"Unless you break off your engagement with him... And marry me instead."
Ivy saw it, a flicker in this man's eyes despite saying everything with all seriousness. Seeing that, her own blue eyes hardened, becoming the surface beneath which depths remained unreadable.
"You can't prove anything. You know if it was me, I would not leave a single trace," she said. Then, she looked away. "If this is how you respond to someone genuinely worried about you—"
"Pfft."
Ivy's eyes flicked back to Damon, who was holding his laugh.
She immediately—
"DAMON IONDORA!"
"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE—"
Damon immediately turned into a whistling kettle, the sound escaping him high and uncontrolled. He needed that laugh after spending the day performing competence and grief and imperial authority.
Seeing this woman fall for his little act gave him just a bit of light on this dark day.
Ivy huffed, her cheeks puffed and red, her eyes wet with tears. "You—"
SMACK!
"List—OW—OW—"
SMACK! SMACK!
