The Princess And Her Alpha Bodyguard

6~ UNDRESSING FROM A DISTANCE

"Can you trust me now?" Valdemir asked.

I blinked in confusion, wondering if my ears were playing tricks on me.

Excuse me! Except for your name, and well, your worth-dreaming-about body, I knew nothing about you. How did you expect me to trust you? Screamed a voice inside my head.

But then again, maybe he lived in the forest for so long that he lost social skills. So, I guessed I should go easy on him.

"I can't give you my answer now." I cleared my throat. "The only thing I knew about you was your name. I knew nothing else. Besides, I couldn't even see your face."

"There is a scar on my face, so I'm wearing this mask to hide it. I don't like it when people stare at it. It made me feel uncomfortable," he said.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I suddenly felt guilty for saying that to him. I hoped I didn't just trigger his bad memory from the past.

"It's fine. Those who don't know aren't at fault." He shrugged and brushed it off like it was nothing. And there went a waste of my sympathy for him. "Apart from my face, what else do you want to know?" he asked.

"Well, how do you usually introduce yourself?"

"I don't."

"What?" I widened my eyes in disbelief.

"I mean..." he trailed off and averted his eyes to the floor. "I rarely interact with strangers. So, there weren't many chances that I got to do self-introduction."

So, my assumption was correct. He really lived in seclusion. But what kind of secluded life involved living in such a huge place? This room was almost the same size as the one I had at home. I thought people only had a cottage or hut if they lived in the forest.

"Then, I'll help. You only need to answer my question," I said. If he didn't know how to speak, I'd take the lead.

"Alright." He looked back at me and stepped closer to the edge of the bed. His movement made the thin, white draperies flutter.

"First, can you draw this up?" I asked, finally remembering that distance wasn't the only thing that separated us. Even though it was see-through and I could see just fine, I still wanted to get it out of the way.

"Leave it. It's fine as it is," he said, showing no action to do what I had said.

"It's not fine for me."

"Why?"

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, wondering if there was a second when he stopped challenging me and did what I had told him to. "Can't you just do it?"

"I don't think it's appropriate. I'm a man, and you're a woman. We shouldn't get so closed. After all, we're alone in this room at night. Besides, your clothes are improper," he said in a calm voice.

Improper? His words made me frown in confusion. The dress I stole from the maid might have been made from cheap fabric, but it covered all body parts. The only skin it exposed was the hands. Even though I altered it by tearing the side of the dress to make it easier to straddle a horse, it shouldn't be a concern. I already covered a blanket from the waist down to my toe. There was no way he could see the exposed skin on my legs from the slit.

But to be on the safe side, I decided to look down at myself. I wanted to check if I showed any skin to make him call improper. Only then did I realize what he meant.

"What've you done to me?" I gasped as I crossed my hands and covered my chest. "Pervert!"

"You got the wrong idea." Valdemir raised his hand as if he wanted me to stop screaming.

"Then how did you explain the change of my clothes?" I glared at him. "My dress couldn't magically turn into this thin pajama, could it?"

"No," he said in a calm voice that didn't help with the situation at all.

"You undressed me, didn't you? How dare you touch my body without permission?" I picked up the pillow next to my left elbow and threw it at him. But he sidestepped to the right and avoided it easily. "How dare you dodge it?" I groaned in frustration.

"I'm not stupid enough to stand still and let it hit me when I've done nothing wrong to deserve it."

"Shameless." I gritted my teeth. "Your words are full of morality. But your action contradicts it."

"I don't think I understand what you mean."

I wasn't sure if this guy pretended to be innocent or if he was playing dumb. But whichever of the two, he really pissed me off. I didn't know how much longer he wanted to keep this going, but I had no patience waiting.

"You said that woman and man shouldn't get too close. Then when you undressed me, did you do it from a distance? Did touching a woman's body while she was unconscious a proper thing to do?" I challenged him.

"I'll answer the second question first. No. It isn't proper to touch a woman's body, whether or not she is unconscious. As for the first question, it's a yes."

"Huh?" I was starting to lose my mind the longer I listened to him. How did he remain so calm at a time like this?

"Let me be clear about one thing. From the moment I brought you to this room, I'd been sitting in that place without moving." He motioned his head to the corner of the room. The place where I first noticed his presence. The place where he hid in the dark. "That also included the time when they changed your clothes. I was turning against the wall, so basically, I'd never laid my eyes on you when you were naked."

"You're bluffing. It was impossible to change someone's clothes from such a far distance. How could they…." I trailed off when this one word triggered another question in me.

He said they. Not I. That meant he wasn't the one who undressed me. Out loud, I asked, "Hold on. Did you say... they? Who are they?"

"My maids."

"Your maids?" I exclaimed.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" he shook his head as if this wasn't something of a big deal.

But it was.

"Wait. You had maids? Didn't you live in seclusion?" I tilted my head to the side in bewilderment.

"Who told you I lived in seclusion?"

"Err. No one." I shrugged. "But it's obvious since I met you in the forest. A forbidden forest, on top of that. No one dared to trespass. Never mind living in it. I thought you were the only one living here."

"That was purely your assumption."

"How many of you are here? How did you manage to survive?" Series of questions piled up in my head. This guy was the true definition of mystery. Everything from his appearance to his existence was like a complicated piece of a puzzle.

"Your questions are endless. I answered two already, and now, there are more." He shook his head. "How about this? Let's play it fair. We'll take turns."

"I'm not in a mood to play a game."

"And I'm not fond of being taken advantage of," he said in a stern voice. "I went through the trouble of saving you. And what did I get in return? Groundless accusations and tons of questions. Don't you think that was too much? When someone saved your life, the least you could do was say thank you. Even a child knew this. Never mind a grown woman like you."

"You kept saying that you were my savor. But that didn't convince me. If you admitted you were the shadow I saw in the forest, then I still suspected that you were the one attacking me. I remembered seeing that shadow bolting toward me." I narrowed my eyes at him, waiting to see his reaction.

"Fine." He sighed as if the situation frustrated him. I suppressed the urge to scream at him and said that he wasn't the only one. "Since you have a poor memory, there is nothing I can do but to fill you in about what really happened."

"Hey, who did you—"

"Are you going to keep talking back or listening?" He raised his voice, radiating off the authoritative tone that made me cringe back. "Choose."

I slid my hands under the blanket so he couldn't see they were shaking. Then, I cleared my throat and said, "I'm listening." I tried my best to control my voice, ensuring it wasn't as shaking as my hands. There was no way I would let it show that he sacred me.

"Good. Now listen carefully." He disappeared into the dark corner. When he came back, he brought a chair with him. He put it next to the end of the bed and settled down. "I wasn't bolting toward you to attack. I was trying to save you. I ran at full speed, hoping I could stop them from reaching you. But I was a little too late. They got you in the end."

"Save me?" I frowned. Except for him, I didn't remember seeing anything else that could pose a threat. "From what?"

"Tree roots," said Valdemir.

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