Hellbound Heart

A/N: This chapter is for yesterday's update. There's an emergency so i failed to publish it. Thanks for patience and understanding.

___

Elle found herself holding her breath upon hearing her own words echoing boldly in her ears. Hearing her own declaration jolted her intense focus and her mind began to clear a little from the thick fog of determination that had clouded her judgment earlier.

Her heartbeat began to race like crazy and she could feel the strong thumps pounding on the inside of her ribcage. The drumming sound of it filled her ears as nervousness quickly caught up to her.

She thought she had only uttered those words in her mind. Why had she ended up saying them out loud, for goodness sakes!? She should have at least held back a little and tested the waters first! She should have played it a little safe and refrained from saying all of that at the get go. Lord... what would she have to do if he... if he reacts negatively right now?

He looked surprised as evidenced from the way he stared at her and blinked. And she totally understood why he behaved that way, because her sudden boldness must be really shocking. She had even surprised herself, what more for him?

Just from looking at his face, she could not tell what he was thinking. He was only silently staring at her. His gaze was searching, watching her every expression like he was trying to read her mind through her face.

Getting more shaken every second that passed, Elle fought to keep up her bravado instead of faltering. She had already said it earlier and she meant them. There was no more taking those words back.

Before her nerves and her mind could influence her and make her take a step back, she had already made a move and her lips landed onto the side of his neck.

Sebastian snapped out of the trance she had put him under.

He could not believe what she just said. And f**king hell! Because those words she spouted had done something inexplicable to him. Her words were still echoing in his ears! Now here she was, kissing his neck as though it was something so normal for her to do. F**k. This level of boldness was beyond what he had expected from this little wife of his. But despite how he was feeling at the moment, he truly could not help but wonder what was it that had driven her to suddenly become so proactive and this bold and even expressive. She had never been as enthusiastic before this.

No matter how he wanted to smile, he forced himself to hold back. More than anything else, he first wanted to find out the reason behind this sudden change in her behavior. Even if he had ended up finding out she had only said those words out of anger or even because of some wrong reasons, he would not care. Those words still made him f**king... f**k... he could not believe he was about to say the word 'happy'. Sebastian and happy never went together in a sentence before. It was only after the presence of his little wife in his life that things started getting more interesting.

"Izabelle..." he called out. He refrained from touching her because he knew that he would end up turning the tables around and pin her beneath him on this couch the moment he did that. No matter how badly he wanted to ravage her now, he knew he should not do that yet. Not yet. Not when she was finally making her move on him like this.

Elle halted at the mellow tone he had used to call out her name. He knew that she was feeling very nervous. She was so f**king nervous that her heartbeats were so loud. He could clearly hear them hitting loudly in her chest. She even jumped a little when he called her name.

"Look at me..." came his gentle voice. But she did not obey him immediately and just kept her face buried into his neck.

He must really know what was going on now.

"Baby..." he began to coax her gently. "Tell me... did something happen to you earlier out there? What is it that you're not telling me?"

The moment she became very still, Sebastian's relaxed and pleased face darkened. Though she had yet to say anything to him, he knew Izabelle enough to tell from her reaction. Indeed, she must have encountered some form of trouble. And in that kind of setting, the only trouble that could have happened would be related to someone saying something distasteful.

Finally lifting his hand, Sebastian held her shoulder and gently peeled her off him. He wanted to look into her face as he asked her.

"Who is it?" he whispered in a controlled voice. "Was it that woman whispering to you?"

He had been observing and had noticed two women who were constantly whispering to her. But he had not minded it one bit because Izabelle's expression did not look bothered at all the entire time they were whispering to her. There had been no signs of her hearing something she did not like.

"If..." she finally met his gaze. "If I tell you who they are... what will you do?"

"I'll have them punished accordingly. So, tell me who they are and what they did or say to you."

"What if I told you it's..." she hesitated and pressed her lips tight. But when he kept his eyes on her, urging her to go on, she made her decision to trust him once more and tell him the truth of what had happened. She opened her mouth again and continued. "It's actually the female noble you had chosen. Kana."

Sebastian's eyes narrowed slightly. Kana? But Kana had never approached Izabelle. He doubted she even knew what Kana looked like.

"You don't believe it's her, do you?" she uttered lowly, a sharp pang of disappointment shooting through her when she saw his narrowed eyes. Something bitter and hurtful flashed across her eyes. Then she abruptly scrambled off him, suddenly not wanting to be in close proximity with him anymore.

But before she could move away, he grabbed her wrist and made face him again. He looked up, his expression a little grave. "I didn't say I don't believe you, Iza." He purposely used the nickname that only he used to coax her.

"But you looked like you didn't." She muttered softly, eyes lowered.

He let out a quiet breath. "Alright. Listen. I simply wondered how because I saw that she had never approached you the entire time. Now explain to me what exactly that she did, Izabelle."

"But will you believe it?"