Parking the car in his garage, Skye unbuckled his seatbelt and I followed suit. The images of our day together continued buzzing through my head and I found myself thinking about it over and over.

After our ride in the hot air balloon, Skye and I had spent our day talking about casual stuff as we had stopped for brunch before hanging out for a few hours in the park. During lunch, he'd taken me to a small, chic restaurant and later we drove around the city without any care in the world.

All throughout the day, he treated me so well that I couldn't stop myself from clinging onto his arm like a koala. He didn't even once object to me about it and I was really grateful for that. We weren't official yet but it was pretty damn better than that. We were at our own pace, not forcing the other person to make things clear about our relationship.

I was beyond sure about my feelings but I wanted Skye to be comfortable as well. I didn't want to rush and perplex him over what we have going on for us now.

I had been praying the whole time for this day to just keep on extending. Whether my prayers were heard or not, I couldn't tell but Skye said he wanted to show me something at his place. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't eager to spend more time with him.

Both Skye and I exited his car before walking outside the garage. I tightened his jacket around me as soon as we were out in the open, chilly night.

However I stumbled internally as he headed straight toward his house instead of taking the route leading to the tree house. I dismissed the thought thinking he might use the backdoor like I had done once.

We were quiet as he rang the doorbell. I was itching to ask him where and what exactly he wanted to show me but I knew that he wouldn't tell me. "So…" I began, my eyes darting about everywhere but him. I don't know why I was feeling so shy all of a sudden.

"So?" His amused voice resonated in the tranquil night.

The door opened, giving me a graceful save from saying something that I had no idea of either.

Sophia, Skye's cute housekeeper, opened the door. As soon as she saw us, she began hopping on her short legs. "Oh, Skye! And… oh, my. I am really sorry but I forgot your name," she said with so much distress that one would think she had lost her dear pet.

"No worries, Sophia. I am Valerie," I replied, laughing.

"Now I feel even more terrible because you remember my name." She grimaced.

"Sophia," Skye admonished her gently. "Stop worrying about it."

Her jovial visage was back and she nodded her head vigorously. "Come on in!" She exclaimed enthusiastically and began trotting ahead of us.

"I am sorry, she's just a ball of extreme emotions," Skye told me, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"Don't apologize. She's so adorable," I cooed, punching his shoulder lightly.

He glared at me teasingly while rubbing his shoulder as if I hit him with a snow mountain. "I agree though," he said, referring to Sophia. "Hey, Sophia?"

Sophia stopped abruptly and turned around to look at Skye. "Yeah?"

"We'll be heading over to my room for some time," he informed her and her eyes widened comically like those of a cartoon.

The moment his words registered in my brain, I understood Sophia's stupefied countenance. His room?! I screamed in my head. Was I dreaming and taking it in the wrong sense? "Your room?!" I didn't mean to but my voice reached an octave higher than I had intended it to.

Skye was caught off guard as if my question didn't make any sense to him. Minutes passed by as we all kept on staring at each other. "Wh-what?" He stuttered, looking all flushed and I bet I looked the same.

"I'll leave you guys to it." Sophia squeaked and left us standing there alone.

"Why do you look so… ashen?" Skye asked me, sporting a genuinely clueless look.

Out of nervousness, I giggled like a kid caught stealing ice cream at wee hours. I anxiously rubbed my earlobe and waved my hand as if it was no big deal. "Never mind." I continued giggling.

For a second, he stared at me blankly but the very next instant, his gorgeous gray eyes rounded in a hard hit realization.

Just as he was about to say something, I cut him off by wrapping my hands around his bicep. "Let's just go to your room," I said sheepishly. I don't even know where I was heading to but I walked straight ahead robotically anyway.

"Valerie?" I still managed to hear Skye's slightly amused voice amidst the ringing of my ears due to the embarrassment.

"Yes?" I asked distractedly.

"My actual room's upstairs. Not out the back door." Skye simpered and I stopped short on my spot.

"Oh." If I was embarrassed before then it was nothing compared to what I was feeling right now. "Sorry."

"Like you always scold me, do something legitimately wrong and I might take your apology into consideration." He smirked, finding my situation too funny to not tease me about it.

Retracing our steps, he led me toward the long and elegant stairs just in front of the foyer that I hadn't noticed before. My heart galloped enthusiastically when he didn't make a move to remove my hand on his bicep. I took that as a signal and didn't retrieve it either, making me smile to myself.

My thoughts regarding our day together were still playing like a broken record. Maybe the date gave me the wrong idea as to why he was leading me to his room. Disoriented by his presence would be right. Everything just seemed so aesthetically romantic and my sane side literally forgot about the fact that he wanted to show me something.

I quickly blinked away my thoughts as Skye opened the door to his room. I had not even paid any attention while I followed him up here but the hallway was huge with a few closed rooms lining along the way.

