Reuben was puzzled when he saw the silent judgment in his Kitten's eyes after he had revealed the Ming family secret.

This was something that his Grandpa Aloysius Ming had explained to him when he was taken away for his heir training.

No matter how much of a flirt one was before marriage, once a man with the Ming blood married someone… Loyalty was the utmost precious and valuable thing to them.

"I think that this trait is real since I demand loyalty and sincerity from my employees and once they break my trust they need to leave!" He gritted his teeth.

He was always like this, he had a set of ideals, and everyone in connection with him needed to comply with those ideals.

Any contradictions or failure to stand up to his expectations would immediately render them to be out of his favorable list.

Now that was a list that people would kill to stay on. Hence he never had a problem with it.

While he was going off on a different tangent, he heard Lina's soft mutters.

"Why are you telling me this?" She wondered out loud since she was lost on what his point was.

Reuben sighed and realized that he had to spell things out for her to make sure that she got what he had been trying to prove here.

"Kitten, LOYALTY is in our blood." He enunciated every word with resolution and valor.

Lina continued looking at him with the same deadpan look as earlier, indicating that he would have to do more than that.

"Be it loyalty to family, to work, or… to our beloved." He hinted at the thing that he wanted her to comprehend.

Lina, the occasional dullhead finally got what he was trying to say and this made her open her eyes wide.

"Ohhh…" Was all that came out of her mouth.

'I thought we were over that episode… Seems like I had touched a nerve there, huh?' She guessed and then nodded her head.

Reuben felt like he needed to speak more to make sure that this point was drilled into her mind so that she doesn't doubt him any further.

"Men in my family have never cheated. In fact, some of them might go too far in the name of love but they would never cheat." He declared confidently.

He soon grimaced when a certain someone came to his mind but he shook those thoughts away from his mind.

"My grandpa married the love of his life and never cheated and neither did my father." He continued his monologue.

Lina's cheeks were cupped and their eyes locked onto each other as Reuben uttered the next sentence.

"I do not have any plans of being the one to break our family's tradition." He announced and leaned closer to her.

Lina held her breath when she saw how close he had come to her face and then shut her eyes in anticipation of what might happen next.

"But Kitten, know that I would never cheat on you even if loyalty was not coursing through my veins." He declared and then placed a chaste kiss on her forehead.

Lina could not help but feel the warmth filling her heart when she heard his declaration.

She opened her eyes and then pounced into his arms as she wrapped her arms around his hard and muscular waist.

"Eh… I will not doubt you unless I have hard proof against you." She gave him a compromise which elicited a chuckle.

'I spoke so much to ease her mind yet she is still stuck on that? Those novels are going to be the death of me!' He sighed but kissed the top of her head.

Lina then looked up and bit her lips debating whether she should say something that had been on her mind.

Reuben could feel her curious gaze and so looked down with his brows raised.

"Got something to say?" He inquired and received a sheepish nod followed by a nervous chuckle.

He leaned away a little to get a better look on her face and nodded, indicating her to speak her mind.

"The tradition that you spoke of… " She muttered.

"What about it?" He answered.

"Those were all married couples. We are not!" She disclosed the doubt that had come up in her mind after she pondered over this during their hug.

'His grandpa and father were married and stayed loyal but Ruby isn't!' She recalled his sentence which mentioned flirting before marriage.

Reuben choked when he heard her argument against what he had said in regards to their tradition.

He chuckled nervously at first while trying to make up a proper retort to that and smirked when it hit him.

He leaned forward until she was a few inches away from him as a devious smirk materialized on his lips.

"We can always change that~" He playfully whispered and winked at her.

When Lina understood what his words meant, she froze as her eyes widened in surprise.

'Did he just say what I think he just said?' She began hyperventilating after a few seconds of silence.

Reuben panicked when he saw her clutching her chest as she gasped to catch her breath.

'Idiot! Why would you say that!?' He cursed himself for playing that prank on her.

He had thought of making her blush for him but instead, he had caused her to become breathless.

'This is not how I want to make her breathless and sweaty!' He yelled at his immature behavior and rubbed her arms.

"Deep calming breaths!" He chanted repeatedly until her breathing went back to normal.

He hugged her and continued to pat her back even though she had managed to calm herself down.

"My cute Kitten, you don't have to get stressed about this. I can wait until you are ready." He coaxed her with the gentlest voice he could come up with.

Lina could hear his heartbeat as her ear was pressed onto his chest.

The rhythmic beat was soothing and she smiled ever so lightly.

"You want love, right? I'll make sure you fall in love with me soon enough!" His soft mutters caused her to redden.

'I think I am already starting to…' 

Lina did not respond but her smile at that moment said it all.