Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 48: Watching The Riverbank

Chapter 48: Watching The Riverbank

Samantha had only snuck away for a while to enjoy the cool sensation of the water on her skin. The forest at night was more temperate than the weather during the day, and since she couldn’t get any sleep, she decided to use the opportunity she had to take a dip in the lake.

She was sure no one saw her leave her tent, but hearing the voice behind her, her eyes turned wide as a saucer. Slowly turning around with her head staying afloat on the water, her emerald eyes spotted Ivan who stood at the edges of a rock, watching her with glinting eyes, and from his expression, he didn’t look happy.

Petrified to her bones, a mortified squeak left her lips, and she bit her tongue to suppress the scream that nearly escaped her lungs. What is he doing here??

"Lord.... Lord Ivan?!" Samantha was in a desperate need to hide her face, she hadn’t felt this desperate before, but sadly there was no room for escape. She had received enough embarrassment for one night, and now this??? Someone kill her! She won’t be able to live with this humiliation.

"T_ Turn around!" She said to Ivan whilst throwing her arms around her naked body. Her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it would jump out of her chest. "I... I want to get out of the water. T_ Turn around, only for a minute." She stammered quickly.

Scrunching his face while uttering a few words in silence, he turned around.

"No peeping!"

Ivan rolled his eyes, but he didn’t retort. After confirming that he truly had his back facing her, Samantha immediately swam to the edge of the lake. The hasty splashing of water could be heard as she eventually reached the edge, and she got out.

Reaching for her clothes that wasn’t far from where Ivan stood, she hurriedly put them on in the fastest way possible. Maybe if someone else had caught her, she’d have faked being a mermaid and escaped, but no, no one in this world but Lord Ivan would show up in the worst times of her life.

"How to go back in time and pretend this never happened?" Ivan could hear his little lamb whisper to herself, the shock in her voice hadn’t left, and to prove his innocence, he never showed up here in the hopes of running into anyone, most especially her of all people.

"I didn’t even do anything, yet I feel guilty." He whispered underneath his tone, a bit irked by the unusual feeling.

Fastening the strings of her night dress without wiping the water from her body, Samantha didn’t take notice of how slippery the rock was. The panicked Samantha was half way done adjusting her dress when she tried to scurry past Ivan and head back to her tent, but then, she missed her footing, and the imbalance threw her back.

"Ahh, Ivan!"

When Ivan turned around to see his little lamb falling, he grabbed hold of her outstretched hand out of mere impulse, but the result landed them both falling into the water, and a heavy splash was heard.

The ripples of the water had barely dismissed when Ivan brought his head out of the water. His gaze fell on the woman who also brought her head out to the surface of the water, her arms clutching against his shoulders as she supported herself up. This time, they were both soaked in their night wears, and Ivan’s crimson orbs turned a shade darker.

"Oh my goodness!" Samantha, who just finished recovering from her fall, met the glaring gaze of Ivan and automatically freezed. His wet hair that got stuck to his face, and his nightwear that clung to him like a second skin, made it clear that she had pulled Ivan into the water with her.

His glowering gaze was no different from having a knife placed to her neck. He looked like he wanted to kill her at the spot, and that made Samantha gulp nervously at her saliva.

"Please don’t kill me!" She squeaked alarmingly with her eyes squeezed shut, knowing she had offended him.

After what happened at the feast, Ivan refused to see anyone and silently dealt with his frustration. Herbert had told her to avoid him whenever he was in such a state, but her actions tonight seemed to have aggravated his foul mood, whilst she anticipated her punishment. But unknown to her, the Vampire Lord was upset about something entirely different.

Under the moonlit expanses, Ivan’s gaze lingered on her delicate features, strangely transfixed by her innocence and the untamed spirit that lay hidden in her Jade green eyes. His unruly red orbs secretly lowered to her night dress that hugged her body, his eyes taking note of her bosoms that would come in contact with his chest if he gave her a tiny little pull forward.

