How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 39- To Tame Her

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With a loose cloth hung around my waist, I used another cloth to dry my hair, walking into mine and Ria's chambers just as I heard the main door open and I looked to see none other than my wife stepping into the room, a cold look plastered on her face.

I'm guessing she is aware of what I just did.

"Where were you, darling?" I asked, acting innocent as I walked over to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and leaning down to peck her lips but she turned her head away.

"I should be the one asking you that, Julius said you didn't turn up for the meeting... Where were you? Or rather, what were you doing?" She turned back to look at me with narrowed eyes.

"Do you really want to know?" I quietly whispered in her ear and I felt her flinch but nonetheless worked to keep up her cool exterior. "Judging by how you are acting like a jealous wife right now, I would have guessed that you are already aware of where I was and what I was doing?" I pulled back, brushing her hair away to catch her reaction.

I guess sleeping with a woman that wasn't my wife was worth it... At least, that's what it looked like right now.

Her eyes trembled and with a shaky breath, she licked her bottom lip before finally working up the courage to look me in the eyes, hands raising to rest against my damp chest.

"...Tell me that it is a lie... I will believe you... Ambrogio must have been mistaken because Stacius, you would- you would never do something like that... Would you?" 

Ah, yes... this reaction, these shiny, tearful eyes. This beautiful woman was really my one and only wife and Empress. That slave had nothing on her but desperate times called for desperate measures. It was worth it.

Placing a hand on her cheek, my thumb stroked her soft flesh as all of me took in and revelled in the beauty that was her and all of her innocent words.

"I will not lie," I started and her breath cut short. "...I did what I had to do," I added on.

"Had to do?..." A confused look fell over her delicate features. "What are you talking about?... How is sleeping with another woman going to help anyone in any sort of way?..." She whispered so quietly under her breath I almost didn't hear.

"Unless you were wishing to accomplish something else out of this?" She guessed correctly and my lips tilted up into a smirk, proud that she had figured it out faster than I expected.

"What were you wanting to accomplish?" She asked with a narrowed gaze. "Something from me? What could you possibly get from me by sleeping with another woman?" She spoke a bit louder this time and my smirk felt like it was growing bigger with each word that slipped past her lips.

I raised my other hand to rest on her cheek and leaned down, kissing her forehead.

"Answer me, Anastacius," She said, or more like commanded.

"...To make you jealous," I truthfully answered.

She blinked, and with that blink, the tears which had been fogging her eyes suddenly fell, hanging off her bottom lashes before falling onto her cheek and trailing down slowly, the crystallised eyes now looking clearer than before.

With my thumbs, I effortlessly wiped the tears away, the dampness on my thumbs disappearing after a few seconds and I quietly waited for her reaction.

"To make me jealous," She repeated my words like a hollow echo.

Ria's hands which had been resting on my chest slowly slipped down and fell to land beside her and her hands clenched onto the fabric of her white tunic. Her head fell forward, covering her face from my view and causing me to move my hands away from her cheeks.

"I am..." I heard her mumble under her breath, a light and airy whisper, said in such a cold voice that it left my spine freezing up in surprise. "...So... sick of it all,"

The rest of my body chilled up at the sound of her echo.

"Stacius..." She suddenly called in a normal tone of voice, surprising me and I nodded my head in answer to her words, watching as she took a step back to look up at me, her eyes looking completely different than they did a few seconds ago.

Gone was the sadness and jealousy, replaced by the slowly simmering anger of a woman that had been cheated and wronged, filled to the brim with regret and hate that she put any vengeful spirits to shame.

"I asked for one thing in a man if I was to marry anyone, you know, better than anyone else what that was... Up until now, I thought I deserved everything you were putting me through... because I asked for a loyal man, and even though this is not what I meant, I got what I asked for... But now..."

Once more, her eyes were fogging up with tears.

"...Now I can say that I do not deserve any of this. What you are putting me through, treating me like an animal instead of a wife, having your way with me nearly every night, trying to tame me and ignoring the fact that I am not someone you should tame because I am not an animal... Look at me Stacius!" She suddenly shouted.

"Take a good look at me and tell me what you see!... I am not an animal for you tame, I am a mortal being that deserves to be treated as such. I do not need to be smart or beautiful or anything else to get people to treat me like a human, because that is my basic right and has been my basic right from the moment my mother gave birth to me!"

Sobbing angrily, she stepped forward, hands outstretching to land on my throat where I felt her slowly starting to exert more and more force. It wasn't enough to choke me but still...

"Take a good luck at me and realise that I am a human being... Anastacius," She cried.

I raised my hands, holding onto her hands which rested on my throat and just as she asked, I took a good look at her. At her broken self.

"I am no object of yours or any other man in this world... I can cry... and laugh, I can feel emotions like anger and happiness too. I can get hurt and bleed... But the difference between me and any other animal out there is that I cannot be tamed,"

"I am not someone you can tame. Ever,"

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