Chapter 192: A Snowy Night’s Confession

"Did you really believe I’m settling with you because it is inconvenient? I can’t believe you." Lauren didn’t know if she should be amused or insulted.

"So you have loved me all this time, then?" Now he was getting smug.

Her cheeks flared. Thanks to the darkness, her flaring cheeks wouldn’t be visible to Alec. Her loud heartbeat gave her away, though.

"I won’t ask you to marry me again if not." She swallowed hard, staring straight into his misty eyes. Her voice was soft when she said the next words. "And to set things right, you are wrong. I care for you as much as you care for me. I’m... not just very vocal about it... but you should know by now why I have discarded my original plan to leave the castle. You see, I have grown to care for you more than I intended to..." She gasped as she silently said, "I have even grown to love you."

"Mmm," he mumbled as if he were thinking it through.

Lauren noticed Alec’s eyes were incredibly gentle tonight. His eyes always held tenderness whenever he looked at her, but tonight felt different. It was like the usual darkness looming around his orbs was gone and replaced by immeasurable admiration and passion. There was serenity in his face that she had never seen before. It was like the night sea after the storm, placid and bright, glimmering against the starry sky.

"This is at the top of my earnest fantasies, do you know that?" He asked huskily, pulling her to his body. "You professing your undying love to me..." His voice trailed off, smirking with satisfaction. "This is a dream come true, Lauren."

"Undying love, huh," she chortled. She was holding his shoulders while his arms were all over her small frame, locking her body in between. "How romantic. Are you fond of poetic books? It seems like your reading did well."

Before they got married, every time she saw Alec or heard his name from a random chitchat, she was reminded of a man who was cold inside and out, someone who would never say warm words to anyone. Someone who would never look at a woman with tender and reassuring eyes. Someone who would always put himself above everything else.

But he proved all her prejudices wrong. He may have had a vicious, cold-blooded side, but that wasn’t his entire being. That was just a fraction of who he truly was. He had many other sides, which she was grateful to see. Just like this side she saw today. She saw him not as a king or a former warlord... she saw him as a simple man deeply in love.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I don’t read poetic books," he whispered. He was kissing her temple now. "But a woman like you deserves the right words and actions so I am keeping up."

She laughed and buried her cold face into his chest. The warmth felt so nice. He became her safe harbor, the perfect sanctuary she could safely throw herself into. Her feet suddenly left the ground and the next thing she knew, they were in their bed, and he was tucked into his body while he was sitting up, his back on the bed’s headboard.

"It must be amazing to have speed like a vampire’s," she said out of the blue, feeling his chin above her head. She was curled on his lap, her legs folded in one place, and he had one arm around her shoulders while the other was resting on her thigh.

"It is an advantage indeed, especially during fights."

"I am curious. Did you ever feel the same way as you feel for me before?"

"No," his answer came quick and certain as if he had never been so sure in his entire life.

"My life did not resemble a rainbow at any point, Lauren." He chuckled at the end of his somber words, but she felt no humor in them. "It was grayscale, dull, and boring. On some occasions, it was painted with red—the only color that thrills me. It was the only color that made the world interesting. But when you came into my life, I started to admire different colors... like how deep your blue eyes are, how rich your auburn hair is especially when the sunlight hits it, and how vibrant you look when you wear those pastel dresses that perfectly complement your bright skin..."

Leaning on Alec’s chest, Lauren felt his steady and calm breathing, but as seconds passed by, the sound of his heartbeat was drowned out by hers and she could no longer hear anything apart from its continuous beat and his husky voice filling her ears.

"It never happened to me before, so the answer is no."

She couldn’t say anything for a while. She was flabbergasted by how he put his words in such a way that made her feel so many emotions all at once. Perhaps it was because she never thought she could influence someone’s life like this. That she could never find someone who would love her unconditionally.

"So you should never ask me that same thing again," his tone was firm and she knew it was about how she asked him to kill her if things went dire. "You are so insensitive to think that I’d give it a thought."

"I’m sorry," she muttered, remembering his angry and pained expression when she told him that. She knew it was insensitive of her, but she wanted him to know that he had her permission, that she had given him a choice.

"The moment I realized what you are to me, I decided to do everything in my power to keep you by my side. Life won’t matter to me without you, so I would never choose that path for myself. I can never," he paused as if it was painful for him to say the word, "hurt you... or harm you in any way. You should know that by now, so your request is ridiculous."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read