The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 399: Elaine X Esmeray (Part Three)

Chapter 399: Elaine X Esmeray (Part Three)

It didn’t even take long before Elaine had half of the content of the new wine bottle finished while Esmeray stood nearby, observing her closely while he tried to stay as calm as possible.

"Your Grace..." Elaine started to speak but then stopped. She shook her head before correcting herself - "Esmeray..."

Esmeray almost stopped breathing for a moment as he heard her calling his name. Until that moment, he never knew how much he had been wanting to hear his name from her lips.

"Esmeray..." She repeated as if she was testing how smoothly his name rolled through her tongue. She looked at him again and for once, a small but genuine smile spread on her lips. "I love the way your name sounds. It’s... beautiful."

She climbed down from the table she was sitting on and started walking toward him. She was merely a few steps away from him when her heels finally became a hurdle and tripped her.

Esmeray’s body reacted faster than his mind as his hands wrapped around her to stop her from falling. He pulled her toward himself, almost straight into his embrace. Their sudden closeness filled the bond with life and he felt his soul rejoicing.

"Are you alright?" He asked while taking a step away to put some much-needed space between the two of them, an action that didn’t go unnoticed from Elaine who just chuckled in response without any sense of humor in the sound or her expression.

"Why even pretend to care?" She asked him and once again her beautiful eyes were brimming with sadness.

Esmeray was at a total loss for words. The more he tried, the more misunderstandings he ended up creating between the two of them. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been aware of the effects of his attempt of keeping a distance from his mate, but what he failed to understand was that he was causing too much suffering for Elaine.

He always believed that she respected and cared for him because of their mate bond. It was not until recently when he found out that his mate had been in love with him for years. After creating such a huge emotional distance between the two of them for years, he was suddenly finding himself regretting his stupidity. But the biggest problem now was that he had no clue about how to clear the misunderstandings that kept building between the two of them.

"I’m not pretending..."

"Yes, you are!" Elaine didn’t allow him to finish as her anger and sadness started taking control over her. "You don’t care about me at all. You never actually cared. I feel like the only reason you have endured me till today is because of your friendship with my mother. Was she also the reason you didn’t reject me as your mate eight years ago?"

"Your Highness, you are not in the right state of your mind at this moment. Let me..."

"I’m actually in my right state of mind, Esmeray." Elaine said while brushing away Esmeray’s hand as he moved to take hold of her wrist. "Can’t you see? The fact that I can finally ask what I have been afraid of asking for so long, confirms that right now I’m perfectly fine. So... don’t try to push my questions away by saying that I’m influenced by the liquor and speaking nonsense... because, I’m not."

She placed the half empty wine bottle on a table nearby before turning to face the man who was just standing there in silence while his gaze refused to leave her even for a second.

She took in a deep breath before speaking again. "I’m tired, Esmeray, I’m really tired now." Before the man could have misunderstood that she was talking about her physical self, she stopped him and added - "I’m tired of being the one who’s clinging on this non-existent relationship."

Esmeray studied her face as if he was trying to understand what she was talking about, but his racing heart and cloudy mind made it hard. "What do you mean?" He found himself asking in a voice that even his own ears refused to hear.

"I mean that I no longer want to keep raising my hopes. I mean that I no longer want to compromise with my self-respect. I mean that I no longer want to feel sad." Elaine answered while brushing away the lone tear that escaped the confinement of her eyes and rolled down her cheek. "Mother told me that I should try to make our bond work, but I just realized - isn’t that exactly what I have been doing for the past eight years? I tried so desperately to earn your attention and love all these years, only to realize that you long refused to ever look at me as anything more than the child of your friend and the Crown Princess of this realm. If even eight years of constant tries can not make your heart move, then what can I do in one mere night to make you see me as a woman and your mate?"

A sigh of regret left her lips as she brushed away the sad look from her face and put on a small smile before looking directly into his eyes. "You might never hurt me by rejecting our bond because of my parents, but I don’t want to keep you tied anymore. How about I reject you as my mate? This will save you from the burden... mmph!"

The rest of the words were lost as Elaine suddenly found her mouth sealed by a pair of very soft lips. Her mind refused to work as shock took over every single cell in her body. Her senses dimmed and she didn’t even realize that she was already pushed against one of the cold walls in the living room while the King of the Darkness kissed her as if she was the air he needed desperately to stay alive.

Esmeray pulled away from the kiss for a moment as he spoke - "Bold of you to assume that you can ever reject our bond. You are mine, woman!"