Chapter 161: To Say "Yes"
Aldric hugged her back, his arms tightening instinctively, as if the difference in the way she held him now marked a new beginning. Her hug was not that of pity. It was something more. Something filled with love. His cheek pressed into the softness of her hair, and he gently kissed the corner of her head.
"So... this means you’ll marry me?" he asked, his voice low but filled with a rare warmth.
His heart leaped, nearly breaking free of its cage. Amid the dark clouds of their reality, this was an undeniable and unwavering light he could grasp. Finally, he could have her by his side, resting on his chest, belonging to his heart and soul.
He was glad he opened up to her. Now he felt like flying.
Sylvia lifted her head, her hazel eyes glittering in the faint light beneath the stairs, defiant yet tender. "Tell me again, Aldric. Why do you want to marry me?"
She wanted to hear it over and over, like a lifeline she could cling to.
Aldric’s lips curved, and his smile brightened the dim room, spilling over into Sylvia’s entire world. His eyes held galaxies, quiet but vast, and she felt herself ready to get lost in them for the rest of her life. And if there were another life, she wished to be his first and only woman in that one, too.
"Well, for one... because I love you," he said, his voice certain, unwavering.
"Is that so...?" Sylvia murmured, her heart pounding in time with the thrum beneath his chest as she placed her hand over it.
She’d listened to his story earlier, absorbing every word like a prayer. A man who had lost his family for love, and now, against all odds, he had fallen in love with her and waited for her all this time. She felt safe, protected, as if nothing in the world could touch her while he was near.
"Yes. And to spend every moment with you. To return to you at the end of the day. To lean on you... and rest," Aldric continued, his tone soft but full of promise.
"Will you be my resting place too?" Sylvia’s voice trembled, a fragile hope laced in her words. She wanted that beautiful future he painted for her to be a reality. She thought her life was over, but he had given her hope, once again. Her eyes reddened as she gazed up at him.
"Absolutely," Aldric replied, smiling gently. "That would be easy." It would be so easy if it were her.
He brushed away the tears trailing down her cheeks, his fingers impossibly tender.
"I fell in love with your strength and your unwavering devotion to Lorraine," Aldric said. "I want to marry you, build a family, and continue the legacy of my line. To serve the Swan Oracle’s bloodline, now continuing in the line of the Swan Divina."
Sylvia’s tears spilled freely now, a mingling of relief, joy, and disbelief. For so long, she had feared him, questioned his motives, convinced herself that a man with such a legacy could never truly want her. She had carried the bruises of her past like proof that she was unlovable, that her husband’s cruelty was somehow her fault.
But Aldric had undone all of that in a single breath. He showed her she was not at fault. He showed her she was worthy. And not just worthy. She showed her that she was wanted, desired... and chosen.
This perfect, impossibly handsome man, bound by duty and weighed by loss, had chosen her.
What reason could she possibly have to say no?
Her breath hitched, and before she could think better of it, she leapt into him, arms clinging around his broad shoulders as though afraid he might vanish.
His body answered without hesitation. His hands closed firmly around her waist, strong fingers pressing into the curve of her back as he lifted her easily, holding her as though she weighed nothing. The wooden floor groaned softly beneath their shifting weight, and the dim, golden light pooled around them like a cloak, sealing them in their own secret world.
Their faces drew together, her breath catching at the faint, masculine scent of his skin, the warmth of him enveloping her. Their eyes met, as if recalling their past, the ups and downs. And now... they were here, together with one heart.
His lips lingered a hair’s breadth from hers, teasing, savoring the moment, until the tension snapped.
Their mouths crashed together.
It wasn’t gentle. It was raw, claiming, hungry as days of silence and restraint breaking in a single kiss. Sylvia yielded instantly, lips parting as his tongue traced the line of her mouth, demanding more. Her hands slid into his hair, pulling him closer, desperate to feel him everywhere.
Aldric’s breath burned hot against her throat as his other hand slipped lower, pressing her body flush against the hard planes of his. The wooden panels around them seemed to close in, trapping their stolen gasps, their sighs, every ragged sound amplified in the hush of that narrow space.
His lips never left her skin, tracing a slow, burning path from her jaw to the hollow of her neck. Each touch was deliberate, a whisper of fire against the softness of her flesh. The dim light beneath the stairs cast long, trembling shadows over their bodies, wrapping them in an intimate cocoon of secrecy.
Sylvia’s breath hitched, a shiver running through her as Aldric’s hands roamed lower, slipping beneath the laced edges of her corset. She swallowed the moans that almost slipped from her mouth. The moment was fragile, but the hunger between them was anything but.
The corset loosened under his touch, the tight lacing yielding until it gave way, and with a gentle tug, the garment slipped from her chest, falling in a silent cascade to the floor, forgotten. Her skin, pale and flushed, was left exposed to him, vulnerable and inviting beneath the dim light.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, clutching at him as though to anchor herself, while his arms tightened around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Their breaths mingled, heavy and hot, as their bodies pressed tighter, dangerously close to discovery. Each creak of the floorboard seemed like an accusation, every distant murmur of the household a reminder of how forbidden this was.
Their mouths found each other again, a kiss deeper now, more urgent, more possessive. Aldric’s hands explored the curve of her back, caressing, memorizing, as if he were engraving her into his very soul. His body pressed harder, aligning with hers, every inch of her responding in kind, every tremble, every sigh.
Sylvia’s legs instinctively curled around his hips, drawing him impossibly closer, the heat between them intensifying until it threatened to consume them. Her skin flushed, her chest rising and falling in time with his, a perfect rhythm of mutual desire and need.
Aldric looked at her and in those eyes that shimmered in the dim light, she saw his desire, to seal their promise.
But was it the right time and place, though?