The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 433: Reassurance

She wanted to say it. She wanted to shout it until he was sick of hearing it.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

But the words stayed trapped in her throat, held back by an invisible force of her own making perhaps or something else they both couldn’t see. It felt wrong and right at the same time, a paradox of emotion that left her breathless.

Soren didn’t need her to speak to tell her what he was feeling. He was looking at her as if she were his entire world... his salvation, his home, his every whispered prayer. There was no hiding now, no imperial mask to shield him. It was a raw, aching love that was so intense it made Eris’s vision blur.

Since she couldn’t say the words, she decided to say everything but the words. She would make it so clear that even a man as dense as an ice block couldn’t misunderstand.

"Caelen is Rael’s father," Eris said, her voice steady despite the riot in her chest. Her hand remained on his cheek, her thumb brushing over the warmth of his skin. "I love Rael. That will never change. He is my son in every way that matters."

She took a breath, her eyes locking onto his. "But that is all Caelen is. All he can be. All he will ever be to me. Whatever I felt for him long ago, it is in the past. It is settled. It is done. It is finished."

She moved her hand slightly, her fingers tangling in the hair at his temple. "We are friends now, if that. But nothing more. Never again."

"Because I have someone else," she continued, watching his eyes widen even further.

Soren was barely breathing. "Someone else?"

Eris offered a small, knowing smile. "Someone who is standing right here, looking at me like a lost puppy who’s forgotten the way home."

She stepped closer, her body nearly brushing his. "Someone who carries an unremarkable blue stone in his pocket every single day for months, just because it belonged to a wicked queen he bumped into once."

She saw the light in his eyes flare. "Someone who got so jealous over a misunderstanding that he punished us both by staying away and sleeping on a hard chair in his study."

Her thumb brushed his cheek again. "Someone who blushes when I touch him. Someone whose eyes glow like the stars when he looks at me, as if I’m everything he’s ever wanted."

She leaned in, her voice a soft, dangerous whisper. "Someone I married, Soren. Not because I had to, and not for the crown. I married him because I wanted to. Because I think about him every moment... even when he’s being incredibly stupid and avoiding me."

Each word landed on Soren like a physical blow, but they weren’t blows that hurt... they were blows that shattered the ice around his heart.

She’s talking about me. Only me. No one else.

His heart felt as if it were about to explode out of his chest. The relief was so sudden and so powerful it made his knees weak. She didn’t say the words, but she was saying them in every other way possible.

She wants me. She chose ME.

Eris couldn’t wait any longer. The words were failing her, the anticipation was killing her, and she needed to close the distance before she lost her mind.

She grabbed the lapels of his heavy cloak, her knuckles white as she pulled him down to her height.

She initiated it. She pressed her lips to his with a fierce, claiming intensity, a silent declaration of ownership that left no room for doubt.

Soren responded instantly, a low groan vibrating in his throat. He kissed her back with a desperation that bordered on hunger. His hands came to her waist, his fingers digging into the velvet of her dress as he pulled her flush against him, wanting to erase every inch of space that had existed between them for almost a week.

All the longing, all the fear, and all the suppressed desire of the festival were poured into the kiss. The noise of the crowd faded into a distant hum; the music became a ghost of a sound. Nothing existed but the taste of him and the heat of her.

Internally, Soren felt a brief, passing sting of shame for needing this much reassurance... for being the man who needed his wife to spell it out for him like a child. But it was drowned out by the sheer, unadulterated joy of the reality.

He still wanted the words. He wished she would say them, the way he wanted to say them to her. But even as the thought formed, he realized he hadn’t said them either. He was just as afraid as she was.

What is holding us back?

As the kiss deepened, his hands tightened on her waist. He could feel her heat through the layers of her clothing, a warmth that was uniquely hers. He wanted her. He had been punishing himself by staying away, and now the craving was overwhelming.

He wanted to hear her say his name. He wanted to make her his again and again until she forgot any other man had ever existed. He felt himself losing control in the public alleyway, the imperial protocol warred with the primal need to take her right there.

Eris felt his desperation, his need matching her own. It was intoxicating, a physical high that made her head spin. Her body was heating up, a different kind of fire pooling between her thighs.

She realized with a jolt of panic that if they didn’t stop now, right here in the middle of a festival, she was going to lose her composure entirely.

With a Herculean effort, Eris pushed him away. It was a gentle but firm shove against his chest that broke the seal of their lips. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

They both stood there, breathing hard, their lips swollen and their eyes glazed with a mutual, unfinished want.

Eris fought to compose herself, her hands shaking as she adjusted her cloak. She couldn’t look at him; she knew if she met his eyes, she would pull him back into the kiss and the festival be damned. Without a word, she turned and began walking away, her pace quick and decisive.

Soren stood in the alleyway, stunned and vibrating with a mixture of arousal and total confusion.

"Eris?" he called out, his voice desperate. "Wait... "

She didn’t stop. She kept walking, moving fast back toward the crowded main street.

Soren remained frozen for a heartbeat, his heart hammering against his ribs, his body screaming for her to come back, and his mind trying to make sense of why she had just fled the moment they had finally found each other.