Chapter 136
136 Chapter 136 : A shift in attraction
After making sure no one was close by, Melissa peeled off her clothes, tosssd them aside and walked into the cool water. She inhaled and exhaled slowly as the cool water ripples tickled her soft skin, the woman slowly moved further into the river till the water was just below her breasts. It was soothing and refreshing, and it made all the fatigue that had built up over past days of travel melt away.
“Refreshing isn’t it?”
Melissa turned around with a start and saw Elric standing mere inches behind her. She widened the gap between them and covered her breasts with her arms. “What are you doing here?!”
“I’ve been here..” the silver haired king responded coyly. He smiled slyly at her and inched towards her, but the movement made Melissa take twice as many steps away from him. Elric frowned at her reaction, “what’s the matter my wife? Does your husband not please you anymore?”
Melissa looked at Elric’s moistened chiseled body and for the first time since she had met him she felt absolutely nothing. Her body didn’t react to the sight of him like it used to, her heart didn’t flatter, nothing! All she felt was pure discomfort.
“Are you not attracted to me anymore?” Elric asked Melissa once again, this time there was a hint of hurt in his voice as if he already knew the answer.
The blue eyed woman didn’t respond, what would she say? If she flat out told him she felt nothing for him he might do something crazy, but at the same time she couldn’t bring herself to lie.
“I see..” Elric spoke as he lowered his hand that was teaching out to Melissa, “you’ve gone to bed with him haven’t you?”
Now that statement whirled some feelings up. Melissa’s heart skipped several beats as her eyes trailed up the man’s body to his face. What was he doing to do? Kill her? Punish her? Kill him self? She pursed her lips ans lowered her gaze to the water. Elric was her husband and she had made love to another man, but for some reason she wasn’t ashamed of it, she was more ashamed when Gareth had found out she had slept with Elric.
.....
“You should go dress up Lissa or else you’ll catch a cold,” the man advised. His response made the woman flatter her long lashes in shock, why was he not losing his mind or going into a murderous fit?
“Lissa..?”
“Huh?” The woman was at a loss for words, she had really thought that kind of information would trigger some sort of anger within him, a bit of jealousy maybe? But there was nothing, he was even calling her by a cute nickname.
“If you’re done washing up, you should dress up before you get a cold,” the lycan prince repeated himself, “I’ll catch up with you.”
“Oh.. yeah .. sure..” she slowly walked out of the water, the shock of his response making her to completely forget that she was walking naked in front of him.
Elric watched her grab her clothes, dress up and walk away. He was confused as to why he was feeling this way all of a sudden. His initial plan was to get Melissa to the river where he’d be waiting for her, entice her the way he always had done before and make sweet love to her long and hard to compensate for all the time she was away from him.
But for some reason that feeling of sexual longing wasn’t quite there. He had been feeling it dwindling from the moment he had retrieved her from Ervelon but now he knew it was really serious, because under normal conditions seeing her naked would have been more than enough to get him going but right now he felt blank, not even his manhood had hardened.
He still had an overwhelming love for Melissa there was no doubt about that, but the love felt different now. He still wanted so badly to have her by his side, to protect her, to care for her but he didn’t feel like being intimate with her in any way. How strange.
*
Zander tapped his fingers on the table as he watched Finwe enter the room. The blonde young prince pulled out one of the empty seats and settled down to face the six men sitting with him.
Ivan moved his gaze constantly between Zander and Finwe as the silence lingered longer in the room until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Will the two of you tell us what the bloody hell is going on!” He glowered impatiently, “you said this is important but here you are dragging us into a fucking staring contest!”
“Calm down Ivan we’re getting to that,” Zander shushed his snappy friend. He then turned to Finwe and gave him half a nod, “you can tell them what you told me prince Finwe.”
The elven prince cast his gaze on each one of the six men before drawing in a dramatic breath and speaking, “princess Melissa is pregnant.”
A silence befell the room once again as the men at the table tried to contemplate what Finwe had just uttered.
Ivan abruptly rose from his seat and slammed his palms in the table as he gave Finwe a fearful glare, “Gods help you..” he muttered in a jittery tone, “not only will prince Gareth chop your cock off and feed it to the goblins, but that maniac Elric will mutilate you and use your remains as fertilizer for the flowers he’ll give your mother at your funeral!”
“What?! No you idiot it’s not my baby it’s Gareth’s!” Finwe corrected him.
He saw the sighs of relief from all the men at the table upon hearing him say that and it took him aback. “Wait!” Finwe yelled, “you all thought I got the princess pregnant?! What the hell?!”
“Well can you blame us my prince?” Roland responded with a shrug of his shoulders, “we all saw how you were looking at her at the ball.”
“What no!” Finwe yelled in denial, “okay I admit that princess Melissa is a bit attractive...”
Everyone at the table raised their eyebrows at his statement.
“..okay she’s very attractive..”
Their eyebrows rose higher
“Okay she is the most attractive woman I have ever seen! Are you happy now?!”
The men all nodded in unison as if they were a jury who had just been presented with unquestionable evidence of a crime.
“But regardless of this I respect the relationship she has with my brother and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that,” Finwe added on as he settled back in his seat. “My point is Melissa is carrying an heir to the Ervelon throne, and she’s in the arms of a dangerous man. If he finds out she’s pregnant with Gareth’s child...” The blonde prince gulped, “I don’t think we want to think about what would happen if he did find out.”
“Then why did she choose to leave with Elric if she is carrying prince Gareth’s baby?” Beric asked in confusion, “why would she take a child away from its father.”
“She did it because Elric threatened to kill all of them by taking his own life,” Zander responded
“And also.. she doesn’t know that she’s pregnant.” Finwe added on
All the men turned to look at Finwe in shock.
“Then how the hell do you know she’s pregnant?!” Ivan questioned before rashly adding ‘your grace’ at the end of his statement as if making it any less disrespectful.
historical
“I just do, it’s something I saw from the first time I met her, there’s no doubt in my mind,” the blonde prince responded.
“What I don’t understand is how Gareth let her leave so easily knowing that she was pregnant,” Odran pondered.
“Oh he doesn’t know she’s pregnant either,” Finwe responded sheepishly.
“What?!”
“Then he must be told,” Ozias commented, “why didn’t you tell him sooner?”
“Because I thought I had time to break it to them after he proposed..”
“Propose?!” The men gasped in unison.
“Yes Gareth was going to propose to her,” Finwe replied, “but that’s why I’m here telling you this. Gareth is in a bit of an unstable state right now and I don’t think he trusts me enough yet. So I need your help, his friends, to break the news to him and help him find a way to get her back before Elric realizes she’s pregnant.”
“Who is pregnant?”
The men all turned to the door where Gareth had just walked in. “What’s this meeting about?” The dark haired prince asked as he walked towards the table, “who’s pregnant? Don’t tell me Ivan has already started his escapades when his wife is on the way here.”
“Hey!” Ivan sqealed in offense.
Zanded rose to his feet and bowed politely at Gareth, “your grace welcome, how did you get here?” He remembered that he had locked his front door to avoid any interruptions from his sisters.
“Zelda let me in, nice girl,” Gareth spoke as he took a seat at the table. “So what are you all talking about?”