I was tired and drained of all the emotions at the moment. It was as if my body and mind had too much to handle these days. Of course, I knew I was dragging my body without giving proper food to it, but the thought of having my name attached to that kind of treachery had my insides crawling. I felt like vomiting.

"Liara?" I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard an intruder. Then I realized I zoned out on the balcony again. "Huh," I responded without looking back at the person who broke my train of thoughts. Slowly hugging myself, I felt the chilly wind that touched me in the night.

"Liara, how long are you going to stand there?"

"Just for a while. What is the matter?" I asked as I stared at the twinkling star blinking care freely at night.

"Well, actually.." He paused. I sighed, realizing my attempt to cool down in front of him would not work.

"What's the matter?" I asked, turning around and seeing him standing awkwardly near the door, hanging his head low and tapping his leg. Both hands were behind his body as if he was hiding something. To be honest, I was so angry when I saw Julie inside my house. Perhaps I was still angry, but after everything that followed the events, it drained me of emotions for today and was too lazy to show any emotion.

"I bought something for you." He said, lifting his head and staring at me. It surprised me by how he was behaving and the thought of him buying something, especially for me, made me feel some weird feelings that I never experienced before. Before having my hopes high, I cleared my throat and got a grip of my thoughts, and asked, ''for me?" To confirm if I heard him right.

"Yes, well, that depends if you like it or not." He chuckled, and I was sure he dithered a bit. I chuckled at how cute he looked standing there awkwardly and looking everywhere but me.

"Well then, do you have any thought of giving it to me or just standing there?" I asked. It felt so weird watching this side of him. He shook his head and took some steps closer to me and my legs involuntarily took a step back, and then I realized I was already standing on the border of the terrace.

"Close your eyes for that." He spoke. His hands touched my shoulder and gently turned me around. I gasped when his hands cupped my eyes. ''Just for a few minutes. I promise I will not do anything that you think I would." He laughed, and I elbowed him.

"You can throw it on my face if you want to. But I just wanted to say that I didn't involve Julie in today's matter. I was astonished when I saw her beside my mom. I'm sorry that you had to go through all those shit because of me and my mother." He said. I could smell his cologne that engulfed me when he came too close, slowly removing his hands from my eyes.

I had my eyes shut, but I felt his movement behind me. His hands touched my neck, and I jumped with the sudden contact. "Easy there." He whispered close to my ears. I started regretting my decision of letting him do what he wanted. And then suddenly I felt a chill on my neck.

"There. You can open your eyes now and please don't throw it in the dustbin when I'm around if you don't like it." He kept blabbering, and I smiled at how his bold voice sounded so cute. Slowly opening my eyes, I touched the pendant around my neck and held it high to see the design.

"Wings." It was a beautiful golden wing studded with white diamonds. It looked so beautiful and I really liked it.

"Yeah, when my eyes landed on this pendant back in California, I thought of you and bought that." He smiled at me. I turned around and looked into his eyes and said, "Thank you. I like it." I genuinely liked it. It was so simple, yet beautiful. The wings looked so delicate, yet gorgeous.

"I'm glad." He said and took a step back, but I surprised myself when I closed the distance between the two of us and kissed gently on his cheeks.

"Woah." He looked surprised, and so did I.

"Well, uh, thank you for the gift." I awkwardly took a step back, holding the locket tighter, and walked away from him, not giving him any time to react. I heard him call my name, but I ignored it and rushed to the study instead, locking the door.

I breathed a sigh of relief and placed my palm on my chest, feeling the frantic heartbeat. For a second, I thought I shouldn't have done that. My emotions were already haywire, and I just ruined everything.

"Damn it." I cursed out loud and looked at the clock that struck one am. Checking my phone, I saw a few missed calls and contemplated calling them, but then heard a knock.

"Liara, we need to talk," Zearo spoke behind the door and I just couldn't let him in. Not now, at least.

"If you are not opening the door right now, I'm waking Dima up and asking her for the duplicate key, or even better, I'm breaking this door." His voice had an edge to it not like how it was just a couple of minutes ago. I let him in and opened the door.

"Anthony called." He showed me his phone, and I closed my eyes, annoyed at how I could let Anthony's call go unattended.

"I will call him right now." I said, heading back to my chair where I placed the phone before opening the door, but he held my hand instead.

"We need to talk." He said. There was a possibility of two topics for him to be grumpy like that. And I just hoped it was not the second one.

"Look, I'm sorry if my act before upset you. It was because of the spur of the moment and I'm sorry." Now I was blabbering because it hurt me to say sorry for kissing him.

