Chapter 175: Chapter 175

175 Chapter 175 : Be careful

After their bath and dinner, Elric sat up in bed awake watching his beautiful wife as she slept. The strangest thing had happened when he hugged Melissa earlier today and he knew he wasn’t mistaking it, every time he held Melissa close he would feel this odd attraction to her, this possessiveness and care that he couldn’t quiet explain, but the minute he let her go all those feeling sort of just faded away, was that normal?

What did that even mean? Elric had always felt like he had a special connection with Melissa from the first moment he set his eyes on her, but right now it felt different and he couldn’t explain how. Was he maybe just attracted to her body? Is that why holding her close felt so great? No that was ridiculous.

The silver haired king reached for Melissa’s sleeping face and stroked it gently, making sure not to wake her. He trailed his fingers gently down her cheeks, then her shoulders and down to her waist. Yes right there, that’s where he felt these feelings the strongest, when he held her waist area, this was so strange.

Not long after, Elric felt his eyes getting heavy, it had been a long day and he needed to rest, he would figure out all these confusing feelings in the morning, the important thing was that she was laying here asleep next to him and not Gareth.

Far down the hall in a room on the left, Julia sat in her bed still feeling a little flustered. Her and Clovis had become close over the past few weeks yes, but yesterday after he had returned from visiting his father he was even more dotting. He spent the whole afternoon listening to her go on and on about how she had spent the past few days, the entire time holding her hand in his.

“So you and my brother’s wife are friends now?”

“Yes,” Julia had responded happily, “I’m so glad, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I don’t want to have bad blood with anyone, I just want all of us to get along.”

Clovis smiled at Julia and the longing in his eyes made Julia blush and turn away. “How was your visit? Is your father doing okay?”

“If you’re wondering if he still hates you,” Clovis responded as he inched closer to julia, “I think we’ve made some progress. It will take some time for him to warm up to you but he’ll get there.”

.....

“Warm up to me?”

“I told him that I-” Clovis stopped himself short. Was he really going to tell julia that he loved her? Was now really the right time? “I told him that I care about you a lot. So if he had you killed, I would be very upset.”

Julia grabbed her neck and gulped, “he was going to have me killed?”

Clovis pulled Julia into his arms and trailed his honey brown eyes from her emerald green eyes down to her puckered lips. “Not if I have anything to do about it, I will never let anyone hurt you Julia. I swear it.”

There was something about the way Clovis had said those words that tingled Julia’s spine even now as she sat cradled up in her bed. It sounded crazy but maybe she had actually fallen for Clovis. Was this okay? She had had terrible experiences with matters of the heart before and she didn’t want to be the only falling in love again, she wanted her feelings to be reciprocated. What if Clovis was just being respectful and kind, and she was mistaking it for romantic feelings? That would be so embarrassing.

A knock at the door quickly pulled Julia out of her trance. Was she dreaming? Who on earth would be knocking at her door this late in the night? Another knock came and this time it startled her.

“Julia..” a loud whisper came from the door. “Julia are you awake?”

Wait a moment, wasn’t that Clovis’ voice? The woman slipped of the bed, threw on her night gown and walked towards the door. She opened it slowly and saw Clovis standing there with a robe on and a messy head of hair, surprisingly, his unkept self was oddly attractive.

“Clovis, what are you doing here?”

“Theres something that I need to tell you Julia,” the man responded. It was a little dark but she could still see the faint tint of pink on his cheeks, the man moved dangerously close to to the green eyed woman and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You see Julia from the first time I bumped into you in that hallway all the those months ago, I...”

The words, he couldn’t seem to find the right words to say how he felt without sounding like a desperate romantic. Clovis shook his head and focused on Julia, the anticipation in her eyes made it even harder to talk. He should just say it, after all he had walked all the way from his chambers to hers in the middle of the night, there’s nothing else he could do that could more embarrassing than that right?

“Julia I..” his eyes trailed down to her lips and a brilliant idea popped up in his head, “I want to show you how I feel.”

“Wait... what?...”

Without warning, he hoisted her off the ground into his arms, with one hand supporting her legs, and the other her back, Clovis drew the woman close to his face. Julia instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and gasped at the sudden gesture. When she turned her head to look at him, he leaned forward and crushed his lips onto hers. Julia blinked wildly as her brain tried to contemplate what was going on.

Was Clovis kissing her? After several seconds of her brain glitching, the euphoria of it all finally flooded in. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms tighter around the man’s neck, returning his kiss with an equal amount of passion.

When the two finally broke the kiss they were both breathing heavily and were as flushed as rubies.

“Clovis...”

“I love you Julia,” Clovis whispered before leaning in for another kiss. Never in his life had he ever felt quiet like this, the sheer bliss and happiness he felt in this moment could be surpassed by nothing. In that moment Clovis didn’t need a fortune teller to know that he would never need anyone else ever again.

*

“Why so down your grace?”

Garety turned around and found his brother leaning against the door post of his balcony.

“We will march on Meria and you will be reunited with your beloved soon enough,” Finwe added on and made his way to his brother’s side.

“In as much I miss and worry about Melissa,” Gareth responded, “there’s something else that’s bothering me.”

“Really? Do tell,” Finwe responded curiously, “mr lover boy thinking of something else other than his beloved Mel? This must be really something.”

Gareth dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper which he handed to Finwe, it was another note.

“Take her from Meria and keep her safe,” Finwe read the note aloud, “there are many who are after her and the child she carries.” Finwe read the note again and looked up at his brother, “are they talking about Melissa?”

“I should think so,” Gareth responded. He looked stressed and disturbed.

“Where did you get this?”

“I found it on my bed yesterday night,” Gareth responded with a sigh, “it’s in the same handwriting-”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“As the first two notes,” Finwe finished Gareth’s statement. The blonde prince leaned against the rail and threw his head back, “where are these coming from? Do you think it’s Aiden?”

“I doubt it,” Gareth responded, “the first note I received was back in Ervelon, how could he have sent to me then?”

“Oh yes you have a point,” Finwe responded as he stroked his chin thoughtfully, “and it definitely cannot be mother.”

“It has to be someone who has known Melissa and I even in our past lives,” Gareth muttered, “because how do you explain the horse? I’m worried, whoever this is has had access to Melissa for a while now, what if they have malicious intentions?”

“Do you think it’s whoever Aiden was sensing whenever he felt like we were being watched?” Finwe wondered, “maybe we had him pinned the wrong way and he genuinely just has a keen sense.”

“Maybe,” Gareth responded, “but until I figure out who it is who is doing this, I can’t be at peace.” The dark haired prince turned to his brother and gave him a worried look. “Anyway, how are the preparations going with my father?”

“The king.. ummh.. your father wishes to hold some sort of public coronation for you,” Finwe responded, “he says public appearance is important to win the citizens over. They need to see who and what you are, and hear from your own lips that you stand for equity among the races.”

“Very well,” Gareth responded, “if it will get our plan in motion then I will do whatever he feels is necessary. We need to gain control of the Gavarian army Finwe, it is made of over three thousand men.”

“Understood,” Finwe responded and started walking towards the doors, “I will try and look into these notes. Try not to worry too much until I have some intel.”

“Alright.. be careful.”