#Unedited

"I'm telling you, Cia. If I don't find you fine..." Ryuu dragged her to his bedroom despite her refusal. But he was so insistent that Alcina couldn't fight against him. Plus, she didn't have the energy to fight him.

He made her sit on the side of the bed and tried to remove her turtleneck. "Ryuu, please. Don't remove this."

"What are you afraid of?" He asked while removing her turtleneck.

"Nothing.." What could she say? He would go mad if he saw what she was hiding.

"Do you not trust me?"

"Of course, I do."

"Then, let me do whatever I am doing." He was stubborn just like her.

To say when Ryuu removed her top was shocked would be an understatement. He never felt so useless, so powerless before. It was as if he felt something pressing his heart..

"Alcina.." He whispered.

"No, Ryuu," Alcina closed her eyes and whispered back." I would not be able to take your pity."

Ryuu didn't say anything. He unhooked her bra and then helped her to get out of the jeans. Her naked body wasn't something that he hadn't seen before. He had worshipped it more than he could count on his hands. But today, the marks on her body were burning his insides. He picked her in his arms and made her lie under the covers.

As she inhaled his scent mingled with his warmth, she didn't know when she fell to sleep. Once she was asleep, he removed the cover off her body and gently applied for medicine all over the fresh wounds. They would take weeks before healing. It would be a surprise if she had a fever tonight.

____

When Alcina woke up, she found herself naked in Ryuu's bed under the warm duvet. Looking around, she found him working on the laptop beside her.

"Hey, you awake?"He asked as soon as he saw her staring at him.

"Yeah.."She replied to him in a sleepy but soft voice. "Why didn't you send me to my room?"

"Why would I?" He asked in return. "Who would not want to share a bed with a beautiful naked woman?"

"Did you forget that you have a wife waiting for you somewhere?" Alcina retorted.

He fell silent for a woman before saying, "Why do I feel like a king who had a harem full of beauties?"

"Do you have more women than Xiuying and me?"Alcina asked him speechlessly.

"Why do you care?"

"Yeah, why do I care?" She murmured. Glancing at him, she found him waiting for her reply. She gulped before contemplating how to confess to him. She wished that she was as shameless as Esma. She wouldn't have to worry about getting embarrassed. Clearing her throat, she moved to sit. Perhaps she forgot or perhaps she didn't care that she was naked. He could now clearly see..

"I have something to confess," Alcina said in almost a whisper.

"Hmm?"

"I have been thinking about us.. " Alcina said while staring at her fidgeting hands.

"And?" He raised his brow. His interest increased in what she was about to say.

Closing her eyes, she said in a single breath, "HowaboutyoudivorceXiuying?"

Of course, Ryuu heard and understood what she had just said.

"Alcina, why should I divorce my wife?" Ryuu cross-questioned her.

"Because.. because you love me," Alcina said like it was the most obvious thing.

"And who said this?" Ryuu asked, his eyes filled with amusement.

"You don't?" Alcina inquired, too shocked by the revelation. She had no idea from where these stupid tears came from but she found them trickling down her cheeks. When was the last time she cried? On her father's funeral? No, not even then. Why would she cry at his funeral when she knew for a long time that he was going to die soon?

Now it was Ryuu's turn to be shocked. He has never dealt with a crying Alcina. Hell, he had never seen her crying. "Hey! Hey! Don't cry! Of course, I love you. Who would I love if not you?"

"You do?" She asked, sniffling her red nose.

He nodded in reply.

She pounced on him to hug him. "I realized that I love you and want to stay with you forever. I am so stupid, so crazy, so dumb. Why must you love someone like me?"

"What's there not to love?" He inquired, stroking her back. "I won't say that I loved you the moment I saw you because both of us know how great enemies we were that time." Chuckling, he continued, "You, a girl out of nowhere, defeated the eleven years old arrogant future, Lord Ryuu, in hand-to-hand combat. After that, my mom, who loved me the most in the world, punished me for the first time when I was thirteen."

Alcina punched his chest with her fist lightly, "That was because you tried to kill me, foolish man. You left me, a ten years old kid, alone in the deadly forest because you hated my existence. "

"That was because you were eating my brains out as you wanted black cobra as your pet," Ryuu said, rolling his eyes as he recalled that time. He was seriously so dumb to try to kill her hair because he hated her. "But everything changed when mom died, you were the only one besides me with your infuriating attitude. Zhenyi was missing, mom was dead, Bà was grieving and he had totally forgotten that he had a son too."

Alcina smiled recalling that tough time. "So, you fell in love with me then?"

"Hell no," Ryuu immediately replied. "I hated you more than. Though we hate each other, we still love each other's company. I don't know exactly when I fell in love with you. Maybe, it was when I dropped you at Zhangs for the first time, or maybe when I was only a step away from death and you suddenly emerged with a rifle in your hand like a goddess of death. You didn't save me only from death that day.. you saved me from self-harm too. I never realized before that day how I was committing suicide by putting myself in deadly situations. That was the day was my awakening, Cia. That day I realized that I want to live more with you and our daughter. I didn't want to die without seeing her face.

Alcina hugged him tightly as she realized that time. The time before they went on hiding in southeast Asia. "What about Xiuying, Ryuu?"

"What about her?" He answered with another question.

"I don't want to destroy her home."

"Xiuying and I were never married. We indeed signed the marriage certificates. I didn't take vows with her. And I don't consider signing a piece of paper as marriage. She was a part of the plan, Cia, and she knew it," Ryuu informed her. "She is my wife in everyone's eye because she wants something in return from me."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" She asked immediately, breaking the hug.

"I want you to decide what you actually want," Ryuu answered. "You have been running for some answers for the last twenty years. You didn't want to commit because you were committed to your revenge." historical

"I'm tired, Ryuu. I just want to live with you and our daughter. For the first time in life, I am ready to put you before anything else," Alcina said." I don't want to avenge them anymore. They are dead and can't come back. What's the benefit in going after revenge?"

"You are right, Cia. Let's live and love together forever."

_____

Volume Two comes to an end here. In the next volume, we will be focusing on

the long lost kid of Xin family,

the big problem that Zhenyi is going to land in,

The arrival of prince Arrival

Zhenyi vs law authorities

And let's not mention Young Master.

Yaay! Ryu and Alcina's wedding too.

months later.

____