Inside the dining room, Gavriel felt utterly fascinated to be glared at by her. He did not even realise a small smile was creeping onto his face, completely unbothered that he was under Aliana’s direct line of fire.

Aliana, on the other hand, saw that faint smile and felt her blood boil at how brazen he was being. Her fingers tightened around the knife placed next to her plate, as if she were getting ready to stab him the moment he spilled any more nonsense.

Deliberately choosing to ignore the gravity of the situation, Gavriel decided to push her buttons instead. "Why do you care? If I recalled correctly, didn’t you want me to keep my distance?"

Aliana blinked, her mouth parting in pure disbelief. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Do I look like I am joking?"

"I can see that sly smile on your face," she pointed out, aggressively gesturing with the knife she was holding.

"Well, you read it wrong, little rose," he replied flatly. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Shaking her head in disbelief, she asked, "What the... did you fall somewhere and hit your head too hard?" Her voice shook slightly with restrained anger as more of it continued to rise within her, and Gavriel was getting to taste the full brunt of it.

Before he could reply, she hissed at him in a low, dangerous voice, "Did you forget your initial terms for this marriage? Do you honestly think we are in some sort of open relationship?" The more she spoke, the sharper the glare in her eyes became.

"Well, you didn’t answer my que-"

She sharply cut him off, asking in a cold whisper, "Why? Why would you go visit a woman at night?"

Her eyes remained fixed on him, and for a split second, they glowed crimson before returning to normal.

He blinked in surprise, not expecting that to happen again, nor expecting to see her this angry.

She was literally shaking right now.

Gavriel had not meant to push her this far. He had only wanted to gauge her reaction, to see if she would care about something like that, especially since she had spent the previous evening trying to run away from him.

Until this moment, she had never shown this fierce, possessive side of herself, primarily because there had never been another woman in the picture.

Even now, there was no one else.

Yet, a twisted part of him deeply enjoyed seeing her react to him in ways he would never tolerate from any other woman.

Her anger was so palpable that it felt as though it were burning him from within.

Knowing he now needed to placate the little demoness he had awakened, he replied, "No. Neither do I think this is an open marriage, nor have I forgotten our terms to remain exclusive to each other."

"Then why?" she hissed, the words bursting from her lips. "Did you do something you were not supposed to?"

As the question left her, her voice dropped even lower, and her eyes finally began to betray emotions beyond pure fury. A distinct tint of pain surfaced at the mere thought of betrayal, though he could see how desperately she was holding back from lashing out completely until she received a definitive answer.

That was when Gavriel finally released a low sigh.

Reaching across the table, he wrapped his fingers around her hand and firmly pulled her toward him.

In a swift, fluid motion, a gasp left Aliana as she was lifted right out of her chair. Before she could even react, she found herself sitting on his lap.

Gavriel had successfully snaked his arms around her waist in an iron grip, ensuring she had no chance of breaking away from his hold, while her own hands instinctively flew to his shoulders for balance. The knife she was holding was now dangerously close to his neck.

She immediately tried to pry herself away, breathing out in restrained anger, "What do you think you are doing?"

But Gavriel only tightened his grip around her waist, pulling her body flush against his chest.

In response, she defiantly pressed the blunt edge of the butter knife against his throat, glaring down at him.

"Let me go righ-"

"Aliana," he spoke her name, his voice clear and resonant, causing her to stop mid-sentence. There was no longer a single hint of mockery or amusement in his tone, and his features had grown entirely serious.

Yet Aliana did not melt under the intensity of his close proximity, her chest rising and falling rapidly as her emotions ran at an all-time high. Only this time, she chose to bite her tongue, wanting to hear what he had to say and understand exactly what his actions meant. Gavriel understood her silent demand.

"I didn’t mean to," he admitted, his low voice low, though it only caused her scowl to deepen.

"Nothing happened. I did not betray you, so..." He raised one of his hands from her waist, gently placing his palm against her cheek as he whispered, "So stop looking at me like I have broken your trust."

Her eyes wavered slightly as she listened to him. The fury within her chest flickered as she searched his icy blue gaze, desperately trying to discern if he was telling the truth.

But even if he were telling the truth, she could not simply forget the fact that he had sought out another woman while she was back here, consumed by guilt for avoiding him.

The anger that had simmered down for a mere fraction of a second flared back to life at full force. This time, she let go of the butter knife altogether, letting it clatter on the ground.

Lifting her hand, she wrapped her fingers around the wrist of the hand resting on her cheek.

Pulling his hand away from her face, she stared fiercely into his eyes and demanded, "Then tell me, Gavriel. Why did you go there in the first place?"

He felt her grip tighten around his wrist as she waited for him to respond, and he could also feel the fragile weight of the moment.

If he spoke one wrong word, there would be nothing stopping her from walking away from everything.

As a painful silence settled between them, Gavriel’s voice finally cut through it.

"Your actions had upset me, little rose," he admitted quietly.

He watched her eyes slowly widen in surprise, her lips parting as though she wanted to ask something, but he did not give her the chance.

"Yes... you." His gaze remained locked onto hers. "You are responsible for making me like this."

"Gavriel-"

"Shh."

He gently pressed a finger against her lips, silencing her immediately. His icy blue eyes lowered, lingering there for a moment as though captivated by the feeling of her soft lips beneath his touch.

He then leaned closer until his voice felt less like spoken words and more like a whisper curling around her senses.

Moving his finger away, he cupped her jaw instead, his grip tightening ever so slightly while her own hand remained wrapped around his wrist.

"You..." he murmured, his eyes moving back to hers, "have been driving me to become someone I do not recognise."

His thumb slowly brushed against her skin.

"So much so that I went to seek out another woman... just to understand whether what I am feeling is truly different."

His gaze darkened, "Just to know whether I would become like this with anyone else... or whether this madness exists only because of you."