A duel between two men for the right to the maiden’s heart was supposed to be a romantic and medieval gesture. Apparently that wasn’t the case here; it was clearly not the medieval ages and it was not for her heart. It was for a dinner- an extremely normal, non-romantic dinner-, Eileen reminded herself as she sat on the steps of the arena watching a very shirtless Nathaniel fight with the blonde soldier he had already beaten earlier. The stakes were clear; the victor got to have dinner with her tonight. Talk about uncomfortable. She hadn’t meant for herself to get into this situation but there wasn’t much that she could’ve done to prevent it.
She and Marcus had been walking back to the arena while she desperate tried to come up with an excuse to avoid having a ‘personal’ dinner with the alpha. When they had nearly reached the door, the blonde soldier who had been fighting with the alpha that morning, walked up to them and addressed her boldly, ‘have dinner with me.’ She had blinked at him, completely dumbfounded when Marcus smoothly answered for her,
‘She’s taken. Or shall i say, she’s already due to have dinner with alpha Nathaniel tonight. You can try your luck some other day.’ He cocked an eyebrow at blondie, who stared back with a daring look.
Blondie whipped his head around towards the building where the alpha was and yelled out while walking in that particular direction, ‘Alpha! How about a duel? For the lovely lady..’
Nathaniel had agreed, much to her surprise, and here they were as she sat back in her chair, trying not to blush every five seconds as she kept her gaze away from Nathaniel’s chest. Why did he have to look so good, anyway? And why did he always fight without a shirt on?
Her flitting gaze landed on a group of well dressed women who were standing behind the fence of the arena and were watching the alpha with hungry eyes. A flare of annoyance sparked in her and she turned back in a huff, more annoyed at herself for being jealous. It’s not as if he was hers and they were doing anything wrong. The women were all single, the alpha was single, and she…was most definitely- unfortunately- not. The fight ended quickly following the alpha’s quick jabs and ferocious sparring despite having been at it all day long, and Eileen felt somewhat impressed at his stamina. He stood at the centre of the stage as they announced him as the reigning victor and the crowd erupted in cheers. His stormy blue eyes found hers and held her gaze captive, while she stood frozen in her spot, feeling like there were only the two of them even in such a large crowd.
Their dinner was in the alpha’s house- the one that was across from her cottage, and apparently he’d been accepting his easy win because the blond soldier had simply grinned at them and saluted at the alpha as they left for the carriage. Nathaniel helped her out of the carriage and his hold was still firm on her wrist as he led them inside after unlocking the door. There was a table set in the middle of the dimly lit room, the candles strewn over the hardwood was the only source of illumination. Yeah, it was definitely not a formal dinner. She sat in the chair Nathaniel pulled out for her before he sat across from her and smiled at her. Her nerves were shot, and all she could do was fist her shirt that was covering her lap as a server came in and placed their dishes in front of them. The smell was divine, perfectly in tune with the gorgeously set plate. Her mouth watered and she grabbed a fork, ready to eat despite her obvious nervousness. The first morsel barely reached her lips when Nathaniel said,
‘Your hand..when you placed it on my chest this morning, it lingered.’
She looked up at with blazing eyes, while she set her fork down, the delicious food already forgotten.
‘Excuse me?’ Her tone was a dead giveaway to her annoyance at such an accusation. Still Nathaniel decided to ignore it and said,‘you’re attracted to me.’
‘That is not-‘ she cut herself off, her anger rising to an uncontrollable level. ‘I am not attracted to you, that is a preposterous accusation. I am engaged!’
‘To a loser who you obviously don’t even like.’
‘My relationship with my fiancé is none of your business.’
‘Do you love him?’ The question made her pause, despite knowing the answer already. Of course she didn’t love him, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.
Eileen rose from the table abruptly, ready to bid him goodnight, when he grabbed her wrist and yanked her closer to him. She gasped, her body heating up at the contact, despite the fact that she hated being manhandled like this. Whenever Felix did it, she felt nauseous, so why didn’t she feel the same way with this infuriating man. Said man was obviously not giving up because he repeated, ‘do you love him?’
She refused to answer, turning her head away. ‘Why do you care?’
He pulled her again, forcing her to meet his eyes. ‘Do you really not know? I heard that humans couldn’t feel it as strongly but still-,’ he stopped himself from continuing and instead sighed as he said, ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong to interrogate you like this.’ His thumb stroked her wrist when he said this, his light touch grazing over her fluttering pulse point.
His eyes moved back to her lips and he sighed deeply once more before letting her go and stepping away from her.
‘I should go.’ Eileen whispered, even though she didn’t want to. She wanted..a lot of things she couldn’t have, this man being one of them. Once she reached the door and placed her hand on the door knob, she felt him behind her, curling a strand of her hair on his finger.
‘I want you,’ he whispered softly. ‘That’s why I care.’
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