Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife-Chapter 256: "Can you love me?"

"Give me the key," he repeated when he noticed her fear slowly began to fall away again, and she was smiling at him.

"Come and take it by yourself," she said boldly, but her slightly shaky voice betrayed her fear. She was scared, and yet he watched her tuck the key into her bosom before she looked up at him.

Rylan closed his eyes to take in a deep, controlling breath at how frustrated he was beginning to feel at her stubborn bravery. Wasn’t she taught against provoking a man or even being in his room?

He clenched his fist and unclenched it before opening his eyes and giving her a last warning. "Give me the key." He could open the door with his bare hands if he used his witch powers, but the last thing he needed was for her to witness it.

She shook her head no again.

Rylan lost it. He was in front of her in no time. Without thinking, he grabbed her and shoved his hand into her dress to take out the key, ignoring her gasp and the softness of her breasts against his palm as he took out the key. He then roughly grabbed her by the arm and began to pull her towards the door, but his harshness and the rough manner in which he pulled her made her hit her toe against the table.

She cried out in pain and tried to move away from him, but he didn’t release her until he reached the door, unlocked it, and was about to shove her out when he noticed the agonizing look in her eyes as tears streamed out. He stopped in his actions of throwing her out at the mere sight of her tears.

Slowly, he released his rough, strong grip on her arm, and she pulled away from him and went down to grab her toe. It was when she cried out at the sight of it that he followed her line of sight and saw her small toe had shifted at a weird angle because of the hit.

Guilt washed over Rylan as he realized he’d pulled her too roughly and she’d broken the fragile bone of her little toe. She didn’t cry out loudly but sobbed silently as she stared at the toe.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he leaned down and gathered her into his arms. She hit at him and tried to get away from him, but he tightened his hold around her small body. "Stop that. I didn’t mean to hurt you, little one," he said in a gentle, coaxing voice he almost didn’t recognize as his. She ceased her struggling and stared at him with more tears rolling down her cheeks.

He placed her gently at the edge of the bed and bent down before her, bringing her foot onto his lap to see her toe. Looking up at her flushed face, where tears still clung to her cheeks and lashes, he said, "It’s going to hurt a bit. Close your eyes."

Celeste, who had grown up being a sheltered Princess, didn’t do well with pain. She refused to close her eyes and told him to let the toe be like that so it wouldn’t cause her more pain if he pulled it back to the right angle. Ever since she was a little girl, this was her first-ever injury. Their mother had made sure they never ran to avoid tripping and getting a mark on their fair skin. They had been raised like precious flowers, and she dreaded another pain after the first one when she hit the toe.

"Please don’t cause me pain..." she sobbed as she looked down at him pleadingly, her fingers clutching tightly to the sides of the sheets.

Rylan didn’t know why he hated the sight of her tears and the look in her eyes as she pleaded with him not to cause her pain. She looked so innocent and fragile that he would have doubted she was capable of even doing what she did last night had someone else told him and he hadn’t been the one she kissed. She had tried to act brave earlier, and now it was the complete opposite.

Holding her gaze with his, "I thought you were to wed Prince Ravi before," he said conversationally, as he recalled quite clearly how her mother had made her marriage arrangements with the young prince who was just a year older than she was. A naive fool he was.

Celeste pursed her lips and said, "I don’t know what happened. Mother didn’t talk to me about the marriage again. And moreover... I don’t like Prince Ravi. He takes me only for his amusement and forces me to eat and say things that make me sick in front of his friends. He’s too young to know how to treat a lady with respect. I like someone older than I am and someone who would care for me..." She blushed earnestly. "Someone like you." She dropped her face into her palms as if she was shy to meet his eyes.

Rylan froze for a moment. He had asked her the question to distract her from what he was about to do, but her words, for some odd reason, made his heart feel weird. The behavior of his heart made him pull back her toe without even warning her or giving her the chance to prepare. She screamed out in pain, and he jerked up and covered her scream with his mouth on hers.

He had acted without thinking yet again, but instead of pulling away and sending her out of his room, Rylan deepened the kiss and slid his hand to the back of her neck and then head to angle her mouth with his. A kiss that started as a form of stopping her screams turned to something else where he pushed her back against the bed and taught her mouth how to move in rhythm with his. He let her adjust to him kissing her lips before he whispered for her to part her mouth, and the moment she did, his tongue skillfully slid into her and explored her mouth.

They kissed for quite a long time before he realized the girl he had thought was completely inexperienced and innocent had somewhat discarded his robe without his knowledge and was hesitantly touching and tracing her hands against his torso and biceps and waist. It was when he felt her tugging at the cloth around his waist that he jerked his mouth away from hers and grabbed her roaming hands.

He scowled down at her as he still loomed over her on the bed, his body suspended over hers by his knees and one hand flattened beside her head. Her eyes were still filled with tears, but not the tears of pain because he could see another emotion that surprised him in her eyes. He couldn’t believe a young woman like her was capable of having lustful eyes. Her lips were swollen, and because he couldn’t hold back, he leaned down and kissed her again before he moved back.

