The Duke's Passion

"Careful, love." Samael chuckled, watching her eat quickly as if she had starved. Well, Lilou didn't get to eat properly in the past month, so she actually starved. His eyes softened while she chugged down the glass of water while pounding her chest. 

"Goodness," he whispered helplessly as soon as Lilou heaved a sigh of relief. "Just eat slowly. No one will take away your food."

Lilou licked her lips while raising her head to him. He noticed some sauces on the corner of her lip, so he extended his arm and wiped it with his thumb. 

"You're so cute," he muttered and smiled lovingly. 

"I didn't have solid foods for a month. Of course, I'm famished." A frown resurfaced on her lips while he chuckled soothingly. "Also, why is it so loud outside?"

Samael glanced at the door as the side of his lips curled up subtly. "They just missed you, that's all."

"Missed me? Who?" she tilted her head to the side, sporting a misplaced innocence. 

"Your people, who else?" 

Samael humored as he peeled his eyes away from the door to her. His brows furrowed as soon as he noticed her puzzlement. It looked like she didn't have any idea of who he was talking about.

"Klaus? Silvia? Yul? The third squadron?" he listed in a knowing tone, refreshing her memory. Lilou nodded in understanding as her lips formed an O-shape.

"Oh, right... My mind is a little... jumbled," she explained, along with her quick chuckle. "I feel like I was asleep for a longer time and missed a lot of things."

Samael stared at her and let out a shallow breath. He didn't dwell on these small yet strange details he had been noticing and just smiled. 

"It's fine, love. There aren't many things that happened for the past month." He stretched his arm and reached for her hand, squeezing it lightly. "Just focus on recovering, hmm?"

Lilou looked at him and nodded lightly. "Thank you."

With that, she continued on eating, although she took it slowly this time. Samael just watched her, content to see her active again, and just wanted to enjoy this moment of peace. The noises outside had already subsided, but he could still feel Yulis's presence outside their room. 

"This food is great," she praised after a long time, making his brows raise. "Do you want some, honey?"

"Hon?" 

Lilou also raised her brows, finding zero faults in her endearment. "You don't like it?"

"Uh, no, that's not it. It's just your first time calling me that."

"Ohh... haha! Then, you should get used to being called different endearments."

Samael chuckled as he leaned back, planting his palms on the mattress with his eyes still on her. He found it strange, but he didn't dwell on it.

"I don't mind." He shrugged indifferently, smacking his lips while gazing at her. "My love, should we start a family?"

Upon his last remarks, Lilou suddenly halted and held the spoon in front of her lips with eyes on him. She blinked wordlessly, tilting her head to the side a little.

"I mean, now that the problems here are well, quite resolved, I'm thinking of moving away," he explained in a gentle tone as that had been in his mind for a long time now. "I was thinking of traveling the world or just settling down to another place to start over. What do you think?"

"A family? You and me?" she inquired under her breath, making him furrow his brows. "I mean, sure. But, don't you think traveling to places while starting a family is a little inconvenient? We're already happy with just the two of us, anyway."

"Well, yes... but —" Samael bit his tongue, narrowing his eyes while gazing at her. Lilou seemed she couldn't understand the essence of family, nor did she understand how happy they were together. It was as if she was simply saying the things she knew he wanted to hear.

"Of course, I am happy if we are blessed with a child. As long as it will make you happy." Lilou chuckled to lighten up the mood, but that only made his heart restless. "I'm just saying we can do more things before that."

"Do more things..." he mumbled and paused for a while before continuing. "... like?"

"Like, uh... going into places, duh? You just mentioned you wanted to travel the world, and that is what we are going to do."

Silence descended into the room as he peered at her, saying nothing. Lilou's brows arched innocently as she stared back.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked after the prolonged silence, putting her spoon down while holding the bread knife on her left discreetly.

"If I say you did, will you stab me with that bread knife?" 

Right after Samael spouted those words, Lilou already flipped the tray over her lap and pounced on him. She didn't waste a millisecond and stabbed the bread knife on his shoulder, pinning him down with eyes glinting. It was not like she completely caught him off guard, but stabbing him without a second hesitation was what he didn't expect.

His eyes dilated as he gazed at the pair of menacing eyes hovered over him. That instant, he knew this wasn't his wife.

"My darling, you should've pretended you heard nothing wrong and kept denying your intuition." Lilou let out a deep sigh while he froze under her. "Oh... you're bleeding... how enticing."

Her eyes fell on his shoulder as his thin white blouse absorbed the blood seeping out of his wound. She pulled the knife out, sliding its blunt blade to the slit of his cloth to see his bleeding wound.

"Lovely," she whispered, shifting her eyes back to him, who was dumbfounded and could only stare at her blankly. "Look at you, so shocked... it's cute, my love."

Lilou smirked, planting her palm on his chest while she bent over until her lips were right beside his ear. Her brow quirked briefly as her eyes glinted with malice.

"Stay like that and don't make a sound," she whispered, plunging the bread knife in his abdomen... repeatedly. "Uh... how can you smell so sweet?"

The more blood gushed out from the stab wounds, his scent immediately filled the air. It made her stab him more and more, while he just clasped her shoulder, still in shock from what was going on. 

"Lilou!" 

Suddenly, Yulis's voice made her stop as he barged in when the scent of Samael's blood wafted into his nostrils. Samael snapped his eyes and turned his head in Yulis's direction.

"Get ou —" Before he could warn Yulis, Lilou had already appeared in front of him and kicked Yulis on his abdomen, which sent him flying.