A gift he said? For some reason, my heart swelled up with an unknown emotion. My eyes could only look at him and my mind could only ask- 'Is it true?'
All the things you were showing me, all the care and warmth you were giving me- was it all true? My selfish heart wanted this feeling to last forever and to have all this to myself. Just what was this feeling that was making me this greedy?
"Come here, my wife," he said and offered me his hand.
I took his hand. It always amazed me just how big his hand was. My hand always looked tiny in his hand. It was still hard to believe that this handsome man was my husband. Not even in my wildest dreams, I thought I would be the wife of someone like his. He was so powerful and strong, and most importantly, he was caring.
He took me to the dressing table. The huge mirror that stood there reflected a very unbelievable sight that made my heart almost lose its sanity. Him standing behind me, holding me by the waist- it felt too unreal to be true.
"You're so little, my wife," he said, placing his chin on top of my head. "And so adorable that I want to hold you in my arms forever. I want to hide you from everything. But you don't want that. You don't want to stay hidden and be saved only. And that's why you will be someone the world will look up to with fear and respect at the same time. The path is hard. But just as I am holding your hand right now, I will hold your hand then too. Just stay with me, my wife. Stay close to me so I can always feel you."
My eyes filled with tears. I did not like to cry, but right at the moment, those tears felt too hard to resist. I was not sad, nor was I happy- I was surprised, and more importantly, I felt hopeful and lucky.
"You don't have to accept me right away, my wife. I don't expect you to. You don't have to push yourself. Take your time. Take as long as you need. But stay with me and never leave me."
The tears that I hardly could hold back started to fall. I never wanted to have this kind of life nor did I ever expect it. I did not want any luxury; I just wanted to have enough things to survive. But still, I got this. I had become a queen. And most importantly, I found a man who always exceeded my expectations. The man I ended up with- my husband who promised that he would hold my hand. It felt like a story that I did not want to finish. What would it take me so it would be a never-ending story?
"Tears are precious, my wife. You shouldn't shed them so easily," he said, wiping the tears with his thumbs. "They call tears someone's weakness. Are my words your weakness, my wife?"
"They... are precious," I mumbled.
"Don't let words fool you, my wife. Even the ones you trust the most can break you. That's why words are not something to judge someone's true intention. Look at their actions and then judge. Don't just hear the words, feel them to the depth."
"Then shouldn't I trust you too, Dem?" I asked.
"Even when I tell you to trust me, you shouldn't trust me fully until you see my actions. Eyes can't lie, my wife. Look into my eyes and see if you can trust me a bit. If you see the truth there, then rely on me a bit. But my actions will be the real things that you should judge me with," he said. "Take your time to see if I'm worthy of your trust."
"I trust you," I said. "No matter what you say, Dem, you are someone I want to trust. If you want to hurt me, you can. But I will still trust you."
I looked up at him and found his face hovering over mine from behind. "Because I know you will never hurt me," I smiled.
For the first time, I could see a look of surprise in his eyes. But it was just for a moment before he chuckled. "Alright then, my wife. I'm grateful to earn your trust. Then know that you're the safest with me."
I had already known this. There was no place where I felt at ease like this. He was the one who had the ability to make me feel that way. I did not prefer any other person either.
"Now, this is your gift."
I did not even notice when he wore me a necklace. It was not something fancy, but the locket in the shape of love was kind of captivating for some reason. I could not exactly see why, but it seemed like the necklace was shining a bit.
"See? It's shining. But only you and I can see it. And perhaps a high-level magician. This necklace prevents me from reading your mind."
"W-What?"
"It prevents me from reading your mind. It means..."
"No, I don't mean that. I mean, why are you giving me this?"
"My wife, it is important to give someone privacy. I don't want to get in your way of thinking. So, you should wear this all the time. Don't worry, you can wear it while bathing as well," he replied. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I didn't know you would care for someone's privacy."
"Why would you say that?" he asked in a dejected way.
"Well, or you would give other people something to prevent you from reading their minds."
"Who cares about them? I only care about you," he shrugged. "I don't care about their privacy. They are disgusting people thinking about disgusting things. But sometimes, it's kinda fun to see them having confused thoughts and see them scheming against me. It's even more fun to rip their heads off at the end and when they ask why I did that, I just say that they are annoying."
"... You're not being literal, are you?"
"What do you think?" he smirked.
There was no doubt he meant exactly what he said. Now I could guess a bit as to why others feared him that much.
"Can you really not read my mind now?"
"No. What are you thinking? Are you calling me something bad in your head?"
"Why would I do that?" I rolled my eyes.
"It doesn't matter though as now we're married. We're bound to each other, aren't we?" he said hugging me from behind.
I wanted to say yes. But I could not. Right at that moment, I could only focus on the warmth and the feeling of being protected. Yes, this was the feeling I liked the most.
"T-Thank you for the gift," I mumbled.
"I'm glad you like it, my wife," he said and kissed on top of my head. "It's quite late now, my wife. We should sleep."
My face burned up again. Were we just going to sleep or were we going to do that again? Honestly saying, I did not even know if I wanted to do it or not. It sure felt good, but something always felt missing. Perhaps that was why I was confused.
"I will change then. You can go to sleep, my wife."
'Go to sleep? Did that mean... Perhaps he is thinking about my health since I looked tired. That must be it...'
I lay down on the bed gazing at the ceiling. Only last night on this bed, we had been so close. All the time we did this, I had been calling out his name without even knowing that myself. Now that I thought about it, I had been strange. It did not seem like I was in my right mind. Everything felt hot and all I wanted for him was to move and never stop.
The pleasure was dangerous. It made me lose my mind. But for some reason, I wanted to feel it again. Perhaps just a bit... But I could not ask him for it. It would be too embarrassing. And maybe he did not want to do it now. He must be tired. Well, he did look tired. Unlike me, he had been busy all the time.
Ruby said that he worked all the time without going anywhere. She even said that he had a bad temper and he had zero patience. But I knew it was not like that. He waited a long time for me and even was ready to wait until I could accept him, then how could he not be patient? I wondered if this part of him was just for me.
In that case, I would like to cherish this part of him dearly so he would open up to me more. If we kept going like that, perhaps we would be able to grow closer soon.
I clutched the locket tightly. He considered my thoughts as if they were very important. It was the first time someone paid that much attention to me. I almost felt spoiled.
Tomorrow we were going on a date. I still did not understand why he wanted to go on a date suddenly. But I was kind of looking forward to it. It had been like this since the moment I came here.. I had always been looking forward to the time when we were together and alone.