Married To The Mad Vampire Lord novel Chapter 426

Chapter 426: Proposal_Part 2

Lifting her eyes to meet his, she found him watching her intently. "Thank you for standing up for me earlier," she mused softly, still holding his hand in both of hers.

Rav wasn’t used to receiving gratitude and didn’t know how to reply to her, so he acted on instinct by pulling his hand out of hers and said,

"Don’t mention it. No man should degrade or insult a woman in that way," he replied. "Especially when that woman had once been his wife. There should always be respect, no matter if the marriage has been over."

Evenly’s warm smile faltered a bit. "Do you mean you would have fought like that for any woman?" she asked, her voice quiet but edged with something vulnerable. No one had ever fought in her name before, and it had warmed her heart far better than anything else could.

She had hoped for a sign that she was special to him, that the feelings she was beginning to carry weren’t one-sided. On their way back, her heart had swelled at the thought of him fighting for her. But now, it felt like she had misunderstood his intentions for the fight.

He was a gentleman who would defend anyone, not her in particular. It wasn’t that she was against him defending someone else, but she had hoped for some sign that he was different from her scumbag of a former husband. And he was, but the things he did might have been driven by the guilt of what had happened the night before.

"Never mind, I should go ahead," she muttered, turning to follow Belle on the stairs.

Before she could take another step, Rav’s hand shot out and caught her arm, stopping her. He pulled her back gently, then placed both hands on her shoulders, making her look up at him. Her questioning eyes met his gaze as his fingers tightened just slightly against her shoulders.

"I have never fought before," he admitted. "Whenever I sense a fight about to start, I run from it like a plague, just to avoid being caught in it. There was a time Alison got into a fight with our neighbors because their dog barked all night and disturbed her sleep. She was called all sorts of offensive names by the man, but I never went to hit him because I didn’t want a fight. But when I heard Clifton insulting you... I couldn’t hold it in, my anger, the urge to hit him, it just came out of me."

Evenly stared into his light red eyes as his words sank into her, and slowly her heart began to flutter with warmth all over again.

"I know what you went through in the past will make it hard to trust my words," he continued softly, "but I want you to know that if you become my wife, I will never raise my hands against you. I’ll do my best to be a good husband and a friend to you. I will give you my all."

Rav couldn’t yet tell if what he felt was love. From the era he had grown up, there was no such thing as courting a woman after going to bed with her. To him, it was best that everything else came after marriage, and honestly, he didn’t think a marriage with the lady would be as awful as his lonely life.

One of his hands slid up from her shoulder, trailing gently to her hair. He stroked away the dried mud caked in her tangled red strands with delicate care, as though every touch carried a silent promise.

"I know we didn’t start off on a good side, and I am sorry for all the times I ever caused you pain by shutting you out and letting you suffer alone. But if you give me a chance, I will try to be the man you will never regret marrying. I will try to give you everything you will need."

Evenly’s throat tightened, closing up as her gaze slid away from his in shame. She had already decided that she would take the risk with him, but the shame pressed down on her chest because, now that she thought about it, she lacked something else, something she could never change, something that might come between them in the future.

Her voice trembled as she said, "But I can’t give you my all... because I can never give you a child."

Rav smiled then, a smile that reached all the way to his eyes and deepened the dimple in his one cheek. He spoke as if he hadn’t even heard her words. "Will you be my wife?"

Evenly lifted her gaze to meet his. Every doubt she’d carried about him still loving his late wife had melted away with his words. Still, a part of her whispered it wasn’t fair, that a nice man like him should be stuck with a woman like her. Tears welled in her eyes. "I can’t give you children..." she whispered again, her chest constricting painfully.

"Will you marry me?" Rav repeated, softer but determined.

Evenly swallowed with difficulty, her voice breaking. "Can’t you hear what I’m saying, Rav? I can’t have your children. I can’t give birth ever again. If I marry you, we’ll live many years alone with no kids. You’ll eventually get tired of me and become like Josh—"

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