My eyes widened and jaw clapped on the floor at how normal his room was. It was an average size, slightly bigger than mine. It was filled with simple, standard furniture. A bed was pushed against the left side of the wall with a bedside drawer next to it. However, I was surprised to see an entire clasped wall of the walk-in closet. Just opposite that wall, there's an entire side dedicated for the floor to ceiling windows. From my position at the doorway, I could tell that it might be a balcony.

His room was so immaculately neat that it showed he hardly comes in here. Once I was done scrutinizing every nook and angle of his den in bedazzlement, I glanced back at Skye. From the look on his face, I could tell that he didn't invite many people to his sanctuary because he didn't even comment about the normal size of his room. It was as if he wasn't even used to talking about it.

A genuine smile coated my lips at the fact that he owns a lavish mansion yet a normal and comfortable room. "Nice room," I commented before I could stop myself.

Skye casually strolled toward the windows and beckoned me to do the same. "Yeah… but I prefer my tree house over this place." So, I was right. He opened the window to let the cool air gush in.

The chilly wind enveloped my body in a tight wreath and I wrapped my arms around me. "I don't know but I just feel like… you don't like your home?" I asked him curiously.

He paused just before he could step out onto the balcony. My guess was correct, it was a balcony. His face scrunched up in a deep thought as if trying to understand my words.

As if just realizing my mistake, I quickly rushed to backtrack my words by apologizing. "I am sorry! I, uh, I didn't mean to. Like… never mind." I laughed awkwardly.

Skye glanced at me briefly before staring at the dark night outside. "It's okay." He paused and shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's not that I don't like this place. It's just that I don't prefer to spend most of my time here." He shrugged but I could tell that there was more to it than he was letting on.

"Why?" I asked despite myself.

Sighing, he turned to fully face me with a forced smile and leaned back against the glass of the balcony's window pane. "My dad had built this place for me when I had just become the CEO. In his words, "money attracts money and money also attracts business. People should always know that ZAE Inc. businessmen are always powerful enough to do the business". So this place is just that. A showy, fancy house and every time I am in here, I am reminded of how I am nothing like my father. That I'll always be Jonathan Williams' son but never "The" Skye Williams."

I wanted to say something, anything. I wanted to tell him that it's okay but the look on his face echoed that that's the last thing he wanted to hear. So I decided to wrap my fingers with his.

That seemed to have calmed him down because his smile turned sincere as he stared at our intertwined hands softly. "Besides, this isn't even on my money wherein I could feel proud to tread on these floors. It's just to make my dad happy." He shrugged again. "And that very same reason encouraged me to build a treehouse. In there, I feel at… home. Like truly home."

Who could have thought that an heir to one of the biggest companies was actually such a down to earth person trying to find his worth in this shark world? Unlinking our fingers, I put his hands on my waist while I wrapped mine around his neck. "That's… I am very proud of you."

"You are?" He echoed, sounding really puzzled.

"Of course. You don't even realize this but you do things that if people had even the slightest bit of idea about, it will make them look up to you. A lot of people blame you for not carrying out your business well but they don't see how everyday you try so hard to prove yourself to yourself. You're an inspiration and I think no one has really said that to you," I told him, my eyes softening.

His grip tightened around me and he pulled me closer to him as the look in his eyes intensified. Without saying anything, he cupped my cheeks to pull me in for a kiss. It was soft and slow at first but it soon turned into a fervent one. It was like he was communicating with me through this kiss. Like he was pouring out all his feelings, all his emotions. Breaking it, he whispered, "I swear I am gonna turn into a jealous boyfriend if another guy likes you the way I do."

Just that sentence and my whole body was actively burning on this passionate fire. My stomach actually had the audacity to cartwheel whereas my heart was whimpering out of happiness. One particular question was on the tip of my tongue and I wanted to ask him but I pushed it back quickly.

What are we? Are you my "jealous boyfriend"? Because I don't mind.

I laughed, looking down to not let him see my blush. "So what were you going to show me?" I asked him shyly.

Skye smirked and flicked my nose, sensing the sudden change in my behavior. 

He took out his wallet, cell phone and other things from his pockets and asked me to do the same. Taking them from my hands, he put them down on the floor and turned back to me once he was done. "Come on." He led us out on the balcony and I just noticed that it didn't have any railing to hold us back. It was like an open roof.

Skye casually went over to the edge but I stayed a few steps behind him with wide eyes. "Whoa, stop standing on the edge. That's scary," I spoke in a panicky voice.

He began chortling at my expense, making me frown. "Come here, Val. How will I show you what I am supposed to show you if you don't step over here? I promise you, you'll love it." He grinned, holding out his hand for me.

Grunting, I took his hand and walked over to the edge tentatively. "If I fall and die by meeting the hard concrete below then my last wish is for you to catch this Kyle," I muttered dramatically.

