The Crown's Seduction-Chapter 417: Counter

"What are you doing!?"

Dani hissed at Abel the moment they entered her private cabin. She had practically dragged him with her there after what he said to Taro.

"I’m simply informing Taro that you’re already taken, Dani. Is there anything wrong with it?" Abel nonchalantly remarked as he walked towards a vacant chair and comfortably sat on it. Crossing his legs together, he scoffed, "We do have an agreement to be together, right?"

Dani simply glared at him, but it didn’t bother him at all. Except that...

"Wait, don’t tell me you like Taro?" Abel directly asked her with a frown.

"Of course not!" she defended herself. "What are you saying?!"

Her answer gave him such relief. After all, he wouldn’t want to experience the scenario of Dani having someone she liked other than him.

"So why are you acting like that then?" Abel questioned. "You look like you didn’t even know what to do a while ago after hearing his confession. As such, I took the initiative to help you out."

"But what you did was way too rude. I mean, Taro is a nice man, and I believe I should at least reject him in a nice way," Dani retorted. "He just confessed his genuine admiration to me, and then you just suddenly appeared and threatened him. He’s been nothing but nice to me since the start, and being treated that way just feels nice! Why are you even here?!"

Abel was caught off guard by the question. He wondered if it would be better to simply say that he wanted to be there. But instead, he chose to say his already prepared alibi.

"The Queen Mother insisted that I come here and join you to formally meet your brother," he confidently stated. "She found out that your brother is the Commander handling the military in the encampment, so she wants me to formally introduce myself as your fiance."

"My brother will kill me the moment he sees me with you," she pointed out. "He’s not fond of vampires at all. This is a problem."

Seeing how worked up Dani was, Abel simply changed the topic and asked, "So tell me... Did you somehow regain your memories of the night we were together?"

Without warning, Abel then leaned dangerously close to her face; close enough that one wrong move would make their lips touch. He did it intentionally because he was dying to kiss her again, and he wondered if Dani would even allow such a thing in her sober state.

She parted her lips and stuttered, "I... I don’t know. I can’t remember a-anything a-at a-all."

He could feel the loud thumping of her heart, but he was more distracted staring at her parted lips.

"Why do I have this urge to help you recall it? That way, you’ll behave properly while I’m not around," Abel whispered onto her lips. "You should remember it, Dani. Of how you possessively declared that you own me..."

Well, not exactly in words, but in actions with how Dani almost submitted herself to him and reciprocated his kiss, even going to the point of brushing herself against him. He considered those actions as if Dani wanted to own him. Or was he wrong in his interpretation? Well, there was only one way to find out, and that was to kiss her right then and there while she was sober.

"Don’t move," she instructed him, her spell immediately taking hold. "Stay in this position until I get back."

"You... Where are you going?!" he demanded.

"I’ll look for Taro and properly talk to him," she answered with a frown. "Like I said, he’s been so nice to me since the beginning, and he didn’t deserve what you just did to him. I should be the one answering his confession. Not you."

Dani huffed at him before leaving the cabin, closing the door behind her and leaving Abel to his own devices. As soon as she was gone, he comfortably sat back on the chair. He then grunted at the burning sensation on the mark on his back.

He could counter Dani’s spell given enough time, but every time he wouldn’t follow her commands, he would be in pain. It was tolerable enough so far, at least. In due time, however, he would be able to remove the spell she created and make it disappear without her even knowing it.

Still, an amused smile graced his lips as he recalled how funny Dani’s expression had been a while ago. She was blushing so hard, and there was just something to her look that made him chuckle.

"My gut’s telling me that she does remember everything she did..." he whistled as he stood up and looked around Dani’s cabin. "You can’t run from me forever..."

For a while, he busied himself with looking around her room. Eventually, however, he let out a heavy sigh of boredom before promptly turning himself into a mist. Quickly, he followed Dani. The woman had a talent for knocking sense into him.

Trailing behind Dani, he quickly found her on the upper deck of the ship with Taro.

"Taro," Dani called to him.

"Lady Dani."

Abel quietly observed. Taro seemed surprised to see Dani.

"I’m sorry about earlier. I’m flattered that you like me, but I’m already engaged to Chancellor Abel. I’m sorry," Dani apologized with her head down. "I sought you out to personally apologize not only for myself but also for the Chancellor’s behavior a while ago..."

"Do you like him?" Taro straightforwardly asked, making Abel frown while he eavesdropped. He couldn’t believe that someone would do something as outrageous as asking a woman if she liked the man she was engaged to like this in his years of living on this earth.

Below him, Taro moved closer to Dani and asked again, "Do you like him, Lady Dani? Do you like Chancellor Abel?"

’This man! I should snap his neck,’ Abel anxiously thought. He knew he should just leave, but something was stopping him from doing so.

"I..."

Dani spoke, and Abel found himself straining his senses to listen in. He was curious to know how she would answer despite himself.

"I... I won’t be his fiance if I didn’t like him, Taro."

Those words were already enough for Abel to feel at ease. Satisfied, he quickly left and returned to Dani’s cabin, especially since the mark of her spell was starting to get more painful.