Alicia just stared at him as he said those words. She had never worried nor was she afraid of her own safety because she was already dead. Now she was only 'alive' and living on borrowed time – thanks to her draining on Ezekiel's powers. But this man… he had protected her to the point as though even a single scratch would kill her. The fight this morning was so intense and yet she had not suffered from even a small cut from all the broken glasses. That just went to show how well protected she was.

And now he was making such a promise that was effectively melting her heart into a puddle. In fact, many others had sworn those same words to her. Thus, she should have been used to it already, but with Ezekiel, it just somehow felt different. And the intensity was just off the charts!

She wanted to tell him that he should be worrying more about himself. He was incredibly weak right now compared to his usual self. If there was another fight that will break out, he might get hurt again from protecting her.

It was still hard for her to see him this weak. She was always used to seeing him as someone invincible and with an unlimited amount of powers. It was not just her, in fact, but everyone else too. No one has ever seen him this weak for hundreds of years until now.

Suddenly, Alicia's hands strayed down to his face and… she pinched his cheeks.

The action was so unwarranted and unexpected that his brows furrowed at what she was doing and Alicia pressed her lips together at the serious and questioning gaze he was throwing at her. She bit down on the insides of her cheeks, making sure that she would not laugh at the face that he was making at her.

She did not remove her hand and just kept pinching his cheeks lightly as she kneaded it a little as well.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Pinching you." came her reply, as though shocked that he would still ask the obvious.

"Obviously you are, Alicia. But why are you doing that?" he arched a brow at her.

Alicia tilted her head a little. "No particular reason…? I just wanted to?" then she shrugged lightly.

The line between his brows deepened and Alicia could no longer help but chuckle softly. This man was so fun to tease!

"Why do I feel like this is the first time you've gotten pinched like this?" She raised a brow, amusement gleaming in her eyes.

"Who would dare do such a thing to me but you?" he replied seriously, his question coming out as a light growl.

For a while, Alicia forgot to breathe. She still could not get used to his effortless attacks on her now. Well, that should not be much of a surprise, was it not? Because as Ezekiel said, who on earth would dare pinch the great Ezekiel like this? Before anyone's hand could even get within an arm's reach near him, it was almost sure that the person's limb would have been chopped off – other than those who work closely with him. If she did not find out all the things that this man was hiding perfectly beneath his stone-cold exterior, pinching him would even be something unimaginable for her. No, never in a million years would she even think of doing such a thing to him! That was just unthinkable previously.

However, now that she knew she was the first to do this to him… dear, oh dear… every minute now, she seemed to be falling deeper and deeper into this forbidden lair that was Ezekiel.

"It's time for you to sleep. My pain is already gone." His words pulled her out from her own thoughts and without waiting for her response, he grabbed her and fell backwards together onto the bed.

In seconds, she was lying on the bed, being spooned from the back by him. His hand was wrapped around her waist, under her shirt.

Alicia let out a slow deep breath before she moved her hand and put it over his.

She felt him exhale as well after feeling her hands slowly brush over his.

"I'm putting you to sleep, Alicia." He whispered, informing her beforehand. Alicia knew that she should let him. She had told herself that she did not want to make things harder on him after all. Although she had told herself that… everything inside her was protesting.

Shutting her eyes tight, Alicia took another deep breath and slowly turned to face him. Their eyes met and the fire was getting ignited again. "Goodnight, Ezekiel…" she said in a soft voice and planted a kiss at the corner of his lips before turning away from him again.

Ezekiel just shut his eyes and put her to sleep.

"Goodnight… Alicia…" he told her after hearing her stable breathing for a short while.

He kissed her neck before he pulled away and turn to lie on his back. "F*ck it all." he cursed as he clenched his fist hard.

He sat up after a long while, bent one of his knees as he shoved his free hand through his hair. It took him a few seconds to calm himself and once he did, he rested his head against his hand and stared again at her.

It was getting harder to hold back… maddeningly so. He felt like he was going to go mad very soon. And eight days was… he had always thought that time moved along fast. Yet these few days with Alicia somehow proved to be as though it was an eternity to him. And eight more days of the same bloody waiting and holding back… would he, no… could he even live through it? Eight days felt more like eight long torturous years to him right now.

Reaching out, he arranged her to lay on her back comfortably to see her face. He brushed the stray strands of hair off her face carefully, then he just fixed his eyes on her face. He had already done this so many times in the last few days that he had lost count of it. Because just staring at her face managed to give him an inexplicable sense of peace. The kind of peace that just sleeping could not even hope to give him.

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