Chapter 9: Bound Together
It was just a brush of their lips and Felixa pulled back immediately.
"You kissed me and said that you’re sealing your promise with the kiss! It was-"
Felixa paused, seeing Maximus taking a couple of steps away from her. Covering his mouth with the back of his hand, he appeared to be mortified.
"It was you, right?" Felixa took a step towards him, holding the stone tighter in her hand. In that dim light, she couldn’t read his expression and she didn’t particularly care about it either. "You called me ’Lexa’ back then too. No one calls me that way."
[I caught you in a lie, didn’t I?]
And without knowing, she had made the greatest warrior of their time, retreat several steps without even a single weapon in her hand. She had no intention of harming him either.
But the one who was fearfully called as "the Brute" by his enemies and hailed as the fearless conqueror by his men, gave ground to the petite woman who couldn’t even carry the weight of her dress.
"Wait," he took a couple more steps back and ended up tripping on the protruding root of a tree behind him. Somehow he balanced himself and ended up with his back against a tree. "Stay there!" he stopped her still.
His face tingled. He placed his hand on his lips where the tingle originated from. The exact place where her lips touched him before felt warm and it spread all over his face. He didn’t expect she’d do that. And it stunned him completely.
He knew it is pathetic of him to act this way over a kiss; no it was just a peck. But he couldn’t help it. It was her lips that touched his. His heart was beating like a war drum and even his hand stung for some reason.
He looked at his hand. The vine around the tree must have had thorns. As he leaned over, the thorns had pricked his hand and blood was oozing out in his palm and one of his fingers.
’This is nothing.’