31. You like to do it with strangers?! Arielle forgot to breathe. She stood frozen in his hold as his mouth gently sucked her skin. She could imagine his parted lips brushing on her collarbone sensuously in slomo. It left her jittery all over. She didn't want to fall into the heavy darkness of the feeling that engulfed her heart, but this feeling was enticing. Magical... And she didn't want to deprive herself of this pleasure. She let him turn her around to face himself and look into his eyes. His gaze was dark and intense. She could feel her heart rising up to her throat as he escalated his thick eyebrows. It made her remember he asked her a question and this silent behaviour of hers was doing anything but denying that direct claim he made. She pushed him away and stepped backwards, "Y-you must start behaving yourself now, Liam D'zire. I... I am committed to someone else." She looked here and there as she hoped the cool breeze would lessen down the heat in her cheeks. "That's no

33. Recalling the past (a) Liam's POV I don't want to think about her but my mind automatically wanders back to her. My heart has been heavy since that night. Though I went back home, assuming that Arielle must have gone back to her apartment too, I was never at peace. I spent the night twisting and turning in my bed. I just wanted to know if she was okay. The ultimate cause of her misery was me and that is why I was feeling so low. That night I had promised to myself that the following morning the very first thing I would do was to go and confront her. To apologize to her and make her believe adding up to her vulnerability was the last thing I meant to do at that moment. It's just that I couldn't help. I had an impulse to hurt her with my words. Hurt her with my shoves. Heaving a sigh, I rang my R&D manager, Jay. He generally conducts research for improvement and recent trends for the development of our product, this time I handed him a completely different task. "Good after,

35. Heated argument and confessions Arielle's POVMy blood rushed wildly as Liam laid his hands on me and pulled me back. I feigned a gasp and flickered my eyes to show that I was petrified. I narrowed my eyes as if I didn't expect to find him there. "Liam?" I whispered, acting like I was amazed by his appearance but in truth, my heart did a little flip upon seeing him. I found myself oddly out of breath. The relief upon seeing swept over his face. A small smile burst on his otherwise twisting lips for a second before he composed his stern side. His shoulders tightened but the hold on my waist remained smoldering yet firm. "Where the hell have you been?" My belly clenched at his question. As if he doesn't know! I disappeared because he hurt me. His words felt like salt on a fresh burned wound that night. Obviously it was a plan as I wanted him to feel restless and feel the void, which he did. "Why do you care?" However, I looked away, trying to define my hurt as I let a mournful