Passionate (2)
Lily did not know that the absurd rumor that the previous facade of the lord had already gone. She, who was still looking in surprise, blinked her eyes a few times.
“Perhaps… Are you in a bad mood? Tell me if you don’t like that I worry too much about you every time. Then I will try not to do it.”
“No way,” he answered resolutely. He was neither a scary man nor a pitiful man, but a kind and gentle man.
Her heart was pounding. Even though she was not hated by him, she thought that he was happy, but the way she kept commenting about him was too much.
Vlad wrapped his arms around her waist and grabbed her by the back of the head with one hand. “Lily.” His eyes were hot. Close enough that each other’s sweet breath gently touched their lips, she knew all too well what his warm heartbeat meant all over his body.
Her long eyelashes trembled.
He whispered as he looked at her lips, “Why don’t we go to Ataka together?”
“…” Lily’s big eyes blinked blankly a few times.
Ataka? Maybe when the floors would…
Her face heated up. She pursed her lips and shrugged. “A-Ataka. Suddenly now….”
How far did she think? She struggled with her embarrassment and pushed him away. She groaned against his rocky chest, but he didn’t budge either. Then she became even more grumpy for nothing.
“I can’t afford to be away from you for a day now.”
Lily, who had been squirming, stopped abruptly.
It seems as if he was trying to capture her changing expression every moment without losing sight of her. The eyes staring at her were full of intense longing. It was the kind of gaze wherein the person receiving that gaze could not do anything at all.
Ataka. How hellish it was for him those few months that he left her behind. He lived his whole life without knowing what this disease was. He had thought that in the desert he might become sick with longing and he might die. Vlad couldn’t afford to go through something like that again.
A strange silence settled between them.
Lily’s face burned like the sunset. His enormous confession, which he quietly confided without the slightest exaggeration, tickled the inside of her stomach.
Power entered her toes naturally.
He smirked playfully as he watched his wife’s eyes wander to and fro shyly. “And I’m afraid of what will happen again if I leave you alone.”
It was as light as a joke, but she was stunned.
Lily bit her lip and lowered her head. “I…”
“Reporting! The carriage on which the crown princess was riding has departed. I think the lord will have to leave soon too!”
“…”
An interrupted silence crept between them.
Lily took a deep breath, pushing him away slowly. “I will think about it a little more. That… You have urgent work, so we will talk after everything is over.”
“All right. If you have time, think about it slowly.” He kissed her forehead farewell and moved away reluctantly. Even the short distance to walk towards the door was long. He stopped at the door and turned his head once more. “… As soon as it’s finished, I’ll send you a letter to let you know. Rest.”
“I know. Now you should really go. Hurry.”
After she urged him a few times, she was able to get him out of the room safely. The door closed with a heavy sound. As he left, the room was suffocatingly quiet.
She stared at the closed door for a long time. Lily was left alone. It was as if something of her was sprouting between her ribs. And she was suffocating.
The tightly closed salon door was strangely stuffy. It looked like a door she couldn’t open on her own. She didn’t know yet what made her feel that way.
* * *
The wind blowing through the entrance to Cadis Castle was cool. The air was cold even to say that it was because of the weather peculiar to the northern summer.
A dirt road that stretched out under the stairs of the main gate. There was an unspoken distance between the two knights lined up on the left and right. The de Winter Knights in black uniforms, the Imperial Knights in silver armor. As if representing the battle between the masters on the stairs, their gaze towards each other was not very good.
Between the shining silver armor, one of the guards rolled his eyes towards the entrance of the castle. They could see the tall back of the Duke of De Winter as he climbed the stairs.
Vlad stood at the end of the stairs and stood tall. “Your Highness.” A cold gaze fell like an arrow at the man standing in front of him. “Where did you take my kidnapped brother-in-law?”
As soon as he saw the prince, instead of saying greetings politely, he talked so rudely. It was beyond common sense. Even so, the prince did not even think of admonishing him.
The duke’s eyes were the color of blood.
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