Chapter 74: Her Safe Home
The dried branches and twigs cracked under her boots as Annalise walked further into the forest, not having any idea about the direction in which she was walking. All that she had in mind was to get as far away from Lord Damian as physically possible without creating any trouble for her other two husbands.
Now, she wasn’t one to throw tantrums or show attitude once being called out by someone, but her current situation was pretty different. And even though she knew that walking away won’t solve anything, she was just too emotional after the constant hits from Damian that she needed a little break to collect herself.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she completely lost track of the direction in which she was heading which resulted in her getting tripped over some kind of root that was emerging out of the ground and she ended up losing her balance.
But instead of falling to the ground on her face, Annalise found herself suddenly being pulled back into a pair of strong arms that saved her from the harsh fall. Her head came to rest against a warm and solid chest and the sound of rapid heartbeats greeted her ear.
She didn’t need to raise her head and look at the face of the person holding her in his arms to find out exactly who he was, something inside her already recognized him. What surprised her the most was the realization that he seemed worried... for her.
A few long seconds of silence passed before Lord Damian finally moved and made her step back a little so that he could look into her eyes, his fingers wrapped around her upper arms in a harsh grip. "Didn’t I just tell you to not go around creating trouble for us? Why can’t you pay attention to where you are heading? What if I wasn’t nearby and noticed you? What if you got injured?"
Though his voice was loud and sharp, his tone only carried one emotion - worry. And the look in his eyes was completely different from the one that she had been seeing for the past several days.
Annalise could hardly believe her eyes and ears. Just a few moments ago, she felt like the man hated her existence and wanted to get rid of her from his and his brothers’ lives. But now, his emotions had taken a complete turn, and now she almost mistook his reaction as if she was his most treasured possession and he was worried about losing her.
The good thing was that her misunderstanding was short-lived as his next words reminded her just how unimportant she was to him and that she would never be anything more than a burden to him.