Damien sighed, clearly amused but trying his best to stay composed.
“Eliana, you’re drunk.”
“And you’re stingy with compliments!” I shot back, pouting so hard my cheeks hurt.
The car fell into silence for a moment, the only sounds were the hum of the engine and our breathing.
The driver and aide sitting in the front remained quiet, completely ignoring whatever was happening in the back seat.
“Here, drink some water first,” Damien sighed again, handing me a bottle of water.
“Maybe then you’ll feel a little more sober.”
I huffed, crossing my arms stubbornly.
“I don’t want water until you say how I look today.”
Damien let out a heavy sigh at my drunken rambling.
Yeah, I guess, I really wasn’t sober anymore.
“Haven’t I already answered you before?
More than once, if I remember correctly.” He replied to me, but surprisingly, he didn’t sound the least bit annoyed by my drunken tantrum.
“What’s the exact word you want to hear?”
I immediately turned my head toward him, shocked that he would even ask me directly.
But his tone didn’t sound like he was mocking me at all.
Did that even make sense?
He even looked so patient and calm that it almost sobered me up a little.
“Ah, whatever, it wouldn’t be good if I said it.” I said at last, running a hand through my hair.
“Forget it, I’m sorry.
I think I’m really drunk.”
Forget about the quest or the reward, I had truly messed up today, I didn’t even know what had gotten into be but I wasn’t even acting like myself anymore.
I slowly leaned away from him, resting my body against the car door.
My eyes following the blur of streetlights flashing past the window.
Then his voice suddenly filled the silence.
“Do you …
want me to call you beautiful?”
My lips parted, but no words came out.
The system’s warning that I wasn’t allowed to tell him myself, echoed in my head, effectively chaining my voice down.
I couldn’t say yes, even though every fiber of me was practically screaming it out loud.
I didn’t answer, but my silence seemed to be enough for him to understand what I wanted.
“You’re beautiful,” he said at last.
“You look so beautiful tonight, Eliana.”
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host!
You have successfully completed your quest: Invite your husband to dinner and make your husband compliment your beauty.]
[Reward Distributed: 25 Experience Points, 5 system points, 10 charm Points, $10,000]
I widened my eyes, stunned that I had actually managed to complete this absurd quest.
The system had even cut me some slack, letting Damien’s compliment count even though dinner was already over.
But beneath my happiness, one question still burned in my chest.
“Why …
why didn’t you say it earlier?
Was it really that hard to just say I’m beautiful?”
Damien’s gaze lingered on me before he finally spoke.
“It’s not that it was hard,” he said gently.
“It’s that I don’t think beautiful is enough to describe you.
You deserve more than just that word.”
I froze for a second, beautiful wasn’t good enough to describe me but you thought fine was and besides how could he say that so easily and still look so calm?
Oh, wait, no.
His ears were bright red!
It was subtle, but I saw it clearly.
Damien Blackwood, the man who was always calm, was actually blushing.
“I didn’t know you were such a sweet talker, Mr.
Blackwood,” I teased with a giggle.
“So tell me …
did you have a lot of ex-girlfriends?”
Damien held my gaze.
I sighed, a little too dramatically at that.
“Fair point,” I admitted.
“But honestly, you could have any woman you wanted if you tried.”
I mean, he was so damn handsome and his bank account was nothing to laugh at.
If he ever stopped trying to act like a reclusive billionare, women would probably form a never ending line for a chance at him.
“I don’t need many women,” Damien said suddenly.
“One is enough for me.”
My head lolled against the seat, heavy from the wine and exhaustion.
I turned my face toward him, blinking slowly.
“That one woman would be so lucky,” I murmured, struggling to keep my eyes open.
“Hopefully she’s kind and treats you well.”
Sure, it was easy for rich men to find someone willing to marry them, but finding someone sincere was another story, especially for someone like Damien.
Many women would only want his family name or his money if he ever revealed who he really was.
There was nothing wrong with marrying for money.
But mocking him, insulting him behind his back, or treating him as less than human just because he couldn’t walk, that was just cruel.
“She is indeed kind and gentle,” Damien said softly, maybe the gentlest tone I’d ever heard from him.
“Honestly, I think I’m the lucky one to have that ‘one’ woman.”
“Oh?” I was already slipping into sleep, so his words were blurring together in my head.
“But didn’t you just say you don’t have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t,” he said quietly, catching my head as it slipped to the side.
Then, with surprising care, he reached for the small pillow in the car and tucked it beside me, making sure I could rest comfortably.
His voice dropped even lower, almost like a secret meant only for me.
“But I do have a wife.”
For a second, my heart forgot how to beat.
Did he really just say that?
Or was I already too drunk and hearing things?
I wanted to ask him again, just to be sure, but my eyelids betrayed me, slipping shut no matter how hard I tried to fight them.
“Your wife …,” I murmured, my voice fading as sleep pulled me under “…
she must be quite beautiful.”