Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Chapter 89: After We Get Out Of Here

That was embarrassing to admit out loud but I didn't want to lie. It had taken the craziness of the last few days for it to finally sink in that I had fallen in love with him. I was even denser than Franz.

A glorious smile lit my husband's face and he stroked my cheek with his thumb. What he said next shook me to my very core. He said thank you. He was thanking me for loving him.

His life had been so horribly sad and devoid of love that he thought it was necessary to thank me for what I realized now was completely natural relationship progression. Arranged marriage or no, Al was a lovable guy once you got to know him. As averse as I had been to staying with someone I had married out of necessity, I had been doomed to fall in love with him from the start because of the kind of person he was.

More affected than I should have been by his depressing words, I pounced on him and began kissing him with all of my might, desperately hoping my feelings got through to him. Al was such a lovely person and he didn't even know it.

His childishness and apathy were because of the way he was raised. Yet when it came down to the wire, he knew how to pull through for others. Why else would he want to reclaim the lands of a people he didn't even know he was a part of until two days ago?

He didn't care about much but when he did care, it was with a much deeper conviction than most. It was one of the things I loved about him.

Al responded to my kisses as if he was drowning and they were air. His desperation made my heart ache so I kissed him harder, grasping the back of his shirt with one hand as the other tangled in his hair.

"Katie," he sighed against my lips.

I knew it couldn't go farther than this if I didn't want to end up like poor Mariela but in the moment I didn't want to stop. I needed him as much as he needed me; it had been a rough couple of days and there was no better way I could think of to make us feel better than finally becoming one.

I buried my face in his chest. I couldn't do it. I couldn't put myself in danger like that.

His heartbeat sounded in my ear, thrumming like a hummingbird's. He obviously didn't want to stop either but respected my wishes to wait until we were settled in a safer place.

All we had to do was wait until Sigmund was out of the picture. Then it wouldn't matter if I got pregnant. The one part of this extremely derailed novel that I hoped stayed the same was Sigmund's execution. It was the only way we would be able to live peacefully and rebuild the Kanta civilization.

"I love you too," Al said finally as his heartrate began to slow. "Should have mentioned that earlier."

I actually snorted. That was such a redundant thing to say after that kind of make out session. "I already knew that but thanks for telling me."

As many honeyed words as he had spoken to me throughout our courtship, he had never specifically said 'I love you.' When I originally tricked him into revealing his feelings he said who his first love was rather than using the traditional phrase.

I knew he loved me; it had been completely obvious from everything he said and did after a certain point. But it was nice to hear all the same.

Al continued holding me close as he spoke more seriously and traced circles on my back.

"We're going to have a good life after we get out of here, I promise. Ayana said the clan leader is in charge of helping everyone but that his lifestyle is simple and that's exactly what you wanted, isn't it? You can stay involved in politics and we can build a library for you to run too."

I liked the sound of that. Ever since coming here I had wanted a simple life filled with books, horseback riding, and love. The only thing I would miss about the palace was the pastries. Maybe I could get the recipes from Marcy before we left for the mountains.

"Mmhmm," I said noncommittally, thinking more about the future with Al than I ever had before.

All of our kids would look like him but I didn't mind since this body didn't even look like me. Our first child would be a son according to the tradition sustained by the mountain spirits. I was inside a fantasy novel I had read; at this point I would believe anything.

I still didn't know what kind of father Al would be but if he loved our kids anywhere near as much as he loved me they would probably be fine. He was a gentle soul overall.

Once all the danger was behind us, the only thing I really had to worry about was finding other things to do together that did not involve cards. I would be happy if I never saw a deck of cards again until the day I died.

Though maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we could play games with more players once we had more friends or older children. I looked forward to having more of a chance to try and recreate things from my world here, like different types of board games.

I wasn't much of a writer or an artist but there had to be people out there who were who could write different types of fiction than the gothic novels that existed here. Even though I was living the plot of one right now, I still missed my comics.

I would have all the time in the world to figure out how to properly adjust here as soon as I wasn't a princess anymore. Maybe that was when I could finally tell Al the truth about myself. When the worst of it was behind us.