He needed to get her somewhere warm; her lips were far too blue and her skin too pale for his liking and the Duke knew that a trip back to the castle, receiving cold wind – even after he wrapped her in his cape – would make her even worse, so, Gray had to decide what to do as soon as he pulled his wife from the water: take her somewhere she could get warmer before returning to the castle.

So, after covering Juvia with his cape, the Duke tied Honey in Black-Rust's saddle while picking his wife up in bridal style to try and find cover for a couple of hours at least. Luckily he knew the area well enough to locate himself and remember that there were a few caves not too far from where they were.

After five minutes, Gray found the caves and put the blunette lying on the floor; she was shuddering in a worrying way, but before he could take care of her properly, they needed fire.

"Juvia, I will search for wood to burn." He told her. She tried to hold his hand, but Gray grabbed hers first and kissed it, noting how cold she was. "I am not leaving you, okay? It's just for a couple of minutes." And before she could answer him, the Duke left.

#

Juvia's consciousness came and went while the cold took over her body and she'd rather just pass out than shiver the way she was, but she fought the urge to sleep, while waiting for her husband to finally settle down.

She saw him start a fire – while talking to her, to keep her awake, she thought – and for a moment, she felt better, but only that wouldn't warm her up properly and the Duchess wondered what would happen.

"Juvia." Gray kneeled by her side and she opened her eyes after resting them for a moment. "I need to warm you up, but for that I need to take your clothes off." She was seeing things then, because she could swear she saw his cheeks get pinker. "Your shirt, coat and pants are soaked and it will just make you colder. I promise that you'll feel warmer later."

The Duchess would prefer that the first time he saw her without clothes would be somewhere with four walls, but at the mention of upcoming warmth she sighed in anticipation of finally feeling like a person once again and not a chunk of ice. "Y-you a-are m-my hus-hus-husband." She managed to tell him – at least they were married and no one would think it was inappropriate. "T-ta-take them o-off."

Gray nodded and reached for her feet to take off her boots and after he was done, the Duke uncovered her body, he hesitated for a second before reach for the buttons and undid them fast, then helped her sit down to push the shirt and coat away from her body and Juvia noticed that he looked everywhere but to her naked skin. The Duchess put her arms around herself to hide her body from him – maybe he didn't like it? Marge always told her that her breasts were too big for a decent girl – as she saw him reach for her pants, very concentrated on the task. She lied back on the floor and raised her hips to help him out and he still hasn't had a look.

When she was completely naked before him, Gray covered her with some blanket he had on the pouch behind the settle of Black-Rust and Juvia was about to tell him that she was still cold, not warmer like he said she would, when she saw him unbutton his own shirt.

The Duchess only saw one man without a shirt in her whole life and it had been the old man from the stables back when she was fourteen in her March; and to tell the truth she thought it was a nasty vision and if every man was like that, she'd rather be single. But her husband... he was very different from that old man; his muscles were well defined, not flaccid, for a change. His abdomen had six protuberances that she found weirdly mesmerizing.

He undid his pants and Juvia took a sharp a breath in anticipation, but let it go when she saw he was wearing his underpants and had no intention of take it off. The Duke put his clothes aside and before the blunette could say anything, Gray was underneath the blanket and by her side.

"This way you get warmer faster." Her husband informed as he put an arm under her head. "Body heat."

Juvia honestly didn't care about how it was called; the only thing she could focus was the fact that Gray was warm, so, she tried her best to snuggle onto him even more. She felt him take a sharp breath and after a moment's hesitation, he put his free arm around her.

They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes before Gray spoke. "I'm sorry that your first time out turned out this way..."

"Juvia was having fun." She whispered and tried her best to snuggle into his warmth even more. "Besides the... river, it was an amazing day. Juvia had fun beating you."

"That snowball fight is not over." The Duke pouted and the woman giggled with his tone. "Besides, it was beginner's luck."

"Maybe Juvia is just that good." His wife hid her face on his chest and Gray hissed, she was so very cold still. The man slid his arm so he could touch her face. "What is it?"

"You are still cold." His thumb caressed her cheek and she looked up to him, their noses touching and too close, both were too close of each other to think straight. Gray leaned in and captured her lips with his – very much like Juvia had done when she kissed him after he gave her Honey – and she could feel a tiny hesitation from him as he retrieved.

