing wood with its teeth.

I started thinking the bed was too small.

The older guard always had to sleep on his side to fit properly.

By then I knew their names.

The one who warmed my bed was named Logan.

His younger brother was Luke.

I took out three silver dollars and went to the carpenter at the edge of the village, wanting him to make me a bigger bed.

He asked for five.

I had lived poor all my life. Five silver dollars was not a small amount.

There were trees all over the back hill.

Why could I not just cut the wood myself?

The carpenter snorted. “Sure, there’s wood in the hills. But how much can a woman drag back by herself?”

I considered it for a few seconds.

Then my eyes lit up.

“I may not have the strength,” I said, “but I have men. Two of them, in fact.”

Luke exploded.

“Are you even human, Chloe? These hands of mine kill people. I’m an assassin, understand? And you want me to go chop trees for you?”

Muttering angrily, he reached into his pocket.

“Fine, it’s only five silver dollars. I’ll pay. Happy?”

The floating words mocked him mercilessly.

A working man paying for the bed so somebody else can sleep with his brother.

Luke, you poor fool.

I shook my head.

“My husband said you and your brother belong to me now. If you belong to me, then your money belongs to me too.”

I tucked the five silver dollars he had pulled out right into my own pocket.

Luke’s ears turned bright red.

“What nonsense are you saying? Who belongs to you?”

Even Logan’s ears had turned a little red.

Without a word, he reached into his own pocket and poured a few broken pieces of silver into my hand.

“I’ll go cut the wood,” he said.

Luke stared at him in disbelief.

“Brother, are you out of your mind?”

Logan only gave a soft snort and looked away.

I naturally reached into Luke’s chest pocket too, emptied the rest of his money into my palm, and gave his chest a quick squeeze while I was at it.

“In this little village, who’s going to hire you to kill anyone? Go cut trees.”

Luke jumped back, clutching his chest.

“You—you—you! Does she usually molest you like this, Brother? What a shameless woman!”

He looked ready to die of embarrassment.

The floating words were laughing so hard I thought they might burst.

They were right about one thing, though.

The two brothers were truly capable.

In one morning, they had dragged enough lumber to the carpenter’s shop.

The old man eyed the two black-clad men standing beside me and could not help asking, “Chloe, these two are…”

I answered generously, “My men.”

Before the carpenter could speak, Luke doubled over coughing so hard you would have thought he had swallowed smoke.

I looked back to see him bent at the waist, choking on nothing but outrage.

By that afternoon, the whole village knew that only three months after my husband’s death, I had already found myself two able-bodied new men.

I did not care.

That night, before bed, I took a little sachet from my pocket and placed it in Logan’s hand.

It had a lotus embroidered on it.

He stared at it for two seconds, then quietly closed his fingers around it and slipped it into his robe.

Beside him, Luke glared at me.

I spread my hands innocently.

“Your brother accepted it himself. It’s not like I forced it on him.”

Luke’s expression darkened.

“I chopped trees all day too.”

The floating words cackled.

Someone’s jealous.

The grumpy one is kind of cute.

But if the three of them are getting along this well, why does the side character still go to the capital later?

Because the hero is still a nobleman.

These two are just guards.

Eighty guards couldn’t equal one noble husband.

That night, before sleeping, I looked up toward the dark shadow stretched along the beam.

“Luke, aren’t you cold sleeping up there every day?”

He ignored me.

Logan tucked the blanket around me with careful hands.

I kept talking anyway.

“Our new bed is big enough now. If you want, you can come sleep on it too.”

From above, Luke answered coldly, “Shut up.”

I sighed.

“Fine. But if you don’t want to sleep here, can’t you at least go farther away? You lie up there listening every night, and it makes it hard for me to do things with my man.”

The moment I said that, Logan—who had been warming my stomach under the blanket—went perfectly rigid.

The next second, Luke dropped from the ceiling and landed right beside the bed.

He was grinding his teeth again.

“Chloe Brooks,” he said, “just try touching my brother that way and see what happens.”

I turned my head, leaned forward, and kissed Logan right on the black cloth covering his mouth.

Everything went still.

Luke nearly exploded.

He reached out and yanked my arm.

“You shameless woman!”

That hurt enough to make me cry out.

The next instant, Logan caught his brother’s wrist.

There was an edge of warning in his usually gentle voice.

“Let go.”

Luke’s beautiful eyes went wide as saucers.

“Brother?”

Then he bolted from the room.

I sat up anxiously.

“He ran out and smashed my door. Will something happen to him?”

Logan’s voice was flat again.

“He could wipe out your whole village by himself. What exactly do you think will happen?”

That shut me up.

So I lay back down.

Beside me, his body was still tight as a drawn bowstring.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

But he kept shifting, turning over and over.

At last I mumbled unhappily, “Do you have thorns on you or something? If you won’t sleep, then go wash up. All the warmth is leaving the bed.”

The floating words laughed like mad.

Did she forget what she just said a moment ago?

This poor guard finally worked up the courage and now she’s about to sleep?

I turned my head and looked at the comments carefully.

Was what they were saying true?

My palm slid a little lower, feeling the hard tension in his muscles return beneath my hand.

Something in my own heart started to itch too.

I was not some untouched girl.

I had been married.

I knew what it was between a man and a woman.

But I had always believed such things should happen only when both people were willing.

With that black veil over his face, I could not tell whether he was willing or not.

So after a moment of silence, I moved the hand warming myself on his stomach slightly downward.

His brows drew together, but he did not stop me.

So I moved again.

Still he did not move.

At last, I grabbed him.

A stifled groan broke from his throat.

The world spun.

And before the night was over, everything changed.