Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 2017: Face Reveal

The watches were settled, the clearing secured, and everyone had found work to get on with. Aurora wanted Brena’s knowledge of the crabs; Lucille needed Della’s herbs.

They’d spent days speculating about Black’s household. Now they were helping make its dinner, and Della felt a happiness quite separate from the sight of the man holding Blossom.

She wanted to pull her weight, even while Tavi was making it very difficult to look respectable.

"May I borrow those?" Lucille asked, indicating the herbs.

"Oh. Yes, of course."

Della passed them over, then stayed to help.

...

By the time dinner was ready, the last sunlight had withdrawn from the clearing. Firelight reached the blankets spread around the cooking pit, where bowls were being passed from hand to hand.

Serika had dragged another fallen trunk nearer the fire, giving everyone room to sit by the warmth. Brena settled with Aurora, while Della found herself between Ayame and Tavi, who kept nudging her whenever Black did anything interesting.

So far, that included sitting down.

"Claw meat or body?" Della asked him, holding the serving spoon over the pot. "The claw is firmer, but the rest takes the sauce better."

"I’ll have the claw."

She put a generous helping into his bowl and held it out.

Black raised a hand to his throat, where the black plates of his armor began to loosen.

Della saw the crimson light recede along the helmet’s seams, and Tavi’s fingers clamped around her arm.

"Della!! Is he taking it off?!"

Her friend’s voice had gone painfully high. Across the fire, Brena was already leaning forward with her empty bowl held out, completely forgotten.

"His helmet...!"

The living metal withdrew into his collar. Della’s hand stopped halfway to him as the visor parted, and she found herself looking straight into his deep eyes.

"Oh, Goddess..."

She heard her own voice without quite believing it had come from her. His nose was straight, his cheekbones sharply defined above a firm jaw, and the ease of his expression was devastating. He was looking at her, openly, with that face.

"OH, GODDESS HAVE MERCYYYYY!!"

Tavi pulled Della’s arm so hard that the food shifted in his bowl.

"Tavi! Stop screaming at him!"

"I know! I know!!! Butttt!!!"

He was so fucking handsome.

Every hopeful guess she’d made fell short. The rigid armor over his chest softened into a dark shirt, baring the shape of the powerful body she’d been admiring all afternoon, and Della’s stomach tightened so violently that she forgot what her hands were supposed to do.

"That’s..." Brena had half risen from her seat. "That’s what you’ve been hiding?!"

Black’s mouth curved.

"What were you expecting?"

"I don’t know anymore!"

Aurora began laughing beside her. Brena barely seemed to hear it; her whole attention was on Black, her empty bowl still extended toward him.

Della understood perfectly. He’d walked past them all week behind that black helmet while they’d wondered and argued about what might be underneath. Now he was letting them see him, here over their own dinner, and the excitement filling her was unbearable.

She wanted to look at every inch of him. She wanted him to keep looking back. The desire his smile stirred in her was mortifying, and she had no hope of hiding how badly she wanted his attention.

"Thank you for the meal, Della."

Oh, Goddess. Her name.

His fingers slipped beneath the bowl. She let him take it with a little gasp, realizing only then how close she’d come to spilling his dinner.

"My lord...!" Tavi leaned across her, staring at his mouth. "Your... You...!"

"Mm?"

His attention silenced her. The freckled woman stared up at him with helpless, undisguised hunger, utterly incapable of finishing whatever she’d meant to say.

Aurora eased Brena back onto their seat and lowered her empty bowl into her lap.

"You’ll spill it when somebody puts food in."

"Yes," Brena whispered.

She didn’t look away from him.

Black tasted the crab.

Della watched the spoon reach his lips, appalled by how badly she wanted to keep watching something so ordinary. He swallowed, glanced at the bowl, and smiled at her again.

"You were right. This is excellent."

"You’re welcome."

That wasn’t what he’d said. She knew it the moment the words left her, but he only seemed more amused.

Tavi reached across her and caught Ayame’s sleeve.

"You knew?"

The samurai followed her stare to Black, then looked back at her.

"What he looks like?"

"Yes!"

"No. I married the guy without knowing what he looks like."

"Ayame," Lucille murmured, already laughing.

"What?"

Tavi let go of the sleeve. She looked from one woman to another, finding varying degrees of enjoyment in every face turned toward her.

"All of you..."

"Did you think we passed him around with the helmet on?" Kitsara asked.

Della inhaled at precisely the wrong moment and began coughing.

Sera reached across to pat her back. "Oh, sweetheart. Have some water."

"I’m fine."

"You’re shaking."

Della looked down.

So she was.

Black took the pitcher from beside the pot and filled her cup. She made the terrible mistake of looking up to thank him.

His eyes met hers over the fire.

She drank instead.

Brena let out a breathless laugh.

"Is this... Is this why you keep your face covered?!"

"I have my reasons. But you earned my trust."

"You’ve been sitting across from us all week," Brena continued. "At the inn. At the Guild. You’ve spoken to me."

"I remember."

"With that face."

"It’s the only one I have."

She put her bowl down before her grip could fail.

Tavi leaned toward Della, keeping her eyes on him.

"I’m angry with him."

"Why?"

"I could’ve been looking at this."

Her whisper carried across the fire, and Black’s mouth curved around the edge of his spoon.

"Your dinner’s getting cold," Ayame told Della.

"Yes."

"Would you like me to feed you?"

"Could your husband?" Tavi asked.

Della turned toward her.

Her friend had the decency to blush, although it did very little to weaken the hopeful expression aimed at Black.

"It seemed worth asking."

"Hubby’s mine for a moment~" Vex reached into Black’s bowl with her spoon.

She lifted a piece of crab to his mouth. He accepted it, his hand coming to rest against her waist, and the witch smiled at Tavi while he ate.

Tavi’s fingers closed around Della’s wrist beneath the edge of their bowls.

Della gripped her back.

Adventuring with Lord Black...

It was simply too much!!