"Where did you learn that?" he questioned huskily, watching her face. Many young girls her age were mostly inexperienced in what to do even after marriage until they were taught by their husbands, but this one had almost gotten rid of the only cloth that covered his lower part.

"I read about it in a book I found in the library downstairs..." she admitted. "I know about what goes on between a man and a woman and that they..." She didn’t get to finish her words because he kissed her again to silence her before she said something that would arouse him more than he was already.

"Did you also read that it only happens after marriage and not before?" he asked, his voice laced with amusement.

"The couple in the book were not married when they did it. He married her afterward," she argued with pursed lips. Yeah, she had naively thought a woman could get pregnant by a man with a mere kiss until she read about those jaw-dropping scenes in that book. She had felt betrayed by her governess’s teachings because no one had mentioned it went further than just a kiss for a woman to have a baby. A woman had to join with a man, she’d read.

Rylan laughed in spite of himself instead of reprimanding her and telling her that things she saw in books were nothing but fantasy written by some hopeless romantic person who couldn’t experience such things in reality but tried to brainwash their readers to believe in their fantasy.

"Don’t act on what you read in books, little one. This is reality and not fantasy. I am not going to marry you, so don’t tempt me into doing it with you. You can sleep in my room, but don’t expect anything to happen more than me kissing you." He rolled away from her and laid on his pillow.

Celeste knew she should leave his room and not remain after his words, but instead, she moved closer and laid beside him. She lay on her side, facing his profile. He had a long nose and cupid’s bow full lips that looked too sexy for a man, curly shoulder-length reddish hair, and a dusting of freckles on his fair cheeks and nose bridge. His thick eyebrows sat in a natural frown that made him seem unapproachable, but something in her had wanted to be close to him. She’d forgotten all her mother’s teachings and what this could mean for her reputation. Not even the aloof air around him had been able to keep her away after what she experienced in his kiss last night.

"Then can you love me?" she questioned him in a quiet voice after a long period of silence following his words about not marrying her. freewebnσvel.cøm

Rylan turned to look at her. He had felt her gaze on him the entire time and hadn’t wanted to meet those eyes of hers again. She was staring at him now with a melancholic look in her sparkling eyes that reminded him of a blue crystal he used to love touching in Gina as a boy. Could he love her, she’d asked? She barely even knew him.

"Go to sleep," he said, using his sleeping spell on her, and he watched as her eyelids slowly shut. He had no reply for her question, nor was he ready to ask her questions to get to know her. He knew that in their era, a man and a woman need not know each other before they were bound by marriage. You could meet a woman today and be married and in love with her tomorrow. No courtship was required. But if ever he were to love, he wanted to have the time to get to know his woman and also have no burdens or heavy responsibilities like the ones on his head now. He would never settle down until the Empress of Pendragon was brought down along with all the other night creatures.

Back to the present, he watched her sleep against his chest with the morning rays streaming in from the window. He absentmindedly stroked her hair as he stared at the ceiling of the room. He had a long way to journey back to Banzai today, and he hated to leave his sister behind. He hated even more that this young woman nestled in his arms had made him do things he wouldn’t have and also made him want to know her more despite his reluctance to want a woman in his life now. He wanted to know her in intimate and emotional ways that surprised him.

Perhaps it was better he leave. By the time he returned, she would have forgotten about him and found another man to fulfill the fantasies she read in books. The werewolves’ people were always explicit in their books, and he bet she had read too much not to get curious about what she read and want to try them.

Sighing, he eased himself away from her and made her lay on the pillow instead of his chest, where he’d pulled her last night to sleep on. He pressed a lingering kiss on her forehead and whispered, "If you haven’t found another before I come back, perhaps I will get to know you more and think about talking to your brother." He gazed at her sleeping face for sometime before he went and prepared for his journey without disturbing her sleep.

She was still sleeping even when he bathed and dressed up. It seemed his sleeping spell had been too strong; she would sleep until afternoon, and he couldn’t help but feel better at the thought. He wouldn’t want to see her when he’d leave.

Rylan left the room and went to find his sister. He didn’t have to look for her because she was in her room, gazing out the window with a lonely expression that tugged at his chest. She must be missing that husband of hers.

"Aveline," he called her name, and she jerked her head away from the window and glanced towards him. Her lonely expression completely gone from her face as she beamed at him with a knowing look that made him scowl and wonder why she had such a look on her face. Had Rylan known Ave as much as her husband did, he would have recognized the look immediately before she spoke.

"I hope you used protection? Oh, I forgot you don’t have that here. How is she?" she asked, wiggling her brows teasingly and causing Rylan to cough to hide his embarrassment at the fact that his sister knew he’d had that girl in his room for a night even though they’d done nothing but kiss.