"What happened?" Silas asked softly. "Are you okay?"
Ivy pressed her lips together. ’I’m not worthy of him,’ her mind whispered cruelly.
In her previous life, she had rejected him.
In this life, even after he had begged her to love him, she still kept her distance.
If it hadn’t been for Silas and her family forcing her to confront the past, she would still be running away.
And now, she couldn’t even accept him.
’I’m broken... beyond repair.’
Tears welled in her eyes.
Silas noticed, before he had stepped back slightly, afraid his touch might make her sick again.
But the mont a tear slipped down her cheek, he forgot every ounce of caution.
He rushed forward, pulled her into his arms, and held her tightly.
"What happened?" he whispered urgently. "Why are you crying?"
Ivy buried her face in his neck, her voice trembling. "I’m broken... You deserve soone better."
Silas stiffened. He pulled back just enough to look at her, his eyes narrowing.
"Do you even hear what you’re saying?"
Ivy nodded weakly, tears blurring her vision. "I don’t deserve you."
Heartbreak flashed across Silas’s face. The next mont, he gently laid her on the bed and began to undress her.
Ivy froze. "What are you doing?" she asked shakily.
Silas didn’t answer. He undressed quickly, then paused, looking at her bare form with reverence rather than desire.
He leaned down, brushed a kiss against her cheek, then pressed one to her forehead.
Ivy’s heart raced, confusion mixing with warmth.
Silas cupped her cheeks gently.
"These are the cheeks I dread of touching," he murmured. He kissed her lips softly. "These are the lips I dread of kissing."
He kissed her forehead again, then her eyes, her ears. "These were all things I craved... but never dared to take."
Finally, he lifted her fingers, kissing them one by one, almost as if worshipping her. His voice softened.
"You might not know this," he said quietly, "but to , you’re a goddess."
A goddess he had never dared to harbor impure designs on, yet one he had shalessly chased, believing that one day his devotion would overflow enough for him to finally claim a place beside her.
He knew the thod he used was despicable. He knew it clearly.
Yet, from the depths of his heart, he loved this goddess and engraved her existence into his very bones.
Now Ivy was saying that she was not worthy.
If that was the case, then shouldn’t it be him who was unworthy instead?
He was the one who had used such a shaful way to stay by her side. He was the one who did not deserve Ivy at all.
Ivy’s eyes watered as she shook her head lightly, her voice trembling. "You’re saying nonsense again."
Silas interrupted gently, his tone firm yet warm. "That’s how I feel."
He truly could not understand why Ivy could not feel assured about herself.
There was no one like her in this entire universe.
No one possessed such power. No one carried such beauty.
No one had a soul that could bind him so deeply, so obsessively, that even breathing felt incomplete without her presence.
No one could ever compare to Ivy.
Why? Because even after everything she had endured, even after witnessing the cruelest sides of humanity, she never abandoned humanity itself.
She never cut it off. From all the experints inflicted on her in her previous life, from every scar carved into her existence, she could have chosen destruction.
She could have burned the world down.
Instead, she turned her hatred only toward those who had wronged her and shielded the innocent with her own hands.
"There was no one like you," Silas murmured, his thumb brushing her cheek. "And there never will be."
He could not understand how soone like Ivy could hold all of that together and still act as if she had done nothing alone.
From his perspective, Ivy was a goddess ant to be worshipped.
As those words fell from his lips, he leaned in and kissed her.
His kisses were deep yet reverent, carrying no hunger, only devotion.
Ivy did not feel claid. She felt cherished.
Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, soaking into the sheets beneath her.
’Why is he so gentle?’
Instead of overwhelming her, he kissed her softly, everywhere, slow and patient, until the tension in her shoulders eased.
Her cheeks ward, a faint blush creeping up as her sha slowly dissolved.
Even the light, teasing touches that followed only made her laugh breathlessly, the heaviness in her chest finally loosening.
In the end, it was Silas who guided her to the bathroom, steam filling the air as he helped her wash away the remnants of fear clinging to her skin.
Ivy sat quietly on the small bathroom stool, the scent of warm water and soap lingering in the air, while Silas knelt and gently rubbed her feet dry.
She hesitated before whispering, "Don’t you feel humiliated... doing this?"
Silas laughed softly, his voice relaxed. "Humiliated? No."
He looked up at her, eyes sincere. "I feel fortunate. I get to do this for my goddess."
Ivy turned her face away, suddenly flustered after seeing sothing she was not yet ready to face.
Her voice dropped to a murmur. "One day... I’ll be able to accept you completely."
Silas chuckled, unbothered.
"Becoming your husband is more than enough for . Even if I never beco your whole world, I’d still be the luckiest man alive."
Silas might have lusted after Ivy, but the true root of his love lay far deeper, buried in a childhood mory neither ti nor pain could erase.
The first ti Ivy and Silas t, the world had been unbearably harsh.
Ivy was running away from ho, overwheld by the pressure that a child should never have known.
She was only seven, thin and fragile, knowing only one thing... she had to escape parents who had nearly killed her.
User Comments
0 comments from readers