Closing his eyes, he was more annoyed with himself for daring to look at her in this uncompromised state - but when did he say anything about killing? This woman!

"Do you see me as nothing more than a killer?" He asked, and the gentle frown on his face wasn’t able to mask the strange allure in his eyes.

"Huh?" Samantha instinctively gazed into those eyes with a confused look. In the depths of the water, their interaction became an unspoken exchange of emotions, veiled beneath the surface, yet palpable to anyone who dared to witness this moment of clandestine tenderness.

Feeling pissed with himself for even asking such, he didn’t wait for an answer and quietly got out of the water. "Be careful, the rocks are slippery."

Samantha, who was expecting him to scold her like he would normally do, was dazed at how his behavior changed for only an infinitesimal amount of time. But from the look on his face, he seemed to be going through some inner turmoil. It was impossible to understand him.

Getting out of the water, they made a fire and sat on one of the rocks, using it as a method to dry their clothes before heading back. Samantha quickly wrung the water from her hair to stop it from dripping, and while she was immersed in trying to get herself dried up so she could leave, a pair of crimson eyes was unable to stop watching her.

Samantha’s wet nightgown, which clung to her skin accentuated her natural grace and beauty. It outlined her delicate features, emphasizing her youthful innocence. Ivan’s rather cold expression began to soften as he watched her, and he discovered a hint of vulnerability in himself, a glimmer of longing that he had never allowed himself to acknowledge before.

"Little Lamb."

"Hmm?" Samantha paused in what she was doing to look at him, and for some reason, he averted his gaze instantly.

"Have you ever seduced a man before?" After clearing his throat, that was the first question Ivan had decided to use to break the awkward silence between them.

Puzzled by his weird question, Samantha shook her head slowly. "No, why?"

"It’s nothing serious, I was curious how you ended up there, since you lack the proper skills of a Courtesan." He shrugged his shoulders and cleared his throat again. "What exactly did you do there?"

He wasn’t even looking at her as he kept speaking, and Samantha scowled irritably before uttering a few curses in one silent breath. Was he trying to humiliate her??

"I did nothing." She clipped and stretched her hands forward to dry them against the heat of the fire. "You killed my first client on my first night."

"That ugly man was going to be your first?"

"The first you killed, right on top of me."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time too." He eyed her before returning his gaze back at the riverbank. The enchanting moonlight painted a silver trail across the water’s surface, creating a picturesque scene that seemed almost ethereal.

"Why did you come out here? It’s not safe to walk alone at night." He asked Samantha, who also gazed at the calmness of the river.

"I couldn’t sleep." After her clipped answer, no one said a thing and quietly enjoyed the comfort of just gazing at the serene water.

Turning her head to look at Ivan as if she had something in her mind to say, she finally asked. "Had I not told you about what I saw before the feast, would you have believed them?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I would never harm the innocent, Little Lamb." He asserted before pursing his lips, "You were not in the wrong. I knew about Albert’s pathetic schemes before you told me. His bribe, his threats, how the drink was poisoned, I knew about..... everything."

Samantha blinked in disbelief, "you knew??? But you were about to drink from the golden goblet."

"That too was part of my plan, sometimes, one has to play foolish to fool another foolish person. Like I said before, a professional’s tactics can easily be uncovered, the one you should fear most is the amateur. Cause when the amateur makes a move, he won’t hesitate to try something new."

Listening to the advice of Ivan, Prince Tobias’s words rang in Samantha’s memory. Was he implying to this as well?

"However," Ivan added, "you’re not a poisonous type of person. You deal mostly with knives and daggers, which I find more interesting for an amateur." He said without hesitation, and Samantha failed to grasp the compliment behind his word.

"But why did he try to end you??"

"It’s quite obvious someone made him do it. A Courtier wouldn’t take such risks unless someone had promised him a higher position if he got the job done." Ivan cryptically answered with his brows knitted, "and I think I know who."

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