"Gray-sama." Juvia whispered, eyes half opened; but she saw the change in his eyes with just the way she said his name and before she could say anything else, his lips were on hers again, this time more forcefully and passionate.

She was surprised when he coaxed her mouth open and slip his tongue in – it felt weird at first, but she soon got the hang of it – and his hand traveled to her naked back and a shiver of excitement went through her body. Her arms, which were between them shielding her upper body from touching his, moved so she could cup his face and as result, when their chests touched, the man made a sound that made her gasp when they came out for air.

"This is so wrong." Gray whispered, their mouths still touching each other's lightly. "I can't stop, but this is wrong."

"Doesn't feel wrong." Juvia whispered, her chest touching his, her nipples pebbled and touching him in a way that made her shudder. "It feels so good."

"Yes." He kissed her lips once more and the blunette felt Gray's hand travel from her back to her bottom in a slow pace, until he grabbed her bum rather too forcefully and then pulled her even closer to him, her leg circled his hips closer to hers, their groins met and the man let out a groan that made Juvia feel the place between her legs throb when she felt his hardness settle there with only his underpants as barrier.

The Duke, then, turned her a little bit – without separating them – so she was on her back and he on top of her, covering her body with his own

Juvia never felt anything like it in her entire life – forget about cold, her whole body was on fire –, but instinctively she knew that if she just rolled her hips (which she did), it would make the man on top of her moan (he did) and it would make her blood boil even more – so she did it again and again and when she felt him accompany her movements, if her mouth wasn't occupied by Gray's at the moment, the Duchess knew that she would've made a loud noise of surprise and amazedness.

Her nails dug into the skin of his shoulder, the man let out a hiss of pain but it only made him grind harder against her; the Duchess had to stop kissing him to let out a sound she couldn't name.

"Dammit, Juvia." He cussed after pulling away from her. "This should not be happening right now."

"Why?" She breathed, not at all bothered by his tone and more interested in kissing his jaw.

"You just fell on a freezing river." She kissed him again and Gray pulled away before she could tempt him once more. "You are not in your right mind."

The Duchess shook her head lightly. "But Juvia liked kissing you this way." She purred.

"I... yeah, me too." There was no denying that he liked the way she kissed him – she could feel his want for her pushing on her stomach, throbbing and demanding attention – somehow that knowledge made her feel real good (the Duchess felt disappointed when he didn't look to her body earlier and would think about it when she could). "I know we are married, but you are not well enough to give your consent and this is a cave, we can't just consummate our marriage here, it's not the time or place. This is adrenalin rush." Gray tried to use reason even if his hormones were raging inside him.

"What's that?" She frowned.

"You almost died and our bodies are reacting to it." The man was taking calming breaths. "It was a trauma, you need to rest."

"Juvia is feeling rather sleepy." The Duchess informed him.

"See?" Gray kissed her on the lips once again, feeling more at ease in her presence.

"But she'd rather be awake and kissing you." She whispered. "You make Juvia feel funny."

The Duke groaned. "Close your eyes and sleep. The guards will know something is wrong and they will come to find us. We can discuss this later."

"Alright." She agreed, her eyes fluttering close as she tucked her head on the place between his shoulder and neck. "Just promise Juvia that there will be more kisses like those? They were nice."

"Sure." The Duchess could feel him grinning even if she couldn't see it. "As you said, we are married."

#

Just as the Duke predicted, a couple of hours later, there was shouting coming from outside – which woke Gray up (he didn't even reminded falling asleep) –, he carefully untangled himself from the sleeping woman, covered her, grabbed his pants (he couldn't just appear in his underpants; he didn't care for it, but he was the Duke) and started to put them on while going outside to call for his guards. One of them found Gray and soon three more plus Loke appeared coming from the woods.

"Gray!" Loke got down from his horse when he saw the Duke. "We've been looking for hours for you and the Duchess." Noting the lack of a shirt, the orange haired man frowned. "What happened?"

"My wife fell on the river." The guards took a deep breath but Gray soon dismissed their concern, after all, only a few people could survive a situation like that. "She is fine, I managed to take her out, but she needs a doctor just in case. You." The Duke pointed to a young guard. "Go back to Avalanche Castle and tell the maids to warm water and prepare our room: light up the fireplace, put more blankets on the bed and whatever is that they do when someone could have hypothermia."

