ANNOUNCEMENT: Hi, Amores. Since, you're still reading this one, I will continue but after finishing this story, I might take a break from writing English stories and write Tagalog stories instead OR I might completely take a break from writing and not write any story for a while. It depends. I just noticed that I don't have the same enthusiasm that I had before in writing and I just want to regain that kind of feeling. Maybe taking a break for a while will help me focus more. Anyway, happy reading. :)

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SABINA's POV

My whole body felt like it turned into a statue, unable to move at all. I knew how Xzavier used to just do naughty things to me whenever he was the in mood to do so but it never occurred to me that he would have the guts to actually kiss me knowing how I hated him right now.

"I really missed you like crazy, my Ina. You don't know how much." He whispered huskily and was about to capture my lips for another kiss when I finally came back to reality. My response was automatic. I gave him a slap in his face.

"How dare you kiss me without permission and tell me those lies after?!" He was obviously shocked of what I did as he touched his sore cheek.

"And what were you saying about wanting me back?! How dare you!" I shook my head vigorously. "That would never happen, especially now that I have a boyfriend! I don't know what you're trying to achieve this time but I advise you to stop it!" Before he could manage to respond, I stormed out of there like a ghost was chasing after me.

When I reached the base of the tree, I stopped and looked up. Xzavier was standing at the small terrace, looking down at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I know that coming here all of a sudden shocked you but I needed to do it. I know very much that it wouldn't be easy but before I even came here, I already made a decision of getting you back, my Ina. I'm going to make you listen to me and when that time comes, you'll finally understand me." His voice held determination.

Instead of answering, I pivoted around and headed towards our house without looking back.

"Damn you, Xzavier! You can't do this to me! Not now that I've already moved on from everything!" I told myself angrily as my eyes drenched with unshed tears. But just like usual, I did my best not to let it fall. I'm done of crying over him!

"What happened to you? You look like you're being chased by the police or something." Henry asked when I was about to enter the back door. Looked like he was about to head out.

"W-Why are you still home? Aren't you going to be late at work?" I asked instead of answering his question.

"Don't give me that, Sabina. Just answer my question." He was looking at me like a hawk.

"Nothing to be worried about. Everything's fine."

"Really? I was about to go check the treehouse if you were there because you suddenly disappeared. Rex mentioned that you went with Mr. Montaño somewhere earlier. Is that true?"

I faked a smile. "Of course not. We just spoke for a bit and then he left. I went to Nathan's place to invite him over." His eyebrows creased.

"You went to Nathan's place? Then, how come he arrived about 10 minutes earlier before you came home?" His voice was full of suspicion and I groaned inwardly.

"We came here at the same time but I went to the treehouse for a little bit. Anyway, I need to go to my room." Before he could answer, I walked past him and marched my way towards upstairs with long strides.

Upon entering my room, I threw myself into bed and hugged my pillow. I didn't know what to feel about what happened today.

"Why did you have to come back? I hate you." I uttered full of bitterness. I looked at the ceiling and strangely, I saw the face of Xzavier. I bit my bottom lip as I gingerly touched my lips with my slightly trembling fingers.

I could still feel his lips moving hotly against mine. That familiar heat started boiling within me and I couldn't accept that.

I sat up right away.

"No! You shouldn't feel anything, Sab! That was just Xzavier, the man who deceived and took advantage of your naivete more than three years ago!" I chastised myself and covered my face with the pillow as I tried my best to erase what just happened in my mind.

I didn't know how long I stayed like that until I heard a knock on my door.

"Sab?" It was my mother. I removed the pillow over my face, took a deep breath before answering.

"Come in, mom! It's not locked!" She opened the door and came in.

"Are you okay, my dear? We've been looking for you since a while ago." I was about to answer when she spoke again. "What happened to your elbow and knee?" Worry was evident in her voice.

"This is nothing, mom. I just tripped over a while ago because I was being careless. Don't worry. These are just minor scrapes."

