Raelle didn't know why he suddenly said that or why was there even a need to say that right now. She really couldn't comprehend his thought process. Of course, she knew he'd say the same about her as well. After all, her brain was even more eccentric than him.
"Do you really believe what you just said?" she asked him.
"I do," he answered without any hesitation.
"You haven't even known me for that long," she reminded him. "How can you say whether I'm the most beautiful part of your life or not?"
Shui Xian felt helpless at the fact that she always needed reasons. He didn't think feelings needed any reasons. If love was so carefully done, why would people even go through heartbreak? And even if love is done with caution and care, what's the guarantee that it wouldn't hurt one day?
And that's why he loved without any restraint. He always threw caution out of the window when it came to his feelings. Perhaps, that's why he was so easily hurt before. But did he learn from that experience? Yes, he did. Was he willing to put the tag of caution on his feelings? No bloody way!
He might have learned something from a heartbreak. And he might have once believed that he'd be careful with his feelings in the future but all of that was forgotten when he was faced with Raelle. She wasn't cautious in life. She did things her way. She was never careful with her words. She would apologize to you if she felt the need to do so but that didn't mean she'd stop speaking her mind out loud.
That untamed feeling that her character gave him actually pulled him down the spiral of feelings all over again. And this time, it was done in an even bolder way. This time, he wanted his love for her to be just as untamed as she was. He didn't wish to tame her and neither did he wish to tame his own feelings that were spiraling out of his control.
"I can feel it," he told her with a smile playing on his lips. He held her hand and placed it against his heart as he asked, "Can you feel it?"
Raelle tilted her head to a side, "What am I supposed to feel here?" She took a pause and told him, "All I can feel is your heartbeat. It's strong and seems a little fast."
Shui Xian laughed out at her words, "Babes, if you're touching me, how can my heartbeat be normal?"
"I think you're old enough to take control of your heartbeat," she stated as if it was the most normal thing to say.
Shui Xian shook his head, "But I have already lost control over my heart since you walked into my life." He stepped closer and whispered against her ear, "Can you hear it? Even my heartbeat is calling your name." There was certainly no need to whisper that. After all, they were the only ones here. But then again, how would he take advantage of this position to drop a kiss on the tip of her ear?
A person should always know when to advance and when to retreat. Just like Shui Xian who after taking advantage of the situation, took a step back and looked right into her eyes innocently as if nothing happened.
But his dear wife didn't really think that she was taken advantage of. It was just a kiss. A fleeting kiss. She hardly even felt the soft touch of his lips on her ear. How could that be called taking advantage of?
And her focus was certainly not on that kiss either. Her focus was on his words. What did he just say? Right, he said his heartbeat was calling her name. She placed her ear against his chest and listened closely.
"Baby, what are you doing?" inquired Shui Xian even though he knew the answer to his own question pretty well.
"I'm trying to listen," she answered truthfully. She looked up at him and said, "I can't hear my name. You're lying to me."
Shui Xian threw his head back and laughed out loud at her words. He touched the tip of her nose as he said, "But you already knew I was lying." Raelle neither refuted his words nor accepted them but it made it all the more certain that she knew he was lying. Her rationality would never allow her to believe that a heartbeat could possibly be calling someone's name. And yet, she actually went along with him.
Shui Xian snaked his hand around her waist and pulled her close to himself. As the tips of their noses touched, he breathed out, "What should I do?"
"Huh?"
"I'm a little scared now," he said to her sincerely.
"Why?" she asked him.
"How can I not be scared? I'm falling for you with every passing second. I'm falling deeper and harder than ever. This feeling is kind of new to me. I have never been scared of love before. But now I am a little scared."
Raelle raised her hand and patted his head gently, "It's okay if you fall. I'll just catch you." Shui Xian's eyes widened when he heard her say that. "I'm actually pretty strong. Trust me, I can catch you. You don't have to worry at all."
Really, there was no need to worry at all. Why would there be a need to worry when she was there to catch him? It might have sounded perfunctory if someone else had said it but to hear it from someone like Raelle was like a promise. A reassurance that no matter how hard he fell, she'd always be there to catch him.
Was there still a need to worry about anything?
Well, he didn't think so. Shui Xian put a hand behind her head and kissed her lips. He merged their lips together as if he wanted them to blend into each other. Indeed, he really wanted them to just become one.