"Yes, sir!" The guard took off and Gray sighed.

"Could you take care of my wife's horse and prepare mine?" The Duke asked another guard and pointed to the horses – which were tied to a tree –, and the man nodded in agreement before following his orders. "I'll take her with me back home. Thanks." Gray stared at his friend. "I'll go wake her up and get ready."

"Do you need help with anything else?" Loke was concerned and stepped towards the cave when the Duke stepped in front of him.

"No." Gray said a little too quickly. "I mean, no, thank you. She's not... decent." The Duke turned around and left to the cave before the other man could say anything.

#

The Duchess was awoken by her husband's gentle voice calling her name and with a hand on her shoulder; he explained that there were guards outside and now that she was warmer, they could go home. She nodded and sat down while he grabbed her clothes, which were still wet, but it was what she got to wear.

Gray helped her up – the blanket firmly around her – and gave her clothes back and turned around while she put them on and he put his own shirt back. Juvia put her pants back without saying a word and right after, her shirt. When she was about to put her coat when she decided to ask something that bothered her earlier.

"Gray-sama?" The man hummed in response that he was listening. "Is Juvia's body not of your liking?" She decided to ask before they left and they time alone ended.

"What?" With the sudden question, the Duke turned to face her; his expression of confusion.

"You... didn't look." She felt her cheeks get warmer. Marge told her that she had to cover up really well because men would do pretty much anything to see a naked woman and there Gray was: not even a tiny look other than the necessary. "Juvia was naked and you didn't..."

"I..." Gray cleared his throat, his cheeks getting pinker – it was happening with a concerning frequency that day. "I was trying to warm you up, not... anything else."

The blunette nodded and finished putting her coat back on. "But would you look at it if it wasn't for...?"

"Okay, why are we talking about this?" Gray groaned in frustration.

"Answer Juvia." The Duchess put the blanket around herself and waited for an answer with her eyes focused on him.

"Fine." He took a deep breath. "I did take a look, I liked it and that's – plus the fact that we were too close – was the reason we made out the way we did after we were under that blanket. That's your answer. Happy?" The Duke offered his hand to her. "Now can we go home?"

"Yes." Juvia gave him a smile and tried to put the blanket better positioned around her frame (her clothes were still humid so they were cold). "Is that what it was called? 'Make out'?"

"I am not explaining it to you." Gray looked to the other way and then let go of her hand for a moment to put the cape he had put to dry around her. The man stepped in front of her to tie it properly and the Duchess kept staring at him.

"You promised there would be more of that, though."

"So I did." He leaned and the blunette thought he would kiss her again on the mouth, but was surprised to feel his lips on her cheek instead. After the kiss, he whispered to her – his hot breath on her ear sent shivers through her body. "And we will, but right now we need to go home."

"You are mean, Gray-sama." She pouted when he gave a step back, offered his hand once again and smirked at her reaction.

#

The ride back home was made without any further problems; Gray shared his horse with his wife (she sat behind him with her arms around his torso and buried her face on his back to warm it up) and as soon as they arrived in the Castle, he helped her down before the maids appeared. The Duke gave her a squeeze on the hand and told her to get inside and that he would be there as soon as he took care of a few things. Juvia nodded and offered him a shy smile.

"You..." Loke punched him friendly on the shoulder as soon as the maids took the Duchess inside in order to take care of her. "So? How was it?" Gray frowned, wondering how his Chief of Guard knew about what happened. "We found you without your shirt and the Duchess wasn't decent... It doesn't take a genius to do the math. Plus, you touched her more freely this time."

"I am your Duke, I don't need to answer this." Even with a straight face such as his at the moment, the black haired man still blushed.

"Not right now you are not the Duke." Loke chuckled. "Right now I am just your friend and you are mine. Now, come on."

"We didn't... go all the way." His cheeks became pinker. "But we are... compatible. Maybe too much."

"There's no such thing as too much compatibility when it comes to it, Gray." The guardsman put his arm around the Duke's shoulders. "When a person gets married by convenience, they rarely get an unbelievable beautiful bride, and they certainly don't get a bride who would make out with them after falling into a freezing river... that's even before you two went the whole way, which means that once you properly consummate your marriage, I would expect the staff to find you in very compromising positions... Come on: she has to have a downside."

Gray thought for a moment. "Too eager?"

Loke groaned. "I hate you, you lucky bastard."