"Why do I feel like you're hiding something from me? Your father said that he left you with Ms. Ellie, Rex and a certain Mr. Montaño who's a visitor of the Novells in the porch but when Ms. Ellie and Rex came inside the house, you were nowhere to be found. Were you with him the entire time? Where did you two go?" I groaned inwardly.

She was looking at me intently and I knew that I couldn't hide anything from her no matter what I do. She knows me too well.

"We just talked, mom."

"Outside the house? Leaving without even telling us, especially in the middle of your birthday celebration?" I got up and looked at her.

"Mom, I'm sorry for leaving without telling you. But don't worry because nothing bad had happened. C'mon, mom. Let's just go downstairs." She didn't move and remained staring at me intently.

"Mom, c'mon. Let's go."

She sighed in defeat. "Fine. I won't ask further questions for now because it's your birthday. Anyway, the others are already waiting for you. It's time to go."

"Already? What time is it anyway?"

"It's already 2:30 pm." I was surprised that the time has passed so quickly. I took my backpack that I prepared last night before going downstairs together. Mom was right. Everyone was already waiting for me.

Our family and friends were going to the falls to swim. I wanted to have a small celebration at home but my parents insisted for us to go for a swim at the falls after so that I could get to enjoy during my special day.

They know how much I love going to the falls but because it was in the mountain and not many people go there, they forbid me to go there alone. We only get to swim there during special occasions.

"Where are Rex and Ms. Ellie?" I asked when noticed that there weren't there anymore.

"Rex said that he needed to finish his work for today while Ms. Ellie said that she needed to do something." I nodded my head.

"I see. What about you Henry, Billy? Have you finished your work for today?"

"Days before your birthday, we already ask Mr. Novell's permission for us to take the afternoon off for today and he agreed." Billy answered.

"That's why we've been working extra hard these past two days so that we could finish everything for today." Henry proudly said and that made me smile. Even though they're usually playful and wasn't serious in life sometimes, they do their job seriously.

Since most of the employees went back to work, we only used two vans, courtesy by the Novells. Most of the people who came were children and their older siblings. We had to leave the vans around 200 meters from the falls and trekked a little bit to get there.

When we arrived there, we laid the picnic blankets on top of the wide flat rock on the riverside and placed our things on it. The children already began swimming with the older teenagers with them.

Everyone knows how to swim but even so, the children were wearing floaters and even brought swim rings in order to avoid any accidents.

"What are you still waiting for, Sab? Everyone is already swimming." My father said when he noticed that I was just lying on the picnic blanket and hasn't changed into my swimsuit yet.

"Just go ahead, dad. It's still too hot for me to swim. I'll follow later. Just enjoy with the others. Don't mind me. Look at mom. She's already having fun with the others." I chuckled while watching my mom playing with the kids.

"You know your mom. She loves swimming and spending time with children. Anyway, are you sure you're not going to swim yet?"

"Dad..." I pouted and he laughed.

"Okay. I'll leave you alone for now then. Make sure to come swim later, okay? We came here for you to enjoy not to just lay down there on the picnic blanket."

I chuckled. "I know, dad. Don't worry, I'll come join you guys later. It's my birthday today after all." He smiled and then kissed my forehead before finally joining the others. I couldn't help but to laugh when I saw my parents being chased by the kids, playing with them.

They really love children. They once told me that they wanted to have another child but it would be difficult for them to conceive not to mention that it would be dangerous for my mother because of her age.

I decided to read a book for about thirty minutes while lying on the picnic blanket before deciding to finally swim. I unzipped my backpack and fished my swimsuit out. I looked around, trying to find any place I could use to change into my swimsuit but there was none.

I walked a couple of meters away from there and I groaned inwardly when I couldn't find any place nearby so I had to go away a little bit farther.

Then, I finally gave up. I didn't want to go farther. I looked around. No one was around so I decided to just change into my swimsuit there since there was no one there but me. I just had to be quick.

"This is your fault, Sab. You should've worn your swimsuit underneath your clothes at home before coming here to the falls." I reprimanded myself. Well, I was planning to wear it underneath my clothes but because of Xzavier, I forgot to do so.

