Hellbound Heart

Following her statement that was rather reasonable – in her mind, that is – a heavy silence filled the room.

Sebastian's expression seemed to darken, looking as though what she had just said was something utterly ridiculous and highly unacceptable. But Elle inwardly shook her head and sighed, telling herself realistically that there was no way Sebastian was getting upset over this matter. He probably was, but she thought that it must be because he just wanted to have more sessions of sex with her, or his pride might have been hurt because she was not begging him to have sex with her again.

Well, if that did not happen. If she had not heard him uttering some other woman's name repeatedly in his sleep, she most probably would be unable to stand her ground against him after all that mind-blowing experience he had introduced to her. But it was all thanks to his sleep talk that she came back to her senses. Because whatever desire she had for getting together sexually with him was now being completely overcome by her will to shut her doors from here on out. She was really glad now on how they did not mention anything about sex in their agreement.

When Sebastian did not speak even a single word and just sat there with his darkened expression, Elle turned and moved to the bed. She did not see how his jaws clenched ever so tightly and how his hands itched to crush and break the glass he was holding. If she had looked a little closer and paid more attention to him, she would have seen that his whole frame was trembling slightly with the efforts of holding back his anger and lashing out mindlessly.

Elle stood by the bed and instead of climbing onto it, she stretched out and reached for the pillow she had slept on and held onto it.

Sebastian's eyes narrowed as he watched her every action. "What are you doing?" his deep voice finally broke the silence. It was a booming sound that had shocked Elle and caused her to startle a little, as she did not think he would speak to her.

Slowly, Elle turned to him, clutching the pillow tightly in her hands. He could see her knuckles whiten slightly as she fisted her hands in her pillow, hugging it so forcefully as though it could be her shield. "For both of our sakes… I don't think I should sleep next to you tonight. I wouldn't want to spark any possible rumors, so I won't ask to use another room. But I'll be sleeping on the couch."

His eyes stretched a little wider hearing her explanation. Then she saw a muscle in his jaw ticked. But Elle ignored his display of displeasure and took a step towards the couch. Her movements were stilted and stiff as she still felt uncomfortable having his steely eyes focused so intently on her. Though she did not know what he was thinking, she knew that at the very least, he was highly displeased with how she was going about doing this. But even so, she kept repeating within her mind, like a mantra, 'I need to stay away and stay focused' and continued heading for the couch that was on the other side of the room.

"You stop right there, Izabelle." He growled out somewhat roughly. His voice was not loud nor was it fierce, but it rumbled so darkly that Elle immediately stilled herself from taking another step. She could tell that he was really mad now and his piercing glare on her had her heartbeat picking up its pace.

But then he shut his eyes closed and a long and deep breath escaped his lips. When he opened his eyes again, those grey orbs were back to being calm and composed again. However, the set of his jaws still gave her the sign that his dark emotions were not gone at all. They were just being forcefully suppressed. She was impressed that he could suppress his emotions so quickly within a couple of seconds. If she had not been looking straight at him, she would have thought that he was not even upset in the first place.

"I will never allow my wife to sleep anywhere but in a comfortable. Freaking. Bed. And you better catch on quick, Izabelle." he said lowly, causing Elle to find her heart skipping a beat at those words and the way he was looking at her now. That was… the very first time he had ever uttered the words 'my wife'. It was the first time she heard him admitting out loud and acknowledging that she was his wife. She had always thought he would never verbally declare and recognize her as his legally wedded wife. Hearing those words somehow caused her resolve to waver for a tiny fraction of a second.

She pressed her lips together tightly. Her mind was quick to criticize her heart's reaction, reminding herself that she must not fall for his sweet and wicked mouth again. Because that was the same and sweet mouth that had called out another woman's name while he was deeply asleep.

Tipping her chin up in defiance, Elle responded in her calm voice, "Please do not worry. For me, the couch is quite comfortable. It's not like I have never slept in couches before. To tell you the truth, I really like sleeping on the couch. It affords one a kind of firmness that the bed can never have."

His face darkened once again at her rejection. Somehow, Elle mused that her being able to make him react like this seemed to be doing wonders in her. It feels as though it was making her braver to stand her ground and not back off.

He gulped down another large mouthful of his wine after hissing out what sounded like a curse under his breath. Then he sprung from his chair, slamming his glass down on the side table a little firmly that Elle was amazed that the stem did not break into half from the impact.

With such a heavy and dark air around him, Sebastian strode towards the bathroom and shut the door firmly behind him.

A couple of long and deep sighs flowed from Elle's lips. She told herself that she had done well as she went ahead and settled on the couch. What she did was the right thing. She was not going to be the naïve wife who would just sit there and cause herself more possible pain in the future. All she had to do was stand her ground and safeguard her heart. After all, they would divorce one day. And she suspected it would be sooner rather than later. And she would be fine.

Lying on the couch, Elle allowed her eyes to flutter close. She had worn a fluffy and warm pajama, so she did not need any blanket. The lap blanket was enough to make her comfortable since the room's temperature was not cold.

Letting out another long sigh, Elle tried to relax. And thankfully, she was able to loosen up and soon, she finally felt like falling asleep. But her eyes flew wide open at the feel of hands grabbing her.

Her eyes circled as she gasped, finding herself being lifted from the couch by Sebastian himself.

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A/N: Starting tomorrow, updates will be 1 chapter a day.

But If we get top 1 in GT ranking, i will give mass release so don't forget to cast your GT's on this book. Thank you so much <3