The Cursed King

Elise picked up her mug of hot chocolate and quickly drank the rest down. She had no idea what to say to him now. "Can you please show me where I'm staying?"

Even if she was to sleep on this very sofa cushion, she didn't think it was a loss at all.

This place was quite luxurious, no less luxurious than her home back in Connecticut. She lived in a big mansion and everything was splendid and grandeur. However, this man's place was nice too.

It had really high ceilings and gave the feeling of massive space. There were also many floor-to-ceiling windows from which she could see the unobstructed view of the skyscrapers around them.

The living room where they were now was furnished with antique furniture that looked classic and expensive. Everything in this place screamed elegance and opulence. She could imagine Loriel must be really wealthy before he lost his fortunes.

Elise was busy with her thoughts when they were going up to this floor, but she thought they might be somewhere in the 50s story.

Ah, she should check the name of the building tomorrow so she could know where she was.

Once she finished her drink, Elise fiddled with the surface of the mug. Then an idea finally came to Elise's mind and she looked up to him. "Ah, can you please show me where the sink is? I'd like to clean my mug and yours as well if you're done."

Loriel lifted his brow. "You want to wash my mug?"

It was obvious from the coffee table that the man barely touched his drink yet. Loriel only prepared two mugs of hot chocolate to make her feel comfortable around him. He wasn't actually that eager for a sweet drink at night.

Elise smiled. "You don't have to rush drinking at all, I can also wait. I'm just excited to tidy things up."

"There's not much to worry about the cleaning of dishes, I have a dishwasher for us to use," Loriel said with an amused smile.

"Are you sure?" Elise asked, but then shook her head. "Sorry for asking, I shouldn't contradict you. This is your place after all."

Loriel wanted to say that this was their place now... but held back.

He gave her a reassuring smile. "It's alright, Elise. It's much better that you ask questions now than to be confused later."

"I'd like to instead know how things work around here… but in the morning! I am sure that you are exhausted now." Elise smiled sweetly. "It is quite late now and I've already consumed a lot of your time with our talk."

"You don't have to worry about things like that, I actually am grateful for your presence."

Loriel picked up his own mug and drank as well. He finished his entire drink and stood up.

Ah, he remembered Elise and he had their ritual of drinking a glass of wine before bed. They would spend half an hour in bed with their drink and talked about their day.

She would talk about her garden, Brick, gossips from her ladies-in-waiting, and Loriel would share about his boring work as the king.

Loriel missed their talks over wine, and their banter.

Oftentimes, when Loriel complained about so many meetings he must attend and court issues that he had to listen to, Elise would soothe him and encourage him to be a good king.

Once she was gone, he really didn't see the reason why he should care about his kingdom.

Ahh.. too bad, their situation right now was far from that of a husband and wife. It wasn't his ideal.

But if this was Elise… his Elise, then he believed their relationship would develop over time. He'd figure out the secrets to her current past and help her remember their own.

Loriel was unsure of what happened to Elise if this was the woman he loved. Was her memory erased by that time master?

The thought of it made him want to grit his teeth. If the Time Master wasn't already dead, Loriel would want to kill him again.

Okay, Loriel would want to kill him a thousand times more.

"Are you okay?" Elise asked.

Loriel eased his expression and nodded with a smile. "Yes, can I have your mug?"