Mio Re (#3)

Chapter 2: Not In Love With Me

I have decided to update Imperial Love after every two to three chapters of Escort Me Baby. This way I won't put this book off for months and I'll also be getting close to completing EMB even though there's a long way to go which will get me closer to putting my focus on this.

Can I Be Him is an amazing song by James Arthur. I suggest you listen to it while reading this chapter because I think it describes the way Freddie feels.

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          "What?" I slightly pulled away from his warm embrace and sat up, staring at him in surprise.

          He chuckled and sat up with me before delving into his pocket to retrieve a red velvet box. Popping it open, he revealed a ring with small diamonds embedded into the platinum band followed by a large one sitting on top. The only emotion that crossed my mind was bafflement. I didn't know how to react or what to even say. It was as if the cat got my tongue.

          "Will you marry me?" He asked again, glee twinkling in his startling green eyes. The beautiful smile on his face began fading slowly at my somber reaction.

          "Fred," I spoke softly, my voice heavy with guilt. "I..."

          "It's a no," he answered for me with a meek smile lingering on his lips. "I get it."

          He always knew how to smile no matter what. Always seeing the brighter side of things became his motto after I helped him work through his aggression and I loved that about him. Despite that amazing smile on his face, I could see the hurt hiding in the dark shadows of it, lurking beneath the surface.

"You don't get it." I sat on my knees and cupped his face, my thumbs caressing his cheeks. "You're too good for me, Fred."

Narrowing his eyes at me, he chuckled and set the box aside. "I think you're too good for me, precious." His hands fanned over mine and squeezed them gently. "I know that you don't love me."

"I do love you," I said almost immediately, not wasting a second to let him know how much I adored him. "I love you."

He smiled once again, this time caressing my cheek with his knuckles. His eyes scanned over each one of my features lovingly before gazing into my brown misty orbs. "But precious," he lifted my chin up gently. "You're not in love with me."

          I couldn't help the tear that toppled over my lid at the undertone of gloom in his voice. His face was smiling, but his heart was dropping which wrenched my own. However, the truth couldn't be denied. I did love him, but I wasn't in love because my stupid heart was still elsewhere. At least some of it was. Over the past four years, I regained most of it, yet that tiny stubborn part was still with Leo.

          "Precious," the pad of Freddie's thumb wiped away my lone tear. "I really wish I was him."

          "Him?" My brows furrowed in confusion.

          "The man you're in love with."

          "What do you mean?"

          He laughed, laying down on his side with his gaze firmly placed on me. "I met you at Athena Estle's birthday party for the first time more than four years ago," he recalled and smiled to himself. "You looked like an angel, but you were also with a man in a mask. Even though I didn't know you back then, I knew you loved him by the way you two looked at each other. It was quite evident, yet you still haven't told me about him."