Rendezvous in the Romanowskian Empire

23. His mystifying sides

Althea

"What a whore you are to submit yourself to the men!" she screeched, grabbing my hand in her death grip.

"Self-virtuousness is the only means!" screaming again. She pulled me to the edge. Her voice echoed all the way down fifty feet of height.

"Leave me! I don't want to go!" I struggled against the grip she had on my arm. It hurt.

"No whore, come with me!" and she hauled me down, causing my foot to lose its balance.

All I could feel was the rush of air through my lungs as I started my journey down. Below me, I could see her black hairs whipping wildly around her face as she howled, her voice resonating through the thorn forest where we would land and die.

"As if I'll let you die so soon," a pair of arms gathered around my waist and hoisted me upwards.

Surprisingly; back to the open corridor from where the woman had pulled me.

My heart was thumping madly at what happened. I couldn't stop shivering from the feel of going down with such velocity. Opening my eyes somehow, I only saw the woman who was pint-sized by now. Then,

A loud THUD!

I cried out in horror and held the closest thing. Squeezing myself nearer to it as much as possible.

But it wasn't an 'it'. It was a specific someone.

A 'him'.

My arms were looped around his neck. The intense structure of abs on his torso grazed through my thin linen and I came fully awake. Wide awake.

Julian

His eyes were locked on mine, holding me firmly with a hand on my back. But there was something different in his gaze,

Unmistakable tenderness was the thing that surprised me.

Then I realized our position.

"I- I apologise..." I stepped back, tried to free myself from his hold. But he held on.

"Don't be, Althea," he whispered, holding me in a way that didn't hurt a speck.

His hands cupped the back of my head, rubbing gently on a bump I never knew was there.

I was speechless.

Was this barbarian... caring?

"ALTHEA!" a voice roared, causing us to whip our head to the source.

Julian stood with a sword tightened in his hand, jaw fixed on a hard set. The sword dripped with dark blood, making a pool of thick blood at his feet.

"Who told you to come out of the camp?" he thundered. "Do I have to chain you to the bed now?!"

I turned my head back to the Julian holding me. A troubled expression covering his face. He looked much sensible than the one roaring at us.

The stare directed by angry and much realistic Julian had me struggling again out of his embrace.

"Althea," saner Julian whispered calmly,
"He's just a façade, don't be afraid," his fingers reached to stroke my cheeks, looking down at me so adorably that I couldn't believe.

So lost in his sincerity, I didn't realise angry Julian's hand curling around my arm to pull me in an abrupt tug. I crashed against his chest.

"Get the heck away from my eyes!" he growled at saner Julian, who just gave him a look filled with pity.