"Huh, that's probably the only good thing you did for me so far." He spoke, and I stared at him, surprised. I blinked a few times when he winked at me and removed my hand from his hold. But he had other plans.

In a swift moment, I felt like I was flying. He turned me around and wrapped his hand around my waist, drawing me closer to him. Because of the sudden movement, I grabbed his shirt for support.

His other hand held my neck, and I gasped at the sudden contact. I felt his lips crashing onto me and I just stood there wide-eyed when he was pressing him into me. My mind got foggy and my legs grew weak with the overwhelming feeling I had. My heart beat faster and I gasped for air when I felt a pinch in my stomach.

That asshole took the opportunity and devoured deeper. My hold around his shirt tightened and his hold around my waist left no gap between the two of us as he brought me too close to his body. I could feel his heart beating as frantically as mine, or perhaps I was just imagining stuff.

"Well, I should stop here, otherwise it would be hard to resist you any longer." He huffed slowly, parting ways away from me. His hold around my waist was firm, perhaps because he knew I'd fall if he loosened it.

"Well, this is how you kiss someone." He said when I raised my eyebrow at him. I was worried my voice would break if I spoke anything. My mind was still foggy.

"You taste delish." He said, wiping off his mouth. I then pushed him aside and carefully walked away from him. It was weird. My heart still hammered inside my chest. I felt weak, and I hated it.

"Leave," I said, barely holding myself together.

"How can you be so rude just after what we did?" He asked, mocking a hurtful expression.

"We?" I asked, still looking at the phone.

"Don't tell me you did nothing." He said and then I looked at him and saw him pointing at the cut at the corner of his lips.

"I didn't!" I tried to explain but had no backing because I hardly remembered anything.

"Ouch, it's painful." He winced as he touched it.

"Let me," I said and checked the drawers for a first aid kit, but then he held my hand, stopping me from doing whatever I was doing.

"Imma keep it and let it heal on its own. It's proof that you kissed me back. I will not pretend nothing happened as you did." He said and I glared at him for how cunning he was.

"Fine, enough of me teasing my fierce wife. I had to talk to you about something." He said, and I nodded, forgetting my uneasiness just a couple of moments ago.

"Anthony just bombarded me with questions while I was still clueless, but summing it up, I realized he had suspicions that Julie was the one behind the fake news. Is it true?" He asked as he sat at my desk and I contemplated how to answer him.

"I don't know because I'm not a hundred percent certain." I said, and he patiently listened to what I had in mind.

"The thing is, I also am sure that it was her behind all this mess, but considering the amount of tips given to all the paparazzi, it couldn't be only her." I chose my words wisely, as I was worried he would not believe me.

"How are you so sure that it was Julie?" He asked. I opened one of the drawers and placed the pictures sent by Agnes's reporter friend in front of him. I stayed silent and let him figure it out.

"No way." He shook his head.

"She was with me and, for security reasons, we did not allow any unknown person around Shimmers that day." He rummaged through the pictures as if searching for any clue and I had my focus on him only. His chiseled chin was stiff, as if he was grinding his teeth. I had the urge to place my hand on his face, but I stopped myself from cringing.

"I can't believe she'd do something like that." He responded.

"She knew when we'd be not reachable and chose the exact time to blow this on our faces," I explained everything that we came to know.

"They have manipulated her." He deadpanned, and I thought of smashing something on his head.

"Samira must be behind this." He repeated.

"Yes her. She knew why I was in New York. She knew I was flying to Chicago for the marriage and perhaps she was the one who, with the help of your assistant, leaked my mother's information." He said, and that's when I realized I didn't get to question Aria about it.

"I'm sorry. I should have worked on that, but I didn't get the time to. I will ask her the first thing tomorrow morning and get back to you about it." I rushed, guilty that I let this slide.

"It's alright I understand. Let me know when you do because I want to be there too. First, solve the urgent matter at hand." He answered, and I saw he was upset.

"I'm sorry." I said again.

"Nah, it's alright. She is home and safe, and that's what matters more. I will talk to Julie and sort this out." He said, and I had my own suspicions, which I chose not to tell him now.

"Okay." I whispered and then suddenly he kissed my forehead and I jumped.

"You've gotta get used to it." He said, giving me a peck on my lips and I just felt like I should go hide somewhere as he left saying good night and that Lilly must be waiting for him as she slept beside him today.

After our intense make-out session, I watched his retreating figure and lightly touched my lips, that were still sore. "I don't know where we are heading." I shook my head, confused at the turns our relationship was taking.

**†***†***†***†***†***†**

PS: Pendant picture was downloaded from Pinterest.

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