The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 221: The First Training Class

Chapter 221: The First Training Class

Annalise wasn’t really sure what was Damien’s real purpose when he decided to attend their very first training session shirtless. Her eyes couldn’t help but betray her as they took in his broad back, his corded muscles, and his taut skin.

Her fingers itched to run over his broad shoulders and down the groove of his spine, something that she never got to do before as she was always on the receiving and submissive end with him whenever they got naked together.

Her thoughts scrambled away from Damien’s body and their names time together when the man came to stand right in front of her and took her chin in his hand to make her look up at him. He seemed to be more than aware of the reason behind her distracted thoughts.

"How about you pay some attention to the task at hand?" His voice was more teasing and less taunting.

"How about you put on your shirt?" Annalise didn’t shy away and responded bravely to his remark with one of her own. Her eyes bored into his with just as much confidence as her voice carried.

A smile stretched on Damien’s lips as he responded, "But I like practicing shirtless." He surely stepped even closer to her at some point during their conversation without her getting aware of it.

Annalise squared her shoulders as she pointed out, "Really? Then how come I have never seen you shirtless even once during your practice with the others?"

The smile on Damien’s lips only stretched further as he leaned his face close enough for her to feel his warm breath fanning her cheek as he responded, "Well... they aren’t my wife, and only she is allowed to appreciate my beauty."

Before Annalise could have said anything in response, she was taken by surprise as the man placed a soft, sweet but quick kiss on her lips before he pulled away completely and shouted, "Come on, Princess. Get ready to survive."

It was a clear warning for what was coming next. It wasn’t like Kenric and Valerius weren’t good with physical combat but she needed someone who won’t go easy on her during training and neither Kenric nor Valerius were good enough to go hard on her, they would surely have ended up melting at the very first instant of her discomfort.

That was why they chose Damien to train her in combat. He did love her just like his brothers but he was also the only one who would go hard on her despite all her discomforts because he knew how much she needed to train. He was the only one among the three dark lords who could switch off his soft side when it was really needed.

Annalise took in a deep breath as she watched Damien taking several steps away from her and standing opposite her at some distance. They were training inside one of the big empty rooms on the fourth floor of the castle. He had turned the place to look like a paddock which was filled with a lot of sand so that she won’t get injured during training. Yep, she was the only potential candidate for getting injured at any chance given.

"So, what am I supposed to do now?" She asked while putting her hands to rest on her lips. Unlike her usual elegant and expensive dresses, she was currently dressed in black trousers and a dark maroon tunic along with leather boots. Sera had also styled her hair in a long right braid and she wasnt wearing a single piece of jewelry except for her moon thread but that couldn’t be considered jewelry to begin with.

In short, appearance-wise, she was looking perfectly dressed for the training sense. As for mentally, that was a completely different story.

Damien tilted his head to the side as he gave her a long intense look before he finally replied, "Since this is your very first training session, I will go easy on you. Let’s start with something simple. You only need to avoid my attacks."

Annalise thought about what he just said and slowly nodded her head in understanding. "Alright, I can try doing -"

The rest of her words dissolved into a sharp cry of shock as Damien launched himself at her. One moment he was still standing several meters away from her and the very next moment, his shoulder knocked against her and almost caused her to land on her back on the sand but his arms circled her waist and stopped her from falling.

She glared at the male who was staring back at her with the softest possible smile on his lips, one that didn’t suit him at all. "This is cheating. How dare you..."

Once again she didn’t get to finish her words as Damien shook his head and cut her off between the sentence - "I didn’t cheat at all, Princess. Let me remind you, we didn’t set any rules before starting except for the part that I will attack and you will defend yourself. That was all. Now tell me how did I cheat exactly."

Annalise opened her mouth to respond but then closed it as she couldn’t find anything useful to fight against his smartest because according to what he just pointed out, he actually didn’t cheat by using his speed to surprise her before attacking.

"Fine. So this is your game - throw me around in the name of training." She didn’t care that she almost sounded mad at him and it was merely the beginning of their so-called training session that was supposed to continue for nearly two hours. At this rate, she wasn’t sure if she could survive the upcoming two hours of training.

"You are being unreasonable, Princess. I didn’t let you fall at all. Look how securely I’m holding you in my arms. How can be this considered throwing you around?" Damien was surely in too much of a good mood.

"Then are you here to flirt with me?" Annalise questioned him as she tried to pull herself out of the man’s arms.

"Won’t I be considered an idiot if I passed on such a good opportunity of flirting with my wife? I don’t think you can blame me for that." Damien was sure not in the mood to stop his flirting which made Annalise suddenly question if he was indeed the perfect choice to teach her combat.

"Get off." She growled at him as his good mood only made her angry.

"Make me." Came his challenge.

Annalise took in a deep breath as she planned her next move and then she suddenly tried to surprise him with a blow at his abdomen only to get her hand caught in a tight grip by the man.

"Come on, Princess, you are smarter than that." He was hell-bent on teasing her and by this time, Annalise started feeling like he was doing that all on purpose to rile her up. It wasn’t his common nature to smile so smugly and flirt non-stop while continuously teasing her, he was being a completely different person and she could only think of one possible reason behind this change in his personality.

"Let me go, Damien." She spoke out each word with as much emphasis as she could muster and was slightly taken aback when she heard herself calling him by his name for tge very first time.

Something flickered through Damien’s sharp call eyes as the smile disappeared from his lips and his arm around her body tightened slightly. His voice was very low and deep when he spoke, "This isn’t how I was waiting to hear my name coming out of your mouth, Princess."

He inched his face even more closer, almost brushing their lips against each other as he continued, "It was supposed to happen when you lay naked underneath me with my entire length buried deep inside you. It was supposed to be right at the moment when I would have taken you to the very peak of your pleasure and would have pushed you down into a deep sea of ecstasy."

Annalise felt her heart going crazy inside her chest while her breathing quickened as her ears registered his insanely desire-filled words and her mind pictured everything that he was saying.

"It was supposed to happen when I would have reached my climax while I was buried deep inside you or when I was taking another taste of your sweet blood that tastes like the sweetest and most intoxicating elixir to ever exist. These were the moments when I wanted to hear you cry out my name in the most alluring voice possible. I wanted to hear you moan my name out loud."

"My Lord." Annalise could feel her knees giving way under her as neither her body nor her soul could take more of his words that were doing things to him even more dangerous than their love-making, or probably just as much dangerous as their love-making.

How come the combat training turned into something so hot...?