The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 235: Time to fathom

Joanna’s eyes widened. Her heart skipped more than a beat. Her breath was caught in her throat.

For a moment, Joanna was frozen, feeling the time suddenly stop. Everything around her came to a blur.

She was not able to do anything, not even able to think of anything, due to a sudden, peculiar thing that she had never experienced before. Never did it come across her mind that would happen at the moment.

Gradually, she felt the lips that softly pressed against her lips pulled away, letting the warm breath brush against them, causing her widened eyes to meet the green eyes that stared down at her tenderly, yet attempting to penetrate deep into her soul mercilessly.

As time was given to fathom what just happened, Joanna had her eyelids fluttered. Her heart found its beat again, although the rhythm was all over the place. Her breath returned to her, but it was shallow and rapid that made her begin to breathe through her mouth. Everything around her was back in color, but she could not find the color fixed as she felt her head spinning.

Canillas noticed the lady in his arms stared at him in confusion with her moist, quivering eyes but did not push him away. He still felt her delicate hand on his back, clutching his shirt.

Sensing all the whirlwind in her mind that were not able to be uttered into words, Canillas cupped Joanna’s cheek and gently stroked her soft skin with his thumb, as if trying to reduce the tenseness, assisting her to be ready to embrace what would come next.

His other hand was circled around her shoulders, becoming a support to bring her to stay close to him, to the point he could feel her reverberating heart, which he believed she could feel his either.

Maintaining his eyes on hers, reading them to capture any reaction and response that came from her to what just happened between them, and to make sure that there was no rejection came within, within five beats of his rampant heart, Canillas leaned in. Deliberately, he closed the gap between them once again, repeating what he did a few seconds ago: to take her breath in his, to claim what belonged to him to begin with.

His hand that was on her cheek slid down to curl on one side of her warm, slender neck where there was no scar settled in so that any touch from him would not hurt her.

Discarding any hesitation, ignoring anything that revolved around them, and emptying his mind from anything that pulled him away from her, Canillas covered Joanna’s lips with his, nibbling and shucking the soft, rosy lips that were slightly apart, inviting him to devour deeper. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Second after second passed by.

As he tasted Joanna’s upper and lower lips, taking the sweet taste in him, Canillas tightened his embrace on her, pulling her body to get closer to his, diminishing any space that existed between them until he could feel her soft flesh pressed against his chest.

Biting her lower lips, Canillas licked to soothe it when the sound of a gasp escaped the lips that he devoured wholeheartedly, as if this very moment was the last moment for their togetherness, as if there were no more days present for them in the future.

Time had passed, but the feeling to taste more still intoxicated him. He felt like a lost soul to find the oasis to quench his thirst—a treasure that long lost but now found.

Slipping his tongue into Joanna’s warm mouth, he continued devouring the sweetness that he believed no one had ever tasted but him. And no one would ever taste it because she was made only for him.

As he tasted every nook and cranny that was his to taste, Canillas’ hand that was on Joanna’s neck made a move down to her chest.

Untying the string of Joanna’s nightgown, Canillas’ wet lips trailed down, kissing Joanna’s chin, down to her neck, before trailing to the side to the scar that gave him pain every time his eyes landed on it.

He lingered his lips there with his eyes closed, to the full length of the scar, as if he wanted to remove it from her neck, to remove all the nightmare, not allowing it to stay as part of their memory.

He wanted to make her forget everything he had seen that night, but it might be hard for him to forget the scene that made him numb. How that filthy man kept her as hostage, stopping her from approaching him, treating her rudely, but she smiled reassuringly at him, trying to ease him with tears flowing down her cheeks.

Under those circumstances, where she surely was engulfed in tremendous fear, she chose to comfort him, attempting to show him that she was fine.

How could he be fine when he felt losing capability to rescue her that night, unable to make a quick decision on how to end the life of that filthy man who dared hurt, creating a wound on her body?

He felt vulnerable. He felt useless, feeling that it was right for her to reject him, to push him away, not letting him stay close to her.

He was called a great general. He was well known to be a ruthless, unbeatable soldier. He was a strategist, tactical in his every decision to lead his troops that ended up with them gaining victory after victory.

He had defeated so many enemies, which caused him to grow other enemies. Yet never once did he ever lose in battles because he was emotionless when he was on the battlefield. He was bloodthirsty when he was faced with his enemies.

But that night, when he saw her with a dagger pointed at her neck, he felt all around him darken. The emotions that he was ready to hide from the eyes of his enemies could not be completely hidden. There was a crack because of what came to his sight.

He completely lost the ability to think. He completely failed to mask his emotions. For the first time, he was defeated. General Canillas von Rodega was not great and prominent like how his name soared. He was just a mere and fragile human being who bore weakness in his veins.

And he completely lost the battle when he saw blood trickling from the wound that was made on her precious body—the body that he had protected yet ruined because of his inability to protect her, the body of the one whom he found to be his weakness.

He could not breathe. His chest was squeezed. For the first time in his life, he felt what failure was. And how he felt empty when he saw her close her eyes, losing consciousness, making him unable to see her radiant hazel eyes that became warmth and light of his cold and dark soul.

Had that young Captain not been with her, Canillas could not imagine what would have happened to her.

He could not imagine that. He did not want to know about that. He did not want to hear that. He did not want to speak of that.

Imagining her not open her eyes ever again made him succumb to abyss because he had come to the realization that she was not only his weakness but also his strength.

Therefore, he could not let her go despite realizing that she was his weakness, a threat that could be used by his enemies to beat him to death. Because if she was taken away from him, there was no more strength left for him to breathe.

How ironic. He knew that. He had thought about that. But he was fine with that.

For a lady who used to be cold and cruel to him but finally showed how much she was worried and cared about him, he was fine with that.

For a lady who tried her best to cheer him up regardless of her fragile state, saying that she was not angry at him and asking him not to be angry at himself, as they were all safe and that was what mattered, he was fine to embrace her, to face all the threats, and to keep her safe.

For a lady who said that she was grateful and happy when she saw him come to her that night, feeling safe and certain that she would be saved because he was finally with her, as for what was important was his presence, why should he not feel fine with that warm treasure?

But why was it so painful? Why did he feel many needles prick his heart?

Canillas pulled Joanna deep into his arms as if it were the answer to the discomfort that tightened his heart.