He laughed again amusedly and shook his head. "Don't you just love to exaggerate? Oh, and if you look down, you'll realize that you won't die."

With a fast beating heart, I peered down and saw a sparkling pool? The water was shining like gold even though it was pure blue. Looking around, I realized that there was a huge tree at one corner with some of its branches leaning over half of the pool till the opposite side. Fairy lights were strung above to make the water look all the more magical and ethereal at night.

"Do you like it?" I heard Skye's nervous voice.

"Wow," I breathed, nodding my head like Noddy.

"Well, I am sorry in advance but I've been meaning to do this for days now," he said and I could hear the smile in his words.

I was about to turn to him and ask him, 'what do you mean by that?' but I didn't get the chance to utter those words. Skye had circled his arms around my waist and we were flushed against each other before he jumped down.

My heart was in my throat and my stomach fell down like an elevator literally as a loud scream crashed from my lips. I would have closed my ears if I had to listen to that but the howling wind during our jump had blocked out all of my senses.

And just when I had thought that this was not going to be over as it was taking too long, soon the hard splashing of water clapped against the tiles. For ten whole seconds, my mind was unable to comprehend anything.

Gasping like I was going to die any second, I resurfaced. I pressed my hands on my face to get rid of the water and heard a loud, boisterous laughter ricocheting in my still ringing ears. "That was… not… cool!" I took huge gulps of air and threw an incredulous look at him.

However, instead of stopping himself, his laughs gained momentum and he clutched his stomach. "Maybe." He wheezed. "But your face… damn, it was priceless."

It took me a few minutes to cool down, all the while Skye kept shooting amused glances at me. Though he kept his distance from me as if I would burst out like a kryptonite any second. "You didn't have to catch me off guard like that, you know." I deadpanned as I fingered the sloshing water. Looking closely, I could even see the shaky reflection of the moon. It was beautiful.

"I know but where is the fun in that?" He approached me quickly and stood in front of me before I knew it. "Besides, I needed a reason to hold you." He wiggled his brows, smirking.

I couldn't help a laugh of my own. "What's gotten into you? You're being so cheesy today."

"I don't know?" He mumbled unsurely but there was a twinkle in his eyes. "Maybe because I am…" he began in a sing-song voice. "Excited to recreate our art therapy session but this time with a twist of water."

"What?" I gasped. "Seriously?"

"Yup." With that said, he took my hand in his as we trudged toward the edge of the pool.

That's when I noticed a few really cute and small buckets. Without even looking inside, I knew that there were painting colors in them.

Skye dipped his hand in one of the buckets and flicked his wrist toward my face to splash the color on me.

My jaw slackened at that as I swiped a finger on my eyebrow. I wanted to scowl at him, I really did but his pure happiness was so much more precious to me. "Aren't you sweet?" I said sarcastically before dipping my hand in another paint bucket and did the same to him.

And thus, the war began. 'The Color Splash War'. Yeah, that's what I named it.

We were both sheathed in paints, water, laughs, smiles and happiness within minutes. Trying to escape the splash of paint was almost impossible because we were tripping from our high of giggles… and water too.

I had even put forth an idea that we carry a bucket each and jump down from his balcony roof again and he agreed. It felt so good that we continued doing it till we were running out of colors and adrenaline.

To give ourselves the much needed break, we laid down on our backs beside the pool with the biggest grins on our faces. It was silent but I didn't mind it as I stared at the dark sky streaming above with serenity.

My mind took that moment to remind me to ask him about being my date on my dad's wedding and so I turned to face him with hesitance. "Skye?" I mumbled, biting my lip.

"Yeah?"

"So, um, like… it's my dad's wedding in a few days and uh… I was wondering if you could maybe be my date?" I finally asked him, chipping the sentence nervously.

"You're asking me such a silly question?" He narrowed his eyes teasingly. "Of course I'll be your date!"

I sighed in relief and passed him a wide smile and he returned the action with one of his mesmerizing ones.

"I wanna ask you something too," Skye said, breaking the silence.

Lolling my head toward him, I urged him to continue. "Go ahead, shoot."

"Will you be my gi-"

Before he could complete his sentence and I could think too much about it, I heard an indistinct ringing of a cell phone. It wasn't mine. Glancing over, I saw Skye already getting up on his feet. "Be right back," he promised me with a small smile and I nodded my head.

I was sprawled there on the floor alone, swimming in my own thoughts. I couldn't tell if two, five or ten minutes passed by but some minutes for sure had.

It was at that instant, I heard footsteps behind me and sat up to look over my shoulder. Skye was standing there with a grim face and his phone tightly clutched in his hand. He looked devastated and the sight itself broke my heart.

"What happened?" I managed to ask him, an ominous feeling taking over my body and it was as if my chest was burning. I could feel something crashing on me at that moment and I was beyond scared to hear his response.