The Ring of Bondage - Chapter 2.7

“Damian?”

The magic circle and the spell were both perfect. She didn’t have time to wait. Just as impatience began to bloom in one corner of Serabella’s chest, Damian took her hand and opened his mouth.

“Bella, my love. I obey you, my sun, my moonlight, my world.”

Watching Damian kiss the back of her hand as if pressing his lips into it, Serabella let out a sigh of relief. She quickly pulled her hand free and turned around.

“I’ll come again. I love you.”

Serabella said farewell as she closed the basement door. And then she felt a slight sense of déjà vu. Beyond the closing door, his smile somehow looked a little, strangely, like the one she had seen in her dream…

Before Serabella’s thought could fully form, the door closed. After hesitating for a moment, she immediately locked the door. Now she truly had no time. Leaving behind the incompletely formed unease, Serabella hurried into her bedroom.

Fortunately, it seemed no one had noticed her absence. Letting out a sigh of relief, she entered the bathroom, then froze when she saw the mirror. Serabella’s nape and upper chest were covered in red marks.

If she only thought of last night’s wild lovemaking, the marks were nothing strange, but it was different for Serabella and Damian. As she had ordered, Damian didn’t leave traces of their relations anywhere that might show outside her clothes. Only when he truly couldn’t hold back would he leave small marks near her areola or on her thighs.

At the situation being different from usual, Serabella grew uneasy. It shouldn’t have turned out like this. It couldn’t have. Everything had to go on as usual, as it always had, in the way she knew well.

But tiny differences kept coming to mind. The red marks on her nape, Damian’s smile beyond the closing door that gave her a sense of déjà vu, the way he hadn’t answered the spell right away.

And.

Serabella.

She swallowed dryly. SerIabella. Her name. Ever since Damian had fallen under her spell, he had always called her by her nickname. Not Serabella.

Sweat seeped from her palm. But something like this was a very trivial matter, wasn’t it? Perhaps she was simply being sensitive. The smile she had glimpsed as the door closed hadn’t been clear either.

Had his expression merely felt different because of her impatience and the dream she had had just before? The fact that Damian hadn’t immediately answered her brainwashing spell couldn’t be called a very strange incident either. After all, he had been sad that Serabella was leaving in a hurry. Perhaps he had hesitated for a moment because he didn’t want to send her away too soon.

Serabella continued thinking as she calmed her rapidly beating heart. It wasn’t easy to tell whether this was a rational inference or something she was forcing herself to believe.

Still, she had to think.

The lovemaking that had been fiercer and longer than usual. The marks left on her body. These, too, were things that could be explained well enough. Damian always wanted to be with her, but the only time he could meet her was when the night was deep. Naturally, his thirst must have grown deeper and deeper, and it was only natural that it would burst out as an even more intense desire.

Yes. It was natural.

There was nothing even stranger about the name. Even while brainwashed, Damian knew her name well. When Serabella first brainwashed him, she had introduced her name to Damian and allowed him the nickname ‘Bella’. Permission, not compulsion. Damian could call her by her name whenever he wanted.

So everything was fine. It would be fine. Variables that could occur naturally had simply happened all at once. Damian would continue loving her in his broken state, and Serabella would hold him in her arms. The day she’d lose him would never come. Damian Terca belonged only to Serabella Tocelli.

…But. But. Even so. Just in case.