Chapter 140

"You praised my riding that day, saying how it had improved," Maxi said proudly as she reminisced about their trip to the lake.

Riftan cocked an eyebrow and pretended not to remember. "Surely not."

Maxi elbowed his stomach, and he broke into a show of pain, coughing while laughing simultaneously. She gave him a sideways look as though miffed, but a slow smile tugged at her lips. Her heart melted with joy whenever he was playful like this.

Caressing his strong arm draped over her waist, she said gently, "We rode along the lake… and you told me about your time as a mercenary, about your life after becoming a knight… I realized then that there was a whole new world I wasn't aware of."

After all those days she had waited for him at Croyso Castle, fearing divorce and trembling in fear of the inevitable lashing from her father, he had whisked her away to Anatol.