"This is that guy's fault! He forced me to go with him that's why I forgot to wear my swimsuit beforehand!" I hissed while taking my clothes off in a jiffy, a little bit nervous that someone would suddenly show up.

Well, I could hide in the thick and tall bushes nearby but someone got bitten by a snake here before that's why I decided to just change here in plain sight.

Then, I was about to wear my swimsuit when to my horror, somebody suddenly spoke behind me.

"Why are you blaming me? I just wanted to be with you." I almost screamed in surprise when I heard that voice behind me. I quickly covered my breasts and the V of my thighs with my hands and turned around to see who it was.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" He raked me a stare as a naughty smirk appeared on his face. His hair was wet, only wearing his wet briefs and barefoot while holding his shoes and clothes. It was obvious that he just finished swimming.

"I was just about to head home from swimming when I suddenly came across with you here. I wanted to go farther but I heard voices from the direction of the waterfalls that's why I didn't go there. But looks like it was a good decision to stay here after all because I saw you here."

"Turn around, you pervert! Stop staring at me!" I snapped at him while blushing in embarrassment. I didn't know how to cover my nakedness in front of this man.

"Why would I do that?" He looked clueless.

"Because I'm naked!"

"So?" I suddenly wanted to hit him because he was feigning ignorance like that. Because of anger, I picked up a small rock and was about to throw at him when he quickly closed the gap between us and prevented me from doing so by holding my hands together before getting the rock from me and threw it away.

"Tsk tsk tsk. No to violence, my Ina." His voice was laced with desire but that was more evident in his tantalizing eyes as our skins touched. I gasped. The warmth of his skin sent delicious sensations up my spine.

"Don't touch me!" I hissed and tried to distance myself from him but he didn't let me.

"You sound like I did this on purpose. I wouldn't've done this if you weren't about to throw stone at me. Now, you're giving me a very hard time." I didn't understand what he meant by that right away but when I felt something hard poking against the V of my thighs, I almost screamed.

Heat instantly started boiling in the pit of my stomach.

"You pervert!"

"This is just a normal thing for a guy who gets this close to a sexy and beautiful woman like you, my Ina, especially that I've been missing you so much. Fùck! You look like a goddess. Now, you know how to be shy whenever you're naked like this and it's actually refreshing. Do you remember the first time we met at the falls near Safe Haven?

"Can you still recall how much innocent you were that you even stripped your clothes off in front of me and because of it, I lost my control and made out with you?" His husky and seductive voice affected me. Until now, he still manages to affect me like this and it scared me.

I swallowed hard as I felt like my heart was about to leap out of my chest.

"Yes. How can I forget about that when you used my innocence and naivete in order to play me with your little finger and deceive me after? I was nothing but a roll in the hay while you were there; a convenient way to kill your boredom in the mountains." I uttered full of sarcasm and met his gaze.

The naughty smirk on his face disappeared as he became serious.

"That's not true, Ina. Yes, I didn't tell you things because they were meant to be classified. But that doesn't mean that I was pretending the whole time. I know, I made a grave mistake but I am willing to make it up to you and do it the right way." He drew a deep breath before continuing.

"I didn't lie when I told you that my name was Xzavier Russo because technically, that's my name." I scoffed.

"Technically?"

He nodded his head. "Yes, because my complete name is Cryxus Xzavier Russo Montaño. Most of the people who know me calls me Cryxus. My parents were the only ones who call me by my second name including you." He took another deep breath and then cupped my face with his hands while gazing at me full of gentleness.

"Please, give me another chance to be with you again, my Ina. I can't go on with my life without you. Ever since we got separated more than three years ago, I felt like I've been living an empty life. Yes, I was alive but wasn't living. It's been tough without you." I could feel his pain and suffering by just hearing his voice and staring into his eyes and because of that, I got confused.

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What do you think? Is Xzavier being honest this time?

Do you think Sabina will give him another chance?

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