Chapter 49 Part 1
Isaac’s breath caught. His blood froze. ‘Zei please let me be overreacting.’ He prayed internally.
“Isaac?” Lenna asked after a long moment of silence.
“Y-Yeah?” He stuttered for the first time that Lenna could remember.
Lenna started taking off her armor while talking. She smiled to herself. ‘The V’Nova way huh.’ She thought and decided to just go all in from the start. “Isaac, you are a melodramatic, eccentric, narcissist on a power trip.” The shock of her words caused Isaac to recoil causing some of the water to splash out of the tub. That was not how he was expecting her to start. Her words lacked any bite which was a good sign but the words themselves were not. “But,” She took a deep breath. “You are also a kind,” Isaac snorted a laugh. “Shut up.” She spoke without missing a beat. “I said kind not kind hearted.”
Isaac could keep himself from laughing. “Fine, fine, fair enough.” He got out through his laughter.
Lenna continued on: “genius, demi demigod who truly cares for me.” Isaac was instantly silenced by the last of her words. “Those feelings you described to me before,” She continued. Isaac all but jumped out of the tub and hurriedly grabbed his towel to quickly dry himself. He needed to see her face as she was talking. “many of them, I feel as well.” She took a deep breath while Isaac scrambled to dry enough of himself to be able to put some clothes on. “When we first met, I was more concerned with paying back my debt to you. After a while, I decided that the debt didn’t matter. I would follow you regardless, until the day you died of old age. Eventually, I realized that my feelings became… more.” She paused as she took another deep breath. “But I have some warnings for you. Elves mate for life.” Isaac’s heart felt so light that he thought it would fly out of his chest. “If you are serious about this you will be stuck with me forever. Both your forever, and mine.” Isaac decided that clothes would take too long and just tied his towel around his waist. “Also, I am still a dark elf. If you break my heart, I’ll kill you.” Her final words were not spoken with even the slightest hint of jest. She would do it. They were punctuated by a piece of her armor dropping to the ground.
Lenna finished taking off her last boot and tossed it onto the pile of her armor just as Isaac rounded the folding partition that separated the bath from the rest of the room. His hair was still damp and his face was flushed. His towel was tied tightly around his waist to preserve his decency but his eight-pack was clearly visible. Lenna took in his literally sculpted muscles from head to toe. “Lenna, what exactly are you saying?” He asked, his voice a little higher than usual.
She felt herself start and then decided not to stop herself from licking her lips while taking him in. Her eyes finally left his body after a long moment and their silver eyes locked together. “That I love you, you dolt.”
Isaac was too stunned to even take a step forward. It was what he wanted. What he truly wanted from the bottom of his heart. One of the few things on the list of all of existence that really mattered to him. She had just said it. Clearer than crystal, he had heard those words. Isaac’s mind froze.
Lenna leaned back in the chair but didn’t cross her legs nor her arms. It was an invitation. One that if Isaac’s brain was working he would have taken. Lenna smirked at him. She felt hotter than usual even though she was only in her tight under armor. Isaac might have been the culprit. His near constant indecent, for Lenna, exposure had only been building the sexual tension for over a month. She didn’t know if Isaac felt that way but it was getting harder and harder to not watch him change in the morning. Lenna blinked herself out of her thoughts and finally got tired of waiting for Isaac’s brain to reset. “What are you waiting for?” She asked him with a raised eyebrow. “A countdown?”
Those words and the insinuation behind them brought Isaac back to reality and he closed the gap between them in only a few strides. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her in for a deep, long, wet kiss. Her hand gently rested on the side of his face.
Interlude 3
“No!” Amaranth shouted. “I am cutting you off.” She declared, which got a deep hearty laugh from her father. “I refuse to write my parents’ erotica.”
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“I was going to stop there anyway.” He replied through his laughter. “I want my grandkids to read this.”
Amaranth huffed indignantly. “I think that was more than far enough.” Isaac only laughed harder. After giving him time to control himself she continued. “Skip ahead.” She ordered.
Isaac waved her off. “I will. But only about…” He thought back with a smile that Amaranth absolutely did not like seeing on his face. “Two… maybe three hours.” Amaranth covered her mouth like she was going to lose her lunch. Isaac chuckled. “Don’t be such a prude. You’re married.”
“Should you really be telling your daughter not to be a ‘dignified and refined Lady’?” She questioned.
“A prude.” He corrected.
Amaranth huffed indignantly again. “Father.” She almost growled.
He smirked in that all too familiar almost mischievous smirk. “Fine, fine.” He waved her off. “So, a few hours later…”
Chapter 49 Part 2
Lenna was exhausted. So much tension and so much weight that had been resting on her heart was gone and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. She knew that if she closed them then sleep would take her. Her eyes closed for a split second too long and she sat bolt upright at the feeling of her consciousness slipping. It was then that she remembered the situation she was in and she recovered herself with the blanket while laying back down.
Isaac smiled sweetly and brushed her hair out of her face. “You can rest.” He assured her.
“I’ll fall asleep.” She replied tiredly. “I should get dressed and go sit in the chair.” After a moment she tried to push herself up only for Isaac to gently but firmly push her back down. She narrowed her eyes at him but couldn’t think of a retort.
Isaac moved his pillow so it would cushion his back against the headboard and slid up in bed. “I’ll stay up.” He smiled lovingly at her. “Get some sleep.” She just stared at him for a long moment. He pulled a book out of thin air and turned to his bookmarked page. “I won’t fall asleep.” He promised. “Sleep, Lenna. You need it.” He ordered and she finally gave in to the sweet embrace of a dreamless sleep.
Isaac didn’t even start reading for a long while. He was too focused on processing what had just happened and staring at her while she slept. In his mind she still looked like a goddess of war, even in her sleep. Even more so now that he knew she hid quite the pair of abbs under her under armor. How that tight shirt managed to hide them he still had no idea. Eventually he did begin reading his book and that was when he realized exactly how light of a sleeper she was. The first few times he turned the page she twitched. He ended up having to silence the book with the slightest amount of shadows so she wouldn’t hear the pages turn. He had to also use a small enough amount of them that the mana use wouldn’t wake her.
He shook his head almost in disbelief. ‘I wonder what trauma caused her to sleep so lightly?’ He thought to himself. He frowned. ‘There is so much of her past that I don’t know. I don’t know any of my past either so I guess I shouldn’t complain.’ He shook his head again while watching her sleep. He smiled brightly. ‘This is truly the only time she has ever been vulnerable.’
Every time Isaac had seen her in a position of relative vulnerability she still could kill the average person in under a second. Even while cuffed in antimagic cuffs and chained to a wall she was more deadly than most guards. The knowledge that he was the only person since she left home to see her like this made his chest warm. ‘I’ll protect you.’ He swore. ‘We’ll protect each other.’
—
By the time Lenna awoke and the pair headed down for dinner the dinner rush was over. Lenna’s braid was a mess and Isaac had conveniently forgotten to remind her to fix it. The pair sat down at the bar in front of Celeste whose greeting smile was both knowing and absolutely radiant. She could also tell that Lenna hadn’t been awake for very long. “Good morning.” She told Lenna cheekily with a wink.
Lenna froze. She reached back and felt her braid. They had decided to go down to dinner in street clothes as it was just easier and they were both starving. She felt the catastrophe that was her braid and turned to glare at Isaac who refused to make eye contact but was smiling. “Morning.” She replied irritably.
Celeste chuckled. “I remember a story.” She began and waved to one of the two waitresses to get them something from the kitchen. She had long learned that neither of them were picky and always just had whatever Leo happened to be cooking at the time.
“Oh?” Isaac asked.
Celeste nodded and started pouring them each the very last of the bottle she had almost completely split with Lenna that afternoon. Each of them only got about half a glass. “A king once hired a bard to take care of a dragon problem.” She began. “A few weeks later the dragon stopped coming around and the king assumed that the dragon and the bard had killed each other in a duel of the ages.” She leaned against the bar casually while continuing her story. “Five years later the bard returned with a woman with green scales and familiar horns. Between them was a small half dragon child about the age of four.” Celeste was having trouble keeping the smile from her face. “The king exclaimed upon seeing them ‘I told you to slay the dragon not lay the dragon!’” She finished with a wink at Lenna.
Lenna’s face flushed as her eyes went wide. She shot up so fast that her stool toppled to the ground. She slammed her hands onto the bar. “Celeste!” She yelled in obvious embarrassment.
Isaac was shocked. Not only had her voice been louder than he had ever heard it before but it was also so high that, if he didn’t know any better, he would have never thought that she was the one who had yelled. Celeste only started giggling. Isaac looked back and forth between them and asked the question that was on his mind: